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Presented By Advanced Advertising Strategies Northwest Missouri State University Fall 2011
Jennifer Findley Connor Gary Timmy Gillissen Christian Hackett Bethany Honkomp Emily Krickle Jennifer Lee Samantha Leggett Holly Moon Robert ODoherty Stephanie Steinbeck Wendy Whelan

Table of Contents
Introduction S.W.O. Target Audience Analysis Primary Secondary Primary Research Methodology Findings Membership/Campaign Accessories Creative Strategy A Creative Strategy B Media Strategy Media Approach Media Placement Financial Breakdown Social Media Plan Goals Facebook & Twitter Hootsuite Wix FB Application Web Analysis Web Publishing Traffic Web Analysis Conclusion Resources Acknowledgements

4-5 6 7 8-9 10-11 12-15 16-19 20-21

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25-27

28 29 30
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Introduction
Kansas Citys Union Station isnt just a regular building; its a civic icon. Its a place where grandparents teach their grandchildren a sense of history. Its a place where a young family can spend the afternoon interacting with robots at Science City, and its a place where visitors can look at the stars and get their picture taken with a dinosaur in the same afternoon. Union Station is a place where fun and learning are infused. For these reasons, and many more, Kansas City residents feel a sense of pride when they become a member of Union Station. Memberships have so much to offer that we think they could practically sell themselves. But, as weve learned, thats not necessarily the case.

This plans book summarizes research and recommendations that our class has prepared during the course of one semester. Were quite sure that within these pages are some ideas you can begin to implement right away, to not only obtain new members, but also to encourage current members to stay members.

Were sure that within these pages are some ideas you can begin to implement right away, to not only obtain new members, but also to encourage current members to stay members.

Kansas Citys Union Station

Union Station is an almost 100-year-old civic icon, situated in the heart of a historic downtown/midtown area in Kansas City. The original purpose of the building has long since faded, but its power to captivate the hearts of Kansas City residents lives on. After a year-long political battle to raise funds to refurbish the building, Union Station renovated, re-opened and began to offer residents a variety of entertainment and dining options. After 12 years of sometimes unsteady operations, Union Station is finally back on track financially. Even though not all residents may realize this, they still feel a strong sense of community support toward Union Station. This support, however, is not always translated into memberships and thats where we hope to help.

Union Stations in the US

Union Station Kansas City is not the only refurbished union station in the United States. The union stations most like Union Station Kansas City include, but are not limited to, Washington, D.C.; Duluth, Minnesota; Meridian, Mississippi; and Cincinnati, Ohio. We studied some of the membership offerings at these locations to help us formulate our recommendations.

Competition
While Union Station enjoys the status of not-for-profit, it still has competition in the marketplace. Other non-profit entities such as KCPT and KCUR and several for-profit companies the Kansas City Zoo, Nelson Atkins Museum and Crown Center sometimes stand in opposition to Union Stations membership goals. Each of the aforementioned companies offers a wide array of membership packages, benefit, and incentives, many which overlap similar benefits Union Station offers. Even though these entities dont represent traditional businesses competitors, they still compete for the membership dollars of the Kansas City population.

S.W.O. Analysis
Strengths
s Strong involvement from current and former members s Current and former members love Union Station s Upward trend: Union Station is experiencing an upward trend in both financial and emotional values s leadership New s traffic: Union Station sees at minimum one Foot million people per year s Unique offerings: there is nothing quite like Union Station in the greater Kansas City area. It holds conference rooms, offices, eateries, museums, etc. s Architecture: this makes it an ideal location for visitors or event planners s Emotional attachment: whether for historical purposes, or the bi-state tax, people in the greater Kansas City area have an emotional attachment to Union Station s Foundation of volunteers: it all starts with model train volunteers s Union Station is in the heart of downtown and also right next to other major attractions such as Crown Center and the WWI memorial s Civic icon s Good partnerships with established KC companies s Science City continually attracts new visitors s Union Station attracts different groups of people s good-sized e-mail list A s Parking s Customer service for members s Aging facilities or perception of, members want new attractions and updates to existing attractions s membership advertising campaigns No s Disconnect: There is no connection between the website and the building s Website is not a representation of Union Station s Social media presence is minimal s of resources: problems that is not in our power to fix Lack s People still think Union Station is financially unstable, because of recent media coverage s variety of exhibitions (a group of people interested A in a certain subject will probably not return when there is an exhibit with different subject matter)

Weaknesses

Opportunities
s Retain current members s Turn event visitors into members s Huge reach of potential members that have thus far been neglected s Upcoming anniversary s Advertising opportunities (building) s Existing media relations s Reaching out to people who come to Union Station for meetings/weddings s Visitors feedback can give valuable information s Other attractions are nearby s Membership database can spur stronger membership communication and retention

Target Audience Analysis

Primary
The target audience for the Membership Retention campaign for Union Station is primarily current members and secondarily, previous members. The reason for choosing these targets is simply because Union Station has made it clear that the percentage of current members that renew their memberships is astoundingly low compared to their membership numbers. Its also much more cost effective to try to retain current members or people that were previously members and arent any more, than trying to target an entirely new demographic to become a member.

