Makesportfun.com blog

• why sports and cultural enterprises in the South East have adopted sophisticated online strategies
• how they have sourced online media expertise
• the relationship between the enterprise and its media supplier
• what audience, stakeholder and/or commercial return has resulted from that online investment.

Great marketing from Northampton Trampoline Centre!

Posted: 05 Nov 2008 08:49 AM CST

Northampton Trampoline Centre is one of the fastest growing clubs in Northamptonshire, and its no surprise when you see the approach they’ve taken to marketing themselves.

Young gymnasts from Northampton appeared in an episode of LazyTown, one of the most popular programmes on children's TV recently.

A film crew from the CBeebies TV show spent a day at the Northampton Trampoline Centre in Moulton Park in July and the footage was shown in late October.

Harvey Smith, business development director of the Trampoline Academy said: "All the children involved were elated.

"They could not believe they were going to be in a production and were all chuffed to bits.

"The film crew took over the centre for a day and it was really good seeing how everything was done. LazyTown has certain themes and this episode is about trampolining. They did an interview with two gymnasts and they showed them the basic skills of trampolining."

All the children who took part were aged under 11 years old and were part of the young development squad which trains six to eight hours a week.

Mr Smith said it was not the first time trampolinists from the academy had appeared on TV, as gymnasts had also appeared in episodes of Blue Peter and You Bet.

The academy has gained accreditation from British Gymnastics and Sport England. It is a premier club in the UK with a world-class coaching team producing success at national, European, World and Olympic level.

The academy aims to offer the correct development and training for members of all ages from the grass roots development programme to world class level

In this year's European Championships, three gymnasts from the academy, Jaime Moore, James Higgins and Steve Walsh were finalists in the senior categories.

If you would like to find out more details about the Northampton Trampoline Centre go to www.ntga.co.uk or call Northampton 01604 645 120.

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Wheels of Recovery

Posted: 28 Oct 2008 04:05 AM CDT

Here's a great example of a project achieving social aims with sport, using marketing to get more members and doing it all with no budget except what they could get through grants.

Ali Mordey is a project worker at the Haringey Advisory Group on Alcohol and also my running partner and a good friend of mine. He set up a group called Wheels of Recovery to help people recovering from addiction through sport. Talk about a hard to reach group!

Good press asides, I think what we can learn from this is how Ali promoted his group through networking and helping other organisations to reach their goals too. For instance London Cycle Campaign, Haringey Advisory Group on Alcohol and local councils. This has allowed him to get huge uptake of his scheme very quickly because others were keen to promote it for him - it helped them to reach their own goals.

To see what I mean just read this and this newspaper clippings and read about it in more depth in this trade magazine (click on the photo and then turn the pages with the right hand arrow to page 7, double click on the page to zoom in, and double click and pull to move the page around).

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Change4Life is coming

Posted: 17 Oct 2008 05:42 AM CDT

This week we have another guest post from the Change4Life team. Change4Life is the English movement for moving more, eating a bit better and living a lot longer. I've written about it before, and I'm a big fan. This is becuase it aims to make activity and eating well fun, easy and popular. Read it now!

If you would like to understand more about how to use the Change4Life campaign in your area then please get in contact - john@makesportfun.com or 020 3239 8824.

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Sports and business - what can we learn?

Posted: 06 Oct 2008 05:54 AM CDT

Although I do borrow some techniques from social marketing I actually think sports marketing can learn more from small business marketing. We're all about getting people using your small service again and again. You provide a service for someone who wants to compete, lose weight, have fun, meet people, etc. and they pay some money and effort to come and play with you.

The best definition of small business marketing I've ever heard is getting someone with a need to know, like and trust you (John Jantsch - Duct Tape Marketing). In sport there's sometimes an assumption that of course people will like and trust us - we're helping them to play sport after all! What is important to remember is that not everyone has had completely positive experiences with sport. It can actually be a bit intimidating for people to turn up to a sports club, when they're new to it, or are out of shape or even if they've played the sport before - if they're out of practice.

About two years ago I decided I was going to improve my mile time in running. Now I think of myself as a decent runner - not amazing, but certainly above average. I've run competitively since I was 13. I've been in various cross-country clubs. I'd run a marathon, a few half marathons and a couple of triathlons. But I'd never done any serious track running.

