Interactive video campaign for SGOSS

We were asked to develop the concept and build an interactive digital element to raise awareness of the school governor role and encourage people to volunteer. Additionally, we planned and implemented a digital campaign to circulate it to as wide an audience as possible. The target, based on the success of previous campaigns, was to generate 75 applications.

We immersed ourselves into the world of the school governor. We searched a lot and we read a lot. We learnt that school governors make really important decisions like appointing a head teacher and setting the school’s aims and budget, but that the public were largely unaware of this.

We felt the key to recruiting new governors was showing the public how important the role is, the sort of decisions that governors make, and that there are openings available. The theme for our campaign was: ‘Could you be a School Maker?’.

We wanted to bring the role to life in an entertaining and cost effective way. We did this by developing an interactive video using Rapt Media’s platform. Three children formed an interview panel and asked users what they would do in situations school governors face – for example whether to sell off part of the school field in order to be able to replace IT facilities. Users would be able to choose what they would do and the children would act out the consequences.

The production of the video really was a Torchbox affair! The actors in the video are two of Olly Willans’ (our Creative Director) children and one of their friends and it was shot at a local school where Tom Dyson (our Tech Director) is a governor! The video was shot by Ross Harrison - the son of Susan (our Financial Manager).

We were excited about the video and wanted the world to know about it! Watch the video here.

A PR campaign focused on survey results showing the lack of knowledge about the decisions school governors make and encouraged people to apply for vacancies. Widespread coverage was received on national, regional and online media such as Radio 2, Radio 4, Radio 5 Live, over 20 regional BBC stations and the BBC website.

To give the campaign a further boost, SGOSS arranged for promotions to be secured with partners such as Aviva, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds TSB and Teach First.

The content was also well received on social platforms and a Thunderclap promotion gave people the chance to donate a Facebook post or Tweet to support the campaign.

Watch Rob Salmon’s talk on School Makers from ECF 2014:

We were to be judged on the number of applications received and the campaign completely surpassed expectations:

• The target number of applications was 75.
  
• The campaign delivered 804, beating the target by 972%.
  

If you'd like to find out more about SGOSS's interactive video campaign, please get in touch. We'd love to hear from you.