Stacey Jenkins - Multidisciplinary Designer and Illustrator

The Problem

RM Education hold an interesting position in the market with their own unique set of laptops and computers, specifically designed for use within a fast-paced, high impact school environment. As a junior in-house designer working within the small scale design team, I was asked to create a concept for a unique direct-mail to promote these hand-wearing laptops to primary schools and secondary schools nationwide across the UK.

The solution needed to address the following:

• Be cost-effective and engaging for school budget managers
• Work on multiple platforms, including RM Education's internal eCommerce site, on online advertisements on edutech blogs and news sites.
• Explain the benefits and strengths of each specifically designed laptop

Every laptop in RM Education's range is specialised for a specific use, much like someone having their own favourite chocolate in a box of chocolates.

The Strategy

Upon researching each laptop that was to be included as part of RM's offering, I concluded that every laptop was specialised for a specific use, much like someone having their own favourite chocolate in a box of chocolates. Therefore, I originally pitched the concept of a chocolate box as the direct mail, with each individual chocolate being representative of one laptop within the range. Although this was a much larger scale than was initially intended, I worked alongside the marketing department to whittle the concept down into a 'chocolate factory' concept. Working alongside a copywriter, the final copy echoed the same metaphors of 'hand-crafted' design and 'a taste of real quality', much like artisan chocolate. The final direct mail concept was still based around a chocolate bar, sourced from a local supplier and required fun and playful visuals working into the theme of the chocolate factory.

The Process

I designed and illustrated the entire interior contents of the direct mail, including the brochure and chocolate bar packaging design while assisting in the production of internal websites and supporting marketing content. I was also responsible for generating a visual library for the campaign, consisting of assets that could be reused over the campaign's duration. An example of this was the production of online advertisements and animated GIFs of 'factory signage' promoting a competition to win £15,000 of the laptop's advertised.

The Outcome

The project was incredibly successful and in total returned a 20:1 on investment. The campaign had an additional benefit of increasing calls to RM Education's helpline from teachers eager to use the campaign as a example teaching tool for their students, thus spreading awareness of RM Education and its awareness to school managerial staff.