Name: The Scots College

Solution: Communication Support Program

Industry: Education

Number of students: Over 2,000

Location: Sydney, Australia

Why imageseven:

strategic focus
proactive and responsive
cost-efficient
friendly
professional
flexible team

about The Scots College

The Scots College is one of Australia’s oldest and most respected independent day and boarding schools for boys from Transition to Year 12. Scots has been raising fine young men since 1893 from Sydney, New South Wales and many other different nations from around the world. The Scots College Education Philosophy is based on the quest for excellence through adventure, curiosity, creativity and growth.

the challenge

The Scots College saw the need to optimise its marketing communications and key messaging. The visual identity was inconsistent and the overarching brand confused, which was having a negative impact on brand consistency across the entire College. In 2007, imageseven began working closely with The Scots College on a project only basis, which suited the College’s immediate requirements at the time. However, as the scope of work changed, a more strategic input from imageseven was required and the project only approach proved to be too restrictive. The most significant being limited opportunity for imageseven to be proactive, pre-emptive and strategic across the College’s entire marketing communications program. Dr Ian PM Lambert, The Scots College Principal reflects on some of the factors that were the catalyst for reviewing the structure.

“We had acknowledged in our school environment that we didn’t necessarily have the breadth of skill, experience or insight that is required to manage communications and marketing in a total management framework. And therefore, drawing upon a company like imageseven that has those broad skills in a partnership structure has been a much more effective and cost-efficient way of doing,” said Dr Lambert. The Scots College Principal, Dr Ian PM Lambert

As a result of this requirement for a change in approach, imageseven proposed a solution to The Scots College.

the solution

In January 2011, The Scots College and imageseven embarked on a new partnership – the first of its kind in Australian education. The imageseven team transferred skills and techniques refined in the commercial sector and changed the school marketing paradigm. Some would call it outsourcing, but we call it co-sourcing because it reflects the unique relationship between imageseven and The Scots College. The partnership became the Communication Support Program and it is now available exclusively to imageseven clients. imageseven team members were based onsite at the College in Sydney, over 3,300 kilometres from their head office in Perth. Between the two offices, imageseven services all of Scots internal and external communications, from parent emails through to media relations, events and publications. The imageseven Communication Support Program is a marketing communications (marcom) support partnership that goes beyond a regular agency relationship. Instead, the program offers The Scots College a complete co-sourced marketing department where its marcom activity is coordinated under one roof, has the capacity and skills to meet any challenge and is consistently of a quality that upholds the integrity and values of the College. “We have gone right back to basics and looked at taking a very old institution, a school, and tried to rebuild its story and its focus into the future. And I think the detail involved in that has been significant,” said Dr Lambert.

the outcome

The College has grown in reputation locally and internationally. The College is at capacity and has an extensive waiting list. Most importantly, the key messaging that The Scots College wishes to communicate to teachers, parents, students and the Scots community is clear; ‘Scots boys grow into fine men’.

about imageseven

imageseven is an integrated marketing communications firm. You can think of us as message architects who build businesses. We work with private school heads and marketing leaders to lift their communication and brand to reveal the true value they deliver to students and their families. Our approach is about real world, down-to-earth, tested, daily marketing communications. We’re not interested in awards. We want results. That’s the heart of imageseven.