Introduction
Brand Overview
Skyhawks Sports Academy is a leader in youth sports programs across the United States.
Committed to combining fun, safety, and skill development, Skyhawks seeks to nurture a lifelong love of sports and fitness in children aged 2-14, including the SuperTots program for younger children.
Details About Skyhawks
Skyhawks is a national franchise that has provided skill-based sports camps, after-school programs, and classes to more than 2 million children in 25 states for 45 years.
They have been successful because they provide instruction in a safe, fun manner so that children can enjoy the experience and takeaway a lifelong love of sports and fitness.
Skyhawks objective is to “teach life skills through sports” (Skyhawks, 2024). Among the sports they provide are baseball, basketball, cheerleading, flag football, golf, Lacrosse, soccer, tennis, volleyball, pickleball, track and field.
Skyhawks has another subcategory, their STEM sports program. This combines “…physical activity and cognitive thinking that provides a comprehensive, inquiry-based educational experience and a solution for crucial science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) literacy for students” (Skyhawks, 2024).
Subcategory
“Eat Like a Champion”
Skyhawks is now expanding its' focus to include nutrition – a vital component of young athletes' overall health. “Eat Like a Champion” aims to educate children and their families about the benefits of good nutrition as outlined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since Skyhawks Sports is in the sports/fitness/wellness sector, plentiful opportunities abound to provide added services to their youth sports camps and classes.
The program will be incorporated by offering weekly educational sessions for children, led by coaches, focusing on the importance of good nutrition and healthy eating choices.
Parallel to this, Skyhawks will conduct “Eat Like a Champion” instructional classes for parents. These sessions are designed to empower parents with knowledge and practical strategies for maintaining a balanced diet for their families, covering areas such as meal prep, smart grocery shopping, and ensuring wellness for the whole family.
The” Eat Like a Champion” subcategory for Skyhawks Sports Academy can energize a strong and established brand. It can become a game-changing offering that Skyhawks creates and owns in the youth sports sector to maintain relevance and wins against the competition.
It creates a “must-have” experience represented by an exemplar brand.
Signature Stories
The campaign utilizes a bank of personalized customer stories about what good nutrition means for children and their entire family. The focus is positive, providing solutions to families rather than fixating on negative statistics about childhood obesity. Instead, this campaign will concentrate on good nutritional habits and the benefits of eating right for overall health and athletic performance.
Audience Profile
The Subcategory audience includes current youth athletes enrolled in Skyhawks programs and their families.
Skyhawks new nutritional “Eat Like a Champion” subcategory could be a compelling addition for current clients and if marketed properly (Chang, 2011), it could propel the brand to attract new families who are interested in overall health and wellness for their children.
Wellness has become a buzzword with the trend burgeoning since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, making global wellness a $5.6 trillion industry (Global Wellness Institute, 2023).
Demographics: Children ages 2-14 and end users (parents) ages approx. 22-42 from all ethnicities, religions, occupations, and levels of education. There is no set socio economic status because Skyhawks is inclusive and offers programs to all children at all locations throughout the U.S.
Psychographics: The families who enroll their children in the programs offered by Skyhawks Sports Academy are interested in promoting a healthy lifestyle for their children which can now include a nutritional component.
Skyhawks' values include: learning, inclusion, and fun.
The brand’s tone is friendly, fun and engaging – simple and understandable. The brand personality includes: being down-to-earth, honest, spirited, and reliable.
Geographic Information: There are now over 130 franchised locations in the United States, as well as several internationally. Corporate headquarters are located in Spokane, Washington.
Campaign Objective and Timeline
Skyhawks teaches kids about sports, but takes that instruction next level by promoting a lifelong love of sports, fitness and a healthy lifestyle. Although Skyhawks participants learn how to play sports, encompassing the rules and regulations--the brand also wants to help develop children by teaching a healthy lifestyle, character building and enjoyment of sports. A vital component of a healthy lifestyle is learning good nutrition early in life, which is the objective of adding the "Eat Like a Champion" subcategory. In keeping with brand value, teaching parents and children about healthy eating aligns with who Skyhawks Sports Academy is.
Subcategory Timeline
Spring is the ideal time to unveil the new subcategory since franchise owners, participants and families are gearing up for the busy summer camp season. This will coincide with the 45th Anniversary of Skyhawks Sports and "Eat Like a Champion," represents an innovative offering indicating that the brand is continually designing inventive concepts to enrich their programs.
