Brand Strategy for Schools: The Masterminds
Designed for: Senior Leaders, Directors, Marketing, Communications and Admissions Leaders
Delivered by: Ewan McIntosh & Brad Carter
Make more of the most powerful thing you own.
Most schools undervalue what their existing brand can do for them.
The brand isn't defined. It's not planned. It's not made to work hard enough.
This course shows you how to Define, Craft and Tell the Stories of your School.
Go beyond the logo, mission statement or tagline. We show you how to find your organisation's voice, plan more purposefully, and amplify the brand that's under your nose.
Cost
School cost is US $4490, including two places. Additional team places for only $500.
Time commitment
The course will run in two parts, for a total of 10 hours of online class time, plus optional drop-ins, and one monthly group masterminds conversation for ten months. Participants should expect to put in an additional 15 hours of offline work, before, during and between each part of the initial course.
Part 1 | Sprint 1: Define Your Brand: August 25-29, 2025, 3pm GMT, one hour every day (recording available)
Part 2 | From Strategy to Action: September 22-26, 2025, 3pm GMT, one hour every day (recording available)
Prework
No prework is required for this course
Sprint 1: Define Your Brand
August 25-29, 2025
3pm GMT, one hour every day (recording available)
Day 1: Every school has a brand. And people want to be branded
Brand is all about the feelings you create in someone else. Understand that, and you're at the start of defining your brand strategy.
Day 2: Purposeful Relationships Make Your Brand
A brand without relationships is just a logo. Who do you want to be in those relationships? How do you appear to others? How do you want to be seen?
Day 3: The Brand Clock
The key to seeing the main activities you need to introduce.
Day 4: The Inside Story of Your Community
Everyone thinks they know how a school should work.
Amplify the stories that represent exactly who you are.
Day 5: The Story You Tell
Brand is sometimes called identity. “People like us do things like ___.”
Sprint 1 Drop-ins and Project Development
Sprint 2: From Strategy to Action
September 22-26, 2025
3pm GMT, one hour every day (recording available)
Day 6: Build your Brand Idea
Stop listing endless features and start showing the value you offer.
Day 7: Build your Brand Expression
What's your organisational tone of voice, and how can you get everyone hearing it?
Day 8: Build your Brand Story
Find and develop concepts that drive a thousand communication ideas.
Day 9: Build your Communications Plan
Learn to plan communications in cycles or campaigns, with a goal in mind. Gain focus and save time.
Day 10: Know what success will be
Work out what you want from every facet of your brand. Then measure its success.
Celebration event: late February
The course culminates in a celebration of the work you and your teams have done over the preceding weeks.
The small group of Masterminds participants will meet every month to push their thinking further, talk through challenges of implementation and gain further insights from specialist invited guests.
Bursaries for State Schools
We know that nailing each aspect of your school's brand brings incredible value to any school, even those in the State sector who may be 'the local school' for every one of their students. If you want to increase community engagement or pride in students' achievements, if you're trying to attract staff, then you have a need for brand strategy.
The returns on your participation in the course might not be as clear as those private schools that could see additional students (and therefore additional revenue) as a result of their work from this program. But the results, however intangible, are just as worthwhile.
To help remove the financial burden, we're inviting state schools to apply for a bursary place, fully funded by NoTosh. In return, we would like to track your journey and share a case study of how the principles impact your community.
To apply, send an email to hello@notosh.com before 5pm GMT June 10, 2025, with no more than 500 words that explain:
1. What you hope to achieve for your school from participating in this program.
2. Two people you want to participate in the program, with their job titles and responsibilities.
3. Confirmation of your status as a state-funded school. For NoTosh, this means that you charge no fees to students above USD $1000 per annum (this includes requirements, for example, for students to buy their own laptops etc).
Please note that NoTosh reserve complete discretion as to eligibility for this bursary, as well as the number of bursaries offered. We will respond to all successful recipients by June 25, 2025.