Lumberjack Days Marketing Communications Plan

Transcription

1 Lumberjack Days Marketing Communications Plan Client: Discover Stillwater Advertising Agency: 720 Media Launch Date: Jan 1, 2017 Situation Analysis Discover Stillwater, otherwise known as the Stillwater/Oak Park Heights Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB), is the government tourism organization for Stillwater, MN. Stillwater has a population of over 18,000 people and rests on the banks of the St. Croix River, just 30 minutes east of the Twin Cities. It was founded in 1848, one year before Minnesota became a territory, and is considered the birthplace of Minnesota. Discover Stillwater presents multiple festivals and events throughout the year, many of which are created in partnership with local businesses. The most popular event presented by Discover Stillwater is Lumberjack Days, an annual three-day community and music festival held mid-july. The purpose of the event is to celebrate Stillwater as the birthplace of Minnesota and its historic logging industry. It includes a parade, lumberjack demonstrations, beer gardens and live music. The most similar regional event is New Richmond Fun Fest in Wisconsin, a four-day summer community festival that has been running for over 10 years. Lumberjack Days was initially created in 1934 but only lasted six years until a local business owner who wanted to capitalize on Stillwater s rich history resurrected it in Since then, Lumberjack Days had a history of attracting over 30,000 visitors from across the Midwest thanks to the performances from wellknown musical acts including Cheap Trick, REO Speedwagon and Lynyrd Skynyrd. However, in 2011 the Stillwater City Council canceled the event after the festival coordinator, Dave Eckberg, was arrested on tax evasion charges, some of which were related to the event. The Stillwater City Council placed a two-year moratorium on the event in order to assess resident s reactions and to stem off controversy. In 2014, Discover Stillwater partnered with The Locals, a Stillwater event coordinator company, to bring the event back and it has been running ever since.

2 Lumberjack Days has strong brand recognition among Minnesotans and has the support of 66% of Stillwater residents. Since the partnership between Discover Stillwater and The Locals, Lumberjack Days has maintained an average of 18,000 event visitors over the three-day festival and has had the support of around 30 local business partners. Discover Stillwater and The Locals have used their opportunity to add more family friendly events and keep it community focused. This year s event will be held from July and will contain nightly live music including headliners The Suburbs and Charlie Parr, BINGO, Karaoke and the beloved lumberjack demonstrations. Overall, Lumberjack Days is in a strong position to become the most popular summer festival in Minnesota. With this in mind, the following pages outline a proactive campaign to achieve this goal. Research Primary Research In order to obtain effective primary research on Lumberjack Days, surveys will be sent out to local Stillwater residents and business owners in order to gauge their feelings around the event and its impact on the community. Surveys will also be sent out to regional residents and businesses located within a 25-mile span of Stillwater. We will also utilize focus groups and interviews of event volunteers, citizens and business owners. We plan to focus our demographic for the surveys and focus groups on men and women over the age of 18. Secondary Research We will gather statistics on Lumberjack Days prior to the tax scandal and compare them to current numbers in order to see what is working and what may need to be changed. We will also obtain a variety of information on similar top rated summer festivals located in the Midwest including visitor statistics, online reviews and social media activity. Objectives Primary Objective By July 2017, we will increase the attendance of Lumberjack Days concert by five percent and increase the number of event sponsors by 10 percent by promoting the event through advertising and social media and highlighting its strong support from residents and businesses. Secondary Objective Within the next five years, we will grow the event to become the top summer festival in Minnesota by recruiting strong musical acts and growing its recognition across the state as a family friendly event. Strategies Increase awareness of Lumberjack Days events and concerts through social media Create engaging advertising to generate enthusiasm among our target audiences Entice local businesses to partner with Lumberjack days through a strong sponsorship program that rewards large donors.

