Active Tameside
Unified branding that gives all the right trust signals
You’ve heard the phrase ‘Great oaks from little acorns grow’?
Well, our collaboration with one of Greater Manchester’s largest leisure trusts was along those lines.
Active Tameside operates leisure centres, children’s attractions and community schemes throughout its metropolitan borough.
The trust initially approached us for a website development.
But once we’d unearthed the breadth and depth of its structure and offering, we knew there was so much more we could do to elevate and differentiate this caring and supportive not-for-profit charitable organisation.
That’s when the green shoots of a full-service partnership began to sprout…
A branding workout
Gyms are gyms.
But leisure trusts are so much more, providing huge value to the communities they serve and making a genuine difference to the lives of many.
Active Tameside provides accessible, high quality gyms, swimming pools, sports facilities and leisure activities as well as highly valuable services through the provision of primary school PE programmes, a GP referral scheme, outreach services to people with learning and physical disabilities and much more.
The trust’s offering had expanded and evolved over the years and consequently it’s branding identity had failed to keep up.
There was a lack of logo consistency and cohesive branding between its services and attractions.
And that was causing problems for cross-selling to its other offerings.
There was a barrier to clarity and awareness that these offerings were even run by the trust.
For example, health and fitness members were unlikely to know there were also children’s attractions they could take their families to.
A branding workshop got things on track; we established a branded house approach for all the different services and a multi-channel comms strategy which would seamlessly umbrella the organisation and define its position as a hub of health, fitness and wellbeing.
We created a tone of voice to help it project its caring, supportive and accessible-to-all ethos and values throughout all its communications.
The acorn
Granted, it’s big acorn but the new website planted the seed of a strategic partnership which continues to flourish and branch out.
Active Tameside were looking for a complete redesign of their WordPress website to improve usability, provide more cohesion between their various venues, generate better brand positioning, boost speed and bolster security.
We designed and developed the new site on a bespoke built framework, putting UX at its heart.
This involved reworking the sitemap structure, designing over 20 webpage formats, and streamlining the process of searching, booking and paying through their website via complex API integrations with back office systems.
We identified three main calls-to-action from existing users’ habits and highlighted these on the website to drive enquiries and sales.
To unify their venues, we drew in data from Active Tameside’s various centres into the main website, uniquely introducing a way to connect all 10 sites under one website roof.
This allowed staff from all locations to use one simple system to add classes and manage members, which would automatically update various pages of the website, cutting down their administration time and hosting and web maintenance fees.
The website includes intuitive flourishes such as accordions to display depth of information succinctly, filter systems, plus a careers page with a filter system and text memory.
After launching in September 2018, Active Tameside gained huge online traction, improving web sessions by 11% and pages per session by 29%.
The finished product and refined branding helped to give the trust a strong and unified presence to rival its commercial competitors.
The oak
From all of the above a marketing retainer grew. We now provide Active Tameside with a comprehensive range of marketing services through a monthly retainer.
It includes marketing strategy, social media marketing, PR and copywriting, design, email marketing, regular multi-channel campaigns, digital reporting and web maintenance – all within one neat and tidy retainer package overseen by a dedicated account manager.
And let’s not forget our production department.
The re-brand was also an opportunity for Active Tameside to take advantage of our in-house print service which designed, produced and installed new signage across all its centres including bold and eye-catching internal graphics for the brand-new Tameside Wellness Centre bowling attraction.
When venues reopened following the first wave of the pandemic we designed and produced its in-centre safety signage within the tightest deadlines.
We’ve also created high quality videos for its annual reports and to promote its community outreach services as well as in-centre photography.
You get the picture.
We have a reputable and long-established and history of helping leisure trusts across the UK to develop strong and effective marketing strategies, allowing them to compete with larger national players.
To find out about working with us call us on 0161 213 9941 or email us at clients@cornerstonedm.co.uk.
You can keep up to date with our client work and latest industry insights by connecting with Cornerstone Design & Marketing on LinkedIn
Signing off on a job well done
As the hub of LTE’s sales and marketing activities we developed a tactical digital approach to heighten search visibility and drive traffic to the site.
This was hinged on an ongoing SEO and PPC strategy designed to generate high quality reach and traffic while consistently improving Google search rankings.
Within 12 months SEO increased the number of new users by 43%, page sessions by 35% and the ranking of keywords by 15%.
PPC saw astounding results securing a 262% increase in traffic and an increase of 2.39 million impressions.
It reduced the average CPC (cost per click) by 38% and increased CTR by 0.5%.
The overall holistic strategy developed for LTE saw a direct traffic increase of 94%, confirming a huge online shift for LTE which led to them far out-performing competitor sites whilst dramatically increasing reach and engagement.
What our clients say about us.
We’re proud of our extensive experience and expertise, but don’t just take our word for it. Here’s what our clients say about us.
We’d been really careful and thoughtful about our criteria and brief, and felt Cornerstone hit every single point, coming across in a down-to-earth, practical way while still showing understanding from strategy through to tactical execution. Our overall experience with the Cornerstone team is great because we feel really supported as a team.
Alison Robb, Cheetah Transformation
We have developed a great partnership with Cornerstone over the past 6 years and their dedication to our marketing needs and website development is evident in all aspects of our online presence. We appreciate their attention to detail and creative approach to all aspects of the business and look forward planning our new initiatives together.
Scott Bryce, Burnley Leisure & Culture
Cornerstone are a unique PR/ Marketing Agency who provide one of the most competitive holistic services versus many competitor agencies. The team are knowledgeable in their field of expertise, enthusiastic, fun, extremely creative, always ahead of the game, and great at managing tight deadlines. I would recommend this agency with no hesitation, their work speaks for itself!
Rekha Joshi, Dexcel
Socially not awkward
Social media is a key marketing tool for leisure operators and presents them great opportunities to reach out and engage with members and customers and showcase its offerings.
We focussed on renewed efforts across Active Tameside’s social channels and thanks to lively, entertaining and informative content, audience and engagement quickly grew to create an invested digital community.
These significant results exemplify how a unified brand across marketing activities can strengthen consumer perceptions and ultimately improve brand engagement.