US Chess marketing initiatives

All Things Chess
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Hello everyone,

I am currently part of a team that is working on a plan for the creation of a marketing department at USCF. An integral part of our plan is a wide variety of specific initiatives that we believe will expand chess tournament participation.

Currently, our draft for a few initiatives are as follows:

Initiative 1 - Social Media

Description: US Chess is already present on social media platforms such as X and Instagram, however, it receives little to no engagement. To improve this, we propose a campaign to adopt a similar approach to chess.com where we encourage engagement and try to put chess tournaments in the back of peopleā€™s minds. We would also implement a daily initiative (possibly using exclusive US Chess content such as our chess life archives) that would incentivize people to check our page daily, similar to chess.comā€™s daily puzzle.

Older folk may resonate with weekly features on interesting people in chess and their stories of how they got into chess or any of their memorable experiences.

Highlighting chess research: its implications on the daily life of the common person

Expand to TikTok and other short-form social media which are popular amongst younger audiences

Utilize different platforms and content styles based on the popular demographic of users for each. For example, Facebook and X may be more effective for those of an older demographic whereas Tik Tok and Instagram may appeal to those of younger ages.

Goal of initiative: Promote the idea of chess to the common user. Increase/encourage OTB play and USCF memberships through daily engagement.

Initiative 2 - Involvement with Local Clubs

Description: USCF will reach out to local clubs to get them affiliated with USCF in order to get them to organize periodic USCF-rated tournaments. While doing so, we will enunciate membersā€™ need to obtain USCF memberships.

In turn, we will add them to our tournament and club-finding tool, which will help them promote their clubs and tournaments. This will hopefully act as an incentive for these clubs to become affiliated with the USCF. With an increased number of clubs joining, it would also be best to renovate the current system to make it more convenient and reliable.

In addition, incentives to become an affiliate could include access to USCF marketing tools for a fee. (Discounted scholastic memberships, etc.)

Goal of initiative: To have the club finder work better (as there arenā€™t many clubs on it as of now) by having more clubs on it. Have more USCF affiliates/more tournaments/more USCF memberships.

Initiative 3 - Gamification

Description: USCF will gamify tournament participation to encourage players to play in tournaments. Possible examples include a raffle to win a free lesson or spend a day with a famous top player such as GM Hikaru Nakamura or IM Levy Rozman. To enter the raffle, players would need to play their first rated game or become active players again after an extended absence from tournaments during a certain time period (for example, 3-6 months). This plan hopes to act as an incentive for newer players or inactive players to start playing again by offering a chance to meet someone they hold to the utmost praise.

Another possible event to get new players is for a convention with famous people like George R. Martin and they have a chance to get his autograph on a chess board or book. This may be a more suited event for those of older ages, or inactive players who have started chess again.

Goal of initiative: The goal of this initiative is to see an increased number of new USCF memberships and an increased number of inactive USCF memberships being activated.

Initiative 4 - Partnerships

Description: USCF can partner with content creators (such as chess creators like the Botez Sisters and smaller content creators, and also gaming content creators like Markiplier) which will help spread chess to a wider audience.

We can also consider working with product or entertainment companies with Ads (such as a phone or sports ad since chess has a stereotype of being intellectual). This helps to promote not just USCF in general, but the idea of chess as it will start reminding people of the game and insert interest.

Another possibility is to partner with orphanages to teach kids chess since the children are likely to play chess their whole lives if they were introduced to it in their upbringings as a pastime. Chess is also an easy activity to commit to in case of constant relocations, which is a typical case for most children in such situations.

Goal of initiative:
To increase overall interest in chess, to increase life-long interest in chess

We would love to receive feedback or ideas for other initiatives!

In addition, we are working on a 5th initiative that would provide marketing resources for tournament directors and organizers. One example of this is a template for TLAs/posters for tournaments. If you are a tournament director and have any other ideas for specific resources, please provide them in the replies.

Thanks, Savir Talasila

2 Likes
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It is refreshing to see someone here looking for ways to promote the mission of US Chess!

Out of the four initiatives, I think number 2 has the greatest chance of success. I believe most US Chess members find their way to this association through a local chess club. Despite this, US Chess does next to nothing to support these groups (I can say this with confidence having created a club ~1 year ago). There is a pdf guide on starting a successful club and then you are on your own.

Interestingly, Chess.com does more for local OTB chess clubs (sending out swag, banners, discounted Chess.com memberships, etc.) than the USCF which is sort of an abomination. The greatest leverage areas are:

Empower people to start clubs (affiliated or otherwise):

  • help organizers find players in their area.
    • like/share/promote facebook posts, tweets, etc of local clubs
    • list clubs and highlight them for free in magazines and social posts
  • help organizers find a venue
    • create a playbook for organizers to target the right places
    • put together some templates on what a pitch to these places might look like

It is unlikely that US Chess will ever produce viral content. But, the organization has strong reach nonetheless with tens of thousands of followers on many of the social platforms. You could post informational content to promote local clubs and their events.

