Company: The Harbinger Group, Chicago, IL
Company Description: The Harbinger Group is a boutique B2B marketing agency with deep expertise in digital marketing, executive visibility, earned media, and content creation. We partner with mission-driven organizations in the education, financial services, industry associations, and health tech sectors.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Non-Profit / Charity
 Nomination Title: Golden Apple Teacher Preparation Program Recruitment
- Which will you submit for this nomination, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the nominated PR campaign or program, or written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- Optional: Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 9 words used.
THG: 2022-2023 Golden Apple Teacher Shortage Recruitment Marketing Results
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this first question: Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched:
January 1, 2022
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this second question: Describe the genesis of the nominated campaign or program: the reasons it was initiated, the challenges it was created to address, the problems it was developed to solve, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 198 words used.
Golden Apple’s mission is to make meaningful improvement in the growing teacher shortage. Their Scholars and Accelerators teacher preparation programs expand the pipeline of highly effective, diverse educators who are uniquely equipped to teach in schools of need. In Illinois (where this campaign focused), there are over 3,500 unfilled teaching positions. Nationwide, the Economic Policy Institute predicts over 200,000 teaching vacancies by 2025, largely due to a 50% decline in enrollment in colleges of education, underscoring the urgency in addressing the growing teacher pipeline shortfall. The challenge is particularly acute for Golden Apple, whose target demographic for teacher preparation programs includes high school seniors, early college students, and career-changers.
After receiving an increase in state funding for Fiscal Year 2023 to recruit more teachers to their programs, the need to increase marketing efforts to reach Golden Apple’s goals was elevated.
The Harbinger Group was tasked with creating comprehensive communications plans and campaigns to attract, acquire and retain quality applicants in Illinois for Golden Apple’s teacher preparation programs. Despite the critical issues surrounding the field of education, in the past two years, our recruitment marketing campaigns drove record-breaking increases in applicants to Golden Apple’s teacher preparation programs.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this third question: Describe the development of the campaign or program: the planning process, the goal setting, the creative and media development, the scheduling, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 199 words used.
Our marketing recruitment strategy for Golden Apple begins with the formulation of audience personas targeting ideal candidates: high school seniors, college sophomores, and career-changers with a bachelor's degree lacking a teaching license. These personas, grounded in successful historical data, address pivotal questions to ignite interest in teaching through Golden Apple’s programs.
To effectively reach priority audiences, we curated tailored email lists, encompassing SAT-taking high school students interested in education, high school counselors, principals, and superintendents, current program participants, and educational organizations who can disseminate program information to interested students.
We crafted key messaging points to effectively answer potential candidates' inquiries to integrate into our comprehensive marketing campaign. This included bi-weekly email distributions, four social media posts weekly, and monthly digital ad campaigns. Audience resonance monitoring enabled strategic refinement to optimize messaging and assets.
Facilitating candidate progression through the application process, a series of lead nurturing communications were also developed to support Golden Apple’s internal recruitment teams. This ensured cohesive messaging alignment across the acquisition funnel, reinforcing conversion-centric messages at every stage.
Since the beginning of 2022, our marketing campaigns have generated significant output: 230+ emails, 250+ social media posts, and 12 ads on platforms such as LinkedIn and Google.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this fourth question: Outline the activities and concrete results of this campaign or program since the beginning of 2022. Even if your initiative started before 2022, limit your response to activities and results since the beginning of 2022 only (up to 250 words):
Total 204 words used.
Despite the challenges of a teacher shortage and the stigmas associated with the teaching professional, our strategic, tailored marketing plans have been a crucial component in achieving the following results:
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Programs consistently average more than 2,000 applicants per year and in the 2023 recruitment cycle, application totals reached historic highs, with more than 2,700 applications started in the first three months of recruitment.
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Marketing campaigns drove the growth of qualified applicants by 25% in the past 2 years
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LinkedIn Ads had a click thru rate of 0.89 (avg for LinkedIn is 0.44-0.65) and cost-per-click of $1.48 (avg for LinkedIn is $5.39)
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Google Search ads had a click thru rate of 16% (avg for education is 6.4%) and cost-per-click of $1.81 (avg for education is $4.10)
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Email open rates average 55%—a 15% YOY increase, and a 34% increase from talent acquisition emails across industries
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Email click thru rates average 15%—a 7% increase YOY, and 12% higher than email click thru rates across industries
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Campaign landing page traffic increased by 500%, with the largest sources of referral traffic coming through marketing elements developed by The Harbinger Group: Organic Search, Email, Google Search Advertising and LinkedIn Advertising.
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