IMC Plan for Rugby Football League's Summer Bash Event

The report presents an Integrated Marketing Plan for Rugby Football League's Summer Bash event. The marketing objectives are to increase brand awareness and ticket sales. The IMC Strategy includes traditional and digital marketing. The target audience is segmented based on geographic, psychographic, demographic and behavioral factors. The IMC Implementation includes television, newspaper and social media advertising, billboard advertisement and email marketing. The expected results are increasing brand awareness and revenue.

Running head: IMC PLAN
IMC PLAN
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The Rugby Football League has not been performing considerably well since a certain time
period. The main contributors to the given under performance are the lack of resources and lack
of roper Marketing plan which will help in strategizing the objectives of the company. Hence,
the previous assignment analyzed the case study for the League and provided considerations for
the same. The given report presents an Integrated Marketing Plan for the same.
Integrated Marketing Communication Plan tends to play a major role in the execution of the
marketing activities of an organization. Any organization needs to ensure that its IMC Plan is
well designed and in accordance with the objectives of the organization. The given report is
based on the IMC Plan of the Rugby Football`s Leagues event which is named `Summer Bash`
event. The report is following a structured format with the marketing objective of increasing the
Brand awareness and increasing the ticket sales to the given event. Hence, the IMC Strategy is
defined, followed by the creative brief. Furthermore, the IMC Implementation has been
discussed extensively which is then followed by the Control and Monitoring of the plan with
different Performance Indicators and the Evaluation tools. The expected results out of the
program are increasing brand awareness of the League and earning a higher rate of Revenue.

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Table of Contents
Marketing objectives.......................................................................................................................4
IMC Strategy...................................................................................................................................4
The Overall Strategy of the Rugby Football League...................................................................5
Positioning of the messages.........................................................................................................6
Advantages of the strategy...........................................................................................................7
Disadvantages..............................................................................................................................8
Target Audience...........................................................................................................................8
Creative Brief...................................................................................................................................9
IMC implementation and execution................................................................................................9
Phase 1.........................................................................................................................................9
Phase 2.......................................................................................................................................11
Phase 3.......................................................................................................................................13
Measurement and Evaluation........................................................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................20
References......................................................................................................................................21
Appendices....................................................................................................................................23
Appendix 1: Creative Brief........................................................................................................23
Appendix 2: The Budget............................................................................................................23
Appendix 3: The Gantt chart.....................................................................................................27

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Marketing objectives
The marketing objectives of the Summer Bash event has been given as follows:
1. Brand awareness
The event aims to create awareness among the different target audience groups. The
problem relating to the company primarily deals with the problem of a lack of brand awareness
about the different events which have been taking place in the given domain. The Rugby League
does not comprise of a proper marketing plan and hence, for this reason, the turnout has been
considerably low. For this reason, the primary objective of the given IMC Strategy is to ensure
increasing the Brand Awareness of the Foot Ball League.
2. Increase in ticket sales to event
The second objective of the given marketing plan is to ensure that the increase in the
ticket sales takes place. This is because, over the years the firm has been observing a decline in
the audience attendance and thus through this, the organization aims to increase the consumer
base and gain the revenue.
IMC Strategy
An Integrated Marketing Communications Plan can be defined as a comprehensive plan
which helps in the evaluation of the strategic roles which a variety of communication disciplines
is based on and tends to combine this variety into a clear communication plan which will have an
impact. It has various communications channel like the social media, TV, newspaper and others
channels in use (Meffert 2013). These channels are used to work together and be able to help the
organization to achieve its goals and objectives. An IMC Strategy generates a clear picture of the
brand in the eyes of the different customers and helps in relating the given message to them.

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The Overall Strategy of the Rugby Football League
The primary overall strategy which will be followed in order to assist the League in
gaining the maximum crowd for its summer Bash event. As discussed earlier, the primary
objective of the event is to see to it that the different viewership and attendance increases
accordingly along with increasing the revenue of the league and event (Bresler and Lubbe 2014).
Furthermore, the league also intends to improve its positioning in the eyes of the different
customers. Hence, the overall strategy of the league will be to apply different tools and
equipment’s which will then assist the league in achieving the objectives. The league aims to
utilize both digital as well as traditional means of marketing to reach out the desired target
audience. These will be as follows:
Traditional Marketing
The traditional marketing forms include marketing forms like that of Television
advertising, word of mouth, Radio advertising Billboards advertising, newspaper advertising and
local channel advertising. Although these strategies are often stated to be outdated methods of
reaching out to the different customers, these are fairly popular in terms of the attaining the
attention of the desired target market (Goworek, McGoldrick and McGoldrick 2015). The
League management plans to invest a major share of their marketing budget on the given
medium and the rest on the new means of marketing and related strategies.
Digital Marketing
The digital marketing can be described as a fairly new means of advertising which is
generally used by the different companies in order to have an access to a larger target audience.

