• Subscribe
  • Newsletter
  • Media Kit
  • Contact
  • Login
Campus Rec Magazine
  • Sections
    • Facility Development
    • News
    • Operations
    • Programming
    • Rec of the Month
    • Staff Development
    • Well-being
    • Profiles
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Past Issues
    • Subscribe
    • Newsletter
    • Contact Us
  • Columns
  • Supplier Insights
    • Brand Voice
    • Supplier News
    • Supplier Voice
  • Podcast
  • Webinars
  • Education
    • CR Leadership Summit
    • Campus Rec Mastermind Groups
No Result
View All Result
  • Sections
    • Facility Development
    • News
    • Operations
    • Programming
    • Rec of the Month
    • Staff Development
    • Well-being
    • Profiles
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Past Issues
    • Subscribe
    • Newsletter
    • Contact Us
  • Columns
  • Supplier Insights
    • Brand Voice
    • Supplier News
    • Supplier Voice
  • Podcast
  • Webinars
  • Education
    • CR Leadership Summit
    • Campus Rec Mastermind Groups
No Result
View All Result
Campus Rec Magazine
No Result
View All Result
Home Columns

Developing a Successful Marketing Campaign

Sarah Cole by Sarah Cole
November 21, 2019
in Columns, News
0
marketing campaign

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedIn
marketing campaign
Image courtesy of Shutterstock

Developing a successful marketing campaign that unifies all recreation programs, facilities, services and events under one department is critical.

Each program represents a piece that is unified by our mission: to cultivate mental, physical and social development through recreational services, programs and facilities. We are a family under one roof striving to improve the lives of students through recreational bliss. However, we struggle to unify our department under one marketing umbrella. Our marketing team tried to balance both quantity – creating all that programmers requested – and quality  – strategizing and creating cohesive campaigns.

For years, this approach pushed our creative teams to mass-design, mass-print, mass-post, and mass-table until our department was drowning in an excess of event and program marketing. Although our promotional pieces were well recognized throughout campus for stellar social media engagement, popular videos, fun designs and other marketing wins, the copious amounts of promotions did not bring the team satisfaction. The challenge was determining whether we wanted to be executional or strategic marketers, and which method served our mission best.

To accommodate the sharp growth of programming while trying to preserve, or create, personalities embodied by each program area, our team brainstormed new approaches to marketing that would emphasize program individuality but also departmental cohesiveness. For example, each program area serves a particular demographic that is very different than another program area. Therefore, should messaging be catered toward that particular audience? How do we effectively market to one demographic while also marketing to the entire student population? Do you market the department like a resort or do we treat each program area like individual brands or businesses?

The conflict is apparent in the use of multiple social media platforms. It appears many recreation departments are consolidating their platforms because managing three or more separate accounts on three or more social media platforms is not manageable for a small, in-house, marketing team. Even with large student teams, managing six or more accounts plus handling other duties well is impossible. But direct requests from program areas drove how we promoted services in the past. A program coordinator requests a social media post for their event happening tomorrow; we post it. An assistant director needs a poster to promote a series of classes; we design it. A new web page is needed to provide information about a new service; we create it.

As a result, talk between programmers about differing promotional methods, such as the amount of media printed per program area, or the number of social media posts made, led to a competitive mindset between program areas. Without having a holistic marketing strategy that focuses on the entire department, we promoted each program individually, turning our team into executionists of mass media. Separating our programs and treating them like individual businesses was reinforcing a silo mentality and perception of autonomy.

A change was needed. The desire to organize, strategize, plan and promote the department holistically grew along with the desire to minimize the marketing noise sent out to our community.

Recreation marketers are provided with a wonderful bounty of activities and events every year that we share with our community to encourage them to be physically, socially and mentally active. The offerings provided are not meant for any one particular type of individual. Our participants are not just swimmers, not just snowboarders, culinary enthusiasts, athletes, weightlifters, rock climbers or badminton players. Recreation is a type of wonderland where all walks of life can come in and be themselves. Our marketing team is yearning for creative ways to tell the community to come and play, stating, “We have exactly what you’re looking for.”

Tags: campus reccampus recreationfeaturedmarketingmarketing campaign
Previous Post

The Future of Esports at UNT

Next Post

How EKU is Showing Thanks This November

Sarah Cole

Sarah Cole

Sarah Cole has a BA in Studio Art from the University of Arizona and an MFA in Electronic Media Arts Design from the University of Denver. She has worked in recreation marketing for over nine years in the United States and Europe. She currently is the recreation marketing coordinator at the University of California, Riverside recreation department.

Related Posts

Mental Health Programming
Mental Health

Collaborations Enhance Student Mental Health Programming

March 21, 2023
NIRSA Rec Day
Programming

How Schools Celebrated NIRSA Rec Day

March 2, 2023
Matrix
News

Matrix Makes Education and Connection Possible at the Summit

February 23, 2023
Programming
Programming

Setting the Bar Low for Programming Success

February 21, 2023
Mental Health
Well-being

How Campus Rec Can Positively Influence Mental Health

February 14, 2023
Thomas More
News

Thomas More University Acquires Five Seasons Family Sports Club

February 2, 2023
Next Post
How EKU is Showing Thanks This November

How EKU is Showing Thanks This November

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn
Campus Rec Magazine

The premier business resource for college and university recreation centers.

The Current Issue

March/April 2023

March/April 2023

Browse

  • Home
  • Subscribe
  • Newsletter
  • Podcast
  • Media Kit
  • Contact

© 2022 Campus Rec Magazine. Published by Peake Media.

No Result
View All Result
  • Sections
    • Facility Development
    • News
    • Operations
    • Programming
    • Rec of the Month
    • Staff Development
    • Well-being
    • Profiles
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Past Issues
    • Subscribe
    • Newsletter
    • Contact Us
  • Columns
  • Supplier Insights
    • Brand Voice
    • Supplier News
    • Supplier Voice
  • Podcast
  • Webinars
  • Education
    • CR Leadership Summit
    • Campus Rec Mastermind Groups

© 2022 Campus Rec Magazine. Published by Peake Media.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In