Morley College London

Morley College London appointed Encore Communications to devise a short PR campaign to promote its newly-renovated North Kensington Centre for Skills. The campaign needed to raise awareness of the college and the variety of courses on offer among local people, while navigating political issues and sensitively handling the impact of the Grenfell tragedy on the college and its community.

Encore created a traditional media relations campaign based around a series of news stories for local community and education press. The focus of the campaign was a three-day Open Weekend, which included distinct events for different stakeholder groups: from funders, politicians and local leaders, to new and exisitng students and their families.  Distinct but complementary messaging was developed for each day of the open weekend, with stories being released to selected media at different times to reach different audiences and build momentum towards a community open day.  To encourage engagement with all sections of the community, press releases were also translated into languages reflecting the make up of the North Kengsington community, with particular focus on reaching out to non English-speaking media and community sites.

The campaign generated positive results across local, regional and education media, with the highlight being a 5-minute feature on ITV London Tonight, which sensitively told the story of the college, how it had been saved by community activism following the Grenfell disaster, and showcasing the new facilities and courses on offer.  The campaign reached a potential audience of over 37 million people, generating over 100 social media engagements.