From March 18, 2024 through December 2024, Skyhawks will utilize an integrated marketing campaign to promote, "Eat Like a Champion." The media will be advised, nationally through a digital press release. This will include a pitch to all television outlets in markets where there are franchise locations. Skyhawks will kick off their inaugural podcast called, "Inside the Huddle," with a guest pediatric nutritionist who describes the need for developing healthy eating habits in children. Social Media posts (Facebook and Instagram) should be posted Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Blog posts regarding the new subcategory should be posted monthly beginning with the example given; and a example of longform video is included. It is suggested a paid commercial campaign continue throughout the year to publicize the new subcategory.
From a marketing standpoint, it is in the best interest of Skyhawks and the new subcategory to piggy-back the "Eat Like a Champion" campaign off the summer Olympic games, which combined with the new offering, and the brand's 45th Anniversary provides an ideal opportunity to utilize these marketing resources and a bank of personalized stories to pitch to the media from the kick-off of the Paris Olympic Games with the Opening Ceremony Fri, Jul 26, 2024 through the Closing ceremonies, Sun, Aug 11, 2024 (Paris, 2024). Personalized stories about "Eat Like a Champion," are an intriguing strategy to pursue to localize the Olympics.
Content includes a digital press release, a podcast, blog post, social media posts, and a longform video.(Examples and explanations follow)
Digital press release - Monday, March 18, 2024
Blog post – Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Micro Podcast- Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Social Media Posts (Facebook and Instagram) Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Longform video layout – Tuesday, April 9, 2024
Digital Press Release
I designed the press release to be straight forward, pointing out the benefits of Skyhawks new nutritional sub category to current customers, and why “Eat Like a Champion” is a must- have sub category that can benefit Skyhawks clients, therefore improving brand value.
Previously, I was focusing on incorporating the childhood obesity epidemic to spotlight the health issues surrounding poor nutrition and unhealthy eating habits. However, after receiving feedback and learning more about successful brand signature stories, I feel like it is beneficial to utilize positive messaging; focusing on the benefits of good nutrition and how it can create a healthier lifestyle for children and the entire family.
Blog Post
I chose to use my blog post to tell “Linda: a mom’s story.” I deliberately set up Linda’s story to resonate with any number of parents who might be interested in signing their children up to participate in Skyhawks Sports Academy; not simply for the sports instruction but for the beneficial new nutrition program that coincides with the brand’s mission of creating lifelong love of fitness and a healthy lifestyle. Through the blog, titled, “On Your Mark, Get Set, Eat! Nutrition for the Next Generation of Champions,” readers get first hand insight from Linda, a mom whose children are part of the program. Linda has had a very positive experience with the new nutritional subcategory. I chose to write the blog in this manner because as Aaker says, that personalized word of mouth messaging can be very effective (2018). Having a personal experience association with a brand can enforce the signature story and create buzz and interest in a sub category. “Associations affect not only customer decisions about the brand and brand relationships, but also ways for customers to interact with brand- how they access and process brand-relevant information” (Aaker, p. 962., 2018).
I strategically created this blog with the notion that a real-life experience in the “Eat Like a Champion” program can be persuasive and a strong component of selling the new service due to the emotional connection. It also can be the start of an effective set of blogs written from the perspective of kids in the program, coaches, nutritionists and other parents who are the heroes discussing the subcategory. “When a story creates effective associations, the way the audience processes additional information is changed” (Aaker, p. 962, 2018). Through “Linda’s story” my goal was to create positive associations with readers of the blog and the Skyhawks brand.
I was pleased about how I was able to make this a narrative from Linda’s perspective while weaving in the signature story and linking to facts about nutrition in a positive way that shows a solution to a mom’s battle regarding feeding her children nutritious meals thanks to the educational component of “Eat Like a Champion.” I was able to hyperlink sound resources for the reader who may want to learn more with factual information from the CDC, The Mayo Clinic and various nutritional experts. I also wove in pertinent photos to enhance the story and be eye-catching for the reader. I believe the initial photo of a child running will capture the attention of parents, followed by a picture of mouth-watering French fries. All the components from the angle I chose for the blog, the simple language used and the visual elements were strategically selected to catch the reader’s attention and compel them to read about the new sub category, not in a salesy pitch, but in a relatable manner. I then ended the piece with the opportunity for the reader to obtain more information by clicking to the Skyhawks’ website. If this was a true published blog post, there would be a hyperlink to receive more information about “Eat Like a Champion,” with a bit.ly link to provide analytic information about how much business was driven to the website by this blog post.
