(Credit image: Mark Fuller.)
FASHION and event marketing was top of the agenda at Barnard Castle School this week as the Bowes Museum team set sixth formers the challenge of promoting its prestigious Yves Saint Laurent ‘Style is Eternal’ exhibition as part of the school’s annual Industry Day.
Bowe’s Museum’s Head of Marketing Richard Welsby, Digital Marketing Officer Alison Nicholson and Events and Group Organiser Rosie Bradford presented information on the exhibition to teams of Barney sixth formers at the school before the students were challenged to develop a marketing campaign for the opening of the highly-anticipated show.
Respected industry representatives joined the teams as mentors on the day, including academics from Northumbria University, Barbour’s Sales and Marketing Director Ian Beattie along with key figures from Coaching Tree, Deutsche Bank, Nissan and Robson Brown.
During Barney’s annual Industry Day, students are given an insight into the working environment of a business by engaging with live briefs, collaborating with visiting professionals who act as the mentors and completing tasks that businesses face daily.
This year, the teams were tasked with producing a marketing campaign for the exhibition to include branding for a bill-board poster, radio campaign and pre-show event.
The teams then presented their ideas to a panel of three judges from The Bowes Museum, competing for the Barnard Castle School Industry Day Cup.
The winning team made up of students representing the Modern Foreign languages department were chosen for their delivering such a coherent campaign which was exceptionally well presented. Their mentor, Chris Hodge said: “I have been extremely impressed with the students, they worked well as a team and everyone contributed.”
Nick Connor, teacher of Economic and Business Studies at Barnard Castle School, who organised this year’s Industry Day said: “Students get an idea of what it’s really like to work in a business on Industry Day, they work to tight deadlines, within a budget, as a team and learn to delegate tasks. As the day goes on they also start to identify their strengths and weaknesses as well as likes and dislikes in these scenarios which is a steep but important learning curve. It’s important to us that our sixth formers have an idea of what it’s like to work in a business before they head out into the world of employment.
“Working with mentors from different backgrounds also gives the students the chance to find out about different career paths and ask questions about working life.
“It has been another great Industry Day, The Bowes Museum team certainly inspired our pupils and we hope they have taken something from the pitches – we’re all looking forward to seeing the exhibition ourselves.”
One of the mentors for this year’s Industry Day was Gayle Cantrell, Programme Leader for the prestigious Fashion Communication course at Northumbria University, Newcastle. She said: “It’s great to see sixth formers participating in activities like this as it helps them make informed decisions about what they want to do when they leave school. We’re always looking for talented, creative individuals who might be interested in joining our programme and we’ve been impressed by the way the Barney students have reacted to the brief, they’ve been creative, motivated and have demonstrated excellent teamwork.”
The Bowes Museum judge Richard Welsby said: “We’ve really enjoyed hearing how these students would raise the profile of Style is Eternal and will no doubt go away with some interesting ideas.
“We hope the students come and look at the exhibition when it’s open and see if any of their work has fed into our plans.”
Barnard Castle is an independent day and boarding school with an impressive award-winning alumni in the fashion industry with Patrick Grant and Giles Deacon. It is also a stone’s throw away from The Bowes Museum.
Each year the school links up with respected businesses for Industry Day and has previously invited Nissan in to hear student’s ideas for the Nissan Leaf Project and Nissan Micra.
Style is Eternal, which opens on 11th July is a collaboration between The Bowes Museum and the Fondation Pierre Bergé Yves Saint Laurent to create the first comprehensive display in the UK of the French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent’s work and life.
The show will highlight the defining elements of his vision and the significant influence it has had on fashion and the way we understand womenswear.
For more information on Barnard Castle School, please visit http://www.barnardcastleschool.org.uk/