Leon County Schools Superintendent Rocky Hanna unveiled a new district logo and marketing video at Tuesday night's school board meeting to begin a district-wide rebranding campaign.
A $100,000 contract with local marketing firms Bowstern Marketing Communications and Hammerhead Communications will provide the district with a new logo and marketing campaign video, website redesign, and a marketing plan for social media and other communications. did.
District spokesman Chris Petrie said the renovations have been years in the making to present the district as a “competitor” to private and charter schools and to help recruit and retain students and teachers. said.
Ms Hanna told the board she was excited about the new marketing campaign and the timing was perfect. He said that during the fall 2019 semester, districts began discussing plans to combat competition as voucher options for charter and private schools expanded.
“We started having internal and external conversations about school districts and the challenges they face in expanding vouchers to charter and private schools,” Hanna said. He talked about this plan.
In the summer of 2023, the district returned to the rebranding discussion as private school vouchers began to gain traction across the state.
A new video narrated by former LCS Superintendent Bill Monford describes the district as “a clear choice for excellence in education.”
Hanna said the district's branding and classic blue LCS logo is “outdated and, as some would say, overused.” “It's long past time for a refresh.”
School board member Marcus Nicholas called the campaign a “great approach” to listen to the voices of parents across the county and leverage their voices for a new focus. Laurie Cox, vice chair of the board, said she was impressed by the campaign, especially the significant changes to the logo, as the original had been in use for decades.
“I like it, and the more I think about it and its intentionality, the more exciting it is. It's time to rebrand what we're doing, and we're doing a lot of work in Leon County Schools.” He's doing some amazing things,” Cox said.
The five lines in the logo represent each district, and the different colors represent diversity. They are shaped like a trapezoid, reflecting the outline of Leon County, and have a star in the center, representing a commitment to focusing on individual students and academic excellence.
BowStern and Hammerhead's two priorities are “creating a brand rooted in strong and compelling values” and “promoting the unique benefits of LCS to make LCS more accessible to students, parents, and teachers.” The aim was to launch a campaign to position the company as a clear option for people.
Mr. BowStern and Mr. Hammerhead were hired in August 2023 for the marketing campaign.
“Bowstern is really focused on helping build local communities,” company spokeswoman Caroline Benson said. “That’s why we want to work with our clients and organizations, including Leon County Schools, to help build the community we all live in.”
Hammerhead CEO Skip Foster said he looks forward to helping the district improve its competitiveness.
“We all come from public schools and we all want to see our schools do well,” Foster told the Tallahassee Democrat. “Public schools are in a competitive environment and have to market and compete to win, and we look forward to helping them do that.”
The district's challenge was to address an evolving and competitive education market, and its approach was to collect data from parents. The district released a brand survey created by BowStern to parents in October 2023 and analyzed the results for the top five concerns of parents.
- academic excellence
- focus on the individual
- innovation
- Nurturing environment
- Diversity
Scott Mazur, president of the Leon Classroom Teachers Association, said he hopes the district's rebranding will bring new practices and policies.
“The logo could be a starting point,” Mazur said. “If our goal is to highlight what we do well in our schools and provide the environment that parents want, we must put in place practices that make that happen. It has to happen.”
The rollout of the new brand began with a website update following the conference announcement. Marketing campaign materials are expected to be released in the coming weeks.
Hanna said the district will launch a registration campaign to introduce its new vision to the community as parents begin to register their students ahead of the new school year.
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Alijah Brown covers children and families for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact her at ABrown1@gannett.com..
