Friday 24th May 2013

As we near the halfway point of 2013 we're pleased to announce that Chewits Sport Course attendees and revenues have increased in comparison to last year's results, which is great news in the midst of a tough economic climate.

We also have good news for the second half of 2013, as we've secured two national promotions with The Sun and Daily Star newspapers. The Daily Star promotion is likely to carry television advertising, generating greater awareness of your courses during your busiest holiday period. Both promotions are due run prior to the Summer Holidays and we will confirm timings and mechanics for both campaigns in due course. Please, as always make sure you have your courses listed at the earliest opportunity, so you don't miss out on this free national advertising.

A further promotion with the Mirror Group is at negotiation stage and we hope this will be rolled out in the 4th quarter giving a spread of national promotions throughout the year.

New Chewits collateral

Ahead of the Whitsun break those franchisees that have returned their Chewits allocation form will receive additional Chewits items including:

• Chewits Banners
• Tips Cards
• Bibs
• Password cards

This is in addition to the Chewits kit provided at the National Training Event in April.

Chewits range available to buy online

If you haven't already seen them a variety of Chewits items are available via the online store, this not only includes the traditional stick packs but additional items from the Chewits range including Whips - Strawberry, Cola & Apple flavours, Happy Mix Bags & Bites Bags.

To view the items login @ premiersport.org

Early this month I was contacted by Ricochet, an award winning independent production company, who produce factual and entertainment programmes for all the major broadcasters, including the long running Channel 4 documentary series 'Born To Be Different'.

Read more...

As we continue to partner with Sport England and their web platform SPOGO, we've been invited to participate in a Bristol pilot to get as many Bristolians physically active as possible throughout June.

View the pilot brief...

Franchisees in the Bristol area have been contacted and will be supplying their course data so that their activities will be signposted via the SPOGO website. The aspiration is that the activity will set a benchmark for other towns and the learning's from the pilot will allow a national rollout later in the year.

For more information on SPOGO visit spogo.co.uk

The first phase of our CR briefing paper has been completed with all areas of the business being scrutinised and analysed to form the foundations of our long-term CR objectives.

Our intention is to have a full CR proposal in place and ready for implementation in the new school year, which will support your work within schools and the local communities and further enforce the Premier Sport offer.

Over the coming weeks we will be making some changes to the online store, including adding additional items, new categories and bulk buying options. The latter will allow networks to buy items in larger quantities providing additional savings that can be passed down to individual franchisees.

If you have any queries regarding these changes please email [email protected]

We're pleased to announce that the final Members offer of this school year will be a Hotel break offer with the Wyndham Hotel Group.

The Wyndham Hotel Group is the world's largest and most diverse hotel company with approximately 7,000 hotels in 66 countries under 15 hotel brands. The group prides itself on providing guests with exceptional customer service great value and the most lodging choices from around the world.

Premier Sport Members (9000+) will be receiving a 20% discount for all brands under the Wyndham Hotel Group. Members will be sent a unique promotional code which they can then redeem either online or over the phone by quoting their code.

This is just another example of where Premier Sport is adding value to loyal customers throughout the network.

Following this year's National Training Event and the announcement of significant enhancements to the digital side of the business, we're continuing to work through what is one of our biggest projects to date.

With a range of stakeholders involved including three external agencies and a number of internal departments, the estimated investment will be in the region of £90-£100k once all of the elements and phases are complete.

The priority and focus for phase one of the project include:

• Schools portal assessment and attainment records
• E-contracts
• Parents portal and bookings
• Microsites and group site

The above projects have been scheduled for completion for the new school year and we will keep you up to date on progress throughout the course of the next four months.

Premier Sports' CEO David Batch was the final keynote speaker at the Premier Sport sponsored Vanguard Dinner, held at The Hotel Russell, London at the end of April.

A prominent theme from the keynote was the need for the public and private sector to work in partnership, to ensure the underlying objectives of getting more people physically active can be achieved. The speech was well received and struck a chord with attendees which included MP's, corporates and key industry figures.

"It was important in the context on the earlier focus group and the subsequent evening event that we reaffirmed our position as the leading organisation it the sector, but also that we realise we will need to work with others to achieve our objectives" comments David Batch CEO.

Also speaking at the event were Premier Sport Ambassador Duncan Goodhew MBE, John Steele CEO Youth Sport Trust and Steve Goodwin of Danone.

To read the full press release of the event click here.

To view of summary of the focus group and dinner please follow this link.

The implementation of a new central email address to the marketing department is proving a success and more efficient way of dealing with enquiries. And we request that all initial enquiries go to [email protected] where it will be picked up and responded to by the appropriate person.

Emails sent to individuals within the department will be bounced back to this address to be processed.

Last week I was able to attend the Champions Meeting at PS HQ where a variety of topics and previous actions were discussed. The outcomes of which I'm sure will be presented to the networks in the next couple of weeks. One suggestion was to give Champions their own e-newsletter which will be compiled by them and circulated to the network. The objective of this newsletter is to highlight the outcomes of the network and champions meetings, provide insight into good practice and provide an impartial voice and representation from the network as a whole.

Please use the network meetings to feedback positive outcomes from your businesses and also provided insight as to which areas of the business you would like to see improved/developed.

Following a flurry of success stories around new contracts being gained there has never been a better time for you to be meeting with schools, because if you don't someone else will and we have seen examples of this. A number of franchisees are utilising the services of TIME associates and benefiting from this service with appointments and meetings being scheduled in with schools.

The current average number of calls being made to a school to secure a meeting is 26per school. This begs the question, do you really have the time to make these calls or would you be better investing in additional resource in the short-term to grow your business in the long-term!!!

Please contact Ops Director Danny Melling for further information on the process for Time Associates [email protected]

Marketing Director Luke Miles has been appointed to lead a newly formed working group set up to plan and implement a messaging and communications strategy for COMPASS and its members.

The group consisting of COMPASS members Lucas Field Media and Blue Sky Events will create a blue print for all future messaging and positioning of the COMPASS group within the sector and beyond.

"It's important COMPASS and its members communicate key messages with a single voice to ensure consistency to its associated stakeholders. As the COMPASS group grows and its significance within the sector increases the need for centralised authoritative communication is essential." Comments Luke Miles

For more information on COMPASS and its work please visit their website.