TTMC's flexible and proactive approach secures 559 schools for JazzyMedia's recruitment campaign.

JazzyMedia is the UK’s leading in-school communications specialist. With 4,000 schools, colleges, and nurseries in their network, they deliver an audience of 1.6 million young people aged 2 to 19 – plus their parents and teachers.

JazzyMedia’s in-school network allows clients to target their young audience perfectly by both age and location. Their media comprise 7,000 large-format poster displays, plus handouts, class activities, samples, and a fun educational website.

Campaign objective and project background

JazzyMedia have been running campaigns in schools throughout the UK for over 25 years and have previously distributed free activity sheets, football cards and football sticker albums to pupils in primary schools.

They had initially engaged The Telemarketing Company (TTMC) to support a client campaign to distribute free items to schools in the Republic of Ireland. The agency was a good fit for their needs given their previous experience within the educational sector promoting a variety of propositions.

Following the success of the initial campaign, JazzyMedia approached TTMC the following year when they needed to expand their primary school network and recruit additional schools in England and Wales for the same programme.

Project execution

The client needed to recruit another 500-550 primary schools in England and Wales to distribute 90,000 items to Key Stage 2 pupils. There was a strict deadline for completion of the campaign as schools needed to be signed up prior to the end of term.

A briefing session took place and detailed the key elements of the offer which was free A4 football themed activity sheets and supporting trading cards for the school to give out to their Key Stage 2 pupils. Key benefits included the fact that the activity sheets create excitement and can be used as part of lessons to incentivise hard work or as a fun activity. It was agreed to target non-teaching office staff and school secretaries who would be more likely to be available and who would generally have authority to sign up.

As calling began, the schedule was monitored closely as it was vital that the agency met the target for 550 schools to be signed up before the schools broke for the summer holidays. Data and analytics were available through TTMC’s real-time reporting portal and regularly reviewed by both the client and agency. Initially one agent was assigned but it was agreed to increase resourcing and TTMC was able very quickly to identify and assign additional agents to step up the calling programme.

Whilst the items offered were free, schools are inundated with similar offers from many businesses, so it was critical for agents to differentiate JazzyMedia’s proposition and highlight the unique benefits of their programme.

Some qualification was also required to ensure that the offer was appropriate to each school – they needed to have Key Stage 2 pupils aged 7-11 years and be able to sign-up before the summer break. Specific information also needed to be confirmed, including the number of items required, addressee name and full contact details including their email address. Information was then forwarded to JazzyMedia to sign the school up formally and arrange despatch of their request.

As calling progressed, agents encountered some scepticism around the fact that items were totally free. They needed to carefully reassure individuals and highlight that they would receive only what they requested and would not be inundated with other items or bombarded with marketing communications forever after.

Results

At the end of the campaign, the client was thrilled to have 590 additional schools in England and Wales signed up to receive their offer. They have been impressed with the flexibility of TTMC’s resourcing and the way the agency has proactively managed the campaign within the required timescales.

The client has also received a full analysis of all responses, including detailed lead notes for any schools that did not sign up. The client is now focused on fulfilling the requests that have been generated and will then review requirements for the next school year.