Essex ActivAte Marketing and Communications

Marketing has played a vital role within Essex ActivAte, helping to reach new and existing target audiences in Essex and Thurrock to ensure eligible young people and families understand how the programme can support them, enhancing engagement within local communities.

With social media being recognised as a pivotal platform for posting about club bookings, community offerings, blog stories and the benefits of the programme, paid social media on Facebook was implemented ahead of the summer and winter holiday programmes, aiming to increase voucher redemption and club bookings.

With the summer programme offering the most spaces and sessions for young people, two weeks of paid social media went live at the beginning of the programme, to encourage parents to use their Holiday Activities voucher and book onto a local club. The successful ad, helped to increase voucher code redemptions. Featuring different activities children could try at an ActivAte club, the messaging focused on eligibility for free school meals, making it relatable for parents who may require extra support across the holidays.

Identifying the need to continue to support, engage and educate children and families at home, activity and family support booklets were designed and created ahead of each easter, summer and winter HAF programme, to hand out to families at activity clubs.

Children's activity booklets included inspiration around physical activity, crafts and games, baking recipes, library reading focuses and themed education such as sun and water safety. Family booklets offered community support and local offerings, resources, guidance, tips and useful contacts, helping parents around the cost-of-living crisis.

To heighten the Essex ActivAte offer across local communities and schools, digital and print materials have been created for the team and Essex ecosystem, helping to amplify the ActivAte message to their followers, thus reaching new audiences who may have not previously engaged with Active Essex or Essex ActivAte.

A timeless presentation was created for locality leads to showcase at events and to schools, giving an overview on the need for ActivAte in communities and how the programme offers more than just the initial holiday club incentive. Digital flyers are also emailed ahead of programme, for locally trusted organisations to print or send to families/parents, helping to explain what the ActivAte offer is in a parent-friendly way.

To show the impact on families and communities, infographics are designed for stakeholders, local councillors and the Department For Education. Statistics are shown and quotes are embedded within the visual, to highlight the impact on young people and families' development, wellbeing and physical health.

Take a look at the Winter HAF Infographic 2023 here.

Essex ActivAte also recognised a need for generic, brand awareness print materials, for the team to hand out at events in their local communities, also give to schools, stakeholders, partners and providers to further promote the HAF programme. A timeless poster and flyer were designed and printed, answering three focus points that parents may want to initially discover about Essex ActivAte, from previous feedback received, such as:

• What is Essex ActivAte and how can they support me?
• How do I book onto an Essex ActivAte club?
• How else can Essex ActivAte support me?

Over the past year, a number of key partnerships have formed from the Active Essex team heightening the programme into communities, and local organisations promoting the HAF offer, which has helped to amplify Essex ActivAte, and in return, reach new audiences.

Key partnerships have helped to raise the profile on Essex ActivAte programmes, as well as adopt and enhance three key focuses such as physical activity, enrichment and food education.

Some key partnerships that Essex ActivAte work directly with include Community Dental Services, Bikeability, Public Health Team, WONDE, Active Essex Foundation, Ministry of Food, Essex Police and many more.

Locally trusted organisations have also created many indirect partnerships to help heighten the Essex ActivAte offer and support and educate young people such as with local supermarkets, food banks, enrichment providers, animal encounters, inflatable companies, food providers and childrens entertainers.

With schools being a pivotal part of driving the HAF programme, Essex ActivAte have put a plan in place for the Active Essex team to engage and build a rapport with the top 3-5 schools in their localities, who have the highest benefit based free school meal (BBFSM) children. By doing this, the Active Essex team can build relationships with individuals within schools, who can help to engage with parents directly through school newsletters, which in return, encourages schools to adopt and support the Essex ActivAte offer.

The Active Essex team have been attending school events such as parent evenings and seasonal bazaars, to speak directly and show families and parents what Essex ActivAte is and how it can support them by using print materials and videos.

Most schools across the county work with WONDE, a central booking system that distributes HolidayActivities voucher codes to parents whose child/ren receive free BBFSM, allowing them to book onto a local, HAF holiday club. As a result of aligning communications with WONDE and schools, there has been an increase in school relationships and voucher code redemptions.

Recognising Essex ActivAte’s key target audiences has been a priority to help build an effective marketing strategy for the year. Breaking down the target market into four key groups of parents/carers, schools, communities and stakeholders, has allowed ActivAte to try different marketing methods enabling relationship building and efficient communication.

By using a targeted approach towards parents through paid social media, radio ads, bus stop and rear ads, Essex Activate has recognised relatable language that needs to be used, as well as different visuals, resulting in a higher conversion in voucher code redemption, widening ActivAte’s reach.

To further embed ActivAte into local communities and drive brand awareness, toolkits will be created this year for locally trusted organisations and stakeholders to promote the programme. With ActivAte providers also being at the forefront of their communities, encouraging them to continuously drive the Essex ActivAte offer outside of their clubs has helped to widen and support the ActivAte programme.

Continuing to build relationships with schools each holiday programme has seen an increase of code redemption and bookings, as more schools are keen to endorse the HAF programme and further promote the support Essex ActivAte can provide to local families.

Essex ActivAte has identified some key barriers over the last year, which in return, has helped to understand why parents or families may not be engaging with the programme. Some barriers identified include the parent journey when booking a club and how they perceive different programmes. To tackle this, using more visuals, simpler language and step-by-step videos has increased parent engagement with the programme, and in return, more young people have been booked onto a club.

The relationship between Essex ActivAte and WONDE has also strengthened as the Active Essex team continue to work closely with them to align communications and language. Giving WONDE feedback from parents and providers on the booking system after each holiday programme has enabled them to update and add features, making the parent journey more streamline and it being easier to navigate when booking. WONDE have also created visuals and step-by-step videos to help parents use their Holiday Activities voucher, and Essex ActivAte have seen an increase of unique children being booked onto a club each holiday.