Campaign for Catholic schools

    The seed for creating a television advertising campaign to promote Catholic schools throughout the state of Louisiana was planted about a year ago by Marianite Sister Immaculata Paisant, who then was serving as superintendent of Catholic schools in the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux.
    “Sister Mac,” as she is known affectionately, had read a dusty position paper authored by the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops in which the bishops spoke highly of the value of Catholic education and the need to “market” Catholic schools effectively and “pay our teachers just wages.”
    “I had just left my job (after 24 years as Houma-Thibodaux superintendent), and I was looking for work,” Sister Mac said with a laugh. “I left officially at the end of June to go on a four-month sabbatical, and I thought I might go nuts.”
 

Put sabbatical to good use
    Sister Mac used her time of prayer, reflection, exercise and freedom wisely. She approached WLAE-TV to see if the station could offer her guidance on producing an advertising campaign that could be used by the seven Catholic dioceses throughout the state to promote Catholic schools.
    WLAE pointed Sister Mac in the direction of marketing and advertising executive Greg Buisson, who runs Buisson Creative Strategies in Metairie.
    As a product of Catholic schools – St. Raphael the Archangel Elementary School, Brother Martin High School and Loyola University New Orleans – Buisson never could turn down a nun when she asked for help.
    “We agreed to do it on a pro bono basis,” Buisson said.
    The challenge was straightforward. For decades, Catholic schools stood virtually alone, especially among the schools that existed in the Greater New Orleans area, as the clear leaders in providing academic excellence along with an education based on Christian values. But with the academic improvements in public and charter schools since Hurricane Katrina – and with parents squeezed by the economy as Catholic school tuition increased – Catholic schools have had to scramble to keep enrollment up.
    “For decades in New Orleans, Catholic schools were always considered a superior type of education,” Buisson said. “There has been so much emphasis recently on the state rebuilding the whole educational system that a lot more people are aware of charter schools and what they can bring to the table.
Competition needs response
    “So Catholic schools have been losing a little bit of their edge. Their edge was not just in education but also in the whole realm of faith and values – the holistic learning environment that our schools offer. Our goal is to rekindle that age-old spirit and tell why Catholic schools continuously build terrific students into young men and women and into outstanding business and community leaders.”
    After Buisson agreed to offer his expertise, Sister Mac approached the bishops with a plan and a proposed advertising budget. What had thwarted previous statewide efforts to promote education was the inability of each diocese to share the cost of the program.
    Sister Mac and Buisson presented the bishops with the concept – the theme of the commercials is “Catholic Schools: In a class of their own” – and then three price tags – $125,000, $150,000 and $175,000.
    “To my surprise, they agreed to $175,000, and I was about to fall off my chair,” Sister Mac said with a smile. “They agreed to pay for it.”
    For that amount, Buisson and his media buyer contacted general managers of TV stations in each market and negotiated contracts for airtime in February, March and April. In New Orleans, five distinct 30-second commercials touting some aspect Catholic school success will air on WVUE Fox 8.
 

Added value with PSAs
    “We’re only spending $175,000 across the state, but we’ve negotiated with one TV station in every market, and they’ve given us a 3-for-1 match,” Buisson said. “We are going to ultimately have a value of $820,000. We called every general manager and every sales manager of every station and told them we were trying to rebuild Catholic schools. Ironically, many of the GMs either had a child in Catholic school or were involved in Catholic schools before. They absolutely couldn’t have been more accommodating.”
    Buisson said it is not unusual for TV stations to offer nonprofit groups a few free spots as an inducement to sign an advertising contract, but such a generous offer “was pretty overwhelming.”
    Each commercial will focus on an amazing fact or statistic about Catholic schools, including:
    ➤ 99 percent of Catholic high school graduates qualify to go on to college;
    ➤  Catholic school students in Louisiana were awarded more than $221 million in college scholarships;
    ➤ Catholic schools produce graduates who are more engaged citizens, more tolerant of different viewpoints and more committed to service;
    ➤ With 81,457 students enrolled in Catholic schools across Louisiana, the state saves $410 million in education costs each year.
    ➤ Catholic schools score consistently higher on the ACT than other students, averaging about 23 against the national average of 21.
 

Lived experience
    “I’ve gone through Catholic education my entire life, and I just know from my own experience the environment that is offered inside the Catholic school and the family it builds,” Buisson said. “I still get together with friends I had from my days at St. Raphael. These friendships are everlasting. And Catholic schools are more committed to morals and ethics and values. These are things that are not in the textbooks.”
    Dr. Jan Lancaster, superintendent of Catholic school in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, agreed that a Catholic school education goes far beyond academics.
    “We are the only family of schools that offers authentically Catholic schools, academic excellence and the values that permeate the teachings of Jesus Christ,” Lancaster said. “Parents are the primary educators of their children, but we instill in every student the importance of service and giving back and becoming a leader of the community. We make people lifelong servant leaders.”
    Sister Mac said the commercials will begin airing in early February, coinciding with Catholic Schools Week and also the heaviest recruiting period for new students.
    “The good news is that it’s a canned program and doesn’t have any dates or times, so we could probably use it again next year,” she said. “We’re trying not to let it look dated. We’ll be showing robotics and Smart Boards.”
    Sister Mac said she hopes the commercials will be an effective recruiting tool. She has asked each diocese to track new students by asking their parents what prompted them to consider a Catholic school.
    Sister Mac said the value of a Catholic school education far exceeds the tuition cost.
    “The most important things are instruction in the faith and spiritual formation,” Sister Mac said. “I don’t mean just knowing the faith, but living it and practicing it – living what you believe. The spiritual formation is the end all and be all. It allows you to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.”
     Peter Finney Jr. can be reached at pfinney@clarionherald.org.