SOUTH BEND — South Bend Community School Corp. is the latest public school system in the area to use radio ads to attempt to recruit nonresident students.
The school system is spending $12,000 to air two commercials on U93, Sunny 101.5, B100 and several other radio stations.
The spots, which were produced by the Mishawaka-based public relations firm Big Idea Co., highlight South Bend’s various magnet schools, including those with environmental science and fine arts programs, along with opportunities students have to work in robotics labs and to earn dual college credit. The commercials also promote the fact that South Bend graduates have gone on to Ivy League schools such as Harvard, and to the University of Notre Dame.
The city school district, which has lost more than 1,000 students since 2011 and expects to lose more than 300 more this fall, is just one of many area school corporations — which receive state tuition support on a per-pupil basis — that have undertaken marketing campaigns this summer using some form of billboard, television and/or radio advertising.
Mishawaka schools also is in the midst of a radio advertising campaign with some of the same radio stations South Bend’s ads are airing on.
The system paid Bridgewater Consultants an extra $10,000 to pursue radio ads after having first paid the public relations firm $20,000 this spring to conduct a direct-mail, social media and yard-sign campaign to recruit nonresident students.