What good PR for a training or apprenticeship provider can look like

With national awards, viral TikToks, over 70 blogs written, 35 thought leadership articles placed and over a thousand pieces of generated press coverage across print, online and broadcast resulting in a total reach of 40 million and 100% positive sentiment, it’s fair to say our recent client from the education sector got a lot out of their time with us.

But that’s starting at the end. We’d prefer to tell you the story of how we went about making all that happen for them, so that you could decide if you wanted something similar to happen for you.

So, here’s what happened:

An apprenticeship provider for England and Wales came to us in 2019 looking for a way to cut through the noise. We knew education, training, apprenticeships, and we definitely knew PR. We just needed to find out what made their voice worth hearing.

We’re a creative-first agency. Storytelling is our bread-and-butter, and good storytellers find the compelling story in everything. For education and training, we found that story in the fundamental truth behind the journey of learners, whether they be an apprentice, an employee looking to progress, or just someone looking to pick up a new skill.

With our contacts at national newspapers, specialist magazines, online journals, local radio, TV stations and newspapers, we started to feed these stories out. Over time, with their success, we were able to develop a platform for our client to discuss everything from developments in their own industry to wider concerns like environmental considerations and the cost-of-living crisis.

But for this to effectively reach our client’s key audiences, we knew traditional PR routes could not be solely relied on. In 2021 we expanded our scope of work to include a dynamic social media plan which grew our client’s platforms significantly. With relevant and engaging content seeded out across key platforms on a regular basis, a highlight was a set of two videos we curated for TikTok that produced hundreds of thousands of views.

We went on to support our client with digital, developing a reactive campaign that far surpassed the average performance for digital marketing – equating to a cost per click of just six pence. With social and digital in place, we had established a dynamic multi-branched PR output that could be consistently fed content by our proactive press-desk.

As a result of all this, we effectively positioned our client as a leading voice within the apprenticeship and education sector, holding authority as a speaker on training, education, political legislation, regulatory changes, mental health, equality and diversity, and more.

But most importantly, we cut through the noise. We directly increased the client’s exposure to employers and apprentices, its main audiences, effectively highlighting the benefits of apprenticeships and efficiently communicating our client’s key messages.

And that was their brief answered. What’s yours?

If you’ve seen a service which you think your business could benefit from, click below to get in touch.

Written by Rebecca Williams

Partner (PR)

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