Make Sport Fun

What's happening in London?

For the past 6 months I've been working on a pan-London campaign. This is all about simplifying the messages around sport, physical activity, active recreation and active travel and improving the quality of marketing in London. Simple, right?

To explain what we've managed to achieve so far I've recorded these 5 short videos (about 2-3 mins each) which can give you a flavour of what's been going on. I've embedded the first one below - but it might not show up for you as some email systems don't like this kind of thing.

Here's the links to the 5 videos.

• Introduction
• Brand
• Segmentation   
• Sandra the Sports Development Officer
• Summary

 

Why most advertising doesn't work and what you can do about it

Image via Wikipedia

Mark, the Manager at Harlow Leisure centre, hasn't got as many people playing squash as he'd like. So he decides to hire Tim, an expensive salesperson. He pays Tim a small fortune - £2000 for the week.

On Monday Tim heads out into Harlow. On Friday Mark asks him what he's done and he says "I dressed up very smartly, went round the town and told thousands of  people just how good Harlow leisure centre squash courts are. People are now much more aware of Harlow Leisure Centre squash courts." Mark asks his staff how many more people have played squash and in the first week 50 more people than normal came through his doors bringing a friend with them, in the second week there were only 25 more people than normal, the next week it was ten then five, then back to normal after that. Great, he's made £900 more (£5/ person and two people per court). That's not good enough, because it cost him £2000 to make £900.

So Mark fires Tim and sits down to figure out what he really needs. He decides that he needs to find the people in Harlow who are interested in playing squash but who don't normally play and constantly remind them about his squash courts. Mark hires a new salesperson - Sandra - for 10p per person she talks to, but she's only allowed to talk to people who are interested in squash. He also arms her with a free guide on how to improve your squash.

Sandra heads out into town on Monday, talks to 2000 people who are interested in squash over the next few weeks and gives out 350 free guides on how to improve your squash, and collects the email addresses of all 350 people. So Mark pays Sandra £200 (10p per person she talked to).

Mark now sends an email to these 350 people each week with more tips on on how to improve their squash. This information is pulled together by Sam the squash coach in order to try increase his coaching business. Along with the tips are details of how to book a squash court, how to get squash coaching from Sam, how to join the squash league, money off vouchers for playing during the day and other useful bits and pieces.

It takes Mark about 20 minutes a week to send out this information to 350 people and he sees a steady increase in the number of people using his squash courts for the rest of the year. About 50 of these 350 people use his squash courts, each bringing a friend to play against and 30 of them come 10 times. So his £200 has increased his revenue by £3200. Much better.

Your adverts are your salespeople. Tim is an expensive full-page ad in the local paper, Sandra is a Google ad set to only show when someone in the Harlow area searches for squash.

"Awareness" advertising is great, as long as you've also got a huge budget, a great supply chain, high footfall, great location, point of sale advertising, sales promotions and all the other things that Nike, Tesco, Vodafone etc. have. You probably don't have them - most of us don't.

If you want to get more people through the doors then I suggest you use the Sandra approach of "direct marketing". This approach allows you to contact people who are interested again and again for very little cost. You start by giving them something of value to them in return for their contact details and only then telling them about your club or centre.

This approach is used incredibly effectively in the private sector, and is one of the reasons why I write this blog.

Social Marketing made easy

The term social marketing is doing the rounds at the moment. It seems to be the next big thing, and I've heard some managers who don't know much about it throw the term around to impress people.

Social marketing is not running a big advertising campaign. It's about deciding what you want people to do and figuring out how to get them to do it. You might use advertising to do that, but only maybe.

In order to do this you need to understand:

1. how they feel about doing it (whatever it is - stopping smoking, doing more sport, etc.)
2. why they feel that way
3. what would change their mind

These three basic points have fancy names invented by academics. If you have a manager who's impressed by jargon then try throwing these at them.

1. Transtheoretical stages of change theory
2. Social cognitive theory
3. Exchange theory

So how does this help?

