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introduction this marketing and communications plan has been developed by the team based on several key principles 1 it is based on the organizational objectives laid out in the british swimming strategic plan 2009-13 and the asa strategy 2009-13 2 we cover the fiscal year 2010-11 but also project forward to ensure long-term planning beyond london 2012 3 the plan is a working document and will be reviewed and updated to accommodate learning throughout the year 4 it has been developed collaboratively and agreed with colleagues across british swimming and the asa our internal clients 5 the plan has 5 sections but has been developed as an integrated piece to ensure all areas work together 6 it is targeted against specific audiences so that the tactics and messaging take into account differing customer perspectives 7 there is no significant central marketing comms budget the plan has focused on using free or low-cost channels and methods as well as negotiating cash resource with relevant budget-holders chris denny director of marketing and communications june 2010 -2-[close]
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contents click on the links embedded in contents below to go directly to the section you require section 1 the asa plan 1 situational analysis 2 timescales 3 resources 4 corporate issues 5 audience overview 6 evaluation 7 objectives audiences messages tactics and timescales potential swimmers parents as channel to get children swimming children in learn to swim programmes pool operators clubs/membership potential teachers and coaches existing teachers and coaches schools appendix calendar overview of activity -3-[close]
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section 2 the british swimming plan 1 situation analysis by sport 2 key objectives 3 messaging 4 identified audiences 5 communication channels 6 evaluation techniques 7 communication resources 8 issues and dependencies 9 communication plan tactics by sport swimming disability swimming diving synchronised swimming water polo 10 an itc/hpc specific plan 11 an event specific plan -4-[close]
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section 3.the publications plan including swimming times 1 highlights 2 swimming times content 3 swimming times marketing and subscriptions plan section 4 the sponsorship plan 1 2 3 4 introduction sponsorship aims sponsorship objectives current situation situational analysis current sponsor family sponsor family structure current sponsor contractual obligations current sponsor aims current sponsor work stream objectives strategy principles managing current sponsors new sponsor acquisition tactics management of current sponsors current sponsor renewal new sponsor acquisition resources people budget monitoring evaluation appendices -5 5 6 7 8 9.[close]
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section 5 the website plan 1 vision 2 objectives 3 audiences 4 content and audiences 5 web team responsibilities structure and roles 6 functionality 7 social media channels option document routes to facebook 8 social media content moving forward/technical issues 9 evaluation 10 usability testing 11 seo 12 technical issues and disaster recovery 13 training 14 website promotion -6-[close]
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1 situational swot analysis a brand revitalisation project was conducted for the asa in 2007/2008 part of this process involved looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the asa as an organisation although the landscape has remained fairly stable during this period there have been some key additions in several corporate areas such as the government s free swimming initiative therefore it is useful to provide a swot analysis of the current situation strengths media and public interest reputation of asa/our authority materials/findings we have produced our channels/networks e.g partners opportunities bbc partnership deal government focus free swimming etc latent demand for swimming focus on 2012 our `salesforce supply make sponsors work harder improve brand with pool operators/private pools threats low control over swimming experience in pools or outside failure to take advantage of 2012 `credit crunch threatening budgets ours and consumers competitors especially sta cuts in funding of specific initiatives government refocus of sport with new party in power funding stream from new government and sport england potential cuts weaknesses negative aspects of swimming that act as barriers e.g dirty pools lane swimming is boring etc general apathy towards exercise generally lack of cash resource for marcomms poor brand definition and confused brand architecture 2 timescales this marcomms plan outlines the activity that is advised to take place in the next 12 months from summer 2010 to summer 2011 however it is an ever-evolving document and will change even within the next 12 months although the asa s strategy is based around a four-year plan up to 2013 the marcomms plan will evolve in three phases the pre-games period summer 2010 summer 2011 which this plan outlines the games period summer 2011 autumn 2012 and the post-games autumn 2012 onwards -8 click here to go back to the contents page[close]
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3 resources it is the recommendation of the pr manager and marketing manager that all of the tactics in this plan are carried out if the asa wants to successfully market/communicate all of its services adequately however out of approximately 200 tactics outlined in the plan only around 10 are already carried out by the communications team it has also become apparent that many of the marketing opportunities are concentrated around or require preparation in july-september 2010 which places a strain on resources examples of additional work outlined in the plan include producing copy for posters leaflets and brochures direct and e-marketing writing more articles creating comprehensive web pages and media evaluation currently this only takes place around big championships the pr and marketing managers have prioritised work within the plan and after discussing the matter with senior management the decision has been taken to further prioritise particular corporate areas these being participation/grow learn `child and workforce with the other work streams facilities corporate talent re-examined in january 2011 this section outlines the additional demands the marcomms plan places on people and budget as well as discussing the issues and dependencies and the solutions which should lead to the successful implementation of the plan i people the breakdown table below shows the roles within the communications team that will help to implement the work of the plan the role marked with an asterisk indicate new hires that have been negotiated to help implement the plan there are two roles that will help support the plan but have not been included for the following reason a the head of marketing and communications this is a `new hire post that is currently being recruited although it is recommended the incoming person should employ some of their time delivering the specific tactics rather than on a strategic level this post is currently being recruited so their exact work plan has yet to be established b the asa marketing administrator this post works as the guardian for all asa branding and approves the look and feel of all collateral it is anticipated that the marketing administrator will not directly carry out any of the tactics for this plan but will continue to work on behalf of the whole team approving material and policing quality whilst also working with printers to obtain quotes co-ordinate printing and ensure delivery role pr manager pr officer media assistant marketing officer marketing manager temp marketing manger seconded from british gas until oct 2010 marketing officer post details full time 5 days a week part time 3 days a week part time within team 0.33 post full time 5 days a week full time 5 days a week full time 5 days a week full time to be appointed 5 days a week for fixed term of six months -9 click here to go back to the contents page[close]
