Background

Middlesbrough College is the largest further education college in the north east with over 10,000 students and 1,000 staff.

Having moved its split site operations to a single facility, a stunning architecturally award winning building at Middlehaven, the college wanted to develop a media campaign to support its ongoing success.

Cool Blue was appointed to ensure that the college became highly visible to its various communities, developing a reputation for excellence in a range of subject areas.

Strategy

We developed a strategy for the college to maximise its reputation in a number of key themes: community role, educational excellence and the vocational readiness of its students.

We also developed an ambitious media relations plan to ensure that the college’s good news stories were constantly visible within the local, regional and selected trade media’s news platforms; all of them linked to the key themes identified.

Result

Middlesbrough College is acknowledged as the Tees Valley’s leading further education college and its successes and positive contributions to the area are well known and highly visible.

Our media relations campaign has resulted in numerous positive national news stories as well as a consistent presence in the local and regional print and broadcast media.

Frequency, quality and consistency of key messages published jumped by 400% plus during the first twelve month period of Cool Blue’s appointment.