The document outlines the Connecticut Yankee Council's 2021 strategy to raise awareness of Scouting in the community through improved communications and marketing. The strategy focuses on attracting new members, creating new supporters, and engaging current members. Tactics proposed include social media campaigns, developing targeted messaging, creating blog content highlighting Scouting experiences, and promoting events. The goal is to increase participation in Scouting and support for the program through a more robust marketing effort.

1. TELLING
SCOUTING’S STORY
COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING 2021 STRATEGY

2. Our Strategy
Scouting has a century’s worth of stories, reputation and service to our nation, and
since the beginning southwestern Connecticut has been a home for Scouting.
However, never has the Connecticut Yankee Council invested in a comprehensive,
full-throttle effort to market and communicate the impact Scouting has.
That’s our north star for 2021: raise Scouting’s presence in the community so that
it drives young men and women to join our program, cultivates new donors and
engages our current membership.

3. Our Focus:
Attracting New
Members
To reach our North Star, we need to
communicate to young people and
their adult family members. For all
our programs, the communication is
to the parents. For Scouts BSA;
Venturing; Sea Scouts; and Exploring,
we can engage directly with the
potential Scouts as well.
We need to look at new audiences
within our market demographic in our
service area with messages that
resonate and speak to them.
Creating New
Supporters
Scouting needs supporters now more
than ever. Raising Scouting’s presence
in the community requires us to have
community members backing our
efforts. In coordination with the
Development team, we will identify
traits of prospective donors for us to
communicate to and identify themes
that resonate with this audience.
Engaging Our
Members
We cannot forget the lifeblood of our
program: our members- young men
and women from across the region
who know the value of our program
because they’re investing their most
valuable resource in it: their time. As
well as our current donors, especially
alumni, as they know the value of our
programs.
They’re our most powerful brand
ambassadors, spokespeople and
advocates in the community. We
cannot reach our North Star without
them actively engaged.
At the foundation, focusing on
Building the BSA Brand

4. Focused Activities to Attract New Members
Now
• Paid social media campaign
(recently completed)
• Developing strategy for Spring
Recruiting efforts and Extreme
Scouting event
Later
• Developing “always-on” paid
social media campaigns (low
daily investment ads that
continuously run for months on
end)
• Identify target audiences for
specialized advertising
• Creating blog content to
personalize Scouting
experience (details later in
deck)
• Creation of brand sizzle reel
with multiple cut-downs for
various purposes.
Hopeful
Requires time or financial investment
• Storytelling partnership with
local media outlet that results
in 3-5 paid stories throughout
the year
• Video profiles highlighting
Scouting experiences
• Radio advertising campaign on
top stations including Cumulus
Media, iHeartMedia and WNPR
over 6 weeks with $20k
investment

5. Membership & Recruitment Messaging Matrix
BE A SCOUT SAVE A SCOUT WEBELOS TO SCOUT
Cub Scout parent Do cool things and make
friends
Keep them outdoors and
learn how to be a good kid
Scout friends are support-
solid path through pre-
teens
Scouts BSA parent Leadership development &
outdoor adventure
Skills set them apart - help
get him/her into college
Share your experience
with parents of Webelos
Scouts BSA youth Do more cool stuff than
you can do anywhere else
Do more cool stuff than
you can do anywhere else
-

6. Focused Activities to Create New Supporters
Now
• Engage more often with
Chambers of Commerce
• Creating Facebook Events and
inviting relevant groups
• Creating new collateral with
updated copy
Later
• Developing “always-on” paid
social media campaigns (low
daily investment ads that
continuously run for months on
end)
• Identify target audiences for
specialized advertising
• Creating blog content to
personalize Scouting
experience (details later in
deck)
• Developing more sophisticated
collateral with up-leveled
design, copy and printing
• Series of fact sheets and one-
sheets that can be formatted
for web and print
• Creation of brand sizzle reel
with multiple cut-downs for
various purposes.
Hopeful
Requires time or financial investment
• Storytelling partnership with
local media outlet that results
in 3-5 paid stories throughout
the year
• Video profiles highlighting
Scouting experiences
• Brand building ads in local
paper (print + digital
properties)

