Open day at Gosling Sports Park

Case study – Marketing

Open day at Gosling Sports Park, 08 November 2008.

The Client

Gosling Sports Park is a ground-breaking 50-acre sports and leisure complex in picturesque Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. The Park hosts a diverse range of leisure facilities and is one of the most comprehensive and prestigious developments of its kind in the UK.

Big Wave Media began working with Gosling Sports Park in July 08 and has had a healthy relationship since. Working with Gosling’s Chief Exec, Penny Arnold and key staff, Big Wave drafted an initial launch and 3 month marketing plan/budget. Within the first weeks of July a whole new brand was created for the key Lifestyle (spa and health) area and the launch plan was executed.

The Open Day

The plan provided provision for an Open Day during November. Big Wave created a stand-alone plan for this event as it was key sales period for the site. The initial draft included a wide variety of marketing materials that would give maximum exposure and fall within budget. Included amongst the materials were billboards, train station advertising, Sainsbury till receipt advertising and telephone box advertising to give a broad range of possible activities.

Chief Exec, Penny, reviewed the possible options and having also consulted with staff to use local knowledge she came back with what was felt the most sensible and financial methods.

With a final plan in place the artwork was worked up by Big Wave’s design studio – offering a number of initial options on items such as flyers and posters. Once a style was agreed Big Wave ensured this was followed through and consistent on all other promotion materials. At the same time Big Wave worked behind the scenes to book up the distribution channels and to ensure that delivery of all materials would be smooth and on time.

The Campaign

The detailed campaign included:

External marketing

Splash page on the website

A three part distribution in the local free newspaper

• PART ONE: Two weeks prior to the open day with a general info flyer to 25,000 living within a 15 minute drive-time of the site.
• PART TWO: One week prior with a detailed timetable of activities to the closest 10,000 households.
• PART THREE: Open day week with another general info flyer to the same 25,000 within a 15 minute drive-time

Full newspaper wrap around the cover of the lead local paper (pre-booked by the site)

Onsite marketing

General flyers.

Roadside banner outside the site.

Various sized posters on site.

A-frame display for outside reception.

Results

The open day was attended by over 300 people and while the site could have accommodated more the staff were able to sell nearly 50 memberships in the space of a few hours.

If you would like Big Wave Media to create a detailed plan for a forthcoming event or launch then please contact us on 0845 643 2385 or email info@bigwavemedia.co.uk