IDEA Public Schools believes that each and every child can go to college. Since 2000, IDEA Public Schools has grown from a small school with 150 students to the fastest-growing network of tuition-free, Pre-K-12 public charter schools in the United States.
About IDEA Schools San Antonio & Austin
Challenge
IDEA contracted our firm in the Spring of 2016 to serve its growing San Antonio and Austin schools. The directive was clear: Increase awareness of the schools and enrollment by leveraging the local, regional and national media. We were instructed to work directly with Sharise Johnson, Director of Communications, to build a publicity strategy that would provide local media with highly-engaging stories to share with their viewers and listeners. Work began in April 2016.
We made a collaborative decision to focus on the schools' ongoing initiatives as a starting point. From here, we expanded our media pitches to include school openings, key leadership, and more. This "foundation-laying" was critical to us establishing trust and equity with area media. We focused on showcasing IDEA's top-level quality of education, free tuition, and disruptive approach to education. IDEA also provided our firm with a clear expectation - 40 media hits before the end of 2016 school year - which we will detail in the following section.
Results
At the conclusion of the 2016 school year, we exceeded IDEA's baseline metrics, by securing over 40 media hits (placements and/or appearances), with a dollar value of over $900,000.
To date, in 2017-2018 campaign, we are halfway to meeting the 40 media hits in each market (80 total), and have earned over $500,000 in media for San Antonio and Austin, combined.