I remember when I was first going to train with the Highgate Harriers - I was hugely nervous. I didn't know what kind of trainers to wear. I hadn't trained for 3 months because of a twisted ankle and I didn't know if I'd be fast enough, or if I'd get laughed at. When I got there I wasn't sure who I was supposed to talk to, or if I could just join in. No-one came and said hi, it was all very insular. In fact the whole thing was nerve-wracking, and I was a grown man who had run for years! There was nothing unpleasant on their behalf, in fact they're a great running club, but they just thought it was easy for someone new to turn up.

This is why a key part of the marketing systems I help sports clubs, centres and NGBs put into place are about making the step from hearing about a club or class to becoming a regular member into a series of baby steps.

• make it obvious when the beginner opportunities are
• make sure people know where to go
• give people lots of info in advance about what they should wear and what will be expected of them
• maybe provide a training programme for people who want to get in slightly better shape before their first class
• let them know who to ask for on their first session
• make sure that when they turn up existing members are friendly and introduce themselves

It's not rocket science, but it is important. All these little steps give people a chance to get to know and trust you before they even show up to their first session.

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10 copies of big pocket guide to social marketing

Posted: 01 Oct 2008 05:46 AM CDT

If you would like one of these copies then please email me your address - my email's john@makesportfun.com - and I'll post one to you.

While I'm on the topic - the National Social Marketing Centre has a load of other resources that are worth looking at - their website is www.nsms.org.uk.

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New books for old

Posted: 25 Sep 2008 03:35 AM CDT

In order to help people understand the Make Sport Fun system and how they can use it to market sport and activity I've only gone and written a book on the subject! I've creatively called it Make Sport Fun - how to market sport and activity.

I'm taking a slightly different approach to the norm with books. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. However, instead of waiting till it's just right before making it available I'm going to be making updates and changes each week, and uploading the new version to www.makesportfun.com. This means that every time I learn something new, test sports marketing more thoroughly or develop a new sports marketing tool, you'll be able to take advantage of that by simply downloading the latest version the next week. So instead of you having to read all the latest research, test everything yourself or figure things out from scratch . . . the Make Sport Fun team is doing it for you.

Obviously when you find any mistakes in there you can just let me know and I'll change them too.

If you prefer a hard copy of the book then that will be available in a few weeks. You'll be able to order it from www.amazon.co.uk (but not quite yet).

Anyway, enough talking. You can download the book for free here.

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How to reach your goals

(especially if your goal is to get people playing sport)

Posted: 15 Sep 2008 11:20 AM CDT

Whenever I do any marketing the first thing I do is to write a plan. The old adage holds true - fail to plan and you plan to fail. Well, I was once taught that in order to get to where you want to be you only have to do 4 things:

1. Figure out where you are now
2. Figure out where you want to be
3. Figure out how to get there
4. Do it

And you know what? Marketing's just the same.

I'm going to make an assumption here, and I'll admit it's a biggy. I'm going to assume that you've got a club/ centre/ sport that people would want to play if only you could market it to them better. If you've not got that then you're going to need to do some more work. Having made that assumption . . .

Where are you now?

How many people are currently coming to your sports centre/ club/ walking group? What are you really good at? What do you suck at? What opportunities do you have? What could cause you trouble? How much money have you got? Who do you know who could help? What do people think of your club/ centre/ group? How many people know about it? What kind of activities do you have?

Where do you want to be?

Who's your ideal customer

Who are you trying to attract (gender, age, how much money do they have?)What's your objective

How many people do you want to come to your sports centre? When do you want them to come? How much do you want them to pay you? - if anything?

How are you going to get there?

Key messages

What are you going to tell them about your club/ centre/ group/ sport? (hint - it should be that it's fun, easy and popular to come and play, though the specific words will vary) Media

How are you going to tell them it?

Do it

How much time is this going to require? Who's doing what? Who's going to make sure people do what they're supposed to do? How are you going to check that you're on track to meet your goal? Who's going to change the plan if you're not on track?That's it. Simple - huh? It is simple, though that doesn't mean it's easy.It's like with many things, it doesn't take long to master the basics, but to get really good at it can take a bit of work. Luckily you don't need to be fantastic at marketing, you just need to be good enough to reach your goals.

Well - help is at hand. Make Sport Fun is developing tools for helping with each of these stages, and I'll give you more detail on that soon.

Fun and freedom - what children say about play

Posted: 08 Sep 2008 07:39 AM CDT

A report based on tens of thousands of children's views found that fun and freedom are what children say about play.

Areas which encourage them to socialise are crucial elements in good play provision. Opportunities to engage in active outdoor play were the strongest and most consistent messages from the youngsters. The popularity of parks and open spaces was partly dependent on the activities and equipment they contain, but for most of the children being outside in a natural space is important in its own right.