Secondary
Non-members. Rationale: others in the community who know Union Station but arent members that would see ads. There is so much love and admiration for Union Station, we hope that by targeting previous and current members people in the Kansas City area that see the advertisements, point of purchase displays, etc., will also want to become a Union Station member.

Demographics
Marital Status
Currently Married

of both former and current members of Union Station

Household Income
9.4% 24.3% 22.8% 20.3% 10.9% 9.9% 2.5%
$150,000
$100,000-149,000 $75,000-99,000 $50,000-74,000 $35,000-49,000 $35,000-34,000 less than $25,000

76 %
Currently Single

11 %
Currently Divorced

8%
Currently Widowed

5%

Primary Research
Methodology
Through a survey that was delivered to more than 8,000 recipients on Union Stations mailing list, valuable insights were able to be made regarding current and previous members opinions and feelings about Union Station. Within 24 hours of sending out the Union Station survey, we had more than 1,000 responses. It is clearly evident that people are tremendously passionate about Union Station and are willing and able to put forth some time and effort to help improve the Station.

Findings
In order to better understand our target market, the survey helped establish demographics, geographics and psychographics. The survey showed that current and previous members are predominantly female and mainly between the ages 30 and 65, who are either parents or grandparents. The target market also has a college education or higher. Most of these members or previous members are married and either have a job or are retired. Also, 43% of your existing market has an income of $50,000-99,000, while about 33.7% of your members make $100,000 or more. The geographic profile shows that the majority of your members live around the Kansas City Metropolitan area or within a 30 mile radius of Union Station. The survey also helped us understand the psychographics of the target market. It is easy to tell that the target audience enjoys learning and being entertained. They enjoy and want the interaction with both the exhibits and the Union Station staff. The target audience feels that it is supporting a historical icon in the Kansas City area and has a strong connection to Union Station itself. They also enjoy the family activities and saving money though membership discounts.

Survey results | U n i o n
Membership length
52.15% 34.9% 8.25% 5-10 years 3.9% 10+ years .69% No Response

Previous & Current members

Gender
Female Male N/A

S ta t i o n
2% 1.7%

Less than 2-5 2 years years

Reasons for Becoming a Member

Children Science City Exhibit Support Discounts Love Train Education Diana
25% 19% 16% 12.5% 10% 7% 4% 4% 3%
other

32%

66%

51.7%
of current members are very satisfied with their membership

Top

Social Media

reasons

memberships
werent renewed

the target audience uses

Johnson

Jackson

16%

Clay
n ssio dmi ity n ee aience C fr c issio adm arium to S free planet ed e ount bits to th o discng exhi ion t li miss s trave o e ad el train ion t fre mod miss nce e ad experie fre rail KC 59%
14%

21%

31%

Where are US members from?

#1 Cost/Economy #2 Lack of time/use #3 Family grew out of it #4 Forgot/expired #5 Nothing new/Not kept up

18 -

35

36

-4

46

-5

56

-6

66

-7

67%

56%

52%

51%

What do Union Station members value as very important?

Ages of Union Station Members

2.3%
75 +

15%

Membership Database Systems

A big part of increasing and retaining new members relies primarily on what system is being used to manages this information. We looked into two different membership database providers that work directly with non-profit organizations like Union Station, in order to provide an easier way to manage memberships. Both of these services do everything from sending out emails and notifications on upcoming events, to storing member information and notifiying members on when his/her current membership will expire and how to renew. The first system is a national system, called Blackbaud and the other system is from a local entrepreneur. Both systems are designed to make your job easier and to really get a good handle on how to keep track of your membership database. Both physical proposals will be left at the end of the presentation so you can compare and contrast what you think your best option will be.

