We talk a lot internally about the ‘Story Shop Thing™. If you’ve been on the receiving end (ew) of the ‘Story Shop Thing™’, you’ll know what we mean. If you haven’t, it’s kind of hard to explain. 

Fortunately for you, we’ve got an oven-ready recent example. 

Glasgow Kelvin College asked us to raise awareness about the opportunities available via clearing. 

But the challenge was that the concept of clearing had a bit of a funky smell about it; people spoke about it like it was the last chance saloon. Like if all else fails, you’ve got a backup plan. The concept of clearing itself had a marketing problem: it was positioned as a bargain basement of educational options. It seriously undersells all the opportunities available. 

Colleges have a tough time appealing to students who are at this junction without alienating students who are already past this junction. Still with me? So imagine you’d worked your socks off all year, smashed your exams, and secured a spot in your dream course. You’re chuffed. Your folks are proud as punch. You’re counting down the days until your course starts and making the most of (the period known as) summer. 

Then, all of a sudden, you see your dream pitched on social media and through digital ads as a last-chance saloon, as a fallback, as second-best, third-best, or something that isn’t quite great but should be good enough. Pretty discouraging, right? 

We put our heads together with one clear brief: to rebrand clearing and get as many people along to their Open Day as possible. 

Having worked with Glasgow Kelvin College for over six months, we truly understand the challenges and the opportunities. But by bringing an external perspective, we were able to look at things a little differently 

That’s when #NationalOpportunityDay was born. We create a day that celebrated the blank canvas, the opening OF doors, the range of options open to young people for this one special, magical day of clearing. 

We set up a day on the official awareness day website (yes, this exists; and it was only a few hundred quid 😶), we worked with a videographer to create some video content for organic and paid social, commissioned some research with the legends at Opinion Matters, got the press excited, and sent up the bat signal for our friends and connections to get involved in making some noise around the day.

We had everyone from Barnardos to MPs using our hashtag, millions of opportunities to see via PR and lots of eyeballs (over five million sets/ ten million unique) on our OOH and digital ads campaigns. 

But what was the real impact? It was Glasgow Kelvin College’s busiest Open Day ever. 

“Come along to our Open Day” serves a purpose, but it doesn’t excite, inspire, or evoke any feelings our clients deserved. There are several well-known educational establishments fighting for space amongst a noisy period for their key demographic. We needed something that cut through, excited, and inspired.

So that’s pretty much what we mean when we talk about the ‘Story Shop Thing™’. It’s taking a problem, a challenge, a bottleneck, a barrier, a misconception, and topsy-turvying it.

Does your brand need the ‘Story Shop Thing™’? We’re over in the West End of Glasgow, drinking coffee and brainstorming ideas. Come have a chat.