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These means will also be adopted by the League management and will primarily include means
like Social Media advertisement, email marketing, mobile marketing and application.
The given strategies which shall be used are fairly relevant and will be quite effective to
achieve the designated objectives in the following manner:
The marketing strategies will aim to appeal to a larger audience. When both traditional as
well as modern means of advertising strategies will be used by the company then, the target
audience can be widened and a larger crowd can be attracted (Burns, Bush and Sinha 2014). This
then can be suitable for the achievement of the first objective which is to increase the attendance
in the leagues.
Secondly, in a similar manner, when both the traditional as well as the modern methods
will be adopted, then the firm will easily be able to attract the desired audience which in turn will
automatically assist in achieving the objective of earning higher revenue (Yorkshirepost.co.uk
2018).
Positioning of the messages
The different messages that will be sent out to the different stakeholders and the target
audiences will be positioned in the following manner:
The Summer Bash Event is an event which aims to provide entertainment to the target
audience. The event has been formed in order to provide a sporting activity to the target audience
and stakeholders which will be good to witness and would help the audience to utilize their time
effectively (Chernev 2018). The Summer Bash event is largely targeted at the General crowd
because of the nature of the game. The league management wants to ensure that the maximum

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audience tends to witness the given game and thus, with the help of the event it wants to bring
the different viewers together in order to be able to successfully ensure that the event is
successful.
New Fans: For the new fans of the game, the league would like to position itself as a game which
tends to attract the desired target audiences by providing them a relief from the normal games
that are generally held like basketball and cricket and provides them with an opportunity to
witness something different than the usual game (Foxall 2014).
Old Fans: The existing fan base, will be provided a message which will state that they can enjoy
a game evening and will be provided with various offers for being highly loyal to the given game
and its base.
Advantages of the strategy
1. Assist in reaching out to the larger target audience
The selected strategy will go a long way in assisting the firm to reach out to a larger
target audience. In this manner it will be able to achieve a higher ticket attendance and it will be
able to make the game even popular in the selected region.
2. Help to increase ticket
The objective of the target audience remains to increase the ticket sales and earn higher
revenues (Lasserre 2017). For this purpose, the strategy will assist in achieving the given
objective and thereby increasing the money earned by the club.
3. Viewer base will increase

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The viewer base on the television and other local channels where the game will be
broadcasted will also increase considerably (Zott and Amit 2013). This will be the impact of the
advertisement on the different channels and related means.
Disadvantages
1. Large costs will be implemented
The implementation of the marketing plan and strategy is not any easy task and is often
quite expensive with respect to the funds invested in the given domain. For this purpose, the club
will be spending a large amount of money.
2. First time execution
As the club did not have any prior plan with respect to the marketing of its events, as the
event will be released using the marketing strategies for the first time then, there is a risk of
failure of the different events and strategies (Loverugbyleague.com 2018).
Target Audience
The target audience based on different segmentation approaches is given as follows:
Geographic- Geographically, the company is targeting the audience which lives in urban as well
as the sub urban areas. In this manner, they will be able to successfully attain to a larger target
audience.
Psychographic- In this manner, they will be targeting those audiences with a moderate to high
social class and those who like to experience games like rugby and would like to spend their time
accordingly.

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Demographic- The demographic approach is the audiences aged between 18-50, family
individuals or single people with an income of around $40000 and above.
Behavioral- Targets the loyal customers who have been fans of the game even earlier and those
audiences who would like to watch a game based on the occasion.
The given target market is chosen because they would be most likely to purchase a rugby
game ticket in order to spend their time in something constructive and of sufficient game like
rugby.
Creative Brief
The creative brief of the event has been attached. The primary objective of the creative brief is to
ensure that the customers are aware about the given event which will take place. The brief will
also be discussing the different advantages of the events and the key features (Morschett,
Schramm-Klein and Zentes 2015). The primary aim of the brief is to attract as many customers
as possible and reflect on the ways in which the event is different from that of its competitors.
Hence, it needs to be bright and highlight the theme of the event which is the Summer Bash.
(Refer to Appendix 1)
IMC implementation and execution
The IMC Plan components and implementation will take place in the following manner
using the given medium:
Phase 1
The first phase will be carried on for the first 3 weeks of the IMC Execution plan. In this
phase, the given mediums will be used to make the different audiences aware of the Summer
Bash event which will take place.

