New Member Campaign regions

Over the last few weeks, detailed demographic profile data have been collected on clubs right across Great Britain & Ireland, and in-depth analysis and media planning undertaken, in order to select which regions are most appropriate to carry the New Member Recruitment Campaign's advertising support.

The selection criteria were:

• Sizeable regions with distinct clusters of ‘younger' clubs - with relatively high levels of men and women aged under 55 - and high numbers of clubs overall, that also have a tight geographical ‘fit' of cost-effective regional press and commercial radio media opportunities.

Following a presentation at this week's General Council meeting by David Bryant (Head of Marketing & Communications) and Peter Davey (Chairman of the Membership, Development & Retention Committee), four regions were selected to carry the £150,000 pilot campaign:

• The North West of England - Manchester, Liverpool and the surrounding areas
• Central Scotland - Edinburgh, Glasgow and the surrounding areas
• South Wales and the M4 corridor area around Bristol, Bath and Swindon
  
• The East Midlands of England - the M1 corridor through Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire

Without going into individual cases here, other regions across Great Britain and Ireland matched one or more of the criteria less well than the four selected areas. General Council was shown a comprehensive presentation, focusing on every region across RIBI, and held a detailed ‘question and answer' session about all aspects of the campaign, including clubs' and districts' involvement going forward, before making its decision.

Although this important planning stage of the campaign is now complete, there is much work that needs to be undertaken by the clubs and districts involved, and the Membership, Development & Retention Committee and the Marketing, PR & Communications Committee (chaired by Tony Bacon) will continue to work closely together to help clubs and districts bring this campaign to fruition over the coming weeks.

More details (about aspects such as multi-district campaign ‘task forces', ‘open events', timings, potential-member data management, reporting and evaluation etc) will follow shortly.

David Bryant - Head of Marketing & Communications
25/8/09