Kia ora koutou

For those of you whom I haven’t introduced myself to yet, I am Claire Gullidge the Communications Manager. I returned last week from maternity leave. I feel incredibly lucky to have just had my third child who has loved attending Playcentre since she was two weeks old.

First of all, I would like to commend everyone for the PR effort you are putting in to your centres. Every photo you take for a Facebook post, every comment on a community group, every poster you put up in your local café, letting your community know about Playcentre; it is all noticed.

This PR update section will be a regular in the monthly bulletins and will give more insight into what is going on behind the scenes and will inform you of upcoming events.

 

Photoshoot

Last week we conducted successful photoshoots at four Playcentres in Christchurch. In previous years photoshoots occurred in Auckland and Hawke’s Bay. The aim of these photoshoots is to capture the essence of Playcentre. The images will be showcased in upcoming PR campaigns, on the website and in promotional material. We also conducted interviews during the photoshoot that will feature in a new PR campaign.

 

Website refresh

In February 2019 we launched a new website with a fresh home page, find a centre function, pages for future members, current members, centre resources, about Playcentre and Te Ao Māori resources. Since then, our website has had over 1,829,003 page views.

However, websites should always be fluid and regularly updated so that they are engaging. Our website’s purpose is to provide you, our members and centres with information and be attractive and engaging to future members.

Now is the time to give it a refresh and we are currently reviewing the content, sections, and locations.

 

PR volunteer team

I would like to establish a small group of members who are passionate about PR, Comms and Marketing.  This group would provide feedback on what works for their centre and brainstorm other proposed ideas.

When I started working for Playcentre in 2018 I made a habit of weekly calling a randomly selected centre to discuss their PR successes, challenges and to see where and how we could assist more. From this feedback we developed infographics, social media campaigns, events, and editable promotional material.  The PR volunteer team would expand on that work.

If you would like to be involved, please email [email protected]

 

Social Media Campaigns

We will be reinvigorating our social media channels, posting regularly, and creating new campaigns. We will be advertising selected posts so that they get maximum exposure.

Our public Facebook page currently has 5,861 followers and our Instagram page has 656 followers. The #playcentre alone has had 40,893 public posts and there is scope for more.

We have an opportunity to engage with our social media followers and invite them and their friends to visit their local Playcentre. We are creating new content so that you can easily and quickly share social media material onto your own centres Facebook page.

We would love to feature your centre to show potential members what centres are up to so that they can understand what Playcentre is all about.

 

PR toolkit

On the website, a toolkit has been created to assist your centre in PR and thrive. It includes how to promote your centre, how to create key messages, what channels are available to you, how to get noticed and tips for their first visit. It includes information about posting on social media, what to post, how often and when. 

In this toolkit there is also a workshop where we create a fictional person (called Sam) and follow this person on their Playcentre journey seeing what PR is required at which stage. 

To view the toolkit please click here

Feedback

As always, please email through to send any feedback and content on any of the above through to [email protected]