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Television Advertisement:
The television advertisement is considered to be a popular medium of advertisement. It is
the most common form of advertisement and hence it will be used (Proctor 2014). A commercial
regarding the summer bash will be shown on the local television channels
Content: The content of the advertisement will talk about the past games which will be held and
how the league has come up with a summer event which aims to attract the target audience and
would like to increase the customer based more than before (Zimmerman and Blythe 2013).
Price: the cost for the television advertisement will be $5000
Duration: The duration of the commercial clip will be 1 minute and it will be shown twice a
day.
Newspaper Advertisement
Newspaper advertisement is one of the oldest forms of advertising and hence, the given
Summer Bash Event will be advertised on all local newspapers (Shukre 2013). This will help the
event in gaining popularity among the readers and help in increasing the revenue.
Content: The newspaper advertisement will comprise of the creative brief designed for the
appropriate venue and will assist in making the event more popular.
Price: Thee cost of advertisement in the given domain will be approximately $500 in all the
newspapers.
Duration: This will be published every weekend for a period of eight weeks.
Social Media Advertisement

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The social media advertising is one of the newest forms of advertising which is primarily
used in order to attract the target audience using the new technological means of advertising.
Content: The different social media channels which will be adopted will comprise of channels
like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (Rothaermel 2015). The creative brief shall be displayed in
these advertisements in order to ensure that the medium is able to engage a larger audience than
usual and as mostly the younger generation makes use of the social media channels, even they
can be attracted as a potential target audience for the given game.
Price: $ 2000
Duration: The advertisements will be displayed on the feed for 8 weeks and the event will be
created on Facebook. Those who wish to attend the given event can easily avail to the given page
and they would receive the particular updates relating to the selected event.
Phase 2
The second phase of the advertisement will be concentrating on the objective of engaging
the attracting customers or the target audience (Rugby-league.com 2018). In the first step it was
observed that, the League management tried to attract the existing crowd as well as the new
crowd. However, the primary objective of the second phase will be to provide the details of the
given event which will be taking place. Hence, the given plan has been laid down:
Billboard Advertisement
The billboards will be put up in all the major areas of the city where the event will be
held. The management will try and arrange for the event to be put up in nearby towns as well so
that the maximum crowd gets attracted (Skysports.com 2018).

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Content: The billboard will comprise of the additional details of the event and about the price of
the tickets, venue, timings and other perks to look up to by the selected target audience.
Price: $500
Duration: The billboard will be put up at 10 different locations near all the primary bus stops
and nearby areas. The billboards will be present in the given area for a period of 4 weeks before
the event.
Email Advertisement
Content: The email advertisement will also comprise of the creative brief prepared and will be
sent as an invite to the existing fan base using the database of the company (Slack 2015). It will
comprise of details about the event and the timings.
Price: $2000
Duration: The email will be sent out exactly 2 weeks before the Summer Bash event will
actually take place.
PR Campaign
Content: The Public Relations Campaign will be held in form of a Press Release which will be
done by the management of the club. They will be explaining the history of their events and the
relevance of the summer bash event as well.
Price: $ 3000
Duration: It will be held one week before the event is about to be held.

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The primary objective of the phase 2 events is to ensure that those customers who have
been attracted in the Phase 1 program are attracted into participating into the event and are given
out more information about the event which is to take place (Stead and Stead 2013). This is
followed by the Phase 3 of the Marketing Implementation Plan
Phase 3
Consumer promotions
Content: This will take place during the week when the event will be held. In this aspect,
various kiosks will be set up in different parts of the city where the tickets of the event will be
sold to the different customers (Team 2013). This way the customers will be able to avail the
access to the event and through this event, the marketing team will also be able to attract the
audience last minute and engage in high sales of the tickets.
Price: $1000
Duration: one week
Refer to Appendix 2 & 3
Measurement and Evaluation
Medium/
Channel
used
Contents Duratio
n
Cost Person
responsible
KPI evaluation
method
Television
Advertisin
g
The content of
the
advertisement
will talk about
1 minute
clip,
shown
twice a
$5000 The brand
manager,
Marketing
Brand
awareness
Metric
Observation
Framework:
Where the
head count of

