Richards grabs a gold in the 2014 Educational Advertising Awards

 ///  THE KEY POINTS  ///
• Richards wins gold in the 29th Annual Educational Advertising Awards for The Woods Academy
• Richards received one of only 160 gold awards out of 2000 entries
• Programs and materials displaying exceptional quality, creativity, message and impact are awarded
• The Woods Academy is a Montessori through grade eight school located in Bethesda, Maryland




Richards was honored with gold in the 29th Annual Educational Advertising Awards. The award-winning ad campaign was developed for The Woods Academy, a Montessori through grade eight school located in Bethesda, Maryland.

The Educational Advertising Awards, sponsored by Higher Education Marketing Report, is the largest competition of its kind in the country. This year nearly 2,000 entries were submitted from colleges, universities, and secondary schools across the world. Of those 2,000 entries, Richards received one of only 160 gold awards. 

The national competition awards recognize professionals in the sophisticated field of educational marketing and advertising – awards are given for programs and materials displaying exceptional quality, creativity, and message impact. Richards' gold award campaign for The Woods Academy communicated a simple and clear message that spoke directly to the heart of all the academy’s primary audiences.

The Woods Academy Ad Campaign
2014 Educational Advertising Awards – Gold

Visit The Woods Academy website, and click on the large green icon boasting “The Woods Word of the Day” to see the campaign. The ad concept emphasizes the uniqueness of each student while showcasing the vast activities and opportunities available to students at The Woods Academy. Richards conceived, produced, and delivered the campaign by creating a unique Woods Academy vocabulary that captures and defines the well-rounded individual that each student is becoming.

Ever heard of a "theatrogoalie"? A "padilinguist"? How about a "michelangobot" or a "penguipedia"? Each word of the day is impactful and provocative, communicating the core messages quickly and clearly. Richards created an impactful, memorable campaign that delivers The Woods' brand promise loud and clear.

Can you describe the unique personality of your brand? If not, here's how to define it.

 ///  THE KEY POINTS  ///
• Message Mapping defines a unified voice for your company to speak to potential customers 
• Customers need to recognize and understand the value in your brand to ultimately prefer
  your brand over the competitions
• When the message is on target, you will have meaningful and successful conversations
  with your various audiences that truly connect.

Demonstrating how the process of
Message Mapping delivers your brands;
Value Proposition, Brand Promise
and Brand Position.

Message Mapping

Our Message Mapping process defines a unified voice for your company to speak to potential customers. This process, illustrated in the graphic, has an end goal that clearly defines the Value Proposition, Brand Promise and Brand Position for you. When the message is on target, you will have meaningful and successful conversations with your various audiences that truly connect.

Brand Preference
Understanding what prospective customers need to believe, in order to recognize, understand the value in and to ultimately prefer your brand, is the foundation of any marketing communications effort and the goal of the Message Mapping process.

The Process Overview
We develop a questionnaire that is sent to all who can comment and have knowledge of your company. The questionnaires are then returned to us and we review prior to conducting a live Message Mapping session.

Sessions take a minimum of four hours, and occasionally last all day. Participants are chosen based on relevant experience, knowledge of your company, competition, or marketplace. Richards facilitates the live Message Mapping session, where we identify target audiences, tough questions those audiences may ask, and what things each audience "needs to believe" about your brand.

Following the session, Richards develops a scorecard of relevant “needs to believe” statements, which is then distributed to the participants. Each participant is asked to assign a level of importance to what the target audience needs to believe. Those levels are:

>  A Tier One Message that clearly identifies who you are and what you stand for.
>  Multiple Tier Two Messages that articulate points that makes you who you are.
>  Differentiating Statements that identify things you do differently or better.
>  Supporting Facts that make your claims believable to the public.

Ultimately, there can only be one Tier One Message for each target audience. Tier Two Messages are like category headings under the master concept of the Tier One Message; there are usually multiple Tier Two Messages. Differentiating Statements and Supporting Facts will be linked to specific Tier Two Messages.

Richards reviews the scorecards along with our own notes and provides you with a document that defines your Message Map. In addition to the Message Map itself, Richards provides a recommendation for:

>  Value Proposition
>  Brand Promise
>  Statement of Differentiation / Proprietary Statements
>  Positioning Theme

Marketing strategies and tactics can then be established and marketing communications can be created that differentiate your company's scope of capabilities and present the benefits and value of these capabilities to your target audience.

Can you describe the unique personality of your brand?