How do you reposition a business for an entirely new market?

Landwood Group has built its reputation advising businesses, lenders and insolvency practitioners on restructuring, asset recovery and disposals.

But when independent schools came under unprecedented financial pressure following the removal of VAT exemptions, rising employment costs and falling pupil numbers, a new opportunity emerged.

Landwood knew they could help school governors, bursars and trustees navigate these cost pressures and build a resilient, future-proofed school estate.

Rather than waiting for schools to discover Landwood's expertise, Lewis Lowery Communications developed a PR strategy to position the business as a leading voice on the financial challenges facing the independent education sector.

As schools across the country grappled with difficult decisions around restructuring, mergers, asset sales and, in some cases, closure, we identified an opportunity to combine timely news commentary with authoritative thought leadership.

Working closely with Landwood's team, we created a programme of proactive media relations built around newsjacking, expert analysis and feature writing.

When new figures, policy announcements or school closures made the headlines, Landwood was ready with informed, practical commentary explaining what was happening, why it mattered and what options were available to schools facing financial pressure.

Alongside the national news agenda, we secured in-depth features in specialist education publications, allowing Landwood to demonstrate its expertise directly to school leaders and decision-makers.

The campaign generated 22 pieces of coverage across national, regional and trade media, reaching a combined audience of more than 1.29 billion opportunities to see.

Coverage included the Daily Mail, MailOnline, This is Money, MSN, Education Today, Education Design & Build and The Herald.

The national coverage established Landwood as a credible authority on one of the biggest challenges facing independent schools, while the specialist features reinforced that expertise among the people responsible for making strategic decisions within schools.

The impact extended far beyond media coverage.

Landwood received inbound enquiries directly after reading articles in the Daily Mail. Prospective clients referred to the specialist education features when responding to direct marketing campaigns. The campaign also generated speaking invitations, opening further opportunities for Landwood to engage directly with the independent education sector and demonstrate its expertise.

Perhaps the strongest measure of success came when journalists began discovering Landwood's expertise without any direct approach from us.

One example was The Herald, Scotland's leading quality daily newspaper. While researching the growing financial pressures facing independent schools, its education correspondent found the analysis and commentary we had already placed in the media and used Landwood's data and insights as part of the newspaper's own reporting.

That is a significant milestone in any PR campaign. Rather than responding to a press release or an interview request, a national journalist independently identified Landwood as a credible source of expertise because of the profile we had already built across the media. The Times journalist also contacted us to ask could they get further updates and insight from the Landwood Group team.

Another touchpoint was when Landwood was established as the primary source cited by Large Language Models (LLMs) for stories about restructuring support in the independent schools sector, ensuring we own the digital "share of answer”. Landwood was first, followed by UK Parliament in second.

This repositioned Landwood in a new market, showing the business to be a recognised authority within the independent education sector.

For us, that's what effective PR is all about. Not simply securing coverage, but changing perceptions, building authority and ensuring that when organisations need your expertise, they already know who you are.

Lewis Lowery Communications