3 Messages Lumberjack Days is a unique festival that can be enjoyed by the entire family. With events spanning from music to hot air balloon rides you can be sure to find something everyone will love. Lumberjack Days is a trustworthy event that has the support of residents, businesses and local government. It is under new leadership that has a passion to create festival that truly highlights Stillwater s history and community. Lumberjack Days is an exciting event that has the ability to become the top Minnesota festival. Audiences Internal Audience Discover Stillwater The Locals Volunteers Sponsors Vendors External Audiences Eastern Minnesota residents Stillwater residents Prospective sponsors Prospective volunteers Stillwater area businesses Prospective guests Stillwater City Council Tactics Increase awareness of Lumberjack Days events and concerts through social media Post and interact with Lumberjack Days multiple social media accounts at least four times a week. The implementation of a monthly social media calendar will ensure that posts leading up to the festival are consistent and cohesive across all channels. Deadline: Feb. 1, 2017 Launch Lumberjack Days specific hashtags on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to bolster engagement and promote the sharing of related posts by the target audience. Deadline: Feb. 1, 2017 Create advertising to generate enthusiasm among our target audiences Utilize local and regional traditional media to create an advertising campaign that will generate enthusiasm prior to the start of Lumberjack Days. Consider advertising within the Pioneer Press, Star Tribune, City Pages magazine and other local television and radio stations. Deadline: March 1, 2017 Engage with the audience for the span of the event by creating a digital advertising campaign with a focus on social media channels. This campaign will utilize promoted tweets on Twitter, Facebook

4 ad targeting and effective SEO. These methods can be used to quickly analyze and target specific audiences throughout the event. Deadline: July 1, 2017 Entice local businesses to partner with Lumberjack days through a strong sponsorship program that rewards large donors Update the current sponsorship program to give increased benefits and rewards for local businesses. This will build a stronger relationship with the Stillwater businesses and will create a stronger incentive for companies to partner with Lumberjack Days. Benefits will include: prominent advertising throughout the event, reduced prices for returning sponsors and first choice for vendor locations. Measurement and Evaluation Practices to Implement Social Media Content Analysis o All owned channels should be continually evaluated to insure all content is consistent with both short-term and long-term goals and is effectively engaging with target audiences. o Evaluate social media statistics using online tools such as Klout, Facebook Insights and Google Analytics to maximize the social strategy. o Evaluated bi-monthly Traditional Advertising Metrics o Evaluate the effectiveness of advertising across all traditional mediums including newspapers, magazines and radio spots to ensure budget and ads are targeting our audience in the most effective ways possible. o Evaluate using audience reach, ad response, and total impressions o Evaluated quarterly Surveys and Focus Groups of Target Audiences o Utilize surveys and focus groups to constantly evaluate audience interest and awareness of Lumberjack Days and specific events within the festival. o Evaluate using online and traditional survey methods as well as focus groups of multiple members of our target audience o Evaluated yearly Event Statistics o Measure the number of visitors, vendors, volunteers and sponsors involved with Lumberjack Days as well as the attendance to specific events and they revenue gained from the festival. o Evaluate using attendance records, vendor sales and sponsorship information o Evaluated yearly Budget $3, Contacted multiple Twins Cities based newspapers and magazines in regards to ad placement prices and reach rates. Based on this, we recommend placing ads within The Star Tribune, the Twin Cities number one newspaper with a reach of over 1 million subscribers across the state of Minnesota. They also own one of the top magazines, City Pages which is one of the top sources for events and festivals. Based on this

5 information utilizing The Star Tribune and City Pages print advertising to effectively reach our target audiences. Other options for ad placement include The Pioneer Press, The Stillwater Gazette and Mpls St Paul magazine. These possibilities are strong options however we don t feel that they will have the same effectiveness as The Star Tribune and City Pages when it comes to promoting Lumberjack Days. Staffing Emma Rehnberg Account Manager Jim Johnson Creative Director Sydney Smith Media Director Joe Norris Director of Research Lauren Roe Director of Production Bill Rogers Public Relations Director

6 Appendix The Star Tribune Reach The Star Tribune Family Focused Audience Demographics