The Campaign

Building a new campus in Hong Kong meant Harrow International School also needed to build a full complement of students ready for the day when classroom doors open for the first time in September 2012. The immediate task involved reaching out to parents and prospective students across eight Asian countries to raise awareness of the international boarding school and drive day and boarder enrollment. Efforts were dovetailed with the school’s own PR activity by creating a lead generation campaign via social media featuring customized landing pages in different languages and key advertising messages tailored to each market. The campaign also worked to capture the attention of HR professionals in more than 300 corporations across the region and position Harrow International School Hong Kong as the ideal education component of expat packages. Lead generation activity exceeded expectations by reaping 600 student and parent enquiries, after generating around 90 million impressions on search engines and social media platforms. And a mercurial rise in public awareness of the school’s new campus was demonstrated when Google search traffic for “Harrow Hong Kong” soared by 90 percent.

The Brief

The overall objective was to ensure the school could expect full classrooms at launch in September 2012. This entailed: • Raising awareness of the prestigious Harrow brand and its long pedigree, along with development of a new campus in Hong Kong, throughout key audiences in eight different countries. • Ramping up enrollment, especially for Year 6-to-13 boarders. • Establishing relationships between Harrow International School Hong Kong and HR departments throughout a large number of multinational corporations across Asia.

Results

An agenda-topping task was to ensure Harrow International School Hong Kong would open with a full register of students – giving rise to a lead generation outcome that exceeded the school’s expectations with more than 600 leads. These followed propagation of 90 million search engine and social media impressions within less than nine months. The LinkedIn element of the campaign reached out to more than 300 HR departments, paving the way to solid relationships between the school and 60 corporate HR managers concerned with arranging education options as part of expat packages. Efforts to raise public awareness of the school’s new campus were rewarded with Google search traffic for “Harrow Hong Kong” soaring by 90 percent.

Execution

A three-pronged digital campaign was mounted to influence target audiences at different stages of the consumer buying process. A lead generation campaign used Google and Facebook advertising, with customized landing pages in different languages and messages tailored to each market – all to raise awareness of the brand and gather leads. Secondly, a LinkedIn outreach program targeted HR professionals in multinational corporations to position Harrow International School Hong Kong as a prime education option for expat packages. The third prong was an action plan for Harrow to engage with online communities. This was achieved by monitoring social media platforms to identify conversations around the brand and the industry, while influencing the target audience during the decision-making process.

The Situation

The Harrow brand is widely recognized in the west as one of the United Kingdom’s most established and prestigious non-state or “public schools”, which are run as private institutions. “Old Harrovians” have included famous figures such as British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Indian statesman Jawaharlal Nehru and King Hussein of Jordan. All offer historic role model examples of Harrow International School’s focus on fostering “leadership for a better world”, a guiding principle for Harrow since the 16th Century. Harrow International School laid plans to open a new campus in Hong Kong in September 2012, which called for a comprehensive communications program that would drive enrollment in preparation for the school’s very first term.

The Strategy

Social media formed a ubiquitous platform on which to conduct a number of activities designed to achieve the overarching mission of ensuring Harrow International School Hong Kong would have a full register of students by September 2012. The strategy was to promote the Harrow brand, reach key influencers and conduct a far-reaching lead generation exercise among parents and prospective students, while encouraging corporate HR departments to include the school as an expat package option for incoming employees with children.