Micro Podcast
In keeping with the sports theme associated with Skyhawks Sports Academy, I chose to create a podcast that reflected the signature story of the brand. I titled the podcast, “Inside the Huddle,” referencing the important discussions that take place in a sports huddle. I thought it was a great play on the concept.
Since my subcategory is about nutrition in kids, I wanted to create a signature story in the podcast, reflective of helping kids “Eat Like a Champion.” Rather than make it a commercial for the subcategory, I instead had a “guest” come on the podcast who specializes in childhood nutrition. The episode, entitled, “Fueling the Future - A Deep Dive into Nutrition with Haley Hutchinson” was a general discussion about helping parents feed their children healthy meals, providing strategies for getting kids to eat nutritious foods, with expert guidance from a pediatric nutritionist. I thought it was important to not have the subject matter directly related to sports families but rather to all families as a conduit for casting a wider net for audience gain. As Aaker describes, “A brand can become a story hero via programs or promotional events that are unrelated or only tangentially connected to a product or service” (Aaker, p. 1701, 2018).
I wanted to start the podcast off with attention-getting music that had a sports flare. I served as the narrator/interviewer and introduced the podcast as if someone was listening for the first time. Having been a podcaster myself, I knew it was important to establish the audience connection, explain the point of the podcast and the goal of the episode. I also chose to promote the brand, Skyhawks Sports Academy, right off the top of the show to confirm that this was a branded podcast. I chose not to bring in commercials anywhere else in the content so as not to chop up the interview, but to sign out at the end of the podcast with a reminder of the brand.
Once again, the subject matter did not discuss anything negative about childhood nutrition but instead, promised to provide parents with positive, tangible strategies to help them encourage healthy eating habits in any age child, especially preschoolers. The guest was well-spoken, credible and personable giving the audience effective approaches to healthy eating for kids and families in a fun, but informative manner.
My goal was to establish the brand by providing a childhood expert who could discuss the matter of childhood nutrition without it sounding like a commercial. This not only serves the brand’s target audience but has a greater audience reach. The overall tone of the podcast was fun, lively and informative and I feel like I achieved those goals.
Information provided by the “guest pediatric nutritionist” was obtained through many credible sources including the CDC and the Mayo Clinic.
Planned Social Media Posts
The best platforms to utilize in order to convey messaging to Skyhawks target audience, as well as increase reach and engagement, would be to use two platforms that are currently successful for the brand-- Facebook and Instagram. Because Skyhawks provides a service to young children, statistically, the end-users, or parents and guardians, are social media savvy and are likely following Skyhawks already. Using these platforms for messaging will only strengthen the subcategory and its signature stories.
Based on information from Sprout Social (Keutelian, 2024), the best times to post on Instagram is earlier in the day and early in the week; therefore, I would schedule posts for Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. I suspect by that point in the morning, parents have the kids off to school and they are at work and looking to take breaks by perusing Instagram. Additionally, I believe parents have post alerts set up for some of their favorite brands. Not only will this post service the current target audience, but utilizing the proper hashtags, there is a good chance to improve reach to a larger demographic.
Much of the same is true for Facebook. This social medium platform is dominant and serves a wide demographic. Based on information from Hootsuite (Newberry, 2023), I would actually schedule a post Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. as well, to garner the largest audience draw possible.
Social media is a very important component of integrated marketing communications. Either organically or through paid channels, social media can have extensive reach to audiences worldwide when used efficiently and effectively. It is a fun medium to message a signature story because the challenge is conveying the essence of a signature story about a brand’s subcategory in an eye-catching image, knowing that your audience will spend mere split seconds looking at it. Therefore, the message must be clear, concise and reflect the voice and tone of the brand. As Aaker says, “Stories are superior to facts in gaining exposure, activating social media, communicating information, being remembered, creating involvement, persuading, inspiring and more (Aaker, p. 220, 2018).
