Oakbrook Prep’s “Be Our Guest” Marketing Video — An Interview with Amanda Ledbetter

A few weeks ago while speaking at the AISAP Roundtable in Savannah, I had the opportunity to meet Amanda Ledbetter. Amanda is the Admissions Director at Oakbrook Preparatory School in Spartanburg, SC.

Earlier this year she involved the students at Oakbrook Prep to produce an innovative and memorable version of “Be Our Guest” to use in their marketing effort. Based on her success in this project and the positive results, I asked Amanda a few questions about this video for this blog post.

What is your background in enrollment and marketing?

“For the last eight years I have worked as the journalism adviser and public relations manager at Oakbrook Prep. With the help of my creative students and the guidance of our Head of School, we began working on several promotional projects. This is my first year as Admission Director. “

How did you come up with this idea?

“Our Head of School is always looking for creative ways to show the many talents of our students at Oakbrook. After seeing several videos produced by other schools, we began thinking of how we could do one of our own. We watched tons of videos, including some lip dubs, and decided we would do two videos. One is very traditional with a voice over and original music by one of our students. The second one is upbeat and fun. We truly wanted to give students and parents a window into our school. We wanted a song that was recognizable but would also allow us to put our own spin on it so we picked the song ‘Be Our Guest’ from Beauty and the Beast.”

How did you produce the video?

“We began by making a list of all the unique things we wanted people to know about Oakbrook. We then spent several days in journalism class turning that list into lyrics and tried to follow the song as best we could. Afterwards, we made a list of all the video we would need. We then spent an entire school day collecting the shots and recording the song. We had the full support of the staff and administration, which made the project so much easier and tons of fun because everyone got involved. I have the most creative students who were willing to do all the work ourselves so there we no costs involved.”

What have been the results of this video?

“We debuted the video to market our Open House last January and had a tremendous response on social media. People loved the excitement and the creativity of the video. We have had a 25 percent increase in attendees and have seen a 20 percent increase in tours since the video was released. Many people have referenced it when they visit our campus.”

How else are you using video in your marketing effort at Oakbrook Prep?

“Video has become a large part of our marketing at Oakbrook. In addition to the traditional ‘Why Oakbrook’ and the ‘Be Our Guest’ videos, we have done several 30 second commercials for special events as well as Vlogs. We’ve also done annual videos for our Powder Puff football tournament and last year my students produced a hilarious video about the staff that we also shared.”

You mentioned that you are launching a virtual open house video. Can you share your strategy behind this initiative?

“We did a video for our open house this year that included shots from all around campus and involved all our students from K3-12th grade. We had our middle school chorus students accompany the video with a beautiful song. We had so much positive feedback that we are recording the students singing and including our Head of School and myself on camera inviting guests to tour our campus. We will put this out on social media and on our website.”

How does the use of video fit into your overall marketing strategy to generate word of mouth?

“Videos are a great way to inform and entertain people while sharing the story of your school. Videos are easy to share and get people talking, especially when they are unique and creative.”

What advice can you offer to other school marketing and admissions professionals interested in using video as part of their strategy?

“Involve your students! Having our students plan and produce our videos has made them not only more authentic, but they are so much for creative. Plus when parents see their children in the video, they are more likely to share it with their friends and prospective families love seeing students involved with their school. It will help them to be able to envision their child being a part of the school as well.”

Amanda, thank you for sharing how you used your creativity and students to produce this outstanding video for Oakbrook Prep. Please keep us updated on your future videos and word of mouth marketing strategies.

Amanda, along with her head of school, Adair Hinds, will be presenting more details about this video at the NAIS National Annual Conference in Boston in February: Bottom-up innovation: Empowering students to build your brand. According to Amanda, “This workshop is designed for school leaders interested in creative, cost-effective ways to synthesize business principles with learning outcomes. How can we build our schools while helping students develop 21st century skills? The presenters will share how a single idea between the head of school, the admission director, and the journalism class sparked a strategy that engaged students to use social media to build enrollment with mission minded families.” If you are attending NAIS, make sure you attend Amanda’s workshop.

If you want to reach out to Amanda, you can contact her at: amanda.ledbetter@oakbrookprep.org