Media value of Foundation increased by 40 percent

Communication

It is not only important to communicate what we do, but we also need to highlight why we want to get young people exercising.

We want to show that the Foundation is contributing to a better world. That young people are healthier, more social and happier when they are playing and enjoying sport with others. That in today’s society, physical activity is no longer a given, and some children have barely any opportunity to be active.

It is the responsibility of us all to help our young people in this. By stimulating them, presenting them with options, and above all, giving young people the opportunity to experience the fun of exercise.

We convey our message through our website and our own social media channels, but we also try to generate as much publicity as possible in other media. Our strategic partner Hill+Knowlton Strategies helps us do this. 

In 2015, we made the decision to restructure the Marketing & Fundraising department and place the marketing activities under the Communications department.

Publicity highlights

• Opening of 200^th Cruyff Court (Special Cruyff Court)
• King’s Games
• Memphis Depay wins Johan Cruyff Prize and gets own Cruyff Court
• Open Day
• Media reports about Johan Cruyff’s health
• Opening of Cruyff Court Davy Klaassen in Hilversum

In 2015 it remained impossible to effectively assess the online media value. We will be collecting data for this assessment starting in early 2016.

The Cruyff Foundation enjoys worldwide online media exposure. The lion’s share is still published in Dutch media, but with increasing internationalisation of our work we see that other countries are taking notice.

Events

Every year, the Cruyff Foundation organises a number of events: Cooking for a Cause, the Cruyff Foundation Cup, Cruyff Courts 6vs6 and the Open Day. The Foundation is also involved in the King’s Games.
Cooking for a Cause and the Cruyff Foundation Cup are set up for fundraising and account management, while the Cruyff Courts 6vs6 tournament is a large football championship in which local young people can participate. The Open Day is for all young people, but particularly directed towards young people with disabilities. It is an important event for showing what the Foundation really does.

Open day

Every year, the Foundation hosts an open day in September, where children can participate in a wide variety of sports and experience the fun of meeting other children and enjoying sports together. In 2015, over a thousand children participated. Traditionally, many ambassadors of the foundation attend to participate or perform. The Open Day generates a great deal of publicity, and this makes it an important tool for raising the profile of the Foundation’s work. This year, the goals of the Open Day were once again met and solidly exceeded.

Image research

For the third successive year, at the Foundation’s request Trendbox investigated the Foundation’s name recognition and its target groups’ willingness to donate.
This was an online survey among a net total of 603 participants aged 18 and up. The survey was conducted at the end of December.

Recognition

One in ten people in the Netherlands could identify essentially the entire mission statement of the Cruyff Foundation. Half were able to identify this mission at least partially. Two-thirds of these associate the Cruyff Foundation with engaging with children around the central themes of sport and games.

Appreciation

The general degree of appreciation for the Foundation is increasing, particularly among the higher income groups. The percentage who appreciate or strongly appreciate the Foundation rose from 46% to 56%.
Trendbox concludes that the appreciation for the Foundation’s activities has exhibited a stable and positive pattern for years. The activities for children with disabilities always come out on top.
The Foundation continues to be in the top eight most recognised good causes with a focus on children and young people.

Who knows the Foundation?

The Foundation is best known among men aged 35 and up (68%, an increase of 4% from 2014). The Foundation is less well-known among women and men under 35.

Willingness to donate

Spontaneous willingness to donate to the Foundation decreased. After explanation of the Foundation’s work, however, willingness to donate increased slightly, particularly among the higher income groups.

Conclusion

Although many people in the Netherlands know the Cruyff Foundation, actively raising attention to the Foundation’s work remains important. When people know more about what the Foundation does and understand the urgency, the willingness to donate increases. The under-35 target group remains an extra challenge.

What can be improved

• Assigning every social media channel its own key focus areas has reduced their cohesion and interrelationship. We see that communication messages are losing their impact. In 2016, we will devote more attention to a multimedia approach repositioning the website as the principal communications channel.
• Many people know what the Foundation does, but the ‘why’ behind the mission ‘Getting young people active’ could be communicated more effectively.
• Converting the appreciation into willingness to donate.

Market developments

Companies and organisations have a need to more clearly implement their partnerships with charitable causes in fulfilment of their CSR policy. This demands an innovative implementation of propositions for present and future partners. We see that private donors are increasingly using a mix of media channels. This makes it important to pursue future marketing campaigns with a multi-media approach.

Ambitions

In the coming years, we intend to tell a lot more about the story behind our work. Show the impact our projects have on the lives of young people (and their environment).
Storytelling will become a central focus in the emotional engagement with our various target groups: donors, volunteers, and partners.
In order to reach more people with our message, in the autumn of 2016 we will be spending a portion of our marketing budget on a national campaign.