Pearson National School Quiz

The brief

Two things had to be communicated. First, the value of quiz competition in a child's overall development — knowledge, information sharing and team spirit — so that schools and parents treated the quiz as serious, not decorative. Second, scale: a competition that runs city to city, region to region, up to a national final, projected in a way that other schools would want next year's place in it.

The competition

150 schools took part and only eight qualified from the city-level round. Jawaharlal Nehru School of Bhopal won the city final and represented the region in the nationwide series held in different cities through November, followed by a semi-final and the grand finale on 11 December. The pyramid structure — city, region, state, nation — was itself the story, because it let every school in a multiple-media market see its own stage of the competition.

Media work

The flow started with information to media houses and schools, because participation was the outcome the programme needed. The press release was written to travel far without further effort — school magazines, education journals and the city journalists who cover school events could lift it easily. Publicity was planned for local, regional and national layers across Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, so every stage of the competition earned coverage while the next stage built.

Coverage and outcomes