Alisha Durgin

The BCA Does

the ABC’s:Marketing

Burlington City Arts’

Youth Summer

Programs

THE CHALLENGE & THE NEED

• Increase the amount of registrants for BCA’syouth summer programs

• Increase the awareness of the availability of scholarships for youth summer programs increase awareness of its affordability

RESEARCH• Intercept interviews

• Survey Monkey

• Secondary research provided by BCA

• Competitor analysis

RESEARCH

RESULTSIntercept Interviews: 18 adults, 12 children

Survey Monkey: 28 people

- Moms tend to have the most influence over which summer camps a child attends.

- Top factors parents look for in a camp: relates to child’s interests, fun, affordable, and fits into parents’ schedule.

- 15% of total adult interviewees said their children had been to a BCA camp in the past, 85% said no.

- Competition was primarily sport camps (like UVM and Nike sport camps) and recreation day camps, but also educational, music, and theatre camps, along with programs like Girl and Boy Scouts.

- Found affordability was not as big as an issue as BCA thought– more parents found the scheduling of the BCA camps a conflict or their children just didn’t have an interest in it.

- Surprising amount of people actually didn’t know about the BCA.

ACTION ITEMS &

DELIVERABLES

• Marketing campaign

• Event outline

• Press release

• Newspaper pitch

• Blog post example

• Social media guide

• Poster mock-ups

• General advice & input

THE PLANEvents

• BCA Gallery Presents: Artists of our Future– Hold a kids’ night at the BCA Gallery where kids of greater Burlington elementary

schools can choose an art piece to have displayed in the gallery for a night.

• Pre-existing gallery exhibits– Have a table at pre-existing gallery exhibits that has work from past

participants in the kids’ programs, camp program guides, scholarship information, and a BCA representative on hand to promote and inform gallery visitors of the programs and their benefits.

THE PLANSchool Outreach

• After school programs

– Offer a BCA professional instructor to provide weekly lessons to give kids a taste of the BCA kids’ camps’ offerings and spark an interest in the arts.

• In-class guest artists

– Get in contact with art teachers of the greater Burlington area and offer the teachings of a BCA professional artist for a day.

• Demo classes

– Offer demo classes at the BCA and spread the word using school outreach.

• Other

– Work with teachers to link a particular art program to current class assignments, like connecting pottery to studies on the Mayans, Aztecs, or Egyptians.

THE PLANMedia Outreach

• Newspapers– Including calendar listings

• TV stations

• Social media– Twitter, Facebook, Google+, blog, and website

THE PLANBranding

– BCA has very recognizable branding and being an arts center, design and branding aesthetics is incredibly important to the BCA.

– Consider altering their branding strategies slightly when dealing with kid-centric audiences, including parents and the children themselves.

– Some areas where BCA can afford to kid-friendly-ize their branding is on a youth-centered section of their website and a poster campaign targeted towards kids and parents.

THE COLLATERAL• In-Depth Marketing Campaign Outline

• 2 Media Pitches

• 1 Press Release

• Social Media Calendar: Twitter and Facebook

• The Museum of KidTemporary Art Event Outline

Mark

eting

Ca

mpa

ign

Outlin

e

Media Pitches

Pre

ss R

ele

ase

Social Media

Guide

Example Facebook Post

Event Outline

AFTERTHOUGHTS• Never got to finish poster

mockups but still suggested idea of a “kid-friendly” branding approach shown through approachable and fun posters

• Submitted all work to Eric; although work may not be used this season, could be helpful for next season’s marketing