4. When the 2015-2016 Ad 2 Orlando Executive Committee met at the beginning of year to start planning, it was very
evident that in the 30-year club history, Ad 2 Orlando was in a good position to achieve greatness and maintain our
forward momentum. Prior years’ focus was on starting the momentum of membership growth and engagement with
less than 70 members and unknown reasons for joining. Last year’s board was dedicated to building the foundation
for growth, all proving very successful. After a year of moving Ad 2 Orlando in the right direction, there was a strong
base; it was time to take Ad 2 Orlando to the next level and let our members and potential members know about it!
LONG RANGE PLANNING
Create additional resources for Board Members
Goal: Create additional resources and support for every board member by creating growth for every position as well
as assigning an Executive Board member as their direct advisor. These strategies would streamline the leadership
system while supporting the president by creating additional delegation methods and encouraging board member
involvement.
Methods:
• Executive Advisors: each Executive Board member was assigned 1-3 committees to provide direct feedback,
thus avoiding a delay waiting on the president to sign off on every club decision (Exhibit 1.1).
• Co-Chairs: We strongly encouraged co-chairs and committee expansion for positions where a significant
amount of ongoing work occurred (Exhibit 1.2). This initiative also allows for succession-planning to be a
prominent mindset as board members don’t feel burdened by their and return to the board.
• Strategic financial planning: This year, we able to invest in our up-and-coming leadership by inviting them to
attend our District Conferences and Ad 2 Mid-year conference (Exhibit 1.3).
• Business Cards and Nametags: Through connections with local printers, personal Ad 2 Orlando business
cards and nametags were designed and distributed to the board (Exhibit 1.4).
• New Ad 2 Orlando Website: Our new website also plays a major part in reinforcing our brand. We’ve made
information more accessible, changed to a more reliable web host, and prioritized blogging to provide valuable
news to visitors. We’ve included more photography, cleaner type, and made our website feel more youthful
through the use of our brand colors consistently throughout the site (Exhibit 1.5).
5. • Website events section: Which allows our brand to “follow” users through different interaction points when
signing up for events (Exhibit 1.6) along with a new payment tool to make check-out easier.
• Basecamp: With the largest board in club history (22 members), a full program calendar and an active
membership, we didn’t want anything to fall through the cracks. Implementing Basecamp has allowed us to
create project boards for committees and larger programs (media auction, kickball, website, etc.) where all
parties are able to access it, with separate sections for messages, tasks and files to keep all files and
communication in one place and helping stay on task and more organized (Exhibit 1.7).
Results: Only one board member resigned this year (for a job relocation) and we’ve added additional committee
members throughout the year who have been engaged and have interest in a board position for next club year. We
were also able to have additional board members at two different District 4 conferences and sent three members to
the Ad 2 mid-year retreat on behalf of the club (Exhibit 1.3). Our new website design has presented a 29.65%
reduction in bounce rate, a 63.52% increase in pages per session, and an 88.48% increase in average session
duration (Exhibit 1.8).
Diversify Membership Recruitment Efforts
Goal: Ad 2 Orlando currently has a strong following with the advertising agency professionals in Orlando. With the
executive board having diverse backgrounds from creative, account, digital, sales and marketing, our goal was to
express the value of Ad 2 membership to increase professional membership recruitment. In addition, we wanted to
build relationships with more businesses and expand our reach to different roles in the advertising and marking
community including creative, marketing and digital roles.
Methods: In the past several years, our membership demographics were comprised mainly of those on the Account
Service side of traditional agencies, primarily due to the types of programs that were offered. This year, the focus
was to have speakers and events that provided value to numerous types of professionals, discussing topics that are
new to the Ad 2 Orlando audience base:
• April Program: “How Orlando City Soccer Club turned Orlando into a city of raving fútbol fans,” focused on the
evolution of soccer in the Orlando Market and featured Teresa Tatlonghari, VP of Marketing of Orlando City
6. Soccer Club. This sold out programs featured a Q&A style session with her to learn about the evolution of
Orlando City Soccer Club’s grassroots marketing efforts to diverse audiences (Exhibits 1.9).
