Task 1 - The “Educating…” series

The purpose of this campaign is to advertise and spread the fly-in-the-wall style Educating series
across a range of media platforms to gain as wide an audience as possible for EduTelford. The goal is
to properly highlight the education in the local area of Telford and a multi-platform media campaign
will aid in enlarging the audience for the show, which is especially important to do effectively
because Telford itself is not a hugely known town across the United Kingdom. Spreading awareness
and interest is of the upmost importance for the success of the show, and this can be achieved in
numerous ways. The target audience of the series ranges from students, people who are working or
have worked in the field of education, and parents since the show revolves around student life and
education.

Looking at statistics, the average amount of viewers across the five series that have been released is
around 2.2 million, the lowest reaching 1.44 million for “Educating the East End”. This particular
series had to have a name change from “Walthamstow” so that the name would spread over a larger
area since it was rather concentrated. In comparison, “Educating Yorkshire” had the most viewers,
reaching a 3.46 million average. On its release, it reached a viewer count of over 4 million and
reached number one for that week compared to other TV shows on Channel 4 according to BARB.
This is most likely due to Yorkshire being a much larger area and having a population of over 5
million. Looking at the population of Telford compared to Yorkshire, it is around 170,000, which is a
small fraction of Yorkshire’s. This might become a problem in the future, which could be combatted
by naming the series “Educating the West Midlands” since this broadens the audience reach since
the population of the West Midlands is around 5.7 million. It also would be a much more familiar
name for audiences not from the area so it does not confine the influence of the campaign. This
would also be more fitting with the other titles of the series since they are also quite broad. The
series is also aired around the time that school begins in the end of summer/start of autumn, which
is appropriate because of the show’s focus being school life.
Surprisingly, the most liked series out of the five
seems to be “Educating Greater Manchester”
which won a BAFTA award. The cast and stories
were well loved by the audience and it seemed
as though the head teacher of the school was a
heartthrob for female audiences. It had a diverse
range of pupils and teachers to follow. Educating
Yorkshire also had a pupil the audience was very fond of by the name of Musharaf who had a
stammer he overcame with the help of his teacher.1 The story was so loved it managed to spread
across platforms and warmed the hearts of millions. When it came to advertising, short one-minute
video teasers were released across different platforms like TV and YouTube, which spread to social
media’s like Facebook, to highlight parts of the stories
followed in each series, like Musharaf’s story and the
make-up loving boy, Mitchell Farrelly from the Greater
Manchester series.2 3 Photos of scenes and people
from the series were also spread around and used by
media to talk about the series and hype its release
further. Interviews were held by Channel 4 for teachers
and other shows like “This Morning” interviewed pupils
like Jack and Rani.4 5

Channel 4 made updates throughout

the educating campaign for Greater
Manchester on their Twitter page.
The updates were consistent and
weekly and had simple messages to
give to the audience. It also
contained snippets from the show to
catch interest and draw in a larger
audience. This showed positive
results, with multiple likes and a
large amount of retweets, which
spread the reach of the campaign.

1
YouTube, “Educating Yorkshire Musharaf overcomes his stammer”,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgZfLImT2gM
2
YouTube, “Educating Yorkshire | Coming Soon | Channel 4”,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NQGPVv1wDU
3
YouTube, “TRAILER | Educating Greater Manchester | Available On All 4”,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBMejEDAHps
4
YouTube, “Mr Burton Interview | Educating Yorkshire | Channel 4”,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZH8AUhSKtM
5
YouTube, “'Educating Greater Manchester' Stars and Best Friends Jack and Rani | This Morning”,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LN9Sqmop7c
Task 2 - “Educating The West Midlands” campaign
Making adverts for YouTube closer to release to inform those not on their TVs when the show is
airing will be beneficial, these can also be used on appropriate websites, e.g. Facebook. Advertising
on such sites would increase the reach the campaign will gain in growing its audience to those
beyond the current one. Social media accounts for the show, like Twitter and Facebook, will help
engage the audience, keep them up to date and allow them to discuss the show between each other
easily with hashtags, which will be added to adverts so people are aware of the tags to use and
social media accounts to follow. The audience expects to stay informed and up to date with the
campaign, so regular updates are necessary. More students will be reached if the campaign takes
advantage of social media since most have at least one account. These platforms are also ideal for
spreading the campaigns message.

