RV Learning Center Scholarship Available

The RVDA Education Foundation’s RV Learning Center Scholarship program, is now accepting applications for the 2005-2006 school year. The program awards scholarships to rising sophomore, junior, or senior college undergraduate students interested in majoring in business, finance, economics, or accounting.

Recipients are selected based on academic achievement, a 500-word essay on their goals and objectives in college, extracurricular activities and honors, and financial need. Applicants must be employees, or dependents, at RV dealerships or other RV-related companies. Dealer principals and their dependents are not eligible.

The scholarships are made possible through the generosity of the Newt and Joanne Kindlund Family. The Kindlunds founded the first publicly-traded RV dealership. The Kindlunds sold the company in 1999. Newt Kindlund remains an active participant in RV industry affairs and currently serves on The RVDA Education Foundation Board of Directors. The Kindlund Family, to date, has pledged $270,000 to the Foundation’s scholarship endowment.

“I am pleased the RV Learning Center is able to recognize outstanding commitment to learning with the scholarship program,” said RVDA Education Foundation Chairman of the Board Rick Horsey of Parkview RV Center in Smryna, DE. “The industry owes the Kindlund family their thanks for funding this excellent program.”

For more information on the scholarship program, as well as an application form, visit www.rvlearningcenter.org, send an e-mail to info@rvda.org, or send a fax to The RVDA Education Foundation at (703) 591-0734. The deadline for applications for the 2005-2006 academic year is Friday, June 3, 2005.

Go RVing 2005 Media Plan Launches in February
Latest Plan Boosts Spending to Maintain 2004 Momentum

The 2005 Go RVing media