Christian Education National

A Situational Marketing Framework for a National Organisation

Marketing activity felt fragmented across states, reactive rather than strategic, and clouded by competing priorities. Before a plan could exist, the organisation needed shared clarity on audiences, messaging, and purpose.

  • The Challenge

    CEN serves 65 schools nationwide, multiple state offices, and the National Institute for Christian Education. With many stakeholders and touchpoints, marketing had become a collection of tasks rather than a coherent system. Service lists, event promotions, and resource announcements dominated communications, yet none were anchored in a clear understanding of why leaders seek CEN’s help at specific moments. 

  • What We Noticed

    The discovery work revealed that CEN’s “champions” consistently seek support during predictable moments: stepping into new leadership, navigating governance pressures, managing staff growth, or seeking development pathways. These situations were well understood informally, but not reflected in how CEN communicated.

  • The Solution

    Through four workshops, experience mapping, and a structured review of CEN and NICE communications, we shifted the organisation away from a feature-led mindset toward a situational one. The experience map clarified the key moments in which leaders turn to CEN and what they need at each stage.

  • — Rebecca Luscombe, Marketing Manager

    As a new person in the CEN organisation I felt a fragmentation in both offering and states. I felt the minutiae of jobs/tasks were getting in the way of a strategically thought plan that was proactive and nationally consolidated. The work we have done as helped me to look at the organisation as a whole and to take a step back from the day to day. I see already a consistency in communications, with state-based staff coming to a national resource (me) particularly in the artwork/creative side of communications. Looking at the organisation with Jacob and creating structure around organisational 'champions' and the situations was a really helpful mind shift. To go from a list of resources, services or events to looking at what situations those resources could be employed in to solve a situational problem is really helpful. Working with Bolsta has been a really collaborative experience. I appreciated the lengths that Jacob went to in understanding CEN. He is sensitively directive and listened and clarified so well. The work we have done has set the stage for a more cohesive and strategic way forward in communications and interactions with CEN "champions" based on the experience map created and not just "how things were done".

  • The Impact

    The consultancy gave CEN its first organisation-wide system for understanding audiences and the situations that shape their needs. The roadmap set clear marketing priorities. Staff gained shared language and a clearer sense of how to communicate to their schools in the moments that matter most.

  • The Lesson

    If your marketing is feeling ineffective, consider the common situations that people engage with you in. When communications respond to the real contexts people navigate, strategy becomes practical, cohesive, and far more logical to deliver.