Background
The East Riding of Yorkshire Council wished to increase sport and activity participation, particularly in their leisure centres. They also wanted to improve the understanding and use of the market segmentation throughout the leisure centres and central team.
Our Brief
To plan and run a marketing campaign, and help develop systems and processes which allow the council to run this kind of campaign themselves.
The target audience was focused at anyone who’d like to do more activity, with a particular focus on the Roger & Joy segments from the Sport England segments these are 55-65 year olds with above average income.
Our objectives:
- To get 300 people to register their interest in an activity.
- To enable 200 people to try an activity.
- To run 2 workshops to make sure all the staff in the sports development team and the leisure centre managers have a good understanding of the segmentation, the campaign and are on board.
What we did
We ran a six-stage activity marketing campaign focused on this audience.
1. Plan
We used the strategic planning tool to identify where segments Roger and Joy lived. We then used the communication plans to identify how to market to them.
We looked at the communication plans for Roger & Joy and identified the types of communications and messages that would reach them.
2. Set up
We set up a database of local activity providers. We built a database of activities which Roger & Joys like. This helped us find people somewhere to get active.
CRM system
We set up a Customer Relationship Management system (CRM) so we could track who had registered, what they were interested in, and what had been said to whom.
3. Recruit
Activity search tools
We uploaded details of all activities available at the leisure centres to the activity search tools on www.nhs.uk/letsgetmoving and www.change4life.com (each visited by tens of thousands of people per month).
Leaflet design
We wrote and designed a leaflet which explained the programme, and included a tear-off freepost reply slip.
Door drop
We distributed 30,000 leaflets through a door drop in areas where there are higher numbers of Roger & Joys. Approximately 60 registrations.
Referrals from partners
We contacted 35 local organisations, including community centres and community groups. For those groups who were interested we sent 1377 leaflets in total so that they could encourage their members to sign up. Approximately 60 registrations.
PR
We wrote an initial press release to announce the service and encourage registrations. Approximately 50 registrations.
Direct mail
We wrote directly to 1622 people who matched the Roger and Joy profiles and lived near to the Goole and Withernsea centres. Approximately 150 registrations.
4. Intervene
Phone calls, post and email
We called, wrote to or emailed all 320 people who signed up. We found people somewhere to do an activity. Some people needed a little assistance to overcome their barriers. If they were going on holiday we extended the date on their voucher. If they were injured we arranged to call them in a couple of weeks to help them get more active when they were able. If an activity sounded too strenuous we found them something a little easier, and sent them a voucher for trying the activity for free.
5. Active Participation
People went off and tried their activity fully supported by the staff at the venue.
6. Review
We called back 92 people in order to check the effectiveness of the initial contact and help those people who hadn’t tried an activity to choose something else.
Results
- 320 people registered their interest in an activity.
- Approximately 70 people tried an activity. This was much less than the original goal, and the reason was that there weren’t the appropriate activities available in the leisure centres.
- 2 workshops delivered, with good feedback.
- Our suggestions to East Riding council:
- Identify activities which have high interest, such as Bowls and Pilates, and either put on activities if there isn’t a current provision or promote existing sessions if they are available from community providers.
- When putting on any new sessions in East Riding, contact the people who have already expressed an interest in that activity.