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the past games
which will be
held and how
the league has
come up with
a summer
event which
aims to attract
the target
audience and
would like to
increase the
customer
based more
than before.
day Manager
Increased
Sales
Total visits
the event will
be measured,
level of
interaction,
Relevance to
the
objectives
and other
comments
Newspaper
Advertisin
g
The
newspaper
advertisement
will comprise
of the creative
brief designed
for the
appropriate
Every
weekend,
for 8
weeks
$500 The brand
manager,
Marketing
Manager
Total visits
Increased
Sales
Return on
Marketing
Investment
Interviews
can be used
to measure
the
effectiveness
of the
program

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venue and will
assist in
making the
event more
popular.
Social
Media
Advertisin
g
The different
social media
channels
which will be
adopted will
comprise of
channels like
Facebook,
Instagram and
Twitter. The
creative brief
shall be
displayed in
these
advertisements
in order to
ensure that the
medium is
8 weeks $2000 The brand
manager,
Marketing
Manager
Total visits
(Vogel and
Güttel 2013).
Increased
Sales
Return on
Marketing
Investment
We Traffic
Sources
Focus groups
can be used
to measure
the
effectiveness
of the chosen
program

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able to engage
a larger
audience than
usual and as
mostly the
younger
generation
makes use of
the social
media
channels, even
they can be
attracted as a
potential
target
audience for
the given
game (West,
Ford and
Ibrahim 2015.
Email
advertising
The email
advertisement
will also
2 weeks
prior to
the event
$2000 The brand
manager,
Marketing
Total visits
Increased
Focus groups
can be used
to measure

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comprise of
the creative
brief prepared
and will be
sent as an
invite to the
existing fan
base using the
database of the
company. It
will comprise
of details
about the
event and the
timings.
Manager Sales
Return on
Marketing
Investment
the
effectiveness
of the chosen
program
Bill board
advertising
The billboard
will comprise
of the
additional
details of the
event and
about the price
of the tickets,
10
locations,
4 weeks
$500 The brand
manager,
Marketing
Manager
First Visit
Metric
Total visits
(Wheelen et
al. 2017).
Increased
Sales
Reactionaries
A
Reactionaries
can be used
to analyze
the reaction
of the new
event which

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venue, timings
and other
perks to look
up to by the
selected target
audience.
Return on
Marketing
Investment
will take
place.
Public
relations
The Public
Relations
Campaign will
be held in
form of a
Press Release
which will be
done by the
management
of the club.
They will be
explaining the
history of their
events and the
relevance of
the Summer
bash event as
Once, a
week
before
the event
$3000 The brand
manager,
Marketing
Manager
Total visits
Increased
Sales
Return on
Marketing
Investment
(Williamson
et al. 2013)
SWOT
Analysis will
be used as an
effective tool
to measure
the
effectiveness
of the Public
relations
campaign

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well.
Consumer
promotion
This will take
place during
the week when
the event will
be held. In this
aspect, various
kiosks will be
set up in
different parts
of the city
where the
tickets of the
event will be
sold to the
different
customers.
This way the
customers will
be able to
avail the
access to the
event and
One
week
$1000 The brand
manager,
Marketing
Manager
Increased
Sales
Return on
Marketing
events
(Malhotra
and Peterson
2014).
Total Visits
Brand
awareness
Focus groups
can be used
to measure
the
effectiveness
of the chosen
program

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through this
event, the
marketing
team will also
be able to
attract the
audience last
minute and
engage in high
sales of the
tickets.
Conclusion
Hence, proper implementation program should be held and a proper evaluation method
needs to be used to analyze the success of the strategies formulated. It is important to monitor the
plans successfully in order to be able to see to it that there lies no gaps between the execution
and the designated plans.

