B. OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION – TEACH WASHINGTON: The Washington state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction hired our team to develop and implement a marketing and communications campaign to recruit individuals to become K-12 teachers. With a focus on three distinct audiences – individuals in and out of Washington state earning a teaching degree, individuals with a teaching degree that no longer teach, and individuals seeking a career change – we went to work to determine how to communicate and encourage these audiences to consider a career in teaching in Washington state. Over a short five-month engagement, we developed the Teach Washington campaign which included multiple elements, including a strong focus on the social media campaign.
STRATEGY
Research
The work began with an intense period of research to fully understand what motivates individuals to choose the teaching profession. We reviewed and compiled an audit of national, state and local teacher recruitment campaigns to determine successful approaches, tones, and messaging being used to recruit teachers. Additionally, we conducted more than 30 stakeholder interviews with educators, principals, parents, deans of higher education and other stakeholders to hear their insights on what attracts and retains individuals to the teaching profession in Washington state. Through the research, we identified three core reasons teachers enter the profession – to inform, inspire and engage.
Messaging
We then developed a campaign theme: “I teach for the love of…”. This theme centered around the use of the key findings to be incorporated into the campaign messaging, like use of real teacher stories. Within this theme, nine “For the love of” taglines were developed with accompanying images served as the cornerstones for the campaign.
Social Media Campaign
We developed and managed the social media campaign using these three platforms:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/TeachWashington/
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/teachwa/ YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrJIUB_-d-nF8mRtiTzCsvw
for Teach WA – establishing their online presence, managing and creating unique content, and overseeing user engagement.
We carried the messaging we developed into the editorial content we wrote and managed for the Facebook and Instagram pages, using strong visuals to display the great features of Washington state and opportunities within the teaching field. Editorial content was published regularly on Facebook and Instagram, using an approach to spotlight existing teachers in the state, the benefits of a teaching career, and fun facts about Washington state. We also posted the four videos we developed for the campaign and short GIF’s.
The YouTube page existed as a place to host the four videos we created for the campaign, featuring current teachers in Washington state and designed specifically for each different target audience.
Additionally, we strategized and executed a social media advertising campaign targeting specific audiences by demographic, location, education levels, field of study and interest. Advertisements were placed on both Facebook and Instagram, and monitored weekly to allow for continuous adjustments to the strategy based upon click-through-rate and cost-per-click of each advertisement.
RESULTS
The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction is still reviewing data on specific number of recruited applicants from the 2017-18 school year. This said, within the five months we were involved in the development, launch and management of the Teach WA campaign, the campaign generated the following results:
Social Media Campaign
• Social Media Platforms: Facebook Static Ads, Instagram, and Facebook Video Ads
o Total Reach: 1,751,603 people
o Total Actions: 588,168 (i.e. likes, comments, etc.)
o Best Performing Demographic Group: 67% of the ad responders were women, with the best performing age range between 25-34 years.
o New Followers: 3,181
• YouTube Views:
o Four videos: 425 unique views
