Project Overview

In the lead up to their summer season (early June till early August), Camp Pondo sends out promotional materials to churches and large groups that have an interest in bringing junior high and high school age students to one of the several week-long sessions that are put on each year. From 2014 till 2019, I was contracted to designed the materials needed which typically included:

• Presentation Slides (which would direct the rest of the branding)

• Promotional Mailer

• Fliers and Posters (that groups could partially edit to include their specific dates and prices)

• Email Marketing (with Calls to Action leading to registration)

Once Dan and Becky had locked in their various speakers for each week of camp, I could then build out the rest of the mailers so that they could be printed and shipped out to encourage registrations. Each mailer listed out the speakers and the specific weeks they would be at the camp, the name of the band(s) that would be leading music, a list of the available activities at camp, the pricing options, an intro letter from Dan, and information about bringing up counselors.

The first few years, we used custom die-cut printing to make the mailers stand out more, but in an effort to save on costs, we opted for a traditional roll fold in the later years.

As soon as the mailer layout was completed, I would re-create it using iContact.com, an email marketing service that Dan had been using for years, adding in text descriptions for screen readers, linking the Call to Action directly to Camp Pondo’s registration page, and then sending test emails to myself to make sure everything worked properly.

Though the constraints of Camp Pondo’s website didn’t allow me to overly customize their registration pages, before the mailer or emails could be sent, I double checked that all of the information was correct on the website and edited any last minutes changes in price or speaker lineup.

Occasionally groups would make requests to Camp Pondo for custom versions of the promotional material, so each year, we would create a downloadable flyer and poster in PDF and Microsoft Word formats and add them to the website for group leaders to use as they would promote their week of camp to their specific students.

Though somewhat time-consuming to create each year, this proved to be a valuable tool for several groups and was often mentioned on feedback forms. As returning groups would mention things that helped them and things that didn’t, Dan and I would revisit the marketing strategy each year.