Shutterbugs Welcome!

Presented to

The Kingston Yacht Club

And

Lindsey Fair

By

Tina Bloodworth, Jenny Costanzo, Evelyn Kembel, and Jeremy Barr

2012

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents...........................................................................................................page 1

Client Overview.............................................................................................................page 2

Challenges......................................................................................................................page 2

Objectives.......................................................................................................................page 2

Original Campaign Overview......................................................................................page 3

Market & List................................................................................................................page 4

Offer, Terms, & Message..............................................................................................page 5

Channels.........................................................................................................................page 6

The Creative...................................................................................................................page 7

Measurements................................................................................................................page 8

Analytics.........................................................................................................................page 9

Final Evaluation............................................................................................................page 9

Appendix A....................................................................................................................page 10

Appendix B....................................................................................................................page 11

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Client Overview:

Our client for this project is The Kingston Yacht Club, ran by manager Glenn Singleton. This

club has been an active long-standing organization in the Kingston community for 113 years and

continues to evolve, host and participate in all forms of yacht racing, which is still its core

activity according to their website, and brings a great deal of publicity to the ‘fresh water sailing

capitol of the world’.

Offering a variety of membership perks, packages, and sailing lessons, the yacht club provides a

quality and convenient location for members and their families to enjoy all water activities

throughout the summer months as well as a great indoor bar and event venue available year

round.

Their current marketing plan includes the use of a website that unfortunately reflects their

facility. It looks old and outdated and in much need of a facelift to appeal to the current

generation of tech savvy and creative online users. It’s not as esthetically pleasing or organized

as well as it could be. They also have a Facebook and Twitter feed which seem to be well

maintained and updated.

Challenges:

The Kingston Yacht Club is aging, not only in its looks, but in its members as well. A majority

of the current members are over the age of 55 and new member recruitment levels are low. The

biggest challenge the yacht club faces is how to increase its membership base.

Increased membership is key, but the yacht club is also looking to target a younger demographic

who will want to utilize some of the many offerings such as the sailing lessons or the event

space. Bringing awareness to the community about the yacht club and its services and venue

offerings will also be a prime focus in our campaign.

Campaign Objectives:

Our main objective throughout our campaign will be to increase yacht club membership. We

intend to target a younger demographic who will be able to provide an increased lifetime

customer value due to long term membership renewal. Our secondary objective is to drive traffic

to the Kingston Yacht Club website to see what offerings and packages would bring the most

value to their possible membership.

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Original Campaign Overview – “Dirty Old Oars”

When our group began working out the details of our campaign, we chose to target people who

are water enthusiasts already, but who are avid canoe and kayak users instead of sailors. Our

hope was to offer a free sailing lesson, and if a membership was purchased, a sailing lesson

package was given for free.

Our messaging was as such:

“Have you ever soiled your hands messing around with a couple of dirty old oars? Take

your hands off your dinghy, because the Kingston Yacht Club wants to teach you a lesson!”

Our campaign was to consist of an email campaign compiled of members from Queen’s canoe

and sailing clubs. We also intended to run a point of purchase campaign from Trailhead’s

downtown in the form of a treasure map leading from the store to the yacht club.

Unfortunately, although our client liked the creative and felt that it would work to reach their

hopeful target audience, it was a bit too risqué, and they were afraid that it might offend some of

their current members; specifically the older female demographic of their current members. For

this reason, our campaign was rejected one day prior to our client presentation, and we had to

turn to an alternative campaign called “Shutterbugs Welcome” that was conceptually ready to go.

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“Shutterbugs Welcome”

Campaign Development #1 – Market & List

Our chosen target audience for this campaign was professional and semi-professional

photographers in Kingston and the surrounding area. Kingston is a tourist town and provides

numerous high media events on the downtown waterfront that are distinct photo opportunities;

especially for those who sell their pictures to various media outlets. The ability to show quality

and creative photos in their marketing materials is also very advantageous in a highly

competitive local market.

Our targets are an even split between male and females, predominately aged 25 – 45 years,

earning an average income of $40,000 + /year. They are most likely to be established in their

careers but see the importance and value of what leisure time they are afforded in their busy

schedules. They are of an age where status matters and as much as they want to be able to stand

out with an air of sophistication and high esteem, they are still young, adventurous, and seeking

heightened levels of adrenaline.

We see these people to be at one of two points in their lives. The younger group will be at the

stage of just starting their family life, possibly new home owners who need to live in urban areas,

but want the advantage of the cottage feel with access to a boat on the water without having to

drive hours away. The others are those who already have a bit more free time on their hands and

they want to take advantage of the family activities offered or want to just learn something new

like sailing for their own personal benefit.

On a professional level, this is a group of individuals whose careers revolve around getting that

perfect shot at that perfect time; without obstruction or missed timing. The benefit for an

exceptional visual vantage point would not go unnoticed.

Our email list was created using the phone book to find all professional photographers listed. For

those that did not have a contact name or email address listed, Linkedin, company websites, and

Facebook was used to recover the necessary information. We used a simple excel sheet for our

database management tool.

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Campaign Development # 2 – Offer & Message

Offer, Terms, & Message:

Our offer was, with the purchase of a membership, the photographer would get the use of the

upstairs event space at the yacht club free of charge for one night for a personal gallery viewing

to showcase their artwork. Any pieces sold would be done commission-free for the

photographer, with no money going back to the yacht club. The artist would also be able to leave

up to 5 pieces behind on display for 14 – 30 days.

The benefits to any photographer are huge from a business or sales revenue perspective. The cost

of renting a gallery space if you don’t own your own gallery is a great expense on its own, and

usually, commissions would be approximately 40% for that gallery of any pieces sold.