This is a membership chart we have come up with to compare Union Stations current membership offerings to the 100 year membership plan that goes along with one of the creative teams campaign.
Individual* Corporate Conductor $10,000
Additional $15 Additional $15 per Member

Membership Plan Offerings

Benefits

$45

100 Year Anniversary $165

Parking Entrance to the 100 Year Anniversary Gala Rail Rights Free Unlimited Visits to Science City, Planetarium, KC Rail Experience, and the Model Train Experience Unlimited $5 Tickets to the Extreme Screen Movie Theater Discounts on Travelling Exhibits, Birthday Parties, City Stage Events, and Theatre District Productions 10% Discount Retail Stores and Restaurants Insider Invitations to Members-Only Previews and Events Free or Discounted Admission Free Rental of Sprint Festival Plaza Eight Individual Memberships Smithsonian Affiliation

X X

X X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X X

X X X X X X X

Additional $20

Additional $20

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Campaign Accessories
Life size custom cutout
Specs
Production time: 3-4 days Size: up to 72 x 48 Material: cardboard, plastic Finish: matte, glass, dry erase Extras: speech bubble single, double sided cutout faces for photo ops Velcro attachments Free shipping Approximate Cost: $139.95-199.95

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Creative | Stand with US

Objective
s To encourage membership by rekindling positive feelings towards Union Station s Rally around Union Station s To promote the benefits of membership s To elevate Union Stations image by making it relevant to the target audience through an appeal to pride

Creative Strategy
s Include membership benefits in ads with accompanying warm imagery s Create a membership logo that signifies Union Stations commitment to past, current and future members s To use the slogan Stand with US to refresh and restore the communitys confidence in Union Station as a civic icon

Stand with US Brochure

This brochure was created to easily compare a few new membership benefits as well as the Centennial Membership we created for our second campaign.

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Advertisements

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Creative | Stand with US

Banner Ads

newspaper Ads

Direct mail Piece

outside of Direct Mail piece

inside of Direct Mail piece

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Letterhead & Envelope

Business card

Membership Pin

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Creative | Centennial Celebration

Objective
s Create a campaign to spark an emotional reaction for viewers about Union Station s Introduce the new Centennial Membership and all of its benefits

Creative Strategy
s Use darker photos to create an emotional feel to ads s Stay consistent with photos through all advertising mediums s Targeted guerilla marketing with luggage tags -will be placed on cars in Union Station parking garage, parking lots, around Nelson-Atkins, Crown Center and World War 1 museums two weeks post Centennial membership availability date to increase awareness

Artistic Analysis
The images used in our campaign provide a consistent look and a feel that lent to our element of emotion. This approach was used to grab attention and create a reaction. The combination typeface and colors lend an aspect of antiquity and ties in with the old-time look to recreate tickets and tags from 100 years ago.

Guerilla Marketing Piece

Front of Luggage Tag

Back of Luggage Tag

Centennial Membership Card

The card is a modified train ticket from the 1900s. It lends itself to the campaign element of old-time.

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Print Advertisment 1

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Creative | Centennial Celebration

Print Advertisements 2 & 3

Newspaper Ad

Banner Ads

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Facebook Badge
This is an example of what a Facebook badge would like on someones personal Facebook account. This badge would be given to people who sign up for a Union Station Membership.

Centennial Certificate
Members will receive a temporary card immediately at Union Station. They will receive their new card (above) in the mail and a certificate (below) to display and keep as a reminder of their contribution and membership to Union Station.

Muncharoo Affiliation
Muncharoo is a local vendor located in Kansas City. This company is comparable to Groupon and would work with Union Station to sell memberships through their website. This is a screenshot of what the Muncharoo coupon could look like if it sold Union Station memberships. More information about this on page 20 in this plansbook.

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Media Strategy
Media Approach
The primary focus of the media strategy is to utilize print media, digital media and social networking in the Kansas City area to effectively reach the target audience.

Media Placement
The Kansas City Star is the primary, daily newspaper for the Kansas City metropolitan area. The Kansas City Star boasts that it reaches 1 in 4 adults in Kansas City which would provide a great tool to reach Union Station customers. Based on survey results, we can target specific counties to make that reach more effective. The Impact Ads allow advertisers to place ads specifically in neighborhoods and due to the membership demographics of Union Station, it would be a great place for Union Station to invest in neighborhoods in the Kansas City area. The main options available to Union Station would be to place a Target Section advertisement. The Star publishes various special-interest sections throughout the year and Union Station could advertise within these.

The Kansas City Star

The Kansas City Magazine is a local newspaper that nearly 35% of our current members say they read regularly. It is a good local choice to also attract new members.

The Kansas City Magazine

Kansas City Parent is the most targeted magazine reaching the entire family market in the Greater Kansas City area. They reach 136,000 readers monthly and distribute to 1,000 public locations.

