wmea advocacy The Joys of a Reboot
Ideas for Rebranding and Getting Your Presence Out There
Justin Steger, WMEA Advocacy Committee Member
The first two years of my current job were wonderful. After a successful interview, I was handed a quality band program pre- viously taught by three decades of quality educators. I
had an absolute blast continuing the already successful band program. Then COVID hit. The program got shaken. I felt as if I was riding a runaway horse and carriage towards a cliff and I was pulling on the reins to stop it from flying off the edge. In the end, I figured that the best way forward was to advertise, innovate and revamp.
In the summer of 2021, I made it my professional goal to start regular social media updates to gain more visibility. I started an Instagram and a Facebook page, and of course, I got them approved by my school's administrators. My goal was to hype up every little thing we did to make it appear that we were the coolest, most fun, and most enriching band in South Central Wisconsin. I advertised these pages on my band-update emails and they started get- ting more and more followers every time I posted something.
That same year, I attended the Wisconsin State Music Conference where I went to a session about advertising your music program. The biggest takeaway that I got from the session was that pencils are cheap, useful and easy to distribute. I bought 500 custom band pencils last year for about 150 dollars. I distributed them immediately to every single student in the band program. Later this year, I am planning on distribut- ing them to all fourth grade students in the district. The hope is to get those aspiring music students visualizing themselves in the band much earlier than our fifth grade recruitment event.
To continue what I call “Band 2.0,” a rebrand was in order. The first step in the rebrand was to create a new logo – Not a rejection of the past, but a promise for the future. I found the most cost effective option was to go with a t-shirt company that had a full graphic design team. They promised to create me a free logo as long as I ordered a minimum amount of shirts (in this case 72 was the minimum order). I asked the company if I could have com- plete ownership of the copyrighted image upon completion of the t-shirt order. After talking to a few supervisors they granted my request. I decided to use this as an ad-
vertising tool (as opposed to a fundraiser), which kept prices per shirt to an absolute minimum. I passed out order forms to fami- lies selling a variety of shirts at the prices that would cover the cost of the shirts and shipping. There were 145 shirts sold within the full band program. To me that is 145 walking billboards.
What’s next? I have more and more plans to extend our advertising while reaching into our community. First off, the easy one: I want to make a very nice looking schedule of events for our whole performing arts program. This one-page sheet can be put into shop windows in our downtown and advertise what we do. I have seen this in other communities and I am genuinely curi- ous how it may work in ours. In addition, I really want to improve our community vis- ibility by putting up yard signs especially around course selection and recruiting season. It will say something along the lines of “I am a proud [insert name of school] musician.”
This passion project has completely re- juvenated me in the classroom. I have absolutely loved seeing the band shirts around the school, seeing students using our band pencils, and of course seeing the likes and shares on Facebook. Every time that happens it puts a smile on my face. Why? Because I love seeing the pride that these students have in their class. I love being a part of this Band 2.0. The sense of community and optimism is something that is coming back to our band and it is a wonderful thing to witness. For the first time in years; I see successes being in reach, I see pathways forward and I see our com- munity support.
Justin Steger teaches high school band at Fort Atkinson High School.
Email:
stegerj@fortschools.org. 12 January 2023
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