For the semi-professional photographer who wants to take their business to the next level, the

best way to do that is to gain exposure of their talent. To have the opportunity to do that free of

charge is of great value.

The terms of our offer are simplistic and basic in nature. The offer was based on a first-come,

first-served basis. We were unsure of the response rate for this campaign and due to the fact that

the facility is often used by members for other events, availability may become an issue. This

was the same for the duration of the artwork display. Our offer was based on a single

membership package purchase. Our last term stipulation was that for the point of purchase

campaign, the postcard piece would have to be shown to redeem the offer, and for the email

campaign, it would have to be printed off and shown for redemption.

Our message is very focused and deliberately revolves around the fact that for the photographer,

there are benefits to a membership at the KYC that isn’t obvious when looking at their website.

“Shutterbugs Welcome” is the title of our campaign and we focus on the fact that Kingston,

being a tourist town, is host to many high media events on the waterfront. The KYC , being a

part of the downtown waterfront, is a perfect spot to get great shots with an unobstructed line of

sight; a great visual vantage point for events like Fireworks displays, Snowbirds, Tall Ships,

Sailing Regattas, and The Thousand Islands Poker Run. It also provides free private parking so

transporting equipment is easy and convenient. (See appendix A)

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Campaign Development #3 - Channels

Our first channel of distribution was email and we chose this because of its direct access to our

clients at their place of business. We chose to highlight the business benefits for the professional

photographer should they choose to purchase a KYC membership. Using the list of

photographers and their email addresses, an account was set up on a mass email distribution site

called Mail Chimp. This site was very effective because of its automatic analytics tracking. We

were kept up-to-date as to how many people opened our ad and how many clicked through to the

KYC website for more information, which was one of our main campaign objectives.

Our second channel of distribution was a point of purchase option using Henry’s Camera Store

to launch that part of our campaign from. We chose a camera store due to the fact that both

professional and semi-professional photographers would access their supplies and equipment

from a reputable and professional distributor that is very product knowledgeable. We also felt

that a camera store owner would best appreciate the specific targeting of our campaign and be

less inclined to refuse our request for counter space.

Another factor in the choice of these channels was the ease of set up. We had to quickly alter the

direction our initial campaign was to take, so the less chance of objection or difficulty, the better

in order to see the new campaign launch on time.

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Campaign Development #4 – The Creative

There are multiple appeal techniques in our creative strategy. First is the ‘customer can’ appeal.

We kept the focus on the perfect pictures that any (semi)professional photographer can get using

the Kingston Yacht Club location as a visual vantage point to see high-media covered downtown

waterfront events.

The next appeal technique used is the ‘benefit’ appeal created by offering the use of the event

space for a commission free gallery viewing and sale, and the leave behind option (up to 5 pieces

of art), which can build awareness of their talent for a longer term. We wanted to focus our

promotional highlights on the business opportunity for the photographer in being able to build

their name and business awareness. The afore-mentioned are benefits as well, but of a more

subtle nature.

The last strategy used had an ‘urgency’ appeal. The campaign itself ran only 3 weeks, so it was

time sensitive. There was also an availability issue where the event space was concerned,

depending on the response and redemption rate of our campaign. The KYC frequently uses their

event space for other things, so the faster the individual responded, the better chance of

availability. This was also mentioned for the duration of the pieces displayed after.

The Kingston Yacht Club has a prestigious history and we wanted that to be reflected in our

graphics. We chose to display a sleek, and sophisticated design that was also contemporary and

modern to appeal to a younger demographic. (Black background with a classic font) To appeal to

the KYC, we placed their logo in the title of our campaign.

The stock photos we chose were specific and meant to reflect the exact events that were

highlighted in the body copy such as fireworks, Snowbirds, and the Poker Run; all of them

familiar to Kingston.

We used the same piece for our point of purchase background display as our email piece,

although very slightly altered. At Henry’s, we also had a postcard sized take away piece that was

meant to be the redemption piece. It was printed on a quality card stock with a glossy finish

which lent to its sleek look. (See appendix B)

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Measurements

Mailing Costs $00.00Post Card Printing $15.00 $15.00# of pieces printed /30 = $.50 (per postcard)

POP Background Display Page $00.50Black Picture Frame $02.00

Total Campaign Expenses $17.50

Reprinting due to copy editing, colour errors, content changes, etc... =

LVR (Lifetime Value of a Customer):

Average membership years 10Membership cost (based on single) $564LVR per customer $5,640Estimated # of redemptions 5Estimated campaign value for KYC $28,200

CPP (Cost Per Piece):

Total Campaign Cost $17.50# of pieces left at POP /25CPP $ .70

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Analytics & Final Evaluation:

Analytics:

Final Evaluation:

We are very satisfied with the performance of our campaign although we never had any redemption. The number of people that actually viewed the ad was substantial considering the number sent out.

If we could do this campaign over, one of the changes we would consider would be to make the offer inclusive to any membership package purchased. Doing this would not increase any financial risk for the Yacht Club, but more importantly, it would increase the option and benefit to the purchaser; especially if they have an already established family. In hindsight, this should have been done in the middle of the campaign run in case this was a deterrent to redemption.

It may have been better if we had a code to use for redemption instead of having the purchaser come directly to the Yacht Club. Our thinking at the time was that the purchaser may want to get a look at the facility prior to purchase, so it would be killing two birds at once. This may have been an inconvenience for the redeemer and may have been a factor in the lack of response.

From a graphic standpoint, we would consider the arrangement of the email piece and point of purchase display to have the main benefit of the event space to be the focus in the center of the page instead of in the bottom corner.

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(Appendix A)

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(Appendix B)

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