Help people grow their club into an affiliate:

  • get rid of Safe Play requirements for club TDs
  • provide perks to the organizers of clubs (free memberships, swag, etc.; its a thankless job and you need people to want to do it). The incentive you mentioned about the marketing tools is not going to get anyone excited
  • offer workshops or training on how to run a successful club, tournament
  • better articulate the value of being an affiliate. Honestly, I frequently wonder if it is worth it. With the $45 per person times 60 people plus all the rating fees plus the $20 safe play fee for 3x tds, plus affiliate fee the total cost of USCF membership for my club is right around $3000. For what? Most of my membership doesnā€™t play in the major tournaments. And there are plenty of easy to implement algorithms that could be used to run my own club ratings.
  • make it faster to become a club TD - after I applied for my affiliate and club td application, it took nearly a month and many follow ups for US Chess to get back to me. You want this to be frictionless.

Help clubs run engaging, well attended events:

  • offer a certain number of email blasts for free to new clubs
  • help organizers approach the right venues with the right ask
  • offer workshops or training on how to run a successful tournament
  • highlight local tournaments and help clubs celebrate the outcomes
  • spotlight some of the new tournament organizers
  • provide tournament kits for free to new tournament organizers

I would say something about the pairing programs too but that is for another day. There is so much opportunity that is untapped. Iā€™d be happy to help with the initiatives as well if volunteers are needed.

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Most new members come from scholastic chess programs, not from clubs.

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Interestingly enough, others have opined in the Forums in the past that a US Chess affiliate is seriously underpriced because it is a key to making money as a chess organizer. But I think I could count the number of chess organizers making a living at it on one hand.

I think sending copies of magazines to affiliates is a bit too 1980ā€™s these days, a lowered affiliate rate with no magazines (but the same option to add them that is afforded to members) seems doable these days.

Gamification interests me but things like ratings and the leader boards are already around, though the leader boards are underutilized IMHO. (But Iā€™m biased since I wrote that program.)

Online sites like Wordle and Sudoko are very popular, a daily chess position quiz might have some value but most of the serious position creators are into stuff that doesnā€™t have a lot of relevance to OTB chess, especially for newcomers. Some years ago I tinkered around with a sudoku-like game that would morph into a chess puzzle when solved, never got it fully defined, though. (The real key is can you create a sudoku-like game using chess pieces that actually helps people learn more about chess?)

Some years ago I proposed to set up a site to sign up as a Club TD online, the project was not approved. Personally, Iā€™d prefer some kind of up-front training (preferably online) even for Club TDs, but thatā€™s my personal hobby horse. Letting new members become TDs possibly before they have played in their first tournament sounds like a problem waiting to occur.

Having had email discussions with probably hundreds of new player (and often their parents) over the last 20 years, I can say rather definitively that it takes 4-5 tournaments before a new player understands what tournament play is about, and thatā€™s a precursor to understanding what tournament direction is about.

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I was counting small scholastic programs in the same company as clubs

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Itā€™s not that the price is high or the value low. Itā€™s that, to a new club or someone considering affiliation it isnā€™t clear why itā€™s worth it

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I think theyā€™re very different from clubs because it is tied to the school. So they donā€™t have to worry about a place to hold meetings, thereā€™s usually a teacher or chess volunteer who brought up the idea of a chess program and is willing to do the scut work, too.

I donā€™t know if it is true everywhere, but in our schools if teachers are involved in after-school programs, that increases their overall compensation. (It was part of the contract negotiations when I was on the School Board, so I suspect weā€™re far from the only district where that is in the contract.)

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I am not a very experienced TD, and I am realatively new to the US Chess organization, butā€¦

As the sole TD in all of Alaska, every other week for our club meetings, at least one person tells me that they donā€™t have $45 for the USCF membership, or didnā€™t want to pay it. For the local Fairbanks club, only 15 of the 40 people in the chess club have memberships with the USCF.

In the spring, the Alaska Arctic chess club held a USCF rated blitz tournament with no entry fee and a $100 cash prize, 11 people showed up. But the same day the Palmer chess club held a non rated event with no prizes and they had about 50 players. Now we are gaining traction, our August tournament has already met the 25 player limit (because of the fire marshalā€™s rules for the local library), but quite a few folks are from outside of Alaska.

