Mobile Recreation — City of Federal Way
Bringing structured play to parks and neighborhoods—and making it easy to discover where we’ll be next.
Families mostly stumbled upon us; program info was buried and rarely found
Interviews and field conversations revealed that most attendees discovered Mobile Rec by chance or through word of mouth. The city site made details hard to find, and social presence was minimal—so awareness depended on luck.
- Low discoverability
Participants found us by chance or word of mouth, web path was unclear, little to no social media presence.
- Buried information
Program details were several clicks deep and fragmented across pages.
- Minimal social presence
Few posts, inconsistent cadence, no cross-posting to neighborhood groups.
- Missed partnerships
Nearby programs (Skyhawks, Day Camp, Pac NW Soccer) ran in parallel without structured collaboration.
Make Mobile Rec easy to find, understand, and join—before summer starts
Clarify where to go and when, meet families where they already are (schools, parks, partner programs), and keep updates current.
- Single source of truth
A shareable route/schedule page with times, locations, and what to expect.
- Pre-summer school outreach
Leverage district channels (Backpack flyers, announcements).
- Findable website
Seasonal homepage tile, and clean path to find info.
- Consistent social rhythm
Schedule posts, day-of story, short recap; cross-post to local groups.
- Program collaborations
Coordinate pop-ups with Skyhawks/Day Camp/PacNW to tap adjacent audiences.
What we learned from on-site interviews and lightweight tracking
We spoke with families at park stops and logged quick, anonymous responses about awareness and attendance patterns.
- 266 participants (2023)
Pilot summer season total.
- 18% recurring
Visited us multiple times.
- 63% stumbled upon us
Found us by chance at a park.
- 29% word of mouth
Heard from friends/family.
- Pain points
Distance/schedule conflicts; didn’t know when/where we’d be, didn't even know about us.
Practical changes to increase reach
We focused on high-leverage channels families already use: schools, parks, partner programs, and neighborhood social groups.
- Advertise with schools before summer
Coordinate school announcements and backpack flyers with a short QR to the schedule. Result: +23% first-time attendance in June–July.
- Make Mobile Rec findable on the city website
Create a top-level page and seasonal homepage tile; simplify the path (Parks & Rec → Mobile Rec). Publish a single shareable route page. Result: page visits 4.3×; schedule clicks +57%.
- Collaborate with Skyhawks / Day Camp / PacNW
Set up pop-ups at session start/end with mini-kits and handouts. Result: referrals +13%; repeat attendance +10%.
More people found us, and more came back
By addressing discoverability, outreach, and partnerships, attendance grew significantly between the pilot and our most recent season.
- 266 participants → 512
Pilot summer 2023 to summer 2025 ≈ 92% growth (nearly doubled).
- Recurring families
Repeat participants increased from 18% to 39%.
- Partner referrals
Cross-attendance from Skyhawks/Day Camp/PacNW accounted for 26% increase in participants.