However, barriers to play continue to exist. The most commonly identified single barrier to children enjoying play was physical distance. For disabled children in particular, accessibility problems can stop them going out and having fun with their friends and peers. Other barriers include road traffic, bullying, peer-racism, stranger danger, and negative adult attitudes towards them socialising, for example, by erecting ‘no ball games’ signs.

The report was prepared by the Children’s Commissioner for England and Play England. See the original article here on Play England's site.

Download Fun and Freedom: What children say about play in a sample of play strategy consultations

How to get match funding

Posted: 01 Sep 2008 09:48 AM CDT

Sports sponsorship schemes Sports Match and the National Sports Foundation are currently on the look out for more projects from grassroots sport and business.

SportsMatchDesigned to encourage new or additional sponsorship investment from businesses, trusts and private individuals, SportsMatch, funded by Sport England, offers pound for pound matched funding to sporting stakeholders for projects that encourage sports participation at grass roots level.

The scheme’s awards criteria have been amended to provide greater flexibility for applicants. Partnership funding from trusts and private individuals is eligible for match funding in addition to monies from companies. The minimum award is ?1,000 and the maximum is ?50,000. If you are a school the minimum award is ?500 (the maximum is still ?50,000) and your project may be a revenue scheme or, in limited cases, a capital project. Sponsorship may be in cash or in-kind.

All projects applying in 2008/09 will need to ensure that their project is able to spend and deliver their entire grant funding by 31st March 2009. Private investment may be used to sustain projects after this date; however the private investment funding will need to be in the applicants' bank account from the beginning of the project.

Please go to the Sportsmatch website: www.sportsmatch.co.uk in the first instance, where you can also apply on-line. Alternatively please contact Sport England on 08458 508 508 for all other Sportsmatch queries.

National Sports Foundation Funding OpportunitiesThe National Sports Foundation can match, pound for pound, commercial business sponsorship or funding from trusts / private donors for a sporting project that aims to increase participation and/or improve performance at grassroots level, funding projects over ?50,000 . Projects may be a revenue scheme, a capital project or a mixture of both. Sponsorship may be in cash or in-kind.

The NSF has three priority funding themes:

Fit for Sport – projects to improve both physical and human infrastructure for community clubs. This will include investing in clubs, coaches and volunteers in local communities 2012 Kids – building on the success of the Olympics, projects to encourage children and young people to take up sport; and Women into Sport – projects to increase female participation in sport, including providing coaching and support for female teamsIn addition to this the National Sports Foundation will only consider match funding projects which deliver one or more of the following outcomes:

Increased participation in sporting activity Increased club membership Increased numbers of qualified and active coaches delivering instruction in sport Increased numbers of active volunteers supporting community sportApplications should aim to demonstrate how they impact on Sport England’s ‘Grow, Sustain and Excel’ outcomes as outlined in Sport England’s 2008-2011 Strategy. The strategy can be downloaded from Sport England’s website: www.sportengland.org.

What is the walking network?

Posted: 29 Aug 2008 10:42 AM CDT

Walk England is a new organisation that brings together everyone working to promote walking. Its aim is to encourage and support more people to choose to walk in England as a way to be healthy, travel and relax. It links all the sectors who have, or should have, walking at their heart : Transport, Health, Education, Recreation/Sport, Urban Design and Environment.

The Walk England website provides information for the individual about walking (highlighting links to key organisations such as The Ramblers, Living Streets, Sustrans and others) and a networking facility for professionals whose remit encompasses walking.

If you would like to engage with people from a broader walking agenda to add value to your work, join today at www.walkengland.org.uk. It takes less than 5 min to join the ‘walking network’. You can then post your own questions and advice, find other professionals in your region and make new partnerships, discover more about the other sectors and what they have to offer to the walking agenda, as well as discuss current issues and share success stories.

Make Sport Fun - play by the rules

Posted: 11 Aug 2008 02:41 AM CDT

It seems the Australians are following the same philosophy as I am with my Make Sport Fun business. We should all do our best to Make Sport Fun.

I've just heard that our friends down under are running a national campaign encouraging parents to make sport fun and play by the rules.

Minister for Sport and Recreation, Kon Vatskalis, said ‘Play by the Rules’ is a national campaign developed by each State and Territory to remind parents that when watching their children play sport the main goal is to have fun.

Sport is an important part of our great Territory lifestyle, especially for our children, but sometimes parents can take their children’s sport too seriously,” said Mr Vatskalis.

