Our client
A shortage of specialist maths teachers in primary schools led to the creation of BrightSpark Education – an online one-to-one maths tuition service delivered by top maths graduates and former teachers in India. Pupils aged 7 to 16 can book a tutor 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and only need to give 24 hours’ notice.
Livewire carried out a very successful media relations campaign for BrightSpark Education which scooped the Silver award in the ‘Best Campaign of £10,000 and Under’ category at the CIPR PRide Awards.
Watch the news coverage on the BBC
What they wanted us to do
BrightSpark Education tasked us with achieving a number of key objectives. We had to:
- Launch BrightSpark Education in the UK education and parenting markets, as well as ethnic groups – especially the Indian community totalling over 1m in the UK
- Position BrightSpark Education as a specialist provider of affordable online one-to-one maths tuition, delivered by fully trained top maths graduates and former teachers in India
- Drive traffic to BrightSpark Education’s website.
How we did it
The media relations campaign devised by Livewire:
- Positioned BrightSpark Education as a specialist provider of affordable, easily accessible, online one-to-one maths tuition, delivered by top maths tutors in India
- Primed target media in the lead-up to launch and issued a news release under embargo to national media
- Tailored news releases for different audiences, including national, education, Indian and parenting media
- Identified and prepared a case study on customer Ashmount Primary School to help secure further national and education coverage
- Arranged BBC World filming at Ashmount Primary School and at BrightSpark Education’s tutoring centre in India, as well as interviews with BBC Radio 5 Live
- Secured face-to-face and telephone editorial briefings with key journalists for BrightSpark Education’s MD, prior to the official launch date, including The Guardian, The Times Educational Supplement, New York Times, EducationInvestor, PTA Magazine (a parent/teacher publication), and Agent4Change.net (an educational ICT website)
What we achieved for them
We achieved great results through the launch campaign creating over 270 million opportunities to see (OTS) and securing 120 features including:
- National: BBC TV (6m viewers), Radio Five Live (6.2m listeners), Guardian.co.uk, The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Evening Standard Online
- International: BBC World (71m viewers), BBC Online (6.5m unique users)
- Education: front page of The Times Educational Supplement’s centenary edition (Over 342,000 readers), EducationInvestor, E-Learning Update, Agent4Change.net
- Parenting/consumer: PTA Magazine, Fun Kids Radio, MyChild.co.uk
- Regional: BBC London, Islington Gazette
- Ethnic/other: Asian Age, Indianexpress.com, New York Times.
All in all, within two months of launching and as a direct result of the extensive media coverage secured by Livewire, unique visitors to BrightSpark Education’s website topped 11,000, which was 8,000 more than the initial target set and a percentage increase of 266 per cent.
In addition, numerous investors and partners approached the company. TSL, the publishers of the Times Educational Supplement now have a 50% stake in the company, allowing BrightSpark to take the business to the next level.
Livewire’s PR campaign launch of BrightSpark Education’s online maths tuition service was stunning – reaching 240 million listeners/readers in the first month alone. The high level coverage also resulted in a number of significant networking opportunities along with approaches from both partners and potential investors.
Tom Hooper, Managing Director, BrightSpark Education
Start the journey to becoming Livewire’s next success story. Call us on +44 (0)7941 125580 or email info@livewirepr.com