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even with the re-prioritisation of the plan and the new hires the workload created with the plan will be extremely demanding the plan only covers the top-line tactics for each area it does not factor in the amount of work carried out by the team on a day-to-day basis such as signing off press releases liaising with teams attending meetings nor does it cover ongoing administration tasks which take up a substantial amount of the team s time there is also an ongoing swimming times marcomms plan in addition to this plan which will take up a proportion of the marketing officer s time because of this the communications team advises that the plan and the prioritisation is revisited and reviewed after three months ii budget previously there has been no requirement on project leads to allocate budget for marketing and pr as part of this plan the communications team has managed to convince departments that they should set aside money for this kind of activity the figures below give a rough breakdown of the money that has currently been set aside for the tactics contained within this plan subject to change if certain tactics are amended this budget revolves around the prioritised areas of participation/grow learn `child and workforce participation namely free swimming and free swimming lessons grow learn `child workforce talent facilities governance £391,700 £154,353 npts/awards £97,000 school swimming circa £25,000 tbc £50,000 £50,000 for swim21 clubs none specified to date none specified to date it is also worth noting that there is no central marketing budget other than the communications budget that pays for staff costs and existing administration/tactics such as press cuttings this means that any shortfall or new activity in any of the areas above cannot be covered by a central fund should the need for contingency arise iii other resource dependencies the plan will also create additional demands on other departments within the communications team namely the design team the design team already have commitments to produce swimming times and have planned in other work that sits out of this plan it has become apparent that accommodating more work in the period of june-september 2010 will be particularly challenging the solution to this is to outsource design work if a compromise cannot be reached in terms of deadlines this would have to be paid for by the budget holder for that particular project because design work is relatively expensive some tactics may have to be re-examined in light of the additional budget demands 10 click here to go back to the contents page[close]
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4 corporate issues i input needed from other teams the tactics outlined in the marcomms plan will be driven by the pr and marketing team but involves input from all the other departments within the asa some of this involves other teams actually providing data to the pr and marketing team e.g outlining the number of pools using the npts beginning to monitor data as part of their everyday work e.g ios administrators recording the how did you hear about this course option or being part of a review group for particular projects e.g the npts/awards spot prize mechanisms successfully delivering the marcomms plan also requires the asa to have in place certain mechanisms for example direct marketing relies very heavily on having a workable database and using certain email facilities see section v discussions have already begun to resolve some of these issues and will continue to ensure the marcomms plan is delivered effectively ii lack of marketing/communication understanding there is currently confusion internally about the role of pr and marketing for example many people within the organisation believe pr is just media work when in fact pr surrounds anything that influences the asa s reputation and uses many other methods of communication such as leaflets brochures and events to name but a few many people in the organisation are also not aware that anything that leaves the business should come through the pr and marketing team for `sign off to safeguard the asa s reputation brand and consistent messaging the pr and marketing team will continue to try to explain their role some documents already exist the brief to the pr team and the marketing pack given to cscs and more may be produced the sharing of this plan is also a good chance to remind other departments they need to get all media work/design work/printed collateral approved by the pr and marketing team there is also a mis-understanding of what responsibilities lie with the pr and marketing team for example although the team is more than happy to be involved with product/initiative developments and would prefer to be involved at any inception stage it is not the pr and marketing team s role alone to develop products nor is it necessarily the pr and marketing team s responsibility to attend events at which the asa has a presence quite often this will be better served by the experts in that particular department iii no/limited direct marketing capability to our members for the past two years the pr team has been trying to establish a system which would allow direct marketing to our members with little success the current issues surround technical problems server errors and viewing of emails the accuracy of data and data protection technical problems we cannot currently send out direct marketing emails via our server to large numbers of members over a couple of 100s because the amounts of bounce backs crash our email system there are also issues in terms of the format for email marketing our current format choices are plain text which is dull and limiting for marketing opportunities or an inserted jpeg which runs the risk of not being displayed or even sent to a spam filter depending on the recipient s email settings 11 click here to go back to the contents page[close]
