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Fishing lessons from a successful Salmon Launch

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Fishing lessons from a successful Salmon Launch

Tags: marketing | Salmon Cenre

On Tuesday 24th March, the third myplace centre was launched, and what a launch it was. Following on from OPEN and New Horizons comes The Salmon Centre in Bermondsey, South London. Already a long-established success story in so many ways in its own right, Salmon sets the myplace bar pretty high, by any standards. An £11m centre of excellence, it is a shining beacon of how a youth centre ought to be and function, which every other centre in the portfolio should make it their business to visit and emulate. Their launch featured speeches from the Minister, performances from their young people, and guided tours around their place. Tom Calderbank from the myplace support team offers some hints and tips for the next 67 projects.

First, bait your hook

You’ve already done this. Hopefully, you’ve created a world-class centre for young people to go, with them at the heart of all aspects of it. It’s no doubt been a real struggle at times, a thankless task that had you sweating bullets. But it’s here, now. Your launch event is where you fling open your doors to project stakeholders, the media and the public. You really do want to look your best. Just the story of how you got where you are is amazing and, told in a compelling way, it will interest media and funding organisations. Write your own press release, with guidance from the BIG team. Create an irresistible proposition that can’t fail to attract the right people for you, and you’re on the road to sustainability from the start.

DO think big. Try to make it memorable. Salmon would have liked the Prime Minister at their launch, but still had the Secretary of State for Education. At one project I’ve visited, the young people wanted Jay Z and Beyonce. Why not? It’s worth asking, at the very least. You never know what might happen.

Alternatively, you can go low key, with a local hero or shero doing the ribbon-cutting honours. Someone who means a great deal to your community. One of the best launches I’ve been to was for the Bluecoat Arts Centre in Liverpool. They wrapped the whole of the front of the building in ribbon, and handed out 70 pairs of safety scissors to members of the crowd. After a 10 second countdown, who cut the ribbon and symbolically opened the place? We ALL did!

salmon_launch_ribbon_cutting_250_wide DO get Ministerial. myplace is a DfE programme, after all, so its only fair. Salmon had Secretary of State for Education, Ed Balls, Dawn Primarillo, and Iain Wright. This does raise its own logistical problems you’ll need to accomodate. Do account for any VIPs’ hectic schedules, security considerations and other special factors. Do liaise with their office to co-ordinate press and use as much of their assistance and resource as possible.

DO look at the pros and cons of this route, as the potential media coverage and prestige could be offset by losing some control of the form and content of your day.

DO use it as a shop window for your young people’s creativity. Let them showcase their video work, music, dance, art and other talents. Celebrate and promote them, and LET THEM SPEAK. For themselves. Practise mic technique with them beforehand and build their confidence to address a charged audience.

DO get a good team in place. Have a clear chain of command, led by someone with a firm grasp of the aims and objectives of the day, and can communicate them to Team Leaders and volunteers who all know their roles and responsibilities.

DO organise tours of the building, led by their young users and designers.

DO make space for people to mingle and network.

salmon_launch_unwrapped_250_wide DO have an eye on development opportunities, partnership working and collect contacts with a view to increasing connectivity, building business and audiences and bringing in valuable revenue.

DO have a good PA system and sound engineer. Video as well if possible. The sound and vision aspects could be costly; if you have these resources in house, all the better.

DON’T spend too much money. Salmon’s launch cost around £1, 000. That’s mainly on refreshments. Even if you have a separate marketing and publicity budget, and are treating this properly as your chance to make a first dazzling impression, keep an eye on costs. DO have donuts.

DON’T launch until you’ve got the place up and running. You should have ironed out most of the kinks, dealt with the snags and implementing systems and staffing roles, and be properly organised before you make a big fuss. Having said that, building work is still going on at Salmon, so its not quite finished yet. It didn’t do them any harm, and no doubt they’ll have another event upon full completion.

DO celebrate your milestones and achievements. Your Launch should be part of a wider marketing strategy which sets out a timetable of events to highlight and build your project up to and beyond opening. These could include: confirmation of the funding/planning permission/site acquisition; Turf cutting; half way point; last day of the old club; topping out; launch; birthday (annually); VIP visit; high profile partnership; members achievements; fundraising dinners and events, etc. There are many more special events of local and national significance that each centre could add. Use any and every opportunity to get the message of your offer out there.

In conclusion, it’s clichéd but true: projects don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan. Go to another myplace launch near you. Talk to the managers and learn from their experience. Proper planning of the day, with everyone knowing what’s meant to happen, should make your launch a big splash and not a damp squib.

Find more help and information in our Marketing and Promotion section.

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