YMCA New Year’s Membership Campaign

[ about ]

Building off the prior year’s performance and seeking to refine the approach, membership leaders across the association elected to expand the timing of the New Year’s programming lineup to span the first week of January. A “pay the day” joiner fee campaign was attached to the week full of themed-day events and tours. Marketing drove awareness, attendance, new memberships, and program registration throughout the week.

APPROACH & OUTCOME

Collaboration with leadership at all five YMCA facilities established understanding of their unique offerings and schedules while ensuring coordination of key revenue-driving launches, openings, and events across the entire association. A strategic mix of owned and paid online and offline channels as well as earned media was utilized to leverage the unique value proposition and benefits of Y programs and services to drive awareness, interest, and new member acquisition for Greater Somerset County YMCA across socioeconomically diverse communities. Messaging focus leaned heavily into fitness imagery and messaging for all ages and abilities—featuring local YMCA members and program participants for added connection. Messaging and calls to action were also augmented to deploy a concurrent recapture campaign—targeting past/lapsed members with new, improved, and expanded offerings to prompt them to rejoin the YMCA.

A seamless branded omnichannel campaign comprised of a cadence of tactics was crafted and deployed, including direct mail, email marketing, paid third-party e-blasts, organic social media marketing, geofenced social media advertising, web design (website content and measured use of popups and alert bars), SMS marketing, earned media placement, in-branch signage, digital displays, and boosted (paid) social. Association-wide New Year’s Day daily sales totals (new and recaptured memberships) exceeded set targets and pre-COVID performance. Specifically, sales totals for the first week in January were 215% greater than the same time frame in 2019, underscoring the consistent upward trajectory of Greater Somerset County YMCA’s membership and program revenue—a fiscal leapfrog jump over the challenges COVID-19 closures and restrictions presented for over two years.

The 2024 New Year’s Membership & Program Registration Integrated Marketing Communications Promotional Campaign was executed as part of the broader association-wide integrated marketing communications plan, including campaigns comprised of digital marketing, print advertising, email promotion, organic and paid social media marketing, newsletter content, out-of-home (OOH) and outdoor display ads, targeted direct mail, text messaging, location signage, as well as owned and earned media placements. Overall, these efforts contributed to a 10.48% increase in Greater Somerset County YMCA’s annual membership and programming revenue to $23.6 million.

This New Year’s Day membership event promotion campaign is an example of the player-coach role I pivoted into while at Greater Somerset County YMCA as the organization recovered from impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including significantly reduced staffing levels in areas like marketing, finance, and HR.

MY ROLE

Content Creation, Copywriting, Digital Marketing, Graphic Design, Interdepartmental Liaison, Media Buying, Project Lead & Social Media Marketing

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & TOOLS

• Strategy: Audience Segmentation | Brand Differentiation | Brand Messaging | Brand Stewardship | Brand Storytelling | Campaign Management | Communications Planning | Conceptual Thinking | Content Marketing | Cross-Functional Collaboration | Customer Experience (CX) Strategy | Customer-Centric Mindset | Integrated Marketing Communications | Multi-channel Marketing | Nonprofit Marketing | Organic Social Media | Stakeholder Management | Strategic Marketing & Planning
• Creative & Production: Budget Management | Content Creation | Copywriting | Creative Development | Digital Marketing | Direct Mail | Event Promotion | Graphic Design | Media Buying | Print Production | Social Media Marketing | Vendor Management | Web Design
• Tools: Adobe Acrobat Pro | Adobe InDesign | Adobe Photoshop | Daxko Engage Email/Marketing Automation | Daxko Operations CRM/Member Information System | Facebook | Facebook Events | Facebook Reels | Geotargeted & Geofenced Mobile Ads | Google | Instagram | Instagram Reels | Loomly Social Media Management | MarTech Stack Proficiency | Meta Ads Manager (Facebook & Instagram) | Microsoft Excel | Microsoft Word | SimpleTexting SMS/Text Messaging | TikTok | WordPress Website CMS | X/Twitter