Recruiting New Members Through Digital Engagement
Fall 2023 Recruitment Campaign:
Recruiting New Members Through Digital Engagement
Overview
Campaign Management
Marketing & Engagement
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA), Greater Colorado Council oversees the operations of all BSA programs (Cub Scouts, Scouts BSA, STEM Scouts) in Colorado. Pac/West Strategies was tasked with developing and executing a multi-channel marketing campaign aimed at recruiting new members to Scouts programs. Using a combination of social media, Google, streaming, and podcast advertising, we achieved high engagement with prospective member families, driving attendance to “Sign Up Night” orientation events. The campaign exceeded client expectations, as the Greater Colorado Council saw itself join the top 10% of councils nationally for year-over-year percentage growth in recruitment.
Our Work
This was a full-service marketing project which required our team to develop marketing infrastructure and ad content from scratch. Tools like Google Ads and Analytics were built out and integrated with other platforms for tracking purposes. Media was sourced from the Boy Scouts Brand Center and was edited to optimize ad content for channel-specific interfaces. Ad Platforms and Channels Message development in collaboration with the Greater Colorado Council board was ongoing during the early stages. These talks yielded an approach focused on branding Scouts programs as an opportunity to return the great outdoors and, for a generation socially impacted by the pandemic, to learn practical skills and social confidence. Leveraging geographic targeting of social media ads was crucial to ensuring communities were receiving information about their local packs and troops. Targeting across all platforms was geared broadly to parents of young children, rather than just parents with interests in outdoor activities. This was largely due to new Scouts programs added in recent years like STEM Scouts, which have broader appeal to those who may prefer indoor activities. Total Cub Scouts Recruited: 1,615 (Up from 1,497 in 2022) Ranked in top 10% for total number of members recruited in 2023 nationally. Ranked in top 10% of councils for year-over-year percentage growth in recruitment in 2023 nationally. Significant Growth in Girl Enrollment Total Girls Recruited: 373 (Up from 314 in 2022) Total Girl Cub Scouts Recruited: 338 (Up from 239 in 2022; 41% Increase)
Google (Display Network, Paid Search)
YouTube
Meta (Facebook, Instagram)
Hulu/Disney/ESPN+
Spotify
iHeartRadio
Largest Recruiting Class in Post-COVID Era
Growing Bigger & Faster than National Average
Pac/West Strategies president & CEO Mark Truax serves on the Greater Colorado Council’s Board of Trustees.
Building a Strong Community Relations Strategy
KOA Radio / The Bull:
Building a Strong Community Relations Strategy
Overview
Stakeholder Relations
850 KOA NewsRadio and 106.7 The Bull needed help evaluating and planning a new community relations strategy that ensured the multiple stations within their Denver cluster engage with their target audiences and public in a way that positions them for long-term success. The stations’ leadership team enlisted the Pac/West Strategies’ team to conduct a comprehensive audit of the existing community relations efforts for these two Denver stations. Our work included reviewing previous community relations work, conducting internal focus groups with staff, and developing a comprehensive recommendation for implementation.
Our Work
Working to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic and position themselves as a leader in community engagement, 850 NewsRadio and 106.7 The Bull partnered with Pac/West Strategies to execute a comprehensive review of its community relations efforts for two Denver stations These two stations had drastically different needs and previous community engagement approaches.
As with any of our projects, this project was heavily focused on research. Our team started with a review of all public-facing community relations materials, including digital engagement. This provided the team with a well-rounded foundation from which to assess the strength, gaps, and opportunities within their existing community relations efforts. Armed with this information for both stations, we put together a series of questions for internal focus groups comprised of on-air talent, programming, and managers of the two stations. The internal focus group discussions focused on opinions of previous community relations work as well as where participants hoped to see the stations engage with the local community in the future.
Pac/West Strategies compiled an outline of our findings from the audit and focus groups and developed a set of recommendations for a new community relations strategy. These recommendations ranged from improving social media engagement with partner organizations, providing a list of new focus areas and groups to collaborate with, and guidance on how staff can best utilize their resources to maximize engagement.
