Case Study

Illuminate Education

M&A: 5-Way “Mega-Merger” Celebrated by Education Industry

Goals

To announce Illuminate Education’s merger with IO Education, SchoolCity, Alpine Achievement and Key Data Systems, CB&A facilitated a brand management campaign to foster positive public perception of the merger. CB&A’s marketing strategy focused on discussing how the merger improves learning outcomes and enriches student opportunities by shifting from singular to multiple measures that give insight into the whole child.

  • Strategic Planning
  • Website Strategy
  • Brand Messaging
  • Media Training
  • Media Relations
  • Social Strategy
  • Measurement and Evaluation

Strategy

  • Create M&A communications rollout strategy
  • Develop brand messaging highlighting the merger’s benefits to internal and external audiences
  • Advise on brand updates for website and social media pages
  • Consult on customer and company team merger FAQs
  • Facilitate embargoed stories with key target media outlets
  • Distribute news release to education trade and business publications
  • Conduct media training and facilitate interviews with company spokespeople, including newly appointed CEO, Christine Willig

Results

CB&A successfully announced the five-way merger and communicated benefits of the combined entities for educators and students. The public relations efforts secured 14 earned media placements in key outlets such as EdSurge and EdWeek Market Brief.

286

Shares on Facebook and Twitter

14

Total Earned Placements

6

Feature Stories
RECOGNITION

2019 PRSA Alchemy Best in Show

2019 PRSA Alchemy Award of Excellence

1.25M

Total earned Impressions

100%

Positive or neutral coverage sentiment

“The merger was an important moment for all five organizations involved and CB&A created a strategic communications campaign that resonated with our key audiences. With CB&A’s help, we saw positive reaction to the news in our target media outlets, on social media and internally in each organization.”

-Jim Yang, Vice President of Marketing, Illuminate Education