1. Focus on the people who are already considering doing it
2. Make it easy and popular
3. Make it fun

If anyone tries to convice you that you have to have a degree in social marketing to do it then they don't know what they're talking about. Most of the best social marketing work I've seen wasn't called that. It was done by people who got this approach intuitively.

If you want more information on social marketing then I suggest that the National Social Marketing Centre website is a good place to go. Here is their Big pocket guide to social marketing. However, if you want to get people to do something different then try making it fun, easy and popular.

How can google ads help you?

How can Google ads help you hit your targets? 

Maybe it can't. But if getting more relevant people to a page on your website will help you reach your goal then Google ads is the way forward.

I'm running 2 Google ad campaigns at the moment. One is for a Lithuanian online bag shop and the other is for my Kung Fu club. You might think that Kung Fu and handbags have nothing in common – but everything I‘ve learnt working on one has helped me improve results for the other. The principles hold true.

The goals are:

Temptingbags.com
Build a database of Lithuanian women who are interested in buying bags online

Fujian White Crane Kung Fu
Build a database of men in London who are interested in Kung Fu but aren't confident about just turning up to a class.

So what have I learnt?

• It's not very complicated
• It works very well

Once I've run both campaigns I'll write another post with the results and a guide to how you can use Google Adwords to hit your own goals. In the meantime it could be worth going and trying it out for yourself.

Google Local

Google search has gone universal and local is the new thing in town. To try it out go to Google Maps and enter your location and a sport or activity.

You'll see a map showing the clubs, facilities and shops for that sport. Fantastic right? Makes it easy for people to find where to go to play sport.

However you'll also notice that it doesn't have all facilities, clubs or other places to play. The only information in Google Local is what people have uploaded to it, and most clubs and facilities won‘t have put their information on here.

As part of a pan-London campaign I‘m running I‘m doing something about that.

1.    Outsource the data entry and cleansing to a data entry company for £860
2.    Upload the database to Google.

So now people can see where they can play sport in your area. The next question is how can you then get people to this information?

You could promote Google Local and explain what to do. But that‘s not quite easy enough for my liking (remember the three keys to good sports marketing are making sport fun, easy and popular). So I built this simple search box.

      Activity Search

Enter your activity and location
Powered by Make Sport Fun

This search box can be put onto any website. You are welcome to use it yourself if you like – the html code is right at the bottom of this post if you know how to use that kind of thing.

If you want more details on how you can do all of this in your area (hiring data entry company, uploading data to google, putting search box on website, . . . ) then just email me at john@makesportfun.com and I'll put together a full guide on how to do it.

HTML Code

<font size="4">      Activity Search</font><form action="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=nw6+2nr&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=51.54452,-0.193892&amp;spn=0.011823,0.040169&amp;z=15&amp;iwloc=addr" method="get"><input maxlength="255" size="31" name="q"><input value="Find me an activity" type="submit"></form>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);"><font size="2"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Enter your activity and location</span><br><font size="1">Powered by <a href="http://www.makesportfun.com"><b>Make Sport Fun</b></a></font></font></p>

29 ways to get more PR for your sports centre

Some of these points are deliberately contradictory. There‘s more than one way to skin a cat.

1. Don‘t panic
2. Read the journalists columns before contacting them
3. Give them something free – local journalists don‘t earn much and love freebies
4. Become an expert in the journalist‘s eyes
5. Say something interesting, clever, funny or different
6. Have an opinion
7. Ask the papers what they want
8. Think local
9. Do something eye-catching
10. Attract high-profile supporters
11. Get help – there are organisations out there that exist to help
12. Be the source when you don‘t need any help
13. Build a relationship with the journalist
14. Read the journalists columns before contacting them – I‘m really serious about this. Journalists love people paying attention to what they write
15. Run a charity event
16. Don‘t forget journalists are people too
17. Run a local campaign
18. Use photos of local people doing something interesting
19. Use the national news agenda
20. Use the local news agenda
21. Remember the journalists names
22. Approach the journalist not the editor
23. Approach the editor not the journalist
24. Don‘t use a PR agency – go direct
25. Use a PR agency to help with the work
26. Do send press releases
27. Don‘t just send a press release and expect to get results
28. Offer the journalist a coaching session for free
29. Be consistent

I'm in the middle of writing a short e-book on how local leisure centres can work better with the press. I'll be selling this for £5 on my online store when it‘s done, however all my fabulous, highly-attractive blog readers can get a free advance copy. If you‘d like to reserve a free copy then please email free PR guide to john@makesportfun.com.  

