26/08/2008 by Tony Attwood.

BBC Radio 5 today ran a piece reminding parents and school governors that the Office of Fair Trading has told schools that they must now encourage a monopoly to develop in the supply of uniform.

They were commenting on the fact that larger stores are now offering a complete school uniform for under £10 - while some schools are still telling parents that they must buy very specific uniform items, which can push the price up to £200 per child when the child enters secondary schools.

A copy of the OFT report on uniform supply is available free of charge. 

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28/07/2008 by Tony Attwood.

The 2008/9 school year sees the launch of a major project which will make the transmission of messages from commercial companies, exam boards, universities and charities to teachers much more effective.Through 2007/8 a trial programme has been run through which certain teachers have been able to opt in to free news services and receive information relevant to their subject on a regular basis.

This information ranges from news about government initiatives and funding through to reviews of new products and answers to teachers questions such as, “What materials are readers using to teach…”

The service has been welcomed on all sides. Teachers like it because it brings information to them in an easy to use form. Administrators like it because it reduces the number of spam emails they get. Companies that sell to schools like it because they can submit products and services for a write up, and know they’ll be dealt with in a helpful accurate manner.

If you’d like to see some of the messages that were sent to teachers in 2007/8, take a look at www.schools.co.uk/emn.html Remember subscribers will have seen these messages as emails, which are delivered at a rate of one or two a week.

If you are a teacher and would like to subscribe to one or more of these services free of charge just go to www.schools.co.uk/subscribe.html

There’s no charge for this service, and we guarantee that you email address won’t be given to anyone else. If you do subscribe you can unsubscribe at any time.

If you would like to know more, just call 01536 399 000.

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18/07/2008 by Tony Attwood.

Hamilton House PR Agency now offers a guarantee: it guarantees that your company will be mentioned positively in at least three papers or journals every month.

Getting positive coverage in appropriate media three times each month sounds a tough call – but with the right approach it is possible. 

We can guarantee to achieve this every month because we are (probably) the only PR and Marketing Agency that specialises exclusively in reaching teachers.

So we know the market, and we know the journalists, and we really can deliver.   

Thus we can give an absolute guarantee that you will get coverage in at least three different magazines, papers, TV stations or radio stations, every single month.   (Sometimes of course we get you more than three media appearances, but when we do we don’t charge extra.  We just let you have that as a bonus). 

In the extremely unlikely event that we fail to get you the promised coverage, we don’t charge you a penny for that month’s work.

But that’s not all.   As part of our package we also work developing separate longer-term projects with you (call me if you would like to have some examples).   We also undertake regular research for our clients into teacher attitudes, buying habits, competitor activity and the like.  It is all included in the monthly fee.

Of course sometimes a smaller, more specialised type of campaign is required and we can always tailor our work to meet such needs.   For example, some companies do not need the guarantee of significant coverage every month and obviously that reduces costs.  In other cases the research into teacher attitudes and activities is not needed very often, and again that cuts down on our expenditure on your behalf.   Where this is so we can cut our monthly fee dramatically.

In other cases the key issue may be marketing – analysing response rates, evolving new approaches, comparing email with direct mail, devising new incentives and so on.   Obviously here our fee can be lower than might otherwise be the case.

We’re happy to discuss the marketing and PR coverage we’ve achieved in the past, and come up with ideas for a campaign for you, without charge or obligation.   Do give us a call and we’ll talk it all through.

Just call 01536 399 000

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08/07/2008 by Tony Attwood.

Actually, sorry, that headline is wrong.  You don’t.  You get a free emailing to teachers, a free extra mailing and a free listing on the School Procurement Website for a year.

These things are all free, gratis, complimentary, on the house.  But the house has no food.  Not a crumb.  Not a sausage.  Not a bean.  Sorry.

However some of the teachers who get your shared mail leaflet also get an email from you.  These emails go direct to the teachers who have opted into this service – which means not all of them get it (but the real whizzo teaching enthusiasts do get it).   No charge.  Not a cent.  Zero.  Nothing.  Nil.  Nought.  Square root of minus two.

Then another set of your leaflets (up to 10% of the original number booked) are mailed out to teachers at no charge.  Not a penny.  Totally without cost in any form.

Finally details of your product or service are included for a year on the School Procurement Website, complete with links to your email and your own web address.  And here disbursement = 0.  It’s free.  You don’t pay.  Not today, not ever.

If we add to all this the unique fact that our shared mailings carry a cover page from the School of Educational Administration to the administrator, you’ll get the picture that our shared mailings are, well unique.  Inimitable.  Incomparable.  Matchless.  Peerless.  Without equal.

But, I hear you asking (although not literally you appreciate) do shared mailings work?   A good question and one I am asked often.  Regularly.  Frequently.

The fact is that HHM has, over the years, used shared mailings to sell tens of thousands of our own products to schools.   We’ve learned what makes one item sell and another one flop – and we are more than excited (champing at the bit you might say) at the prospect of you phoning up and asking us to have a look at your leaflet and comment on how a few minor changes might make it work all the better.  (That bit is free too).  We really are getting quite energised by it all.  Quite worked up.

Tony Attwood

PS: If you have received letters from me in the past you’ll know that I used to sign off with a silly phrase such as “no horseman will call”.   As an attention seeking ploy it worked, but endlessly seeking attention is rather unbecoming.  So I don’t do it no more.  Not never.  Ever.  Well, only on Tuesdays when there’s no dancing.     Call me on 01536 399 000 if you want any of this to be unravelled.

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01/07/2008 by Tony Attwood.

A lecturer in creative technologies at the University of Portsmouth, has created a game in which players will be exposed to subliminal messages.  The players will not be consciously aware of what is being delivered.

“The power of games as a learning tool is the great untapped education resource of our time,” said Nipan Maniar, a senior lecturer in creative technologies at the University of Portsmouth..

“I expect many other games companies will get onboard when they see the obvious benefits to society of using games as one more tool to educate young people… The possibilities to use technology in this way are very exciting for anyone who has an interest in education, teaching and learning.”

However there are problems.   The Code of Advertising Practice (5.4.5 Subliminal advertising) says that “No advertisement may use images of very brief duration, or any other technique which is likely to influence viewers, without their being fully aware of what has been done,” which covers advertising – but of course not games.

6.—(1) The Commission shall do all that they can to secure that every licensed service complies with the following requirements, namely—
(e) that its programmes do not include any technical device which, by using images of very brief duration or by any other means, exploits the possibility of conveying a message to, or otherwise influencing the minds of, persons watching the programmes without their being aware, or fully aware, of what has occurred.

So, if this sort of approach is outlawed in advertising and broadcasting, should it really be part of education?

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