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I was wondering if any camps have tried radio advertising as a way of marketing camp, and if so was it successful?? Also I was wondering how others feel about camp fairs?

I think radio is ok, but there are probably better ways. Radio is funny because you have to chose to either market to one of two demographics, kids, or parents. Saturday morning TV would be better If your local stations even have available slots! The networks usualy use up those slots with cerial and toy ads. I've always thought that a great way to use tv would be to put some sort of kids variety type show on cable access(based around camp). 6 or so :30 episodes in the spring. Look at the effect "Bug Juice" has had.
I like camp fairs if you can find away to divert the constant flow of kids to your table. Some kind of giveaway is the best, I saw a camp buy flats of bottled water and slapped thier own lable on it.

Does anyone else besides me feel that at times you are tapping out your marketing resources?

Might others be willing to share marketing ideas. Can we talk about the differences in marketing for a sleep away camp and a day camp. Primarily I work with a day camp and other youth activities throughout the year. I'm willing to share those ideas if others are willing to list out some of theirs.

Anyone game?

Just wanted to let you know I started a new "How to Market Your Summer Camp" blog at http://campmarketingnews.com . It's free and you can get lots of tips and advice for marketing day camps and overnight camps, too. Check it out!

I think other wonderful ways of marketing might be the following:

1. Camp Directories/Searches: Adding your camp to campdirectories and other different searchs will allow for parents/campers to find them. I know I have frequently looked through them for camps.

2. Camp Review Sites: There are a variety of different sites that are composed of reviews of each camp. Posting reviews, and having staff or campers, most them would help increase interest.

3. Radio and In-print advertising is great!

Have you tried Facebook?

Type summer camp into groups and some of them have thousands of members and people like me looking for jobs

I just read your post. I'd be glad to discuss camp marketing ideas with you. I just joined the board but I'll hang around more often. Meanwhile, check out http://www.campmarketingnews.com for a free "how to market your summer camp" blog.

Traditional marketing routes are ineffective.

Fifty years ago, television commercials were great! Essentially you had two or three channels so changing them wasn't an issue, as a family people would sit around the TV and watch each commercial.

Over the years with the invention of cable, satellite, and now the invention of programs that allow pausing, rewinding and recording television, we as consumers have become accustomed to ignoring television ads.

How does this relate to radio? As a society we've evolved to recognize marketing and advertising and tune it out.

Thus, much like TV, radio advertising will be an ineffective use of your marketing budget.


What we're at now with the invention of this 'Web 2.0 (Two Point Oh)', is a revolution in marketing. Much like 50 years ago with the invention of Television ads, we're at the beginning of a new 50 years.

This revolution is all about people, and what's been coined as 'Inbound marketing' and it relies on people, word of mouth and a desire to see advertisements.

How is this done is the main question. You may already know about the explosive growth of sites like Facebook and Myspace and now other sites that may be foreign to you like Twitter, Ning and Digg.

Social networks are the wave of the future.

Now while Facebook, Ning and Myspace are broad networks encompassing any and everyone who may want to join, there's a mini revolution that's beginning to provide exclusive content for individual markets. These targeted communities provide services to niche markets and are focusing on you and taking your feedback and putting them into practice.

For the camp community, a site that has just launched is called Campography.com. The site is 100% free to signup and manage your camp, many of which already have campers, staff and alumni already in them.

I'd be more then willing to talk about any questions you may have about this social networking revolution or about Campography - just send me a message here and I will get back to you.

http://www.Campography.com

Zach Bussey

Hi, you all shared really nice information about the camp marketing Actually camp marketing has it's own time for the advertisement that's why we all must have an ideas for the marketing "so I think we should send out people to speak to potential campers about your camp, don't send adults alone, but instead select some prior-year campers to serve as camp ambassadors and travel with these camp workers". May this ideas prove useful for some one.