Bring the inspiration of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to your community

1. Promoting and Marketing Your
Community Games
Bring the inspiration of the London 2012 Olympic and
Paralympic Games to your community

2. Programme
• Introductions
• Links to London 2012
• What are marketing and promotion?
• What to say to key audiences
• How to reach key audiences
• Producing a marketing plan
• Help and support for you

3. Outcomes
• By the end of the workshop, you will be able to:
• Understand the links between Community Games
and the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
• Understand how to reach the key audiences and
what to say to them
• Produce a marketing plan for your Community
Games
• Identify where to go for additional help and support

4. What are the links with London
2012?
• The programme was originally created in 2010 as a
Legacy Trust UK programme in the West Midlands to
bring the spirit of London 2012 to the region and to
leave a legacy
• The Wenlock Olympian Games provided the
inspiration – part of the country’s unique Olympic
heritage
• Thanks to funding from the Cabinet Office
Community Games is now a national programme
• Awarded the London 2012 Inspire Mark for the
toolkit, website and centrally produced resources

5. Olympic and Paralympic Values
• Olympic Values • Paralympic Values
• Excellence • Determination
• Friendship • Courage
• Respect • Inspiration
• Equality

6. Links to London 2012
• Having a parade as part of an opening or closing
ceremony
• Featuring a range of Olympic sports
• Getting teams to compete representing other
countries
• Organising craft activities such as making an
‘Olympic torch’ or designing an ‘Olympic’ poster
• Theming your Games on the Ancient Olympics

7. What is Marketing?
• Marketing is the management process
responsible for identifying, anticipating and
satisfying customer requirements profitably
– Chartered Institute of Marketing
• Marketing is matching what your Community
Games is offering, with what your target markets
– volunteers and participants – need and want

8. What is Promotion?
• One of the four ‘Ps’ of the marketing mix – the
others being product, place and price
• All about communicating – your Community
Games information – in a way that your target
markets will find attractive
• The benefits of what your event is offering need
to be communicated in a way that matches the
interests and requirements of those target
markets

9. How marketing communications
works
Making potential volunteers, participants and spectators
Awareness aware of your Community Games
Promoting the opportunities and benefits of your
Interest Community Games to individuals of all
ages, families, groups of friends etc.
Showing people how they/their children can benefit from
Desire participating in a Community Games – some will then want
to be a part of it.
Harnessing their desire by telling them how they can be
Action
part of their local Community Games

10. Segmenting the market
• Segmentation – dividing the market into discrete
‘clusters’ or ‘segments’
• The people in the segments have common
characteristics
– This allows us to group them together
• Simple ways of segmenting:
– Age
– Gender

11. Reasons why people volunteer at
Events
• Enjoying the excitement of events
• Not having the time for a long-term volunteering
commitment
• Having particular event-related skills
• Wanting to gain event management experience
• Wanting to improve their CV without making a
regular commitment

12. Reasons why people might come
along to a Community Games
• To try something new
• To try something they have not done for a long time
– maybe not since school
• To do something with friends/family
• To get to know local people/find out what is going on
locally
• To compete in an activity they are good at
• To do something that sounds exciting
• To take part in an event connected with London 2012
• To watch a family member/friend compete

13. What to say to your audiences
• Products have Features and Benefits:
– A Feature is a part (normally a technical element) of the
(Community Games) offer, e.g. a range of come and try activities
– An Advantage is what it gives you, e.g. the opportunity to try
many/a number of new activities in a day
– A Benefit is what it delivers, e.g. the chance to find an activity
you like free of charge
• People don’t buy features, but benefits
• Provide proof – quotes from participants/volunteers
• To find the benefits, run the ‘so what?’ test

14. What to say to your audiences
• Put the benefits in order
– Which benefits will have most appeal?
– What will have less?
– Which is the main benefit?
• The one that will be most likely to have most appeal
• The one that will have the most impact
• Take the main benefit and turn into the Games’
overall ‘offer’
• Convert this offer into a ‘powerful’ headline

15. How to reach your audiences
• Flyers
• E-marketing
• Advertising
• Press releases
• Posters
• Word of mouth
• Associated events
• Websites
• Social marketing

16. What to include in your
promotions
• Essential information to include:
– The benefits
– The proof
– When, where, how much?
– Clear call to action
– Defined time limit

17. Producing a Marketing Plan
• Objectives:
– To recruit x volunteers
– To attract x participants
– To attract x spectators
– To achieve x level of media coverage (press, local
radio, regional TV)

18. Producing a Marketing Plan
• Note the objective
• List all the tasks that would be involved in completing it
(in any order)
• Roughly order the tasks into time based sequence
• Identify who will lead and when each task will need to be
done by (some tasks can be performed concurrently)
• Assign some resources if appropriate
• Add in success measures
• Schedule them as accurately as possible to fit with the
overall Community Games project plan

19. Producing a Marketing Plan
Objective:
No. Task Who When £ Success
Measures

20. (CSP) Perspective

21. Support Programme
• The website – www.communitygames.org.uk – with
lots of helpful ideas, resources and templates
• A page for your Games on the website
• The toolkit – any updates will be available to
download from the website
• CSP Lead Officer
• Organising Your Community Games free workshop
• A regular newsletter with information and news on
what’s happening elsewhere

22. Support Programme
• A page for your Games on the website
• 400 personalised postcards for your Games
• 10 personalised posters for your Games
• T-shirts for your volunteers
• Certificates and stickers for your participants
• Leaflets to give out to direct participants to the
survey – they could win £100 of high street vouchers
• The loan of banners and bunting for use at your
Games

23. Outcomes
By the end of the workshop, you will be able to:
• Understand the links between Community
Games and the London 2012 Olympic and
Paralympic Games
• Understand how to reach the key audiences
and what to say to them
• Produce a marketing plan for your
Community Games
• Identify where to go for additional help and
support

24. Summary
• Make use of the Community Games toolkit
• Access the Support Programme
• Share your ideas and challenges with other
Community Games via the website
GOOD LUCK!