Overview
To bring a tuition-free, public charter school focused on Montessori-aligned principles to Rutherford County, Tennessee for the first time, Springs Public Schools Empower Academy tasked SRG with leading a county-wide paid social campaign intended to bolster support from community members in advance of a pivotal application approval vote by the Rutherford County Board of Education. The campaign also served to gather leads of prospective families interested in enrolling.
Our Approach
With the school board vote less than three months away, SRG developed a messaging strategy that showcased Empower Academy as an exciting new option for families and highlighted its vision to partner closely with the school district. SRG identified audiences that would be most likely to engage with content, such as parents of school-aged children, people interested in charter and Montessori-related topics, and primary and Montessori teachers within the county. SRG worked with Springs Empower Academy to have all materials translated into Spanish to reach non-English speaking families in the community. Using Meta’s artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms, “Engaged/Retargeting” and “Lookalike” audiences were created based on existing contacts, followers, and users who engaged with ads and pages. Through AI-driven dynamic ads, SRG put the right content in front of the most relevant audiences – harnessing multiple copy, graphic, and call-to-action combinations to uniquely deliver the best ad creative for each impression.
Results
Ahead of Rutherford County School Board’s July 2022 Meeting, with a dedicated advertising budget, SRG led paid social campaigns that reached 46,728 accounts in the community, generating 1,854 link clicks, 5,822 total clicks, 190 messages of support of Springs Empower Academy, and 43 event responses using 177,012 impressions. After Rutherford County Schools requested that Springs make a few amendments to its initial application, the board voted 5-2 to approve the creation of Empower Academy.
SRG pivoted our advertising and communications strategy to generate significantly more leads from parents interested in enrolling their child by using analytics to inform the creation of new content. While this effort is ongoing, as of February 2024, campaigns have reached 73,896 user accounts, generating 6,534 link clicks, 22,369 total clicks, and 1,361 total leads – extrapolated into 2,217 potential students based on responses to questions.
The Nashville chapter of the Public Relations Society of America awarded SRG “Best of Show” at the 2023 Parthenon Awards and multiple Parthenon awards for our work to generate support for Springs Public Schools Empower Academy.
