Tammy Sloan is the Director of Admissions at Holy Family High School, a Catholic, college preparatory high school located in Broomfield, Colorado.
Tammy had a problem.
Holy Family High School (HFHS) was using a recruitment video on their website and in presentations to prospective parents and students that was going on 6-years old.
It was severely outdated: featuring staff that no longer work at the school, a lot of kids that have long-since graduated, and in general, Tammy desperately needed a video that was more consistent with the current day-to-day realities at HFHS as well as to showcase the bright future they envision for the community and school.
Tammy reached out to us at Lux Lab Production House having seen our previous work for the Archdiocese of Denver and we set up a strategy meeting.
This strategy meeting was only the beginning…
For Tammy, the prospect of commissioning a new video at first felt intimidating.
In her own words:
" In recent years, we hadn't gone through a process like this to put together a video (as evidenced by the 6-year old video we were currently using).
It felt intimidating initially-- it was a time investment to shop around and interview companies and then obviously the money investment too.
We just wanted to make the right decisions for the school. "
In our initial strategy meeting with Tammy, Matthew Hauptly the school’s principal, and a few of their colleagues we developed an overall plan to help them achieve the results they were after.
" Others we interviewed for the project seemed to lack a seriousness about it & everything involved (it was a more piecemeal approach).
With Lux Lab there was an enthusiasm about it, a seriousness and intentionality about it, and they had a cohesive overall plan for how to approach everything. "
Based on that overall plan we decided, as a team, to take action in these specific ways:
First, we clarified the overall message of the video and determined who our audience was going to be.
While knowing our primary audience was parents of prospective students we still set out to make a video that was energetic, exciting, and engaging with the prospective students themselves also in mind. We thought: if the parents are on board with the idea of sending their children to Holy Family AND the students themselves are also excited about going there, then everyone wins!
To that end, we captured interviews with parents of current students, staff and teachers at HFHS, as well as— most importantly— current students and alumni so that our audience would hear first-hand from those whose lives are most impacted by the school and the primary recipients of the great things the school has to offer.
We also decided to create both an English and a Spanish version of the recruitment video to both reflect the diversity of the school as well as provide accessibility to a broader audience.
Then, we considered together how we could maximize the impact of the video we were creating by developing a strategic distribution plan to make sure more people were engaging with Holy Family High School.
Tammy wanted the eventual recruitment video to feel comprehensive and provide insight into the life of the school year-round, rather than just a few events happening on a select day or two of filming (and only during one, specific season).
Our strategy therefore, involved multiple visits spaced throughout the entire school year so that we could give Tammy the perfect opportunity to accomplish another one of her goals:
" The video was something we use not only as recruitment (presentations to students & parents) but also something for our website and on social media, to show what we have going on at the school. "
Already having social media top of mind, this approach provided the perfect opportunity to edit and share little snippets— highlights of what eventually became the recruitment video— at a few key times during the school year, allowing HFHS’s audience on social media to be engaged with what was happening at the school all along the way.
" [My team] & I always felt that Lux Lab was really easy to work with.
They had this vision for how they wanted everything to come together, but at the same time whenever we asked for flexibility or wanted to change something they had great ideas about how to make it work. Our project felt important to them too.
They were professional and the process itself was so smooth & so easy & the result was so positive from the community-- we really had no concerns about it at all. "
Tammy and her team were also blown away by the results:
" When the first mini-video came out and we put it on social media, well-- even before we did that we put it out to the staff to view and they were over the moon about it.
Then, the community itself was overwhelmingly positive-- we got so many views and so many people were really engaging with it and relating to what was being put out there.
That was a moment for us when we thought: this is going to be great! This is really going to represent our school in the best way. "
Anecdotally, Tammy said about the recruitment video itself:
" In presentations or meetings when we show it to parents & kids they really do get excited about Holy Family-- their eyes light up at certain points of the video and it's clear that they connect with whatever piece that might be that speaks to them and resonates with them. "
As a direct result of leveraging this revitalized video in their recruitment efforts and regularly releasing short “mini-videos” along the way, Tammy and her team have told us that their recruitment efforts as well as general enthusiasm around the school has been tremendous!
They are getting rave reviews about the videos they have been sharing with the broader community. Matthew Hauptly, the principal at Holy Family High School added that he has personally observed a noteworthy increase in the amount of interaction from the community on social media since they have started distributing these “mini-videos” in comparison to anything else they have done.
Ultimately, this whole process made Tammy, “keenly aware” that there's always a need to “keep doing better, keep improving, and keep on top of our marketing efforts.”
" We don't want to wait another 6 years to tackle a new project, it's got to be this ongoing thing we keep on top of.
That is why we came back to Lux Lab to do more videos this year. To keep up this great momentum we have going for us.
Revitalizing our recruitment video solved the initial problem, showcasing how we have grown over the past 6 years and how much we've changed, but with all the new things going on-- the problem is never *really* solved because we want to keep showcasing and doing new things to keep our community engaged.
It's really nice to know we have a company like Lux Lab that understands that goal and can help us get there. "
— — —
A huge congratulations to Tammy and the entire team of administrative staff and teachers at Holy Family High School for all the successes they are having!
It has been our honor and pleasure to continue to help you in communicating your mission of providing excellence in Catholic education to the broader community.
The work you are doing is truly transformative in the lives of your students.
We wish you all the best as you continue to help the students entrusted to your care achieve academic excellence by preparing them for their future in a learning environment that fosters concern for the dignity of the human person created by God.
Fiat Lux!
