THE USE OF FILM IN INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS
Why will film work in a school marketing strategy?
The medium of film or video as an above-the-line tool is, more than ever, the bedrock of outward marketing for high-end brands all over the world. Yet at the same time, the school promotional video is often labelled, (quite rightly) as a dry and monotonous production. Often you find any one example can look and sound exactly like any other. So what’s going wrong?
Based on a decade of experience in the sector, I have come to the conclusion there are three things going wrong. All three of which are based on a requirement to think differently about how, where and why film should be used by Independent Schools.
1. Film is terrible at describing. Film is great at feeling
Film is a linear tool - it starts at the beginning and ends at the end. If you want to know what it tells you at 4 mins 23 seconds you’ve got to wait until then to find it out. It can also take a long time to describe things through film; the average sentence in the English language when read carefully aloud, is approximately eight seconds long. How many sentences would you normally use to describe your school? Now try multiplying that by eight. I’m sure you’ll agree, that’s a lot.
Film is at its best when it is emoting the USPs of an organisation. There are many core messages that can be drawn from a film, some of which might include quality, care, space, individualism and ambition, but it only tends to be two or three that any normal modern audience will ever draw from a piece of advertising film. This is best done through feel rather than through ‘telling’. It isn’t a new practice, in fact for decades the commercial world has used film, (usually through advertising) to make you feel the brand before drawing you into wanting to know more.
The best way to compare this is by looking at a car video release. A good new car advert can be a wonderful thing that can make you go weak at the knees, immediately making you think of ways to justify its purchase to your significant other, or yourself. These adverts make your heart beat faster, make you laugh or cry, or just make you enamoured with the thing, to the extent you feel you’ll be a better person with it in your life. What you never see is the CEO of Mercedes uncomfortably propped up against a fireplace telling you it has four wheels. So why should an academic video be any different just because it’s a school?
2. Creativity is being done the wrong way round
I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve heard the sentence, “we’re going to focus on our website and prospectus and then let you know about film.” If this was a scenario in the commercial world of high brands, (and for thousands of pounds a year to educate a child trust me, you’re a high brand) you’d be laughed out of the room. But why is this?
The vast majority of spend in the commercial world is on advertising agencies. As well as usually being called things like Orange Fox or The Crazee Ideaz Company, these organisations do the genuinely difficult bit. They set a creative tone and approach for the given high-brand client that is then cascaded down through other mediums. Crucially, these agencies will find the ‘purest’ expression of this tone and approach through a film. This is because it is by far the most emotional of the mediums marketers have at their disposal.
Where it all goes wrong is when the creative thrust either contains a flat image or logo, or a set of pantones that have no genuine emotional connection with its audience. I’m sure you’ll agree it isn’t particularly a creative tone, regardless of what your graphic design agency has told you.
3. The over-obsession with websites
Websites are functional information deposits that should allow an audience to buy, or enquire to buy as easily as possible. They do not set a creative tone - they follow one. Websites have become a baffling obsession with Independent Schools, something you will simply not find in the high brand commercial world.
The spend attached to websites is, at times, astonishing for what they need to do. Producing a website for an Independent School is a technically intricate and often arduous process, where skilled professionals need paying for their time. However, the end project doesn’t always set the correct creative tone, it’s often like using a hammer to do the job of a fine paint brush.
Whether through a creative film agency or through a standalone ideas company, the skill required is to come up with concepts that will cascade through marketing. This doesn’t mean homogeny - different mediums can have their own identities, but that must be within an overall creative tone. Take a look at some top-end advertising wherever you live and you’ll notice this pattern will quickly be established.
From my experience, these points very quickly resonate with school marketers who are creatively frustrated and, although they know that film is powerful, don’t see how it fits with their organisation. Hopefully, some industry experience of both the education and commercial worlds, as presented above, will help. If you are interested in exploring the benefits of school promotional videos, we’d be happy to answer any questions you might have.
Miles Latham,Managing Partner and co-founder of Affixxius miles@affixxius.com