How to select the right PR agency for a secondary school

[jhatter]

Hi,

I am part of a secondary school team that has invited 3 PR agencies to pitch for the school's PR contract.

Does anybody have any PR experience working in the education sector, who could advise what questions I should ask the agencies relating to them working specifically for a secondary school?

Thanks in anticipation to your replies.

Gunz
Now who could you be talking about?

Talkin .. a royal pain the arse they are!

My DCs school has a PA to the DHs who is a mum who used to work in PR and she spends most if her time doing PR type activities, so I suppose a person's salary could be comparable? Or maybe not!

You really need to think as a group what you need PR for. Has there been an agency before? If no, why now? If yes, why the tender process? Do you have a brief? What are the school's issues that need to be addressed? What are the priorities? How are you going to prove the agency is value for money? What are you expecting the agency to do? What day to day stuff needs to be covered? Whist special projects will there be? Who will monitor this?

The problem with agencies is that they need to be briefed, badgered and controlled by the client. You need to be on your toes or they will rip you off. Their hourly rate will be waaaaay above what you'd pay an in-house person. I speak as an ex PR person !!!

I think my first thought is that if you are having to ask what the PR team should be tendering for then the reality is that the school is not in a position to move forward with such a decision.
What they should be doing is asking the PR companies to demonstrate how they could impact on the school and then see what they come up with.
I think that we do need to get away from the idea that all the funding must be spent directly on the children's education. A large secondary school, like the one I am a governor at, has a turnover of £8M. The reality is that the majority of that funding is derived from bums on seats, so a sensible PR /marketing campaign would, if the school has sufficient available places, revolve around encouraging parents and pupils to join the school. Each new pupil is worth £3k + a year, so a modest outlay with good results would be very good use of some school funding. It is impossible without knowing the school and the local environment to decide how that may be achieved.