New Member Campaign approved
New Member Campaign approved
The proposed levy of £2.75 per head to fund the 2010/11 marketing campaign was debated just prior to the Business Meeting at the Annual Conference in Bournemouth, following a presentation by Peter Davey, chairman of the Membership Development & Retention Committee.
A panel - comprising Peter; Marketing, PR & Communications Committee chairman, Tony Bacon; District 1070 Membership Chairman, David Morris; and myself - answered questions posed by delegates.
I am delighted to report that the levy was then approved by substantial majority vote during the Business Meeting itself.
The plans for this campaign, again primarily targeting men and women aged 30-55, will evolve with the help of districts right across RIBI, who will help to identify groups of clubs - within towns, cities, conurbations and even larger geographic regions - that would best benefit from marketing support. This could well involve districts working together if these areas cross district boundaries.
This means identifying:
- groups/clusters active, dynamic, as well as 'younger', clubs (where campaign respondents are most likely to feel more at home);
- areas with active local business community groups (where potential members can be reached in good numbers);
- areas where marketing communications channels (advertising, PR, direct marketing, web marketing, etc) can be deployed cost-effectively. (This initial identification work, and subsequent implementation, will be carried out mainly by my department, sometimes using outside specialists.)
An additional key ingredient will be evidence of a real desire to be part of this campaign, of strong leadership and commitment at both club and district level. Experience of the 2009/10 campaign has shown that working with potential members is time-consuming and involves hard work if these men and women are to become members. And the campaign will be more 'localised' than last year's - so local effort is a must.
We then need to see how much of GB&I we can cover within a relatively small budget - £150,000 - for a 'national' organisation.
More details to follow shortly...
David Bryant
RIBI Head of Marketing & Communications
Monday, 19 April 2010