Marketing the sport of Lawn Bowling, now called Bowls, in Canada and the USA is a challenge.  Having to compete with so many other sports and new activities, this 1,000 year old game, which is played all over the world, is now in need of a Renaissance. 

Bowls is a vibrant, fresh and exciting sport that can be enjoyed by all ages.  Yet, it is perceived as an old fashioned, non-athletic sport, requiring no skills and reserved  for the old.  Those of us who play the game know otherwise.

The aim of this web page and this website is to empower you with the information and knowledge to join me in a Bowls Renaissance to, again, make bowls an important sport for all. My strategy is to show you how successful bowls markets are tackling the issue of promotion the traditional way, guide you to think outside the box with a non-traditional approach and provide you with sample tools and ideas to get you started in your own neighborhood/region.  Detail...

For starters, let's get a good foundation. The 15-page Strategic Plan for South Australia Bowls, on the right, is an excellent example of what needs to be done.

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strategic plan

south Australia

A must read for all those interested in saving the game

Marketing: Process of Matching Product to Market

We can get a lot of inspiration from Bowls Australia, where 500,000 people play the game in huge clubs facilities. This organization has developed an incredibly comprehensive marketing resource kit to assist its clubs in maintaining and attracting new participants to the sport of bowls. The program is called The Perfect Delivery and is shared with you here, on this page.  If you are a club administrator or aspire to become one, this 122-page manual will be a great resource and foundation for you. 

Did you know that only 12% of people in Australia have ever tried bowls?  And, that half of them ended up playing on a regular basis.  It says something about what a great game Bowls is.  Imagine how much growth we can achieve in Canada, where the sport has only 50,000 enthusiasts (.001% - one tenth of one percent) a percentage almost too small to compute. 

The Perfect Delivery

Table of Contents

However, given our population, 1% would represent more than 300,000 players.  This leap is not realistic for the immediate future, even if existing clubs followed the Australian program to the letter.  Our market is too small. We require "guerilla" marketing, which I call "Operation Trojan Horse" because we need to sneak our way into the market with Short Mat Bowls as our Trojan Horse.  So, if we think long term, and outside the box, there are new and exciting opportunities to open new non-traditional recruiting fronts. Within these web pages you'll find a number of documents that will give you food for thought and even entice you to get involved.  

Operation

Trojan Horse

Breaking the marketing stereotype with new ideas

Here are 6 potentially hot ideas that we should consider if we want to compliment the stereotypical lawn bowling marketing strategies to really grow the appeal of this sport.

● Don't fear making our game "Trendy", i.e. rooftops, groups,

● create a "Prime Time" industrial adult league in your club,

● develop Short Mat Bowls for youths in High Schools

● develop a practical relationship with curling clubs and Legions using

  Short Mat,

● introduce New Ages Bowls to Elementary Schools.

● start a new non-profit organization for this purpose, if you

  don’t already have one,

● and, above all, use the Internet to communicate with your

  audience.  More

start-up kit

change is coming to lawn bowling. check out this video.

 However, before we do anything else; those of us already involved with the game must make a quantum shift of attitude about the sport. "We've always done it this way" is no longer a reason to resist change. Pretend we're starting from scratch.  Imagine that Bowls is a new idea.  Think about who could be attracted to it and about how we are going to make it appealing to as many segments of the population as possible? Who is going to help us do this?

For example, since nowadays, "perception is reality", wearing formal full whites most of the time must give way to casual attire, which appeals to the widest audience.

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Men with large Bowls

a casual league

Lawn Bowling in N. America Stereotyped

Lawn Bowls has been stereotyped in North America as being an old person's (sorry, seniors) sport - old ladies and men, wearing white like in a laboratory, playing a sedate summer pastime. A more accurate view is that it is a game for the young and that older people can also play. It is the only sport where people can compete equally regardless of age or sex. In top international play the players are getting progressively younger. This is because of the growing popularity of the sport among the young and the rigorous demands of the sport.  More...

Short Mat Backgrounder

Very often, there is insufficient space for several full-size bowls strips indoors. For that reason, a second popular indoor variant called Short Mat Bowls, has become established wherever lawn bowling is popular. It is really a miniaturised version of the outdoor game enabling it to be played more easily indoors while keeping as many of the features as possible. It is played on a mat measuring 45 x 6 feet with full-size bowls, the mat being easily rolled up and put away for convenience.  More...

Build a Bridge to Curling

Build Sports Bridges by fostering practical relationships with successful sports.  For example, Curling is a natural 1^st cousin of Lawn Bowling .  Conceptually, the play is very similar to Lawn Bowling and the seasons are so compatible. That explains why so many people play both sports. However, Curling is immensely more popular, especially among the youth.  There seems to be no logical explanation for this phenomenon other than Curling is much better organized and marketed thus attracting TV coverage and more mass appeal.  In fact, millions just like to watch on TV.  More... 

Perfect for Short Mat

in the off season

New Age Bowls in Elementary Schools

Now you can play bowls on any flat surface, from the school gym, playground or car park to a multitude of other surfaces including grass, carpet, vinyl, wood, marble etc.  More...

Start your own Non-Profit Organization More...

There are two basic advantages to being a registered non-profit organization. First, the organization will be able to issue receipts for gifts received. These receipts reduce the tax payable for the individual donor, or, in the case of a corporation, reduce the taxable income. The second benefit is that, upon registration, the organization is exempt from paying income tax.

If you are going to go this route, study the documents on the Funding page which deal with starting an NPO, and/or a Foundations, and dealing with relevant Taxation.  You'll note that they were prepared by professional organizations and are only made available here as a courtesy.

Use the Internet creatively

Extensive use of the Internet is essential to grow the game of Bowls.  Even though most current members of lawn bowling clubs are from a generation before the Internet and email, most of them are able to receive and send basic emails.  Some learned on their own, others were set-up by their children and a few took lessons at their senior centre.  Consequently, some clubs use basic email to communicate as more than 50% of members are online.  Unfortunately, most clubs don’t use email and the Internet effectively.  Most don’t even have proper websites and none use blogs or social websites yet. More...

sample Web Proposal