Chosen because Girls Preparatory School won Gold for Viewbook Overall in the 2022 Brilliance Awards. InspirED talked with Pamela Hammonds, Director of Communications and Marketing, to find out how they created this winner…in-house.

Step 1: Target Your Audience

I’m sure you’ve asked yourself these questions at your school: Who is the view book’s audience? The parent? The child? Both? The messaging for these particular audiences is vastly different as is the messaging for upper school students vs. middle-schoolers.

Pamela Hammonds, Director of Communications and Marketing at Girls Preparatory School says, “So, we created three distinct viewbooks this year: parent, upper school, and middle school.”

Step 2: Speak Directly To Them

As a 6th- through 12th-grade day school, part of GPS’s admission strategy includes a robust futures marketing plan. The school previously sent a custom calendar to current fourth-graders in December to introduce girls to their campus—its curricular and cocurricular offerings and traditions. This piece won bronze in the 2022 Brilliance Awards.

The viewbooks were approached as an extension of this messaging. The format of personality quizzes became a way for girls to see themselves as students before they were even enrolled.

Step 3: Develop Strategy and Execute Creative…In-House

GPS created the project(s) in-house with their 4-person team. “We began the brainstorming and content generation process over the summer,” says Pamela, “prioritizing the middle school version over the upper school viewbook because we find most of our upper school students tend to be later to the admission process.” The upper school viewbook was completed in the fall and mailed out in November. The print run was short — only 100 pieces — and, in spite of high paper costs, the outlay was $1,500.

Step 4: Garner Praise, Results, and Awards

GPS reports that throughout the admission process, feedback about the viewbooks was overwhelmingly positive. As a result of the team’s targeted efforts, the school saw a 30% increase in applications this year over last year.

Step 5: Celebrate Your Team

Congratulations, GPS! You are brilliant!

TEAM
Pamela Hammonds, Director of Communications and Marketing
Caitlin Riddle, Associate Director of Communications and Marketing
Lucy Blancett, Marketing Communications Manager
Rachael Land, Digital Marketing and Communications Manager

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