• October Program: “The Digital Frontier: Technology & Digital Marketing” focused on Central Florida’s growth in
the tech sector and aimed to showcase the club’s close pulse on the latest trends in a digital age. The event
took place at Purple, Rock, Scissors (PRPL), an Orlando-based digital creative agency, and brought together
four individuals of varying backgrounds who shared a common thread of being influential in the technology
industry, to speak on the successes and challenges they’ve faced throughout their careers, as well as their
predictions for the future (Exhibits 1.10).
• Social Events with AAF-Orlando and AIGA Orlando: Ad 2 paired with AAF-Orlando and AIGA (creative club)
to expand Ad 2's monthly networking happy hours. Beers with Peers took place in August, September and
October with AAF and Ad 2uesday in February with AIGA. These events presented Ad 2 members and non-
members with the opportunity to expand their network with fellow advertising and creative professionals in AAF
and AIGA. During these events, we got to hear from industry pros such as agency CEO’s, the creative team
from Universal Halloween Horror nights and more (Exhibits 1.11).
Results: By making our programs topics and locations more diverse, we’ve been able to address varied audiences
of young advertising professionals, that had in years past have not seen value in our organization. We’ve been able
to maintain an average event attendance of approximately 50 guests (Exhibit 1.12). Our current membership
consists of 130 due-paying members (75 professional, 40 UCF affiliate members, and 15 students). In less than
one-year, we went from 49 to 75 professional members, which reflects a 53% increase in professional members
from the previous year (Exhibit 1.13).
ANALYSIS OF MEMBERS NEEDS: Receive Member Feedback
Goal: Retrieve and analyze member feedback to implement into Ad 2 Orlando’s overall member value.
Methods: Ad 2 Orlando has changed throughout the years, and so have the needs of our members. As we
identified through last year’s feedback, our local market is shifting towards people wanting more professional
development. Often our best ideas for programs and benefits come directly from our members. This year we
solicited performance feedback from our members at the mid-year point.
7. • Online Survey: Six months into the club year, we sent out a survey to get additional feedback from our
membership audience. This 15 question online survey was open to both members and nonmembers. Questions
focused on member benefits, dues, communication methods and had open fields for comments.
Results: The online Club Check survey resulted in 25 total insightful responses (Exhibit 2.1). We also gathered
information about raising dues and professional development from our survey. While exactly half said they would
like to keep dues at $70, 40% said they would pay $80 and 10% said they would go as high as $90 (Exhibit 2.1).
Create Member Benefit/Value at Every Event, In Addition To Free Entrance Their Dues Provides Them
Goal: Create true member benefits for every member from the first moment they become a member.
Methods: While our membership fee is nominal, for people just launching their careers $70 per year can be
prohibitive. We needed to ensure that we were creating enough of an impact in the eyes of our members to
encourage renewals and new member sign-ups. We addressed this goal with the following initiatives:
• Member giveaways at EVERY event by reforecasting our programs budget to allocate $100 per event (Exhibit
2.2). We also utilized our communication channels to promote the giveaways and show the value of being a
member. With a small event entrance fee, we were able to provide complimentary drink tabs, parking vouchers,
and/or appetizers at several events. We also received several restaurant and sponsor gift certificates upon
arrival at our event venues.
• Ad 2 branded giveaways: With increased funding, we also purchased more giveaways and created Swag
Bags (T-Shirts, Koozies, pens, buttons, and sunglasses) for our membership to receive over the course of the
year for becoming a member or renewing their membership (Exhibit 2.3).
• Ad 2uesdays: A networking opportunity in a laid back happy hour setting. Our program committee negotiated
amazing deals on foods and drinks at several local bars as we said “Thank You” to our members (Exhibit 2.4).
• Member’s only enewsletter and renewal emails: Current members currently receive a new member welcome
email, happy birthday and expiring membership email (pre-30 days, day of expiration and post-30 days) (Exhibit
2.5). The membership team is currently partnering with our communications team on a member only newsletter
to feature jobs, member and industry news to be sent to member’s mid-month (April 2016 launch) (Exhibit 2.6).