“Thankfully, it is only a small percentage of spectators that are ‘bad sports’, but unfortunately their negative impact on the game and the children can be quite significant.

“This new campaign is all about reminding players, coaches, officials and spectators to ‘Play by the Rules’ and make sport an enjoyable experience for everyone.”

“These ads focus on the pressure some parents place on their children in sport and recreation,” said Mr Vatskalis. “We want sport to be something kids enjoy and want to do, not something they feel intimidated by.”

And of course this approach doesn't have to end with parents and children, it can equally apply to everyone.

For more information you can see their campaign website.

Making sport fun requires training for parents

Posted: 09 Aug 2008 04:07 AM CDT

As many people as are inspired by the Olympics this summer there will undoubtedly also be complaints of anxiety and stress from young athletes wanting to quit sports.

Parents and coaches can make youth sports a fun, learning experience or a nightmare, according to sport psychologists at the University of Washington. But to achieve the former, sports officials and organizations must provide more training programs, especially for parents, according to Frank Smoll and Ron Smith, who have been studying the youth sport experience and designing programs to improve it for a quarter of a century.

"There is no problem in getting coaches to attend educational workshops. The challenge is convincing organizations to offer parent workshops and getting parents to come," said Smoll. "Many youth sport organizations are saying, 'Yes, we are interested' in offering these programs, but that's it. They are not delivering them to parents.

"There has been a drive in the last 20 years to teach coaches how to create a healthy psychological environment for young athletes. A culture has been created and there is an expectation that coaches will receive training. Unfortunately, too many moms and pops are all too willing to assume they don't have a role in youth sports. However, they should support what trained coaches are trying to do. Parents and coaches working together are a powerful combination," he said.

The UW researchers recently demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach in a study of 151 boys and girls playing in two different basketball leagues. The average age of the athletes was 11.6 years. Coaches in one league participated in a training workshop emphasizing a Mastery Approach to Coaching developed by Smoll and Smith.

This method emphasizes teaching youngsters about personal improvement, giving maximum effort, having fun, sportsmanship and supporting their teammates, rather than a winning-at-all-costs approach. Parents participated in a companion Mastery Approach to Parenting in Sports workshop that explained how to apply the mastery principles and how they can reduce performance anxiety in their children. Coaches and parents in the second, or control, league were not offered the workshops.

Pre-season questionnaires showed little difference in the levels of performance anxiety among the boys and girls in the two leagues. However, by the end of the season athletes playing for trained coaches and whose parents attended the workshop reported that their levels of physical stress, worry and concentration difficulties on the court had decreased. Players in the other league, however, reported that their anxiety had increased over the course of the season.

"This combined approach helps both parents and coaches to create a mastery-oriented climate," said Smoll. "We don't ignore the importance of winning because it is an important objective in all sports. But we place winning in its proper perspective. As a result, young athletes exposed to the mastery climate were able to concentrate more and they had less worries about their performance. Their bodies also reacted more positively. They were less tense, had fewer queasy stomachs and they didn't experience feeling tight muscles."

"Fear of failure is an athlete's worst enemy, and the sport situation can easily create this type of anxiety," said Smith. "The encouraging thing is that brief, one-time workshops for coaches and parents can give them the keys to decreasing pressure and increasing enjoyment. And an added bonus is that athletes who are not fearful of failure typically perform better. Given a few key guidelines, coaches and parents can be a winning combination for kids." ----------------------------Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.

Calling all volunteers to help England Change4Life

Posted: 31 Jul 2008 01:27 PM CDT

This week's post is from a guest author - the Change 4 Life team from the Department of Health.

Change4Life is a new mass movement aiming to improve children’s diets and levels of physical activity. Millions of children face an increased risk of diabetes, cancer, heart disease and depression in later life because of their lifestyles now.

Supported by the Department of Health, Change4Life will invite every family in England to eat well, move more, live longer. It will help parents by providing information, tips and support to empower them to make better food choices for their children and encourage activities like outdoor play, walking and cycling.

Fortunately we are not launching from a standing start. There are already many examples of successful initiatives around the country, run by committed, public-spirited professionals and volunteers. So Change4Life will support these and help share their best practice with the rest of the country. Change4Life will also introduce new ideas and opportunities to get involved, working in collaboration with Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), Local Authorities, schools and voluntary groups, as well as major commercial and media partners.

From walking buses to cookery classes for young mums to sports classes for pre-school kids, there is great work being done. That’s why the Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson, is personally writing to every identified local activist whose efforts encourage healthier eating and activity amongst children in their locality, asking for their support.

