In order to drum up excitement about returning to the club in a more normal fashion following COVID restrictions, the club created a catchy slogan for external club communications, followed by visual representation in the form of stickers.
After nearly two years of not being able to utilize Bay Head (N.J.) Yacht Club to its fullest potential (due to COVID), the staff explored the idea of creating a campaign to drum up excitement about returning to the club in a more normal fashion, in turn increasing the utilization of the club and F&B sales.
Tyler DeFilippo, Communications Director at Bay Head, says the planning process actually stemmed from a weekly winter communications team meetings when the idea was pitched to create a slogan for summer 2021.
“This idea grew organically through a simple group text between the department heads and some key managerial staff – just bouncing different slogans of off each other,” he says. “Once we had a handful of solid choices, we pitched our club’s Commodore on the idea and left the final choice of slogan up to her. She enthusiastically chose the ‘I’d rather be at BHYC’ slogan.”
Once the slogan was chosen, the communications team had what you could call an “aha moment,” DeFilippo says.
“Since we already had this great slogan, why not take it a step further and turn this into a visual campaign as well,” he says. “That is when we decided to design the sticker sheets that would be mailed to the membership to get them excited for the upcoming season.
“We also recycled the design and used it on t-shirts and hats that were specific to different activities that happen around the club, ie. ‘I’d Rather Be Sailing at BHYC’ or ‘I’d Rather Be Playing Tennis at BHYC.’ At this point, we had gone all in and truly made this the summer that you would ‘Rather be at BHYC!’”
The overall cost to fulfill this campaign was relatively minor. The merchandise (which was sold at the club’s Ship’s Store) was priced to offset the cost of the actual goods.
“The idea behind this was to keep the price very low so more members would purchase and spread the slogan and we essentially just broke even on this,” DeFilippo says.
The sticker sheets that were mailed to each member were printed and mailed for a total of $1,000.
Once the stickers were mailed and members had received them, Bay Head turned it into a social media campaign asking members to hashtag the slogan and send pictures of them utilizing their sticker—on laptops, water bottles, or anywhere else they wanted to share their BHYC pride.
The club used the slogan throughout the spring on social media posts when announcing summer events and also themed the center spread in the summer edition of its summer publication around this slogan.
The campaign, which focused on increasing utilization numbers at the club, was a resounding success.
“We measured this success by simply looking at reservation numbers and sales numbers across the board,” DeFilippo says. “Every one of our five Club Nights (special summer events) was completely sold out to the maximum capacity allowed by our venues.
“We additionally saw record attendance in our adult tennis programs as well as drastic spikes in our dining reservations compared to previous years.” He adds. “All in all, we definitely benefitted by creating a central theme for our membership to rally around and a fun way to engage every aspect of the club in a time when people needed something to cheer them up.”
The Goal: Drum up excitement about returning to the club in a more normal fashion following COVID restrictions, in turn increasing the utilization of the club and F&B sales.
The plan: Create a catchy slogan for external club communications, followed by visual representation in the form of stickers.
The payoff: Each of the club’s five special summer events was completely sold out and adult tennis programs saw record attendance. There were also drastic spikes in dining reservations compared to previous years.
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