For nearly a decade, Dylan Malloch has been at the helm of shaping the strategic marketing and communications plan for one of Australia’s most prestigious private schools.
Nestled in Brisbane’s Bald Hills, St Paul's School is home to more than 1,200 students and 150 staff, all working within a culture that prides itself on holistic education, high performance, and innovation.
With his finger on the pulse of both the school’s vision and the rapidly evolving education landscape, Malloch’s work has been key to crafting a narrative that resonates with the school’s community while helping St Paul’s stand out as the school of choice for parents.
Through concerted social and traditional media engagement, thought leadership, strategic partnerships with the corporate sector and unique internal products, St Paul's is now widely recognised as one of Australia's most innovative schools.
In November 2024, after nine years of steering the school’s marketing and communications strategy, Malloch took on the role of Head of Media and Communications at Anglicare Sydney.
Recently, The Educator sat down with Malloch to discuss the importance of strategic storytelling, the ways in which school ‘marcomms’ is changing over time, and why organisational culture is critical to success in modern education.
TE: Can you share for our readers what a typical ‘day in the life’ of Dylan Malloch looks like at St Paul’s School?
One of the things I enjoyed most about education marcomms (marketing and communications) was the variety. It was quite rare that any two days did look the same. One moment you’d be evaluating the performance of a recent campaign, then you’d be crafting a communique to the community on a delicate issue, then you’d be meeting with teachers about a new initiative they’re piloting, then you might be working with your team on some interesting upcoming projects. You really had to have a strong capacity to handle multiple briefs simultaneously. I actually think having worked in an agency prior to joining St Paul’s set me up quite well because you were always juggling multiple clients from multiple contexts – schools are quite similar like that.
TE: What are the most significant ways you’ve seen school communication change/evolve over the past decade?
There’s been a significant shift from seeing communications as purely an operational function to something that can actually help build a school’s brand and be a critical role in the customer experience (when I say ‘customers, I mostly mean parents). Schools are increasingly seeking ways in which they can delight their customers, and help craft a brand narrative that will turn parents from being passive to becoming advocates. I think this is a welcome change, however, authenticity is key. The communications must match or at least be seen to be similar to the lived experience of parents, students AND staff, otherwise the brand can lose cache very quickly.
TE: What are the biggest challenges schools face when implementing modern communication strategies?
Culture. Organisational alignment is key if you are going to communicate effectively. If a Principal is communicating consistently on one message, but parents hear another message from a middle manager or classroom teacher, it can really undermine a school’s capacity to communicate well. The key is for both Principals and Heads of Marketing to both lead and consult. Lead by setting the vision, but also consult so teachers feel heard and respected. Consultation can often be superficial, but genuine consultation brings people along for the journey and seeks to build genuine consensus. Marketing/Communications also belong at the Senior Leadership table as it’s a critical function that requires a specialised skillset.
TE: During your role at St Paul’s, what factors did you use to measure the success of the School’s communication efforts?
Many! From a customer advocacy perspective, Net Promoter Scores, while not perfect, are still probably the best measure. What I really pushed for in campaigns though was to set KPIs for each campaign. What click through rate, cost per click etc do you aim to achieve? Anyone can claim a strong click through rate but without context it’s meaningless. How can people better identify what the results you hope to achieve are and then actually assess the campaign’s performance after? And, of course, the biggest measurement of any marcomms function is new enrolments (though pinning this exclusively on marcomms is a bit unfair since they have no control over product delivery).
TE: What do you consider to be the biggest ‘disruptors’ to school communication and marketing in 2024, and how do you see school communication evolving over the next decade
Technology has been and will remain to be the big disruptor, and AI in particular. We’re really only scratching the surface of its capabilities in school marcomms. ChatGPT can do a lot of things and has really turbocharged productivity (if used well and not as a lazy option), but the capacity to use AI to analyse customer behaviour and influence strategy is going to be an absolute game-changer. The challenge for school marcomms professionals is to carve out time for professional learning to understand these new capabilities and then find time to actually implement them. If schools want their marcomms teams to succeed and stay ahead of the game, marcomms has to be seen as an investment, not a cost centre.