Posters and promotional images released throughout the campaign will keep people engaged early
on and anticipating for the release while they are waiting for the show to air. Interesting posters like
the ones drawn by students will be appropriate for an audience that expects a show based around
students themselves, which is a consistent theme throughout the campaigns. More adverts will be
concentrated closer to the date of airing to build up to it and ensure people are ready for it. Posters
like that made for Educating Yorkshire can be put up around public areas, at bus stops, billboards, on
sides of buses etc. Posters in this style are very appropriate for the theme of the show and make it
more personal for the audience and the students participating. Promotional posters of the key
students and teachers will aid in making the audience accustomed to their faces and give them a
snippet of the kinds of people they will be seeing. Keeping a consistent theme throughout will
prevent any confusion and will make the campaign cohesive.
Task 3 – Preparing materials for “Educating The West Midlands” campaign

Design consistencies

Similar saturation and hue of

Circular rounded off edge in
blues used throughout
all adverts to separate image
advertising
and text

 To keep the designs connected throughout all advertising, the same concepts and themes
used so they correspond.
 Blues are the main colour theme and will be used for either text or design elements.
 Either a similar or the same font used throughout, either bold or regular. Bold mostly for
titles to catch the eye and show importance and regular for extra information.
Twitter and Facebook
Plan for Profile Picture:

Logo for
association
Channel 4 logo

Little detail, simple

Shortened design. Only
production name necessary
information

Final Profile picture:

 Simple and bright design with colours the match campaigns overall design
 Easy to read name and easy to see Channel 4 logo for association and linking
Post mock ups for Twitter:

Facebook post mock up:

-Short and not overcomplicated messages

-Clear links to hashtags and accounts
-Typos need to be avoided for final posting, and each post needs to be more consistent

-Images of the posters and adverts already made for the campaign can be used within the posts as
well as updated images throughout the process of the campaign

-Posts to be made every few weeks/few times a month moderately

 YouTube/Website Adverts
Plan:

Interesting and eye-catching image

of students and teachers. Show the
relationship and atmosphere of the
school and contents of the show.

Channel 4 branding and

message to viewer, e.g. air
time of show.

Hashtags and social media handles to

guides audience to further
information and so they can stay up
to date.

Hashtags and social media handles to Interesting and eye-catching image

guides audience to further Channel 4 branding and of students and teachers. Show the
information and so they can stay up message to viewer, e.g. air relationship and atmosphere of the
to date. time of show. school and contents of the show.
Mock ups of side ad and lower bar:

 Channel Logo needs to be added

 Appropriate images need to be taken and used
 The chosen blue is bright and optimistic but not over saturated. Catches the
eye as it contrasts the images well
 Tags added to guide to official Twitter page
 Would appear during premier day
 Appropriate messages to correspond with time, e.g. “Airs every Sunday at
6pm on Channel 4” etc.
 Stick to having the ads on videos with a similar audience and taste
Images used in these mock ups are from http://www.haberdashersabrahamdarby.co.uk/
Visualisation:

 Bright colours contrast well, stand out and catch the eye
 Text easy to read and information is clear
 Needs Channel 4 logo
Adverts with own photography:
 Posters inspired by children’s drawings
Plan: Indicates the context of the
poster and the channel.

Channel 4 branding and message to

viewer, e.g. air time of show Channel 4 Logo

First name of student and their year

Credits the
artists

Hand drawn image

by a student

Hashtags, links and production

Drawing made by schools’ student

Guides to further information
to make the poster more personal
and to the social media
and inclusive. Picked from a
accounts for the production, for
selection of entries. With the
people to stay up to date.
name of show and message of the
campaign in the drawing.
Child Poster 1
Child Poster 2
Review of materials
Online survey:
https://www.surveylegend.com/s/1ea6

Online adverts:

 Only 1 participant found the adverts to be “Bad”

 Overall positive impression
 Message seems to be clear for majority of participants
 Average star rating of quality for the adverts was 4 stars
 Comments for further improvement were to make the title a bit larger and to make it
clearer this was a TV show and not a school advertisement. The confusion may be due to
the text “term starts 2nd September” which was taken as reference from previous
“Educating…” campaign texts. May have to change this to avoid confusion.
Posters:

 Most voted the posters as being okay or good, it’s safe to assume that a number of ‘bad’
votes are likely due to the children’s drawing element of image quality
  General consensus of the messages clarity is 50/50
 Average star rating for quality is 3 stars
 Hand drawn element of the posters seems to make a big impact on answers. Unsure of
whether answers are judging quality of the skill within the drawing or the posters as a whole
for what they represent.
 Comments made included that it was “childish” and that it had to be clearer that the
drawings were by a child

Questions regarding social media campaigns:

When asked what they like to/do not like to see in social media updates, answers ranged from:

 Include images
 No bulky text, shorter is better
 No unrelated content
 Text and message is clear and concise
 89% of participants out 68 are either ok with or partial to getting updates
 Only 16% like regular updates, but majority answers prefer occasional updates
Refined Materials

 Title enlarged and wording changed according to feedback

 Name and year of child made larger and clearer