Level Up Your Sports Brand with a Community Outreach Program
Today’s kids and family market associate with brands that serve a greater purpose. More brands are aligning themselves on key issues that matter to their audiences, and sports brands can be a part of this by investing in a community outreach program that uses edutainment to promote family health and wellness and engage with kids in a meaningful way.
Sports teams have been under pressure to innovate, rethink and retool when it comes to approaching the family market. Now more than ever it’s important to make kids feel like a valued part of the team!
The most rewarding innovations are driven by an early response to a consumer problem or challenge. And the substantial challenge of engaging today’s kids and parents with a sticky, long-lasting, attention-grabbing product is truly the most rewarding challenge to solve. It’s one that Kidzsmart embraces every day!
If you’ve never thought about nurturing your family audience, a community outreach program can seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. In a nutshell, here are 5 steps to creating a great family outreach program for your sports club:
Toronto Blue Jays community outreach program
1) Determine the need, audience, and goals of your family outreach program
Start with your industry values. Are families aware of what your club supports and values? What are the aspects of your service that would be helpful for kids and might not already be addressed in the sports community? For example:
Leadership initiatives
Educational outreach
Safety considerations
Environmental impacts
What is your community initiative that needs broadcasting? Tip: Keep it focused! Narrow down your messaging to one topic that decision makers and stakeholders can support. You can assess the target age group(s) that would be the most receptive to this information.
The Boston Red Sox outreach program is a robust educational activity book that encourages STEM learning based on real world baseball applications. Another educational program is BC Lions’ Read, Write and ROAR! which encourages kids to follow their team and promotes the importance of reading and writing through a fun and captivating activity journal.
BC Lions’ Read, Write & ROAR! activity book
2) Determine your resources
Scoping out an appropriate kids’ program is imperative for the sustainability of the project. Some considerations might include:
Budget
Outreach
Partners
Online and print resources
Timeline
Staff training
Also think about how you can market the outreach program itself to the community at large. How will people find out about and participate in the program? Kidzsmart can help you to determine and define the people and partners needed to implement and distribute the program.
Boston Red Sox STEM outreach program
3) Partner with experts in the field as well as in kids and family marketing
At Kidzsmart we have a team of experts at hand to help us craft our carefully curated kids’ content. Our partnership network of co-creators work to ensure that our community outreach programs not only entertain kids, but have a meaningful impact on their lives by educating them too.
We are a proud partner of the We Are Family network; the largest global network of design agencies dedicated to children, youth, and families. This means we have local experts in 22 countries, have access to global expertise in research & strategy, creative, and marketing. We also have the ability to manage global projects carried out through local adaptations.
Through partnering with STEMedge Academy, The Tiny Activist, Rabia Khokhar, EDquity Consulting and Destined To Win, we can help sports brands to align with the key issues that matter to their audience such as diversity, inclusion, gender equality, mental health, nutrition, and academic excellence.
4) Define and develop a solid method for evaluating the community outreach program
Activity book from the Nashville Predators community outreach program
Evaluating a kids’ program will rely on clearly stated and quantifiable goals. Evaluation of the project should happen throughout the development to tweak the course of action. Define the best evaluation method to work in conjunction with the kids’ program e.g. using an online survey, a contact form on the website, or an on-site questionnaire.
5) Develop a Sustainability Plan
As mentioned in Step #1, the program’s duration should be determined by the initial outreach goal. A well-designed and strategized outreach program, with curated content and messaging, could be made available to educators or other community outlets and updated as needed to ensure the program continues.
How can Kidzsmart help?
At Kidzsmart we believe in the importance of family health, wellness and education. We start with the why; our creative strategy begins with this idea, and is intent on helping you gain clarity on your outreach program’s messaging by putting this stake in the ground. From here we help our clients build fun and informative kid-friendly content through these touch points:
Family brand strategy
Research & brand auditing
Family messaging
Curriculum building
Graphic design & illustration
Video production, explainers & animation
Copywriting & social media content creation
Web design & development
Learning & edutainment material
And much more! We can help you effectively communicate with kids and families and create content that evolves over time and really makes a difference.
About Kidzsmart Communications
We believe your content should be more than just another coloring book. Kidzsmart is a creative agency that is your spokesperson to modern families, and we’re dedicated to contributing to the greater wellbeing of kids.
For over 20 years we’ve worked with the government, healthcare, and educations sectors as well as global brands in the restaurant and hospitality, tourism, and professional sports industries. Our team has the expertise to expand your family outreach, and we have the tools to do it right. Top of feed means top of mind, and we’re dedicated to creating greater family content that makes a meaningful impact on the lives of kids and families!
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