In 2000, KeyBank and the City of Tacoma partnered up to develop 10k/5k Run called Bank to Bay as a means to showcase the growth and development of downtown Tacoma and to promote good health, family fun, and community spirit. Key asked us to develop the marketing materials for this race which included print, radio, TV, online, direct mail, in-store merchandising, street banners, race signage and more.
This race has been an extremely popular event in the City of Tacoma. Over the past several years, race entrants has been steady around 1,800 runners. With the addition of a website and a MySpace page this year, we were able to increase entrants to over 2,000 runners. This was a substantial increase for us that we look to build on next year.
W6M: I included this example because Bank to Bay is a great example of an integrated campaign using multiple marketing channels. As mentioned above, we reach our audience through a variety of marketing channels. We realized that our print, radio and TV communications have reached as many people as we could. We now needed to try other mediums to help increase the number of runners for the race. I feel that a successful campaign should incorporate a consistent message, consistent design, frequency of message and multiple channels. You don't need to own each channel.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to mention a little about the design. Our agency has been involved with this race for 8 years now. The challenge is to come up with something new and fresh each year. We also have to keep in mind that the race is for professional runners, as well as first time runners and families with kids. Creatively we have to make sure the design is appealing to all audiences.
The website is also challenging because we don't want to have to do a complete redesign each year. We have therefore designed the site so color bars and photos can be easily updated each year to be consistent with the design of new materials each year.
This race has been an extremely popular event in the City of Tacoma. Over the past several years, race entrants has been steady around 1,800 runners. With the addition of a website and a MySpace page this year, we were able to increase entrants to over 2,000 runners. This was a substantial increase for us that we look to build on next year.
W6M: I included this example because Bank to Bay is a great example of an integrated campaign using multiple marketing channels. As mentioned above, we reach our audience through a variety of marketing channels. We realized that our print, radio and TV communications have reached as many people as we could. We now needed to try other mediums to help increase the number of runners for the race. I feel that a successful campaign should incorporate a consistent message, consistent design, frequency of message and multiple channels. You don't need to own each channel.
How do we plan to continue marketing the race?
Traditional marketing (print, radio and TV) will remain constant, however we would like to promote stronger online by adding a FaceBook page and seeding the site on related sites. The objective behind seeding is to find related running sites and have them link to your site (offering them a reciprocal link is always a nice gesture). If you do a quick search on Google you can currently see who links to your site. Your goal is to make sure people who already link to you have your updated info and to figure out who else should be linking to your site.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to mention a little about the design. Our agency has been involved with this race for 8 years now. The challenge is to come up with something new and fresh each year. We also have to keep in mind that the race is for professional runners, as well as first time runners and families with kids. Creatively we have to make sure the design is appealing to all audiences.
The website is also challenging because we don't want to have to do a complete redesign each year. We have therefore designed the site so color bars and photos can be easily updated each year to be consistent with the design of new materials each year.