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References
Bresler, M. and Lubbe, I., 2014. Marketing management.
Burns, A.C., Bush, R.F. and Sinha, N., 2014. Marketing research (Vol. 7). Harlow: Pearson.
Chernev, A., 2018. Strategic marketing management. Cerebellum Press.
Foxall, G., 2014. Strategic Marketing Management (RLE Marketing). Routledge.
Goworek, H., McGoldrick, P.J. and McGoldrick, P.J., 2015. Retail marketing management:
Principles and practice. Harlow, UK: Pearson.
Lasserre, P., 2017. Global strategic management. Palgrave.
Loverugbyleague.com, 2018. loverugbyleague.com https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/fans-
to-be-consulted-on-super-leaguestructure-changes/. Accessed 4 July 2018.
Malhotra, N.K. and Peterson, M., 2014. Basic marketing research. Pearson.
Meffert, H., 2013. Marketing-Management: Analyse—Strategie—Implementierung. Springer-
Verlag.
Morschett, D., Schramm-Klein, H. and Zentes, J., 2015. Strategic international management (pp.
978-3658078836). Springer.
Proctor, T., 2014. Strategic marketing: an introduction. Routledge.
Rothaermel, F.T., 2015. Strategic management. McGraw-Hill Education.
Rugby-league.com, 2018. Rugby-league.com
http://www.rugby-league.com/article/50868/betfred-super-league-clubsagree-no-major-structure-
change-for--season . Accessed 4 July 2018.

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Shukre, A., 2013. Marketing management.
Skysports.com, 2018. skysports.com
http://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/news/12196/11201156/rogerdraper-to-quit-role-as-rfl-
chief-commercial-officer. Accessed 4 July 2018.
Slack, N., 2015. Operations strategy. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Stead, J.G. and Stead, W.E., 2013. Sustainable strategic management. ME Sharpe.
Team, F.M.E., 2013. PESTLE Analysis. Strategy Skills. Free management eBooks, p.15.
Vogel, R. and Güttel, W.H., 2013. The dynamic capability view in strategic management: A
bibliometric review. International Journal of Management Reviews, 15(4), pp.426-446.
West, D.C., Ford, J. and Ibrahim, E., 2015. Strategic marketing: creating competitive advantage.
Oxford University Press, USA.
Wheelen, T.L., Hunger, J.D., Hoffman, A.N. and Bamford, C.E., 2017. Strategic management
and business policy. Pearson.
Williamson, D., Cooke, P., Jenkins, W. and Moreton, K.M., 2013. Strategic management and
business analysis. Routledge.
Yorkshirepost.co.uk, 2018. yorkshirepost.co.uk https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/rugby-
league/nigel-wood-to-stepdown-as-rfl-chief-executive-1-8941826 Accessed 4 July 2018.
Zimmerman, A. and Blythe, J., 2013. Business to business marketing management: A global
perspective. Routledge.
Zott, C. and Amit, R., 2013. The business model: A theoretically anchored robust construct for
strategic analysis. Strategic Organization, 11(4), pp.403-411.

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Appendices
Appendix 1: Creative Brief
The given creative brief tends to give away the logo and the tagline of the given event.
The features and the benefits of the event have been given which is then followed by the reasons
why this event is different from that of its competitors The major points of difference are the free
goods being provided followed by the special discounts for the existing fans.
Appendix 2: The Budget
CAMPAIGN TYPE PROJECTED SUBTOTAL
National Marketing SUBTOTAL $ 500.00
Banner Ads $ 500.00

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$ -
$ -
Local Marketing SUBTOTAL $ 500.00
Newspaper $ 500.00
$ -
Public Relations SUBTOTAL $ 3,000.00
Public Events $ -
Sponsorships $ -
Press Releases $ 3,000.00
Webinars $ -
Conferences $ -
Client Events $ -
$ -
$ -
Social Media SUBTOTAL $ 2,000.00
Twitter $ 500.00
Facebook $ 100.00
Pinterest $ 1,000.00

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Instagram $ 200.00
Google+ $ 100.00
LinkedIn $ 100.00
Online SUBTOTAL $ 2,000.00
Blog
Website $ -
Mobile App $ -
Mobile Alerts
Email Newsletter $ 2,000.00
$ -
Advertising SUBTOTAL $ 5,000.00
Online
Print
$ -
Radio $ -
Television $ 5,000.00
$ -

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$ -
Sales Campaigns SUBTOTAL $ 1,000.00
Campaign A
Campaign B $ 1,000.00
Campaign C $ -
Campaign D $ -
Campaign E $ -
$ -
Other SUBTOTAL $ -
$ -
Total $ 14,000.00

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Appendix 3: The Gantt chart
Implementatio
n 1 week 2 week 3 week 4 week 5 week 6 week 7 week 8 week
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3