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accuracy of data although reports can be run from integra using the most up-to-date information these reports do depend on accurate inputting from other teams for example to market to all level 1 teachers qualified in the last six months the ios must record the qualifications of individuals and the date these qualifications were obtained because inputting data into integra is not uniformly carried out across teams because of alternative systems etc the data needed for marketing purposes may not be there in a complete format some of these alternative systems could be used for direct marketing e.g the new ios tms system will capture all of these details but direct marketing functionality has not been incorporated into the design of some of these systems and so this would need to be added data protection we cannot currently direct market to a high percentage of our membership persons over 18 because a data protection choice has not been made currently approximately 7 of our membership held on integra have made a choiceas of may 2010 all emails to membership must be sent via rachel washington for approval but it is not clear who will grant permission in urgent circumstances when rachel is not available there has been no procedure to collect data protection choices of customers from the awards centre website whose records are held on exchequer as a solution the web manager is exploring a new system that may provide a solution to all of the asa s direct marketing from a distribution viewpoint the communications team is also helping to advise the data protection officer and the head of business systems and resources 5 audience overview the asa has a distinct and diverse array of partners customers consumers of swimming and channels that are used to communicate to these consumers on our behalf some of these audiences we want to communicate to directly about our products and services such as clubs and pool providers some of these we want to communicate to directly about participation such as parents and some act as a channel to pass on our messages to their consumers for example it is sometimes easier to reach leisure swimmers via pool operators the segmentation diagram in fig.1 gives a useful overview of who are our partners who are our direct customers who help us to communicate and who the main consumers of swimming are and their motivation in pulling together this plan we have focussed on and formatted our tactics according to the audience groups we have done this as opposed to looking specifically at the strategic areas because it allows a clearer focus for each grouping and demonstrates the breadth of messages we are trying to convey each core audience is fairly targeted but the audience column in the following tables clarifies the audience when extra explanation is needed e.g within pool operators clarification includes local authority run pools only etc at this point it is worth explaining the segmentation of the participation audiences the segmentation work carried out over the last few months has identified the following core participation segments for the asa to target `jackie alison 30-45 year old mums `brenda elaine 46-59 year old empty nesters `tim helena 25-35 year old sporty professionals 12 click here to go back to the contents page[close]
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the plan for increasing participation sits mainly around these segments with the exception of the free swimming and free swimming lessons programmes these programmes are focused on under 16s and over 60s and over 11s for free lessons the audiences for these sit in some part outside our core segments and therefore we have to create some tactical supporting activity segment research carried out concluded that just because you like swimming doesn t mean you ll go i.e people have a generally positive attitude towards swimming but there are barriers which stop them participating this is quite insightful and will influence our messaging rather than talking generically about the benefits of swimming being a gentle yet energising activity we need to focus on the specific barriers and triggers to participation with our segments the primary messaging to focus on for `jackie alison is how much their children love swimming for `brenda elaine the maintaining health element some of this will be relevant for `jackie alison as well and for `tim helena how swimming can be rolled into their existing fitness regime and how exciting challenges like the great swims and triathlons can be fig 1 the asa s audience segmentation 13 click here to go back to the contents page[close]
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6 evaluation all of the marcomms work within this plan will be assessed to determine if it has been effective and what value it has added each specific section sets out how the tactics will be evaluated however generally the plan will look at three levels of evaluation depending on the breadth of the project and the amount of budget available for evaluation i ii iii marcomms outputs this is a short-term measure e.g the amount of press coverage received or exposure of a particular message this will not measure whether target audiences saw the message or responded to it marcomms outtakes this is what the targeted audience took away from the activity e.g they comprehended and retained a particular message this will mainly be measured by research into awareness levels marcomms outcomes this encompasses changes to opinion/attitude and behaviour patterns e.g the audience responded to calls to action 14 click here to go back to the contents page[close]
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7 objectives audiences messages tactics and timescales the following section has been broken down into audiences these audiences are potential swimmers parents as channel to get children swimming children in learn to swim programmes pool operators including swim schools clubs/membership potential teachers and coaches existing teachers and coaches schools charts have been produced to show at a glance the different audiences we need to target who and the recommended tactics for doing this how the charts also detail the corporate objectives this relates to why what we will say what and the timescales for delivery when the charts are colour coded to make them easier to read the corporate objective is identified in the first three columns so for example if you work within workforce you can see at a glance that all the marcomms activity relating to your work is highlighted in green the rest of the colour coding applies to how we will deliver a certain tactic and what channel i.e the mechanism to deliver we will use for example any tactic that is delivered via direct marketing using our own database is shaded in dark green the colour coding is as follows participation/grow facilities governance learn to swim child talent workforce where there is more than one tactic relating to the corporate objective the tactics are numbered in recommended priority order where there is no colour coding i.e the row is white this indicates that activity is anticipated but has yet to be time-tabled it is included in the plan for information only our website our existing publications e.g swimming times new publications media including our bbc deal marketing via our databases external marketing schools/education county swimming co-ordinators advertising kellogg s british gas speedo pool operators social media weight watchers/slimming world partnership experiential 15 click here to go back to the contents page[close]
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