I based my posts on the fact that I would be unveiling the subcategory, “Eat Like a Champion,” so rather than seeking audience engagement through the post, such as comments or likes, I instead, strategically used the campaign as a way to announce the subcategory hoping to encourage people to go to the website. If I had verbiage at the bottom of the posts, I would provide a link to click to get to the website. The text area would also be a place I could encourage engagement or hashtags to draw in an audience or additional information about “Eat Like a Champion.”
However, I wanted to covey the “Eat Like a Champion” subcategory in a simple, eye-catching manner with few words on the graphic with easy to comprehend language that was, as Aaker recommends, memorable and appealing (Aaker, 2018). You can’t go wrong with pictures of children, so I purposely made the post, photo intensive to grab attention especially of our target audience—parents. In keeping with the voice and tone of the brand, the photos and captions are friendly, fun, engaging, simple and authentic. In both posts, I consistently used the same eye-catching colors and similar fonts that were complimentary to the Skyhawks logo.
On the Instagram Post, I wanted to make the connection between Skyhawks being a youth sports brand and the new subcategory providing healthy eating guidance to kids and parents. I used a champion trophy and a child eating a nutritional breakfast to grab the viewers’ attention then explained in simple language that Skyhawks now has a healthy eating component. The graphic is universal enough for an audience not familiar with the brand to understand that it’s a business that is involved in youth sports—now, adding a healthy eating component.
Similarly, in the Facebook post, I played off the popular “pre-game” expression to capture attention enhanced by photos of cute kids eating healthy and introduced the “Eat Like a Champion” program, once again directing the audience to the website. Like the Instagram post, this helps the viewer who does not know the brand, have an understanding of what Skyhawks Sports is, while introducing their new nutrition program. Keeping the themes the same throughout, builds brand consistency.
Longform Video Layout
The Longform video element of the digital storytelling campaign was a very fun exercise for me to create new heroes in the last of my signature stories. My strategy in this exercise was to educate consumers about Skyhawks Sports Academy’s new subcategory: Eat Like a Champion, teaching nutritional education for kids during their sport camps and clinics. By extension, the video also created brand awareness. Although the audience targets current end-users of Skyhawks sports camps, the video opens up a broader connotation reaching an even larger audience.
My approach was to capture the viewers’ attention right from the start; it’s hard not to be compelled to watch a video with the driving music from the Rocky movie, “Eye of the Tiger” while taking in photos of adorable children who are representing many of the sports offerings from Skyhawks and eating healthy food. As Aaker teaches, the digital world is a crowded marketplace, so creating compelling, intriguing and entertaining content with the proper use of a signature story is necessary to have brand messages heard (Aaker, 2018).
Using simple language and direct messaging, my intention was to create an intriguing video that viewers would be compelled to watch that would equally retain their attention. I made the purposeful decision to build the anticipation throughout the video and save the information explaining what the viewer is watching to the end of the video coupled with the call to action to seek out the Skyhawks website for more information about the subcategory, “Eat Like a Champion.”
The tone used was fun, playful, friendly, engaging and humorous, using driving action and anticipation as entertainment to inform. The subjects of this signature story were kids who are participating in sports serving as heroes in the campaign and indicating how advantageous the “Eat Like a Champion” subcategory is for teaching healthy eating habits to children in a developmental phase.
Final Takeaways and Reflection
After carefully analyzing the Skyhawks brand, I was able to strategically create a "must-have" subcategory that will enhance the brand. Using customer stories, the messaging will be relatable which will help resonate with a variety of audiences, allowing children and their families to be the heroes. As Aaker described, “Signature stories rarely stand alone. They usually come in sets” (Aaker, p. 542, 2018)
I also believe that using personalized and emotional messaging to showcase a new subcategory while weaving in pertinent information mirrors Aaker’s emphasis on incorporating different plots for impact. Utilizing content in an entertaining way that provides pertinent information is effective for the audience.
These differing perspectives will seek to target a varied audience. Multiple signature stories create energy, interest and visibility while providing depth to the story and credibility to the brand without oversaturation or overload (Aaker, 2018). Looking down the road, to keep the campaign fresh, it’s important to not only add new components to build on the subcategory but also have a story bank to reinvigorate the campaign (Aaker, 2018).
It is important that the campaign be continual to help the audience learn about the new subcategory from diverse and integrated communications platforms over a period of time. Merging the subcategory with the brand's 45th Anniversary and the Summer Olympic Games is a well crafted strategy.
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