Now that’s clever stuff…

Now, I love clever marketing which is why I wanted to tell you about an event I went to last weekend with my children.

It was held by one of our clients, The Royal School at their Junior School site in Haslemere. The event, entitled ‘Grow for it’, came hot on the heels of a period of intense change at the School and was designed to highlight and promote both the School and the recent extensive additions to its offering, to local parents of eligible children.

The premise of the event, which was open to the public, was an outdoors gardening and wildlife activity day hosted by Charlie Dimmock and Alan Titchmarsh. Children aged up to age 11 were invited to attend one of the two half day sessions to take part in pond dipping with Charlie, decorating flower pots and planting them up with Alan, making mini-beast houses (I am now the proud owner of a ladybird house made out of chicken wire and plastic straws as well as a bee house built from rolled up newspaper and half an old drinks bottle!) and finally, to go on an interactive nature trail around the School grounds.

Now you might be wondering why I thought this was such clever marketing… so here’s why…

1. The event was open to the public and advertised online and in local press to ensure target area coverage.
2. It was a weekend event designed to be enticing to children but also to adults looking to keep their kids entertained with something new. The celebrity aspect was also guaranteed to draw attention and it worked like a dream.
3. It generated a lot of footfall into the school by children and parents of the right age (I’ve already mentioned that the upper age range for the event was 11) handy, considering the Royal School Junior School accepts children from nursery age right up to secondary school age.
4. The event had been designed to be incredibly interactive, keeping people moving and showing off the most attractive areas of the school at the same time. There were also handy, but discreetly placed pieces of collateral giving information about the school and offering the chance to register for more information.
5. The staff and helpers at the school were all amazingly friendly, helpful and engaging. The event really couldn’t have been a better advert for the school and to top it all off the whole thing was free and each child got to take home a Royal School wrist band, their own decorated pot plant plus their own mini-beast house.

Correct me if I’m wrong but I imagine there are an awful lot of young children in Haslemere and surrounding areas right now thinking that the Royal School must be the best school ever and we all know what pester power can achieve!

Overall, a brilliantly planned and executed, clever and effective event that is sure to achieve its objectives…long live clever marketing, we salute you!