Change4Life will be launched to the general public early in 2009. Their priority now is to ask volunteers to add their support. Your experience and energy will be crucial to the success of Change4Life.

To register your interest in becoming a local partner of Change4Life please visit www.nhs.uk/change4life or call 0300 123 3434. A member of the Change4Life team will then be able to update you on ways that your neighbourhood can benefit from the national 4Life campaign.

Please can you forward this information on to your networks via your newsletters, websites or by email. We are committed to getting hundreds of thousands of local organisations on board with this national campaign.

Free marketing consultancy for sports centres

Posted: 24 Jul 2008 11:40 AM CDT

I have been told time and again that sports centres need help with their marketing. They don't have the expertise in house, they don't have the time to learn how to do it and they don't have the budget to get someone else to do it.

So I thought I'd do something about that. I've spent the past six months developing a marketing system specifically for sports centres. Nothing is set in stone yet, but there will probably be a basic and a premium version of this offering.

The premium package will probably consist of:

• Initial phone session to understand their objectives
• Personalised marketing plan written for them
• Practical support with implementing the plan
• Ongoing email and phone support

All work done will be based on the latest research into effective sports marketing, including:

• Sport England's segmentation work
• Further communications research the Henley Centre and I are doing with specific segments
• Best practice as identified by the Department of Health's 2-year research into their new brand

There will be support tools available, which I am currently developing with and for NHS London:

• Online design tools
• Online activity search tools for the public
• Marketing planning tools using GIS mapping

To support sports centres further I am publishing a book which will be available soon via Amazon. I am also building whole new sections to my website with simple-to-use information.

All this will mean that a sports centre can run effective marketing with almost no budget, even if they have no experience in marketing.

Now for the interesting bit. I need to do some user testing, so I'm offering the premium package for free to 5 sports centres. To enter please email "free premium package" to john@makesportfun.com. If you don't work in a sports centre then please pass this on to someone who does.

National healthy lives campaign - how it can help you

Posted: 12 Jul 2008 12:29 PM CDT

The Department of Health have been working on a national campaign for 2 years now. What they’ve found is that people don’t want the government telling them how to live their lives (what a shock) but would appreciate a health department supported people’s movement (enter music from The Life of Brian . . . )

What does this mean? It means that the Department of Health is putting ?75 million over 3 years into promoting healthy living, but doing it in a way which fits with real people. Supporting existing projects, programmes, schemes, community centres and real people. I've seen the presentations and I'm convinced - I think they've done a really good job with the research, with their thinking and with the design.

It's supposed to kick off with Gordon Brown announcing it in the last week of July. This will probably get decent coverage on Channel 4 news, but not much in the Sun. It’s intended as a way of getting all the right organisations aware that this is happening but not going large with the public as yet. This announcement will probably involve a showcase meeting involving a supermarket, a national paper, the minister for sport and various other

This announcement will be followed by Department of Health getting in touch with involved in sport, physical activity, food and health generally. They want to keep everyone informed and get feedback. This should take place throughout the rest of July and August.

Publicity will start in the Autumn with PR of existing schemes, programmes and projects. So if you want to get publicity for anything you're doing then watch this space and I’ll tell you how to get your details to them.

Then in January they’ll be launching TV ads. I've seen the first draft of the storyboards for that, but I imagine with it being so far off it's likely to change a few times between now and then.

I'll be able to bring you more detail on how you can benefit from this over the upcoming weeks and months, but for now here's some headlines.

• you will be able to use the Change 4 Life campaign branding if it's helpful
• they'll be producing packs for partners. I'm currently helping them identify what people would like so if you have any ideas then email me at john@makesportfun.com
• they'll be producing a CRM system (customer relationship management) which will make it easy for people to find their local services - this is a chance for you to promote what you've got
• they'll be doing case studies of hundreds of great existing schemes, and turning 4 or 5 of them into TV ads. If you want publicity for your work then this is a great opportunity

The biggest thing though is that this should be raising the profile of sport and activity and getting people thinking about it more.

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What's happening in London?

Posted: 01 Jul 2008 07:05 AM CDT

For the past 6 months I've been working on a pan-London campaign. This is all about simplifying the messages around sport, physical activity, active recreation and active travel and improving the quality of marketing in London. Simple, right?

To explain what we've managed to achieve so far I've recorded these 5 short videos (about 2-3 mins each) which can give you a flavour of what's been going on.

Here's the links to the 5 videos.