PRSA-NCC Thoth Award Entry 2005; Category 8: Marketing Consumer Services

The Bolger Center Fall Festival

Submitted by Donna Arbogast & Associates LLC

Nestled on 83 beautifully landscaped acres in the heart of Potomac, Md., an affluent region north of the nation's capital, the Bolger Center is a "hidden gem" among the area's conference and special event venues. While the Bolger Center has served as a national training facility for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for the past 25 years, it remained a total mystery to the majority of residents in the surrounding communities. Among those who were even aware of its existence, most assumed from its imposing buildings and secluded setting that it was a secret operation and that no one was allowed on the property. Certainly, no one imagined that they were welcome to visit the Center, let alone rent it for upscale social events such as weddings and bar mitzvahs as well as for large or small conferences, seminars and meetings.

Thus, in the spring of 2004, when Dolce International assumed management of the Bolger Center for the Postal Service, the company had its hands full. The Center is nearly at capacity Monday through Friday with USPS and other government and association meetings, but its extensive hotel and conference facilities, its lovely Stained-Glass Hall (a former chapel) and its immaculate grounds sat idle every weekend. Dolce was charged with generating revenue for USPS by increasing use of the Center for weekend-based special events. Their considerable challenge: to encourage a highly sophisticated clientele to drop its perception of the Bolger Center as a secret government outpost and to begin to view it as a desirable venue for some of life's most important events. Dolce hired Donna Arbogast & Associates LLC to create a strategic public relations and marketing campaign to do just that: change perception, lay the groundwork for increasing the Bolger Center's special event business, and help Dolce generate revenue.

The Bolger Center is surrounded by a community of some of the nation's most affluent and influential residents. Some pertinent demographic data from Potomac, Md.:

Median family income: $142,500 ($50,000 nationwide)

Percent of residents making over $200,000 annually: 32% (3% nationwide)

Percent with houses valued between $500,000 and $1 million: 32% (2.4% nationwide)

Percent with a graduate education: 44% (9% nationwide)

This demographic presented advantages and disadvantages for the marketing initiative. While area residents were an ideal - practically captive - audience for our campaign, they also have extremely high expectations for service, quality and style. We knew that not only would the marketing initiative have to be impressive, any event or campaign would have to meet - or ideally exceed - this audience's standards for performance. Based on some consumer awareness data given to Dolce International by the Postal Service, we also knew that while some members of the community were curious about, but suspicious of, the Bolger Center, others had simply never heard of it. We had to capitalize on the existing curiosity, and at the same time break through the vast clutter of information that bombards people every day in the nation's capital to gain the attention of those who knew nothing about the Bolger.

Public relations research generally indicates that a face-to-face experience can be the most effective PR strategy, particularly when the goal is to change perception. With this in mind, we created The Bolger Center Fall Festival, a series of three events designed to showcase the Center's versatility and high-end capabilities in different ways, and to appeal to our specific target audiences. We focused on households with incomes over $150,000 in the four neighboring Maryland zip codes (which totaled 24,000). Then we further narrowed the group by targeting those charged with planning such major family events as bar/bat mitzvahs, weddings, anniversaries and other occasions (i.e., women over age 35) and civic/business leaders who might book the Center for board retreats, staff meetings, fund-raisers and other events. The Festival incorporated a series of three entirely different, free events, each with its own special flavor and drawing cards. The goals and objectives were:

To generate greater awareness of the Bolger Center among affluent residents of four key zip codes by reaching between 50,000 and 100,000 people with information about the Bolger Center's availability as a special event venue via direct mail, advertising and earned media.

To attract members of the targeted audiences to the Bolger Center property to experience first-hand the extensive and beautiful facilities, upscale catering and topnotch service. Target: 500 people.

To create a viable mailing list, to be used by the Bolger Center for future marketing efforts.

To generate $150,000 in social event business within the first six months of the campaign's launch.

The first event, Lyrics on the Lawn, was an outdoor, Indian Summer sunset supper and jazz concert that showcased the outdoor appeal of the Bolger Center and the versatility of the catering and event planning staffs. Next, we offered a casual, early November afternoon, tented event, Tailgates, Touchdowns and TV, complete with a big-screen showing of a Washington Redskins game, tailgate party fare, and an appearance by former Redskin Gary Clark, who signed toy footballs that featured the Bolger Center logo and web site. The tent was available because it was already erected for a USPS event, allowing us to expand attendance and showcase the Center's state-of-the-art AV capability without incurring additional costs. A December Holiday High Tea in the unique, two-story-high Stained Glass Hall offered elegant seasonal decor and a traditional tea menu, accompanied by a harpist. At each event, the Bolger's sales staff conducted tours of the grounds, buildings and meeting facilities, which most attendees took, further reinforcing the face-to-face experience.

Tactics - Direct Mail, Special Events, Advertising, Earned Media, Collaterals

We deliberately created a festive, bright, and fun graphic look for all Fall Festival materials to dispel the perception of the Bolger Center as a secretive, unwelcoming, drab government facility.

Every collateral used this look, starting with the Fall Festival invitation, which announced the series of events, promoted Lyrics on the Lawn, pre-promoted the next two programs, and provided an overview of the Center.

We supplemented the direct mail with advertising in a community weekly paper, the Gazette, which reached 67,000 households in the targeted communities.

We sent a special invitation/press release to the local media, created a refrigerator magnet as a collateral (which we mailed with a thank-you note from General Manager Paul Dolce after each event), designed a colorful 25-foot-long banner to hang along the front of the building saying simply, "Welcome to the Bolger Center," developed a special mailing list sign-up card and designed simple hand-outs that tied the messages together.

Our expenses totaled $72,000 for event management, design, printing, advertising, entertainment, collaterals, postage, food, decorations and rentals. We were able to keep costs low because the Bolger Center is a catering facility that benefits from suppliers' frequent use and bulk discounts, cutting catering-related costs by approximately 50 percent. Approximately, $1,500 was used to advertise in the local paper.

The response was overwhelming, allowing us to far exceed our original goals and save thousands of dollars in additional promotional costs. Within 3 days of mailing the invitation, both Lyrics on the Lawn and the Holiday High Tea were filled to capacity. As a result, we pulled the ad for Lyrics and replaced it with one promoting Tailgates, Touchdown and TV, which had become a larger event than originally planned thanks to the availability of the USPS tent. We did not need to do any additional direct mail. In addition, the High Tea continued to generate so many calls that we expanded it to two seatings, doubling the capacity from 200 to 400. We filled both.

Through the direct mail, advertising and earned media, we reached more than 94,000 area households with information about the Bolger Center and its special event services.

Nearly 1,100 people attended the three events, more than doubling our original target for participation.

We created a database of nearly 400 people who actively volunteered to be on the Bolger Center's mailing list for future events and promotions, a list that we used to promote the newly created Sunday High Tea service (see below). (R) Within three months, the Bolger Center staff had booked more than $250,000 in catering business from those who attended the events, far exceeding the $150,000 that we hoped to generate in six months.

The Holiday High Tea proved so popular that the Bolger Center established a regular Sunday High Tea service (charging $28 per person) that began in the spring of 2005, which is often now sold out and is generating ongoing bookings for special event services.