Where to get great photos

The right photo can make all the difference when you're trying to make your marketing stand out. But where do you go to get that ideal photo? As part of my quest to make sport fun, easy and popular I've set it up so you can access all the best sites for sport marketing photography via the Make Sport Fun website.

Some of these sites are free and some aren't. But they've all got great photos of sport.

Photo websites

Flickr
Flickr is Yahoo's online photo storage site. Photos are free, but you can only use images which have the appropriate creative commons licence (see below for more detail).

Sport England photo library
This is a collection of over 600 high-quality free photos. I developed this for Sport England to help people working in sport to improve their marketing and promotion. Many of the photos are available in very high resolution.

Istockphoto
A fantastic low-cost library of royalty free images that cost from £1-£12 depending upon the size and resolution needed. You can search by keyword, subject, color, and white space.

Stock Exchange
More than 350.000 photos available. Free for use under certain conditions.

Getty images
This is where the pros go. The photos are great, but the prices are higher than on the other sites. Expect to pay between £75 and £200 per image.

Creative commons licences
If you want to use free photos from Flickr or other sites then you need to make sure that you know what you're allowed to use them for. I recommend only using free photos with an attribution licence.

Attribution Licence

This licence allows you to modify the images (by cropping them, or writing on them, for example) and to use them in both commercial and non-commercial spaces. The only requirement is that you credit the author with a link back to their profile.

If you're interested in finding out more about the different types of creative commons licenses then see this explanation.

Why do companies invest in sport?

In a previous article I explained the 10 steps to follow in order to gain corporate sponsorship for sport. This post is a follow up that covers eight characteristics of sport sponsorship, and explains how companies make decisions about whether to invest or not.

1. Charitable organisations are more popular than sport, and larger sports are more popular than smaller ones, because of their profile and participation levels. Of total sports sponsorship football gets 35%, rugby union 15% and cricket 14%.
2. Organisations who have not invested in sport are highly unlikely to invest in sport in the future. However on the flip side - organisations who have invested in sport previously are highly likely to invest in sport again.
3. Grassroots level projects actually attract more investments that national or international ones. Smaller organisations (up to 50 employees) make up 92% of the investment marketplace. And despite some huge investments (up to £87 million) most investments are up to £5000. This is true for investments from both small and large companies.
4. The top three reasons for investment in sport are to enhance corporate reputation, engage current and potential customers and motivate staff. These are normally measured through consumer research by measuring corporate reputation, increased brand awareness, and staff morale. Companies normally invest in sport in order to help improve facilities or equipment, increase participation, and improve coaching. So be flexible with community sport programmes in order to match the investors requirements.
5. 72% of companies think that grassroots investment is sponsorship but companies with more employees are more likely to call it CSR. Investment is normally the best term to use. Whatever term you use it is important to be clear about the return that private sector organisations will require.
6. The number one barrier to investing in community sport is the confusion and clutter of different organisations asking for money. Try and work with your local County Sports Partnership to coordinate efforts and make sure lots of sports groups aren't all approaching the same companies.
7. A tactic that can be used is to link elite level sponsorship into community level CSR. If a company is already sponsoring a national or international event or team then they will need to be able to leverage that sponsorship. This means they have to put money into grassroots level sport in order to make the most of their investment. It's commonly stated that a company needs to spend 4 times what they invest in sponsorship nationally to get the most out of it.
8. Most investors don't know about matched funding. So you can increase your chances of getting funding by learning about these opportunities. To find out what options there are for matched funding talk to the Sport England investment team on 020 7273 1551.

This post is partially based on a piece of sponsorship research Ipsos Mori carried out for Sport England last year.

