Potato Council introduced the Grow Your Own Potatoes (GYOP) project in 2005 to primary school children with the aim to teach them about potatoes. GYOP is a registration-led project, where primary school teachers sign up to receive their growing packs.

Without audience focus, the proposition was confused and the impact of the initiative diluted; this resulted in only 1,000 schools signing up from the beginning of the project.

Creative Jar worked closely with the GYOP educational and marketing teams to refocus the campaign and target the decision making audience. This culminated in a re-design of the website, a stronger brand, and significantly increased sign-ups.

To determine the audience and their needs, Creative Jar held a number of workshops. By talking to schools and senior stakeholders, it was concluded that the site needed to be aimed toward teachers, as they were the decision makers.

The new site was developed to encourage teachers to sign-up their schools to the project, providing them with all resources needed to teach the school children about growing potatoes.

The content throughout the site was re-structured and presented in a straightforward manner so teachers could easily discover how the project fits into the curriculum. Links to resources, such as instructions, worksheets, and success stories from other schools were also added.

To create a richer, more engaging user experience, a video upload area and picture gallery was integrated, plus downloadable worksheets were included.

With over 20,000 schools in the UK, there was potential for thousands of teachers to sign up. A bespoke registration process was developed to capture the data securely. Using intelligent monitoring, safe guards were put in place to ensure that there would be no duplicate details on the site if teachers re-registered.

A complete overhaul of brand collateral was developed, including logo, brochures, stickers and grow charts.