Christ’s Hospital
Helping to market a 470-year-old school that’s like no other
- B2C
- Creative
- Digital Marketing
- Web Development
For over 470 years Christ’s Hospital has been unique for a UK independent school in that it educates a proportion of its pupils for free, and most at a reduced rate. Christ’s Hospital is widely known in the UK for its outstanding education principle and its diverse breadth of students. It is the mission of Christ’s Hospital to continue to enable those from all corners of society to come together and thrive regardless of their background.
Challenge
As a place that’s known for tradition that meets transformation, the school approached Fireworx for some ‘disruptive thinking’ to support them in conveying their unique offering of helping children of all backgrounds and ages, through better education.
They wanted a fresh creative approach, one that challenged conventions and could be applied both on their website, digital and in printed communications.
Action
The team at Fireworx started by meeting stakeholders, students, teachers and alumni to help capture a true sense of how it transforms the lives of its pupils throughout out their life’s journey. Through a comprehensive process Fireworx looked at how to challenge the preconceptions and the status quo you come to expect with school that looks more suited to the Harry Potter films.
Our core concept focused on the unique journey that pupils take at Christs Hospital, which manifested itself through the depiction of ‘slices in time’ and a graphic representation of a clock face. This was supplemented using dynamic imagery and videography that features pupils ‘breaking free’ from their surroundings. The theme of a journey through life was taken further by working in collaboration with the Director of Marketing for Christ’s Hospital, Clare Phillips, who’s inspired idea was to use pupils voices and impressions from their first days at school, through to becoming an alumnus, in order to guide a reader through a pupil’s journey at Christs Hospital.
The new website was fully developed by Fireworx in WordPress and was a culmination of an improved user journey, simplification and reduction in pages and a fresh new approach to the creative. The new-look website included a full review of the user experience (UX), Search Engine Optimisation, conversion rate optimisation (CRO) and a full review of the content architecture and user journey.
The thing that was imperative was to better convey the story of Christs Hospital weaving video and key messages to be snappier and more engaging with clear calls to action. Fireworx introduced social media feeds to make the site more interactive and a simplified menu to ensure users could get to the places they needed more easily.
“It has been an amazing experience for us to work with Fireworx. The team have been incredible, their strategy, creative and development expertise were refreshingly different. The approach they took in working alongside us, spending the time to get to know the school, staff and our pupils, and our multi-faceted offering, was both engaging and enjoyable. It was exactly what we wanted and needed. I highly recommend Fireworx for anyone looking for fresh thinking and who deliver on their promises. The team are very approachable and showed great patience and understanding when working with us through all the marketing activity.
We love the new website and have seen the results from improving the overall user journey.”
Clare Phillips
Director of Marketing