Kansas City Parent Magazine

A fairly new magazine to the Kansas City market, this bi-annual publication is released both digitally and in print. Each publication features 500+ places for family fun in Kansas City. Distribution includes 45,000 copies and 900 area locations as well as 10,000 tourist copies placed in hotels and visitors centers.

Kansas City Going Places Magazine

Youve probably heard of Groupon, a group coupon or social coupon tool. There are several similar options in Kansas City and were recommending you go with at least one of them. Weve been talking to Muncharoo, because they showed up in our research as one of the most recognizable social coupon brands in Kansas City and they operate in Kansas City, which is an added convenience for Union Station. Muncharoo has an email list of 55,000 Kansas Citians that are primarily women. If a person on Muncharoos email list purchases the coupon (membership), Muncharoo has offered to give Union Station 75% of profits. If a person on Union Stations email list purchases the coupon, Union Station receives 85% of profits. The benefit of this is having someone else run the back end system of selling membership via the internet and it costs Union Station nothing. This social coupon offer could be used with either of the campaign choices.

Muncharoo

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Financial Breakdown

Overview
Media Vehicle Magazine KC Going Places Newspaper Sunday and another day of the week for 3 weeks in a one month campaign Description Full-page color Position Inside Insertions 1 $ Total Cost 3,395.00

Kansas City Star Web KansasCity.com TOTAL CAMPAIGN COST

BW 9 col. In.

6 (000)

4,698.00

Flash Leaderboard/Flash Medium Rectangle

On the homepage/ entertainment section

25

$ $

375.00 8,468.00

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Social Media Plan

As of 2011, 500 million people are active Facebook users. Half, or 250 million, are logged on at any given day and every 20 minutes, 10 million comments are made.
Social media is often overlooked, but it can be an incredibly influential part of an overall marketing strategy. Not only does it have the potential to reach target audiences more efficiently and effectively than previous avenues, but once a strategy is in place, it is relatively easy to maintain and extremely cost effective. Union Station is already in the game with a social media presence on Facebook and Twitter, so our purpose is to provide recommendations to optimize those avenues. Social Media refers to the use of web-based tools to turn dialogue into interaction. Social Media allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Success in social media relies on quality of content and engaging users. Compelling content motivates users to not only spark conversation, but also to build links through sharing, retweeting, etc. The biggest mistake companies can make is trying to use social media to sell a product. Users want conversation, and customer engagement is a retention strategy in itself.

Goals:
Develop a strategy to optimize the Union Station Kansas City Facebook page and Twitter account by increasing engagement and broadening their social media presence Feed customers cultural creativity and capitalize on the holy grail of marketing- word of mouth Recommend content that Union Station Kansas City can use to generate higher engagement rates on their respective social networks

Facebook & Twitter

Facebook is the most widely used social network that exists today. It reaches over 750 million active users, with the average user being connected to 80 community pages, groups and events. This provides an excellent opportunity for Union Station to reach its target audience and build a relationship with those fans. As the only venue of its kind in Kansas City, you are well equipped to use this to your advantage. Twitter boasts a user total of more than 106 million (statistics from 2010), and 25 percent of its users follow a brand, with its audience primarily between the ages of 18-54. It offers a great way to reach a wide audience, especially since you already have a high number of followers. The primary goal for using Twitter is to make sure your tweets are read and to provide your followers with the tools to discover more about Kansas City and Union Station Kansas City.

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Hootsuite
In order to help keep track and manage Union Station Kansas City social media, we recommend the use of Hootsuite. Hootsuite is a simple, free online tool that brings together all of your social media accounts. It allows you to send, receive and schedule messages on one or multiple streams from a central location. With Hootsuite you can follow blogs and RSS feeds to scour the Internet for pertinent information and news to repost on your social media sites. Below is a graphic representing how easy it is to search for relevant content and add streams to your existing social media sites. Once a week, you can sit down and schedule your posts on Facebook and Twitter for the week, in about 30 minutes. Once a day, you can log into Hootsuite to reply to comments as necessary. This reduces the time spent dealing with social media but still increases the effectiveness of your sites.

Hootsuit Images

Examples of Tweets

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Wix Facebook application

Artists, photographers, small businesses and non-profits alike all use Wix for its ease-of-use and collection of free, quality web designs. With a drag & drop interface, Wix lets your work flow naturally and eliminates any obstacles between you and a professional website. You have the options to do the following: 1. Customize a free website template or build your site from scratch 2. Add your own photos and media or choose from Wix gallery of free, quality web design 3. Select fonts, menus, widgets, galleries, icons and more inside the free website builder 4. Create a Facebook landing page, to add a spark to your site (and advertise special events)

Right: is a screen shot of what the wix application would look like on your facebook page. Below: is a screen shot of the interface in which you use to create the wix webpage to apply to a Facebook page.

