CASE STUDY

Thinking Inside the Box:
Capturing the Attention of a Distracted Audience

The Situation: The Ethel Walker School, an independent, college preparatory school in Connecticut for girls in grades 6–12, established an ambitious goal of nearly doubling enrollment over a five-year period. The school operates in an extremely competitive environment of excellent local public schools and well-regarded boarding schools, both of which target a similar prospect pool. To dramatically increase enrollment, Walker’s needed to generate a significantly larger applicant pool, especially at the middle-school point of entry.

The Communications Challenge: How could Walker’s capture the attention and spark the imagination of middle-school-age girls and their parents? With virtually unlimited access to media and technology, constantly bombarded with advertising and marketing materials, the 12-year-old prospects are surprisingly sophisticated buyers, highly skilled at making immediate decisions about what to pay attention to and what to ignore.

Strategy: Create an irresistible direct-marketing campaign built around a unique, custom-designed box. What girl — what person of any age — could resist opening a present? The outer surfaces of the box were covered in lively photographs of current students, campus activities and school icons. Printed in the school’s purple, with a lavender belly band, the box was an intriguing invitation. Inside the box, in a specially die-cut holder, were a colorful mini-viewbook, application forms, and other materials designed to capture the girls’ attention and answer their questions.

Results: The box worked its magic. Inquiries from prospective students went up, and the school increased enrollment significantly, well on the way to meeting its long-term goal.