7. Focused Activities to Engage our Members
Now
• Developing marketing plan for Save-A-
Scout event
• Scouts BSA Resident Camp Promotion
• Facebook + Instagram ad campaign
leveraging series of photos and a
gif targeting some ads toward
parents, some toward youth who
live in the Northeast and
interested in Scouting with a
limited investment
• Agency developing full strategy
inclusive of Paid, Earned, Social
and Owned medias
• Cub Scout Day Camp Promotion
• Build upon successes from past years’
promotional efforts by re-engaging on
Facebook page with videos, announcements,
“fun facts,” and parent-approved photos
• Promotion in newsletters
• Adventure Camp @ Deer Lake
Promotion
• Promoting Webelos to Scout
Transition
Later
• Cub Scout Day Camp
• Serving ads to area near camp
locations- N. Branford, Milford,
Trumbull, Redding- to Cub Scouts
and friends; heavier spend on N.
Branford due to first year hosting
camp
• Developing plan to engage District
social media pages in promotional
strategy
• Execute quarterly Fireside
Chats with Council leadership
• Development of standard
brand templates for
promotional images
• Create regular series of blog
posts to provide service to
units
Hopeful
Requires time or financial investment
• Implementation of text
messaging platform to engage
members- texting has 97%
open rate

8. Blog Content Series
Community spotlights
• Monthly profiles of how Scouting thrives in local communities
featuring one community per post. This would include an
overview of Scouting in the community, quotes from leaders
and Scouts on their activities and a look at notable service
projects. Interviews are fodder for additional posts to make our
work more effective.
• Great content for potential donors to read about the
investment we make in their community and potential Scouts
to see what Scouting is like in their community.
• Written by field executives with support from Council
Marketing & Communications Team
Eagle Scout profiles
• Monthly series to highlight remarkable
Eagle Scouts and the journey they
were on
• Celebrates the successes of our
program that can inspire potential
Scouts and drive home why
investing in Scouting is important
• Driven by Council Marketing &
Communications Team
Community service profiles
• Monthly profiles that show the
investment Scouting makes in our local
communities which is fodder for media
pitches, collateral for donor meetings and
inspiration for fellow Scouts
• Driven by Council & District Activities and
Advancement Committees, in partnership
with Council Marketing &
Communications Team prior to posting
Unit activity ideas
• Monthly content showcasing activities units can
do at meetings to elevate the Council Service
Center’s presence as a center of excellence and
drive quality traffic to ctyankee.org
• Shows potential members and adult family
members the activities Scouts participate in
• Driven by Council and District Activities
Committee with review and creative layout by
Council Marketing & Communications Team
Donor profiles
• Quarterly profiles highlighting well-
known, community-minded leaders that
support Scouting which boost our
credibility in the community- by showing
the company we keep, we boost our
reputation
• Driven by the Council Development
Team and edited by Council Marketing &
Communications Team

9. Common Threads + Wish List
Many of the recommendations
overlap: creating content that builds
our brand can, and will, be leveraged
to reach multiple audiences.
The more, high-quality content we can
create the more ability we have to edit
it and transform it to the message we
need to convey and use time after
time.
With that, if we had more money, we would invest in:
• Agency support to assist us in creating content:
• Writing blog posts, strategically updating key
website pages
• Videos
• Infographics
• Professional digital asset management system to collect
all resources (as simple as a paid Google Drive)
• Social media scheduling tool to more efficiently provide
staff time (i.e. Hootsuite)
• Giveaway items and swag that we can use as raffle
items and engagement opportunities
• Sponsorship and partnership budget (to place our
messaging and branding in key events)
• Increased investment in advertising- at least $20,000