8. Results: Our current membership consists of 130 due-paying members (75 professional, 40 UCF affiliate members,
and 15 students). In less than one-year period, we went from 49 to 75 professional members, which reflects a 53%
increase in professional members from the previous board year. With these systems in place, our club expects
easier renewals and membership retention in coming years.
LEADERSHIP ORGANIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT:
Streamline internal and external Communications
Goal: Improve efficiency of internal communications between board members for all events; evolve the growth in
the current board structure by including Co-Vice Presidents and a Web Chair along with outlining roles and
responsibilities to help for succession planning.
Methods:
• Policy manual: We did a complete overhaul of our policy manual that outlines roles and responsibilities for all
board members including the newly created of Co-Vice President roles and Web Chair. The new roles of Vice
President of Operations would provide more support and dedication to our numerous communication efforts to
ensure success of streamlined communications both internally and to our members and would absorb the
responsibilities of the Club Secretary in taking minute notes and keep the club organized. The Vice President of
Development would spend more dedication to the development of guiding external club decision such as;
programing and fundraising opportunities for the club. Since communication is the connection from our club to
our members and with launching a more engaging website, we wanted to provide more dedication and
resources to this team to help engage more of our members and nonmembers, therefore we created a web
chair (Exhibit 3.1 a-d).
• Process flow: Defining the process flow was presented (Exhibit 3.2), outlining what information was needed by
each committee to accomplish their tasks in a timely format. An online event form was created (Exhibit 3.2) for
information to be easily gathered and distributed in a concise manner.
• Internal Board Communication: With a great process flow set in place, the board of directors identified an
opportunity for improved club communications. We create an Ad 2 Orlando Facebook group and have an Ad 2
Orlando Google drive account. In addition, we implemented Basecamp to help outline task and projects, upload
documents and creative and keep communication moving (Exhibit 3.3).
9. • Brand style guide: helps identity the Ad 2 Orlando brand with a focused personality and voice to the
community. This provides a common voice for all new board members and current board members to
communicate with our membership and non-members the culture that Ad 2 Orlando has (Exhibit 3.4 a-d).
Results: The processes put in place at the beginning of the year has allowed for faster turnaround times for event
promotions and communication. We have sent out 59 total email marketing campaigns over the last 34 weeks with
an open rate of 27.35% and a click rate of 2.52% (Exhibit 3.5 a). Ad 2 Orlando saw a 25.5% increase in Facebook
Likes, a 10.3% increase in Twitter followers, a 59.9% increase in Instagram followers, and a 34.1% increase in our
LinkedIn audience (Exhibit 3.5 b).
Board Member Retreats; A “Treat For Our Board”
Goal: Engage the Board and provide a clear goal for our organization while thanking them for all their hard work.
Methods:
Board retreats: Were held in July and January to connect with board members and provide direction during the
2015- 2016 club year. Presentations were made by the President and President-Elect (Exhibit 3.6) to discuss the
year’s goals and events. We even had our Ad 2 National Treasurer in person and on SKYPE to our board retreats to
provide value and insight to our board members about Ad 2 on a national scale (Exhibit 3.7). At the kick-off retreat,
the board participated in a fun improve team building activity and at the mid-year retreat in January we spent an
afternoon playing Laser Tag at Hard Knock as a thank you for all their work (Exhibit 3.7).
Board Member of the Month: At monthly board meetings, a board member who went above and beyond their
responsibilities was award a $10 Starbucks gift card and was featured across our social channels (Exhibit 3.8).
Results: The board worked in unity throughout the year with events being executed seamlessly and communication
remaining clear amongst board members. Morale remained high throughout the year as we all felt invested in the
organization and connected with each other, making it easy to accomplish our goals. Our Board Member posts on
social were some the highest engaged posts garnered an organic reach of 3,159 people and 236 Likes (Exhibit 3.9).
FISCAL MANAGEMENT: Raising the Financial Bar and Making Money for Our Events
Goal: Reach increased fundraising goals to provide additional member benefits.
