Catholic schools need to trumpet their success

    A long time ago – in a kingdom far, far away – Catholic schools simply opened their doors and watched piles of children in their khaki uniforms and plaid skirts squeeze through the doors to greet Sister Majella and receive a transformative Catholic education.
    Those days are over, and today Catholic schools are competing for students with public, private and charter schools in the area, said Greg Buisson, owner of Buisson Creative Strategies, an advertising, public relations and media consulting firm in Metairie that is working with the Office of Catholic Schools on an upcoming advertising campaign highlighting the benefits of Catholic education.
    “With all the charter school programs in place, we’re seeing a lot more advertising for education as a whole,” Buisson said. “That makes it like any product – and we look at this as a product. It’s important for us to show our brand – our Catholic school brand – and how our brand is having an impact on the lives of the people it is serving.”
    The marketing approach for the new series of ads – titled “I Am One, We Are One” – will highlight success stories of those who have had a Catholic education, spanning 60 years. Each TV spot will feature, quickly, four Catholic school graduates who talk about why their Catholic education gave them the academic and faith formation they needed to be successful.
Extraordinary graduates
    “The purpose of the campaign is to showcase some of the excellence that has been produced by our schools,” Buisson said. “We want to show how some of our graduates have gone on to have some extraordinary accomplishments.”
    At the same time, the TV ads hope to make it clear “how our graduates come out of the Catholic school system with this faith-based, well-grounded foundation to their lives,” Buisson said.
    “The commercial may be about a graduate who helped create a cure for a special disease, and we’re putting that parallel with a mom who is raising several kids and bringing them up in a holistic environment,” Buisson added.
    About four or five different TV commercials and some print ads will be launched Feb. 1, around the time many parents are considering where to send their children to school.
    Buisson’s firm previously collaborated with Catholic school offices in all seven Louisiana dioceses on a campaign: “Catholic Schools: In a Class of Their Own.” That theme spotlighted the education successes of Catholic students on national standardized tests and in college acceptance rates.
    “This campaign will be featured more on individuals and showcase the kind of leadership that has come through our schools,” Buisson said. “We thought putting a human quality into the  spots would allow us to connect with real people who are having real success throughout the nation as a result of coming out of our schools.
    “The intent is to say, ‘I’m a Catholic school graduate, we’re Catholic school graduates’ and let people have a better feeling for what Catholic schools are doing to prepare students for life and prepare them to have an impact on generations to come.”
    Buisson said because of the increased competition for students, good schools must trumpet themselves and their results to attract children.
    “Schools have to market themselves and advertise these days, because that’s where it is,” Buisson said. “Education didn’t used to be that way. Now, it’s really no different from any other business. We need to tell our story.”
    Peter Finney Jr. can be reached at pfinney@clarionherald.org.