SITUATION
More often than not, the news media focuses only on the trials and tribulations of our nation's public schools. Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of 60 of the nation's largest urban public school systems, wanted to tell the other side of the story. They came to GMMB with the goal of communicating the successes of our nation's urban schools to the greater public and to encourage increased community participation and support for them. To do this, GMMB undertook extensive research as a part of the effort. As a result of that research, we developed a television, radio and print PSA campaign to communicate the good things happening in our public schools.

APPROACH
GMMB worked in partnership with a research firm to conduct focus groups in select urban school districts across the nation, conduct a national telephone poll and hold one-on-one interviews with media representatives across the country to help determine America's perception of public schools in big cities. Our testing revealed that voters are willing to support urban schools, because they believe all children deserve a good education and a chance to succeed.

We incorporated these findings into a multimedia campaign, called "Thank You," which featured students and teachers in an urban school setting. The various spots show students thanking the community for their new textbooks, new computers and for giving them a safe place to learn; making the point that all of these things were made possible by the community's ongoing support and that with their continued support, anything is possible. GMMB also produced a toolkit with step-by-step directions on how each school district could successfully place these PSAs in their own market. Council of the Great City Schools distributed the PSAs and the toolkit to member districts free of charge.

RESULTS
Council of the Great City Schools reports that the PSA campaign has been well received by their member districts. Many districts have used the PSAs on their community television and radio stations; still others have placed them in the mainstream media. Many are waiting for the most optimum time to run the spots - such as after the passage of a bond measure.

As a result of the success of the "Thank You" campaign, the Council has been given the go ahead to produce two more PSAs, ensuring that our country's great city schools will continue to get ongoing community support.