PME - Guildhall School - Media Buying

Guildhall School of Music & Drama is one of the world’s leading conservatoires, based in the City of London. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in music, drama, production and design, alongside a significant portfolio of short courses and youth and adult learning programmes.
Guildhall School is seeking to appoint a digital paid media agency to support its student recruitment and awareness activity across all programme areas. This Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise is being conducted in advance of a formal procurement to help the City of London Corporation and Guildhall School understand the shape of the market, the capabilities available, and the most effective way to structure the forthcoming tender.
Guildhall School currently operates approximately 20 campaigns per year across a wide range of programme areas and budgets. These span undergraduate and postgraduate music, drama, production and design, short courses for young people, adults and professionals, and youth training delivered through Guildhall Young Artists.
The School’s paid media activity primarily supports awareness building, in highly targeted markets, with audiences that differ significantly. For undergraduate applicants, paid media plays a particularly key role as applicants apply directly to Guildhall rather than via UCAS/UCAS Conservatoires. Without the visibility these platforms bring, paid media is a crucial way of accessing audiences.
In some cases, particularly for youth programmes, advertising cannot legally target the end user (under-18s), and must instead reach parents, carers, teachers and other adult influencers. An agency appointed to work with Guildhall School must understand and be able to navigate this audience complexity from the outset.
International student recruitment is a strategic priority for Guildhall School, and digital paid media is a key route through which it can build profile and attract students from overseas markets. Respondents should be...