Ten steps to winning corporate funding and support

One of the biggest challenges people tell me about in sport is that there isn’t enough money. One way to address this is to work with businesses.

Some people view sponsorship as akin to getting in bed with the Devil. After all - those companies just want to make money. They’re not in it for the love of sport.

My opinion is that results are what matters. I don’t need someone’s intentions to be pure as the driven snow as long as they help get people playing more  sport. And most private companies who put money into sport do care – they just have to make money too.

If you want to win corporate funding then I recommend you follow these ten steps. They were developed by Philip Kottler and Nancy Lee. They researched companies which put money into corporate social responsibility to find out what had convinced them.

1. Start by developing a list of issues that your organisation or agency works on and that would benefit from additional resources. Be specific.
2. Identify a short list of companies that might have a connection with these issues. You want companies where sport relates to their business mission, products and services, customer base, employee passions, communities where they do business, and/ or have given to sport before.
3. Approach companies and/or their communications agencies and find out more about their interests and experiences relative to supporting social initiatives.
4. Listen to their business needs.
5. Share with them the social issues your organisation supports, the initiatives you are considering or engaged in, and your strengths and resources. Find out which, if any, they find most appealing.
6. Prepare and submit a proposal to those corporations most interested in your social issues. Present several optional initiatives for potential support, ones that are the best match for their stated business and marketing needs.
7. Participate in developing an implementation plan.
8. Offer to handle as much of the administrative legwork as possible.
9. Assist in measuring and reporting outcomes.
10. Provide recognition for the company’s contribution, in ways preferred by the company.

I recognise that it’s not always possible to do all of these, but the more you do the more likely you are to succeed at winning corporate funding and support.

Throughout the rest of this series I will be going into detail on some of these recommendations. I will also explain more about why companies do and don't invest in sport in particular.

As always - if you  have any thoughts on this post then please write them in the comments section.

Fun, easy and popular

 

The basis of my work is to get more people to play sport by making it fun, easy and popular. Hence the name - MakeSportFun.

That lovely, but what does it mean? Why am I so set on this? After all, some people say that health promotion isn't fun - it's a serious matter. It's because fun, easy and popular are the everyday words for some very well-tested and effective social marketing concepts.

In scientific circles fun is perceived benefits, easy is self-efficacy and popular is social normalcy. Okay, so they've got posh-sounding names. But how do they help get people to play more sport?

Fun            “Will I enjoy doing it?”
Easy          “Can I do it? Am I capable?”
Popular      “What do the people I care about think about it?”

Fun
If we're going to focus on making sport fun then we need to focus on what our target audience enjoy about it. For example most people play football in order to spend time with their mates and for the competition. These are the benefits that they're most interested in and which will be most likely to get them to come and play. Therefore we'll get the best results if we focus on how people can spend more time with their mates and enjoy the competition.

There's very little point promoting that playing football is going to stop them having a heart attack in 40 years. Heath is about 4th on this groups list of priorities.

Easy
This is all about breaking down the barriers that stop people from taking part. Some of these barriers are actual and some are in people's heads. They're both important.

One option is to run campaigns which convince people that it's easy to take part. This will probably work, but often we can go one step better.

If we can find out what the biggest barriers are for that group then we can try to address them. If the problem is that they don't know where to play then let's make it easy to find where to play. Let's provide text message alerts for teenagers and directories for older people.

If the problem is not knowing how to play then let's provide coaching sessions or coaching videos on YouTube.

Popular
Few people like to be the odd one out and no-one likes to look stupid. If people are worried that they'll be the worst person there, or that people will laugh at them then they're unlikely to go. Even if they want to play the sport, and know where to go then this can still stop them.

This can be addressed by helping people to make friends at local clubs. This is being done with school-age children by literally walking them to the local sports club. However taster sessions, roadshows and encouraging members to bring their friends are all equally effective. A good way to encourage this is to run training sessions for clubs which sell them on the benefits of being friendlier and more welcoming to new members.

So if making sport fun, easy and popular is so effective then why does health promotion so often end up making it boring, difficult and lonely? That's a post all in and of itself.