How PCSNM Demystified Public Charter Schools in New Mexico through Video Campaigns
Introduction
In a state where public charter schools constitute just around 8% of educational options, Public Charter Schools of New Mexico (PCSNM) embarked on a mission to dispel myths surrounding these schools. With 322,989 students spread across 854 schools in New Mexico, there was a significant need to raise awareness about the unique benefits offered by public charter schools. PCSNM, dedicated to supporting over 90 charter schools, partnered with Lavendr for a transformative video campaign.
This case study dives into the challenges faced by public charter schools in the state, notably misconceptions around tuition, test scores, and accessibility. PCSNM strategically chose a video campaign to demystify these schools, recognizing that videos are incredibly effective in conveying information and generating engagement. Lavendr, known for its impactful campaigns, collaborated with PCSNM to create spotlight videos featuring interviews with teachers, parents, students, and staff from three public charter schools.
The outcome was visually compelling campaign that amplifies PCSNM’s impact and gives their stakeholders evergreen content they can proudly share. This case study invites high-impact organizations to consider creative avenues for marketing, emphasizing the lasting impact of visual storytelling in reaching and educating diverse audiences. Through this partnership, PCSNM not only addressed misconceptions but also expanded its reach, fostering a broader understanding of the valuable work carried out by public charter schools in New Mexico.
Background
PCSNM, an advocacy organization for public charter schools, exists to ensure public charter schools have the support they need to serve kids effectively. PCSNM serves over 90 public charter schools that provide New Mexico students with alternative learning environments. These charters are ideal for students who thrive in smaller classes, want more hands on learning, and are excited by challenging college preparatory programs.
Unfortunately, because public charters make up only ~8% of their options, many parents and students are unfamiliar with the possibilities and opportunities these schools provide.
Confronting NM Public Charter School Myths
Because communities lack exposure to many alternatives to education, there is a lot of confusion around tuition, test scores, and accessibility that prevent families from exploring and considering public charter schools. Without fully understanding what is available, parents and students lean on familiar education models - even if a public charter school could be the perfect choice for their family.
PCSNM explains, “Charter schools in New Mexico are public schools, and follow the same laws for finances and operations as traditional public schools. The difference is in their educational model, where a small number of exemptions to the public school code allow for dynamic education models to be offered.”
One of the most pervasive misunderstandings about public charter schools in New Mexico is a belief in their exclusivity and high-barriers to entry.
Public charter schools in New Mexico have an open enrollment period. When a public charter school has more applicants than spaces available, they use a lottery admission process wherein students are chosen blindly. Each school has their own process that they are required to make clear around student registration.
PCSNM recognized these myths are barriers to their work and the great work of the schools in their network. They needed a way to demystify public charter schools in the eyes of New Mexicans.
The Solution: Capturing the People Behind Public Charter Schools
To address these misconceptions and increase public charter school awareness across the state, PCSNM needed to amplify their network's impact. They needed to educate New Mexicans about school choice - the ability to choose alternatives to public education -- whether that is to a public school, private school, charter school, home school or any other learning environment families choose.
So, how did PCSNM decide on a video campaign as the best way to demystify public charter schools, while highlighting the people promoting the school choice movement in NM?
It's an easy choice-
When reading text, the average person retains about 10% of the information. But, put that same information in a video, and the viewer will retain 95% of it.
Videos drive 300% more traffic to a website than other types of content.
In fact, 57% of people who watch fundraising videos for non-profit organizations will then donate to the organizations.
LinkedIn users are up to 20x more likely to share video content than other content, like a news post.
Enter- Lavendr.
We specialize in campaigns that inspire, educate, and influence action. In partnership with high impact organizations, we create campaigns that resonate with their ideal audience and capture their attention.
We’ve worked with organizations like iCountNM (2020 Census), NMDOH, and NMKidsCan among many others to amplify their missions.
The Approach
To start, we listened.
With the help of PCSNM leadership and through qualitative and quantitative research, we uncovered key insights that set the course of our creative process. Learn more about our process in the chart below.
“Our approach to projects always begins with gaining clarity on who we’re talking to, and what moves them. Even if you have the best creative in the world, it’s useless if you’re not clicking with the right people. So, we took the same approach with this project. We learned about what people knew about public charter schools and what they didn’t, and used that to craft our messaging. From that insight, we determined that something similar to a docu-series would be an effective storytelling strategy — allowing PCSNM and a few schools in their network to tell the world about their impact. At Lavendr, we embrace honesty, and lean on the strengths of the organizations we work with to hone in on their story.”
- Joshua Romero, Creative Director @ Lavendr
In order to introduce these schools to NM, we needed to understand each school's core competencies. We created audience personas, identified key-messaging, and began understanding PCSNM’s target audience.
We asked ourselves: What makes this school different than the others? Who are the students who thrive in this environment? What is this school’s teaching philosophy? What do the parents of these students care about the most?
After speaking with administrators, it was evident that school leadership knew their schools inside and out. They were just missing a creative partner that could help capture their school's story and implore their audience to wonder - could this be the right school for my family?
The Outcome
PCSNM received evergreen content that addressed public charter school misconceptions in New Mexico and highlighted the faces behind their movement.
The campaign included a video that showcases the impact of PCSNM, along with spotlight videos, made in partnership with TwoThreeFive, for three public charter schools composed of interviews with teachers, parents, students, and staff.
“They are great thought partners, detailed, thorough, and dedicated. We also appreciate them keeping us on track when it’s needed! We are consistently impressed with their creativity, quality of work, and professionalism.”
“Working with PCSNM and the three outstanding schools we highlighted was a great experience. Multiple times our entire five person crew was brought to tears by interviewees recounting how attending a charter school completely shifted their child’s view of education or how they created meaningful relationships with struggling students and helped them towards successful outcomes. It was the best way to see first hand why charter schools are so important — because they are offering alternative education that is best fit for so many students lost in the traditional public education system. ”
Since the launch of this video campaign, PCSNM has been the proud and worthy recipient of a $52 million dollar grant that will allow them to continue their work in NM. They will be able to continue supporting their existing charter schools and create more campuses to expand their services throughout the state.
You can view our full project page for PCSNM here.
Takeaways
Through this partnership, we were able to expand PCSNM's internal marketing bandwidth and amplify their work. In return, PCSNM’s stakeholders have visually captivating content to pursue the resources their organization needs to fulfill their mission.
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