< The Malvern School >

The Goal

Sugartown Communications was engaged to partner with The Malvern School during an eight year phase of fast paced expansion, with the opening of many new locations in extremely competitive geographic markets. The challenge was to build on the success of the school’s local identity while quickly expanding brand awareness into new geographic markets areas.

The Strategy

Creative | The rebrand began by pairing warm photography of adorable Malvern School children with a newly developed tagline, “Love of Learning Begins Here.”  Copywriting positioned the brand as not part of a franchise preschool system, but instead a privately owned preschool system, with a centralized curriculum and a unified set of academic and safety standards. This both distinguished The Malvern School apart from their competition and resonated with parents.

Media | A strategic and integrated advertising media plan placed new creative in print ads, digital display ads, streaming digital audio, radio spots, and television commercials. During the launch phase of new school locations, additional aggressive marketing was added using direct mail campaigns, outdoor billboards, sky-banners in local shopping malls and social media engagement.

Website | Search Marketing included robust SEO and Google Ads campaigns, which increased traffic to the website. A better website user experience was gained by programming a streamlined online parent application, the addition of “Live Chat, “ and an employee access portal.

Public Relations | Greater brand awareness was achieved through press release distribution, editorial features in multiple regional magazines and facilitating multiple guest appearances of The Malvern School staff on local broadcast television programs.

Cause Marketing | We developed and put in place a meaningful sponsorship opportunity between The Malvern School and local television network CBS3, to support the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. The partnership provided brand lift for both The Malvern School and ALSF, and established ongoing & substantial fundraising by The Malvern School to ALSF.

The Result

The Malvern School brand continued to expand and gained recognition and trust with families as the best preschool option for their children.  Website traffic increased resulting in an increase in enrollment. Core school locations grew to capacity with waiting lists to enroll, with newer locations gaining traction. Within eight years the organization expanded from 10 locations to 23 locations in two major market areas.

Radio Copywriting