F o restry C o m m i ss i o n E n g l and C reate a ca m p a i g n t o ra i se awareness o f t h e v ar i o us o utd o o r act i v i t i es t h e F o restry C o m m i ss i o n p r o v i des
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f o restry . g o v . u k
f ace b o o k . c o m / f o restry . c o m m i ss i o n . en g l and
YCN STUDENT AWARDS 2012—13
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Background The Forestry Commission is the largest single provider of countryside leisure visits in England. We look after more than 1,500 forests and woods in England and have over 40 million visits a year. Over half the population live within 6 miles of one of our forests or woods. We are a major land manager in National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty – supporting our finest landscapes. Look at forestry.gov.uk/visit for more information. Many of our sites recreational activities are managed by private business in partnership with the Forestry Commission. For example, Go Ape (tree top adventure and off road segways) Forest Holidays Cabin sites, ‘Camping in the Forest’ sites, local Cycle Hire businesses, Shops and Café’s. Our key areas for recreation/leisure activities are: • • • • • • • •
Waymarked Trails – Walking, Dog walking, Nature Trails. Family off road cycling – We offer some of the best off road cycling in the country. Mountain Biking – Entry level to extreme downhill trails and bike parks. We’ve hosted the Mountain Bike World Cup course at Dalby Forest. Play Areas – 32 play areas and Wild Play. Forest Live – 23 Concerts over 7 sites each year. Over a million people have been to our concerts and seen artist as diverse as Massive Attack, Simply Red and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Events – We have more than 1,000 events each year. From bat walks and owl prowls to bush craft and star gazing. Forest Holidays – Offering a range of luxury Cabins for groups and families or ‘Camping in the Forest’ for people who want to get closer to nature. Picnics/BBQ’s – Many of our sites have BBQ facilities, and provide opportunities for some great picnic areas.
All of our sites apart from Westonbirt National Arboretum are free entry by foot. The majority of our income comes from car parking charges, which apply to many of our sites if accessed by car. Our Discovery Pass membership scheme gives people the opportunity to support their local forest and get free parking and discounts. The Creative Challenge Your brief is to create a campaign to raise awareness of the various outdoor activities the Forestry Commission provides. We need to engage with a younger audience to highlight what a great day out our sites provide, whether it’s with family, your friends or both. It’s great value, its healthy and fun. We have competitors UK wide offering leisure days. How can we attract people to think about Forestry Commission sites as an offer they want to visit, enjoy and more importantly repeat their visit, or even visit a different site? We want to have an interaction with the younger audience not only wanting to use our sites for various activities but to become loyal customers who will in turn become custodians themselves of our very precious offer, and to one day explore our sites with their children. YCN STUDENT AWARDS 2012—13
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We are continually working hard to raise awareness of what we have to offer. We are looking for inspiring and powerful creative ideas across whatever platform – you are free to explore all marketing channels. Your campaign, apart from being highly creative, needs to be capable of using very small budgets to maximum effect. It needs to have scope to grow through various channels and able to translate online and through social media channels. Consider how your campaign can maximise exposure through: PR, newsletters and other means. This is deliberately a very open brief, and you’re encouraged to approach it creatively and freely. Target Audience We have a wide customer base, but we want you to consider one particular audience for this brief. The target audience for this campaign is young males and females, aged 16-25 years old, who research has shown to be the more difficult market to access. The challenge here is to raise this audience’s awareness of our offer, and encourage them to get ‘out and about’ start walking, cycling, and doing activities outdoors whatever the weather. Some of our sites are not accessible easily without a car. This causes a barrier in the younger age groups due to not being able to drive, needing to rely on others, or not owning a car. This is a key challenge in getting this group visiting our sites. You may want to focus on a specific group within the target audience or create a campaign that has broader appeal. Preparation We suggest some site visits to Forestry Commission sites local to you. Also an assessment of the website, which highlights all recreation sites in the UK, and will help with an overview of the other areas of work that we’re involved in - forestry.gov.uk/visit Mandatories Your work must include the Forestry Commission logo and the website address forestry.gov.uk. You may also use the set of bespoke brand fonts. We are open to creative use of these elements. Please note that the brand font has been supplied for use within your YCN Student Awards entry only, and we would appreciate it’s use to be kept solely for this purpose. We have also included a PDF introduction to our brand in the Project Pack.
YCN STUDENT AWARDS 2012—13
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Important Point: The brief is to promote the Forestry Commission, not the businesses operating in partnership with us on our sites. i.e. any bike hire business, Go Ape. Deliverables, Artwork and Additional Information For guidance on how to submit your work, please adhere to the main deliverables information in the Student Awards section of the YCN website. Any additional supporting information referenced in the brief can be found in the supporting project pack on the YCN website – www.ycn.org
YCN STUDENT AWARDS 2012—13
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