Perhaps a marketing tool like ā€œfirst time membersā€ getting a membership for $15 might boost sales?

Seems counter intuitive, but if you can get people to join, they might like it and stick around. If not, you still made $15 off each person for the year that you didnā€™t have before.

Just a thought.

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The first tournament in which I ever played was the Minnesota State Novice. Unrated. Prizes (to the top 10%) were USCF memberships. I scored 3.5/5 which wasnā€™t quite good enough but joined shortly thereafter.

It was a long time ago, so I donā€™t remember how they handled clocksā€”it was a G/60 time control before delay clocks existed. Organizers did, however, provide the sets and boards.

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Savir, why is USCF focusing on non-affiliated local clubs rather than existing USCF-affiliated local clubs, and what support is USCF going to provide for existing USCF-affiliated local clubs and their players? Right now, USCF seems to provide little to an individual club player other than some vague knowledge that their rating is nationwide; how do you propose to change that perception?

For the moment, the required up-front training even for Club TDs is SafeSport, and why USCF thinks itā€™s more important for a TD to have SafeSport training than chess rules questions before running a tournament is left as an exercise for the reader.

Agreed.

ā€¦people have asked us what they get for that membership, and once you get past ā€œthereā€™s a national database with your rating in it, any USCF tournament across the country will require it, and thereā€™s an online magazineā€ weā€™re pretty much out of responses.

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We tried something like that, we saw HUNDREDS of rated players claim they were ā€˜new playersā€™ to save a few bucks. With people able to join online, thereā€™s no easy way to check for that up front and it isnā€™t worth staff time to try to bill those players the difference between the promotional price and the regular price.

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If they get a new member ID number, then they wouldnā€™t have all their norms, titles, history, etc.? How would that help them, they would be starting all over?

Wouldnā€™t this be simple, though? Canā€™t the online system check the database for their name and address/email? If it exists, then it is flagged and they canā€™t join without intervention. If it doesnā€™t exist, then they are a new player? Seems pretty simple, from a logical standpoint.

Also, this first time players join for $15 promotion could be through a TD or club affiliate, so the club or TD is vouching for this person being a new player.

Again, just a few thoughts from the peanut gallery.

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That creates security issues, because the membership tool could be used to confirm someoneā€™s non-public information like addresses and birthdates. We have had multiple cases of non-custodial parents trying to find out where their ex and kids live, and at least two cases of (former) TDs using the membership system to figure out member birthdates. (One of them started posting peopleā€™s birthdates on the Internet.)

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Well we have done short term trial membership programs at low rates. As I recall conversions to long term membership was not good. We had tournament membership good for one event - same problem. Adding a new member is not zero cost.

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Some people would love to start over. Either they want to sandbag for prize tournaments or they are burdened by a rating floor they feel is too high. These are just two examples I can think of right away.

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I have less information for membership tracking than before the move to CIVI-CRM, but it appears that I can identify 230 two-month memberships sold in the last year. It looks like 43 of these have subsequently purchased a one-year or longer memberships, including one life membership. Thatā€™s about 19% of those short-term memberships.

There are a few players who persist in buying two-month memberships, sometimes 4 or 5 of them in a year.

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There are some people in this world who can pay a small ammount forever, yet can never gather together a larger amount. Loan-sharks have know about these people for centuries. The two-month membership is just the interest payments on a loan not made. I read through the bylaws section on memberships and didnā€™t find any mention of two-month memberships other than that some people are allowed to make special deals with prospective members.

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The two-month membership was created by the Board under its authority to create promotional memberships:

Section 9. Promotional Memberships. In order to facilitate the development of membership promotion, the Executive Board may authorize special promotional membership terms and rates for limited periods of time to determine their feasibility by trial; such terms and rates shall be subject to review annually by the Board of Delegates.

Over the years this has resulted in several types of short-term memberships, from a length-of-tournament membership to a three-month membership and now a two-month membership. The JTP programs also fall under this section. There is usually a written report on promotional memberships that is sent to the Delegates ahead of their meeting or distributed at the meeting, I donā€™t know if these are currently available online, they used to be in the BINFO system. There is a QR code in the Delegates Call that links to a site with assorted reports for the Delegates, but a promotional membership report is not one of them. Iā€™ll have to ask Ranae about that.

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The 2023-24 promotional membership report has not been presented to the Delegates yet, that will be part of the information given to Delegates when they check in.

The 2022-23 promotional membership report is included in the 2022-23 information for Delegates at 2023 Annual Meeting Information | US Chess.org

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That was:

Yeah, some clubs are simply casual meetups and itā€™s no incentive for them to pay for an affiliate so they can pay for marketing help, so they can run tournaments that generate revenue.