10. Methods: Last year’s financial success was huge in setting this year budget. With a larger budget we had to focus
more on the forecasting and understanding the management of our budget. This year we set goals for our team to
achieve to ultimately provide more benefits to our members. In order to do so, the following actions were taken: 12
• Budgeting: At the beginning of year, the President and Treasurer met to review last year’s budget and create a
new one for the upcoming year. Careful time and consideration was put towards making sure we were
aggressive with our fundraising goals but also reasonable with our spending. A club budget of $27,400+ in
income and $27,199 in expenses was established and discussed frequently with the AAF-Orlando Board
(Exhibit 4.1).
• Dues: Financial goals for income from dues were established at the beginning of the year to help maintain our
overall financial goals. In order to support this, we implemented the following changes:
o Expiration Reminders: Using MailChimp, automatic renewal emails were sent 30 days before expiration
date, day of and post 30 days (Exhibit 4.2); personal reminders were also sent from Membership Chairs.
o UCF Affiliate Member – An Affiliate Membership Program was implemented last year to provide local
member benefits to our University of Central Florida (UCF) affiliate Ad Club. In order to provide a
seamless signup process, an option to signup was placed on the UCF Ad Club application.
Results: As a result, our day of reminder email has a 58.3% open rate and our Post-30 Day Reminder has a 29.6%
open rate (Exhibit 4.2). Through these efforts, the club was able to retain 13 members, 100% of which were
professionals (Exhibit 4.3). The Affiliate Student Membership program for the University of Central Florida cultivated
40 members, totaling $400 (Exhibit 4.4).
• Admission Charge for Events: In the past, Ad 2 Orlando hasn’t consistently charged entry at enough events to
justify member costs. We have seven planned events this year where the standard $10.00 non-member entry
fee will be enforced. To ensure pre-event sign-ups, we also started charged day off event prices of $15.00 non-
member and $5 member prices (Exhibit 4.5).
• Ad 2 Annual Media Auction: Our annual media auction is the primary fundraiser for Ad 2 Orlando. This event
allows businesses and nonprofits to purchase media and other items at a discounted rate of 20% retail value
while giving us the opportunity to give back to the community. As a club, we solicited donated media space,
11. business services and general auction items including Billboard packages, tickets to Universal Studios, and
more. We retooled the event to enhance the overall experience for both attendees and sponsors, creating a
microsite to simplify businesses submitting donations online (Exhibit 4.6). We updated the site with these
auction items so prospective attendees could see specific items up for auction (Exhibit 4.6). The event was held
at the Orlando Science Center, to create a higher caliber feel for the night (Exhibit 4.7). Complementary food
and drinks we donated by Chick-fila and Lagitita’s Brewing and branded table display cards for each item were
displayed and created an improved experience for attendees. Prior to the event, communications were
distributed through all of our communication channels including eblasts, all social media channels and a press
release. In addition, we sent out over 200+ personal emails, press releases and newspaper ads to local the local
community, non-profits organizations and media buyers to invite them to the event (Exhibit 4.8 a – 4.8 d).
Results: This event was a great success bringing in over $4,500 from the silent auction alone; and with 10
remaining items active for bid on eBay to bring in a projected $2,855 (Exhibit 4.9 a-b). A portion of the total
profits were donated to our Public Service client, Fairways for Warriors. This year’s media auction was the
highest attended media auction that we’ve had with over 65 people in attendance.
Summary: As a result of our board hard work, we’ve been able to accomplish the following:
• As of February 2016, we’ve achieved our new membership goals for the year by passing the one hundred mark
with 106 members (Exhibit 4.10 a) with an increase in revenue of $3,022.75
• As of February 2016, working with our UCF Ad Club Affiliate program, we generated $400.00 in additional
membership income. (Exhibit 4.10 b)
• From our pre-planned revenue generating programs (aside from membership dues), we have made $7,101 in
just event income and with two additional opportunities; a kickball fundraiser planned for March 2016 and a
professional development workshop, Ad2Talks for May 2016 (Exhibit 4.10 c).
We have far exceeded our goal of being financially responsible in order to increase benefits for our members this
year with yet another six months left to achieve more. Our processes and fundraisers in place have really set up
future leadership to soar and create Ad 2 experiences like non-other in the years to come.