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Wordpress is a web publishing software that is free and easy for users to use for their website. Wordpress is a software built for users to be able to build and make changes to their website without knowing how to code. The webpage for Union Station was built out of Wordpress showing what Union Stations website layout could look like with Wordpress. In Wordpress, you can make changes almost instantly to the look of the website. Wordpress is a software that Union Station can use to improve the look of their website and make easy implementations to their website when needed.

Web Publishing Solutions

Google Analytics is an extraordinary tool that provides valuable information for UnionStation.org. There are some valuable tools and information you should know in Google Analytics concerning Union Stations traffic. In the past five years, UnionStation.org has had 1,546,289 absolute unique visitors. There have been a total of 6,025,310 page views on Union Stations website and the average amount of page views per visitor is 3.9. The bounce rate for unionstation.org is 36.19% and 63.81% of visitors view more than one page. The average time for visitors is two minutes and forty-five seconds; 71.73% of visitors are new visitors and 28.27% of visitors are returning visitors. From those three main ways that traffic is generated to Union Station and they are search engines, direct traffic and referring websites. From those options 57.63% of visits to Union Stations website came from search engines., 22.7% of traffic is from direct traffic and 19.62% of traffic is from referring websites.
* More traffic data and screenshots about this information is located on the following page

Traffic

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Traffic Data
This image is information from Google Analytics showing the different ways traffic comes to Union Station.

This image provides information about what the top pages are for UnionStation.orgs website.

This image provides information about how many total page views UnionStation.org has, how long the average person is on UnionStation.org, how many new visitors UnionStation.org gets and how many visits UnionStation.org has.

This image shows the top 10 keywords searched that land on Union Stations membership page.

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Web Analysis
Usability
The website usability analysis was used for observing and seeing how different individuals go about using the online form to become members to Union Station. Each user was placed with a phone and a computer and was asked to become a member of Union Station via a computer and mobile phone. There were no instructions for how the users were to become members. All that was asked was for each user to go about how they would become a member of Union Station. This was done in order to find out how easily an individual could sign up for a membership online. A few issues were discovered:

There were difficulties for users finding the link Click here to purchase a membership.

When a user is buying a membership, allow easier access for the user to pick the day they want to start their membership.

*There is a full text report of all our findings regarding the usability testing, google analytics, and web information in the appendix of our class research

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Conclusion
Kansas Citians love Union Station, and with the integrated communication strategies presented in this plansbook, our class is sure you can not only increase Union Station memberships, but also retain a much larger percentage of your current members Northwest Missouri State University is here to help you. We always have smart and eager students (like us!) who are looking for internship credit! Think about Northwest before you hire!

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Resources
Blackbaud

Here are some of the resources that we have been working on for you:

hootsuite.com

Large Cutout Display

partystandups.com

Eric Rembold Eric.Rembold@blackbaud.com 843-654-3017

Image from Cutout Display

www.corbis.com Images from Centennial Capaign timetotakepictures.blogspot.com

Muncharoo.com
Eric Vianello eric@muncharoo.com

Wordpress.com
User ID = nwunionstation Password = advancedadvertising Demo site address = advertisingunionstation.wordpress.com Note: [This is a private website] We do believe that Wordpress.com offers a simple web publishing tool that will not only simplify your web uploads, but also provide a web design that is more user friendly. Even though Wordpress is a simple tool, we highly recommend you consult with River City Studios, or another Wordpress expert, prior to implementing.

Pin Promo
Jeremy Johnson Glenn Devins

Custom Facebook Fan Page

http://pages.wix.com http://www.facebook.com/pages/Advanced-AdvertisingStrategies/194897720593684

Point of Purchase Display & large buttons

zazzle.com

Twitter Scheduling Tool

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Acknowledgments
Advanced Advertising Teams
Account Coordinator
Robert ODoherty

Special Thanks to:

Kevin Fullerton

Creative Team A
Jennifer Lee Connor Gary

University Contributors
Dr. Jean A Memken Mallory Murray Fred Lamer Mitzi Lutz Greg Haddock

Creative Team B
Timmy Gillissen Jennifer Findley

Plans Book Team

Bethany Honkomp emily Krickle

Social Media Team

Wendy Whelan

Other Contributors
Shelby Rogers from KPTV Nicole Kube from the Kansas City Star Eric Rembold from Blackbaud Jill Lathrop

Target/Media Team
Samantha Leggett Holly Moon Stephanie Steinbeck

Web Team
Christian Hackett

Instructor
Jacquie Lamer

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