Project Scope

The Lac du Bonnet Ice Fishing Derby is an amazing non-profit event run by a team of volunteers. Every year, it hosts a derby to generate profits that are returned to the community through grants and by paying out Community Volunteer Hours to organizations that provide volunteers to work on Derby Day.

We began working with the Committee in 2016 to host the 2017 event. When we started working with the Derby, which had just celebrated its 10th Anniversary, a number of marketing weaknesses were identified.

The Derby had its feet in two camps, trying to target pro anglers and families at the same time. The pro anglers didn’t like the prize structure, a lottery style where any fish could win, which was the biggest draw for the family audience.
There was a limited marketing budget that was spread too thin through a shotgun marketing approach of throwing some money at radio, newspaper ads, and posters.
There were no clear strategies, tactics, or direction for the marketing.
The attendance levels varied significantly from year to year, impacting the profit margins as expenses continued to increase.

Working Together

Working with the Committee through a General Management and Fractional Marketing Contract, we began exploring opportunities, strategies, and directions for the Derby from a business development and marketing perspective. Over the planning seasons for the 2017 to 2020 events, LM Creative and the Committee worked together to:

Define the Derby’s target market through the use of customer personas, choosing to target families and angling enthusiasts.
Used the persona data to develop messaging that would connect with the newly defined target market. ‘Where Size Doesn’t Matter’ was created as the slogan and key messaging around the event, speaking to the prize structure. Secondary messaging focused on fun, family-friendly, and any fish can win. This messaging was included in all marketing content, from postcards to signage and social media advertising to radio ads.
Implemented marketing and operational strategies based on the collected customer persona data.

Highlight of Key Results

With an event strategy encompassing logistics, operations, marketing, and participant engagement that stemmed from the key data in the customer persona data collected from 2017 to 2020, the Derby was able to:

Stabilize and grow its event attendance numbers with year-over-year growth.
Implement strategies that made the event more family and enthusiast-friendly, leading to an increase of 45% in overall event attendance and a 133% increase in youth/family attendance.
Created a second-hole sales strategy, only sold to those who had purchased a first hole, that increased the purchase of second-holes by 73%.
Develop new strategies for pre-selling event tickets that tipped the balance of pre-sales and day of sales from a 60/40 split to an 88/22 split.

47%

Increase in Event Revenue

13%

Reduction in Event Expenses

149%

Increase in Presale Ticket Revenue

73%

Increase in 2nd Hole Ticket Sales

45%

Increase in Event Attendance