Chosen because Affixxius Films won three 2018 Brilliance Awards for its Christ School video: Gold for Enrollment Video, Outsourced, Gold for Social Media Campaign and Gold for Out of the Box Concept. InspirED took a deep dive with Taralyn Cox, Brand Consultant at Affixxius, to learn more about this stand-out winner.

“Who wouldn’t want to go to school there? I want to work there now! Does an excellent job with visuals talking about all the school has to offer and all a boy can be without the usual audio of talking heads about academics, arts and athletics. This school—or at least this admission office—clearly gets boys and boys of this age. Possibilities seem endless for boys at Christ School.”

— Brilliance Awards Judge's Comment

Start By Defining Your Product

“Schools are high-end, luxury brands,” says Taralyn Cox, Brand Consultant at Affixxius Films in England, and team member for the Brilliance Awards winning video for Christ School in Asheville, North Carolina, USA. “They expect payments of $20-50k per year, seek years of brand loyalty, pursue the opportunity for repeat business, and they look after my most emotionally prized asset — my child.” Yet, we all know that, for the most part, private school marketing budgets are small, resources are limited, and expectations for results are incredibly high.

Assign a Budget and Take an Approach That’s Commensurate

“Marketing is the engine room of any business, the source of its income,” says Taralyn. “And yet, marketing still doesn’t always have a seat at the big table in schools and doesn’t get the resources it needs to affect much or any of its own KPIs [Key Performance Indicators].”

Christ School made a marketing and budget commitment with this video while giving Affixxius the creative freedom to go the extra mile. “Schools have a horrible history of stating the obvious, describing their provision and following a very simple ‘school video’ format that our ‘marketing-savvy millennial parents’ find boring,” says Taralyn. “They have much higher expectations of you, so deliver!” Christ School wanted (and got) a show-stopper, something incredibly creative and with high-production values, worthy of a TV advertisement.

Strategy First. Creativity Second.

The strategy was to create brand awareness, trust and advocacy in the school and in so doing, create media that is emotive and authentic to the brand, something that resonates with the internal audience (pupils, staff, current parents) first. It should make them feel connected to the brand and proud to be part of its story.

“This video has to be one of the finest examples of school marketing I have seen. Original and creative, it depicts all aspects of the school in an engaging and modern way, challenging perceptions of a religious school and demonstrating the place this kind of institution can play in today’s modern society.”

— Brilliance Awards Judge's Comment

“The distribution of their own personal ‘story’ (the film) should be left for the internal audience to invite the external audience (family, friends, prospective parents, pupils and staff, community) inside,” says Taralyn. “Utilizing the ‘sphere of influence’ is the strongest way to reach your objective in a school.”

Know What It Will Take

Several ideas were put in front of the team at Christ School and there was an immediate and resounding "Yes, that's IT!!" with concept for the film eventually produced. Months of pre-production planning, a full week of filming on-site, 50 hours of air travel for Miles Latham, Affixxius’ Managing Partner, and a production crew of five. From initial contact in December 2017 to final film output in September 2018, the project took nine months in total with a filming week in May 2018.

Filming behind the scenes.

Take a Risk. Be Rewarded.

The stats on engagement for the September 4, 2018 launch date on social media wowed everyone.

Facebook: 210,000 views, 560 likes
Twitter: 17,000 views
Instagram: 20,000 views
YouTube: 5,100 views

Miles Latham had 2,700 views of the film on his personal LinkedIn page with a staggering 70 comments.

“As far as quantitative data for enrollment, advancement giving etc., it’s too early to tell. However, our pageviews for the website are up 21%, session up 25%, session duration is up 25%, bounce rate down 16%, and new sessions are up 8%. September was a good month to say the least and I’m sure the video was a major contributor.”

— Jeff Miles, Assistant Head of School, Christ School

Affixxius’ Creative Team

Dave Whayman, Creative Director

Miles Latham, Managing Partner

Taralyn Cox, Brand Consultant

Billy King, Senior Producer

Matthew Sefton, Director of Photography

Pete Black, Post Production

Congratulations, Affixxius Films and Christ School! You are brilliant!

See All the 2018 Award Winners

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Liza Fisher Norman

Master Electrician, InspirED School Marketers

Master Electrician isn’t just a fun title for me. It’s how I feel about sparking school marketers to do their best work, connecting them to one another, and helping to make their jobs easier. After working with close to 100 schools in the firm I founded — Turnaround Marketing Communications — I realized that school marketers needed a place where they could find brilliant ideas and brain food and feel supported. InspirED School Marketers was born in 2013 to fill that void, and with the help of my fabulous Best Boy, Rob, we are on a quest to make InspirED a resource you can't live without.

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