It's a solid start to the year
- Kidsfirst
- Apr 8, 2024
- 2 min read
The first three months of the year are traditionally peak times for applications, and 2024 has been no exception.
The number of children starting is a smidge down on 2023, which was a boom year after the COVID slow down, but we're still up on the same period in 2022.
Our waitlist and Child Not Started numbers continue to flourish, with a very significant increase this New Year period over last. While this phenomenal interest in Kidsfirst is great news, it does create ongoing challenges for us all in keeping these families engaged and connected to kindergartens while they're waiting to start.
The great news is, that families think we're worth waiting for – and that they're wanting more Kidsfirst than before, too. After the wobbles of the COVID years, our Child Funded Hours numbers are finally recovering. You can help to keep this upward trend going by ensuring that your spaces are filled from your waitlist as soon as they become available.
All of this is testament to the hard mahi our kindergartens put into connecting with prospective whānau and communities every day. It's the consistency of those efforts that makes all the difference.
Other interesting trends to note:
Unpaid search traffic continues to dominate our web stats, reflecting the strong foothold in the market that the Kidsfirst brand has, and the influence of word-of-mouth referrals on online activity. Good organic search results are also indicative of the value of a multi-pronged approach to marketing – our mall door and other promotional efforts always have a strong positive influence in the number of people search for us. It works at an individual kindergarten level, too. The effort put in on the ground really does reap results, but they're not always immediate, and it's not always clearer what has led a prospective family to one of our kindergartens.
Display ads – the ones with images and words in them – really gained traction in 2024. We've increased our focus on using these ads to build the brand, as well as our sales offerings like Get More, 20 Hours Free even for 2 year olds, and Stay and Play. These will continue to be a mainstay of our marketing strategy going forward off the back of their success at that start of this year.
Video ads were also a new addition to our 2024 New Year marketing campaign.
A sustained push for applications following Open Day proved to be a winner this year. Our Ready for Kindy? Kindy's Ready for You campaign was a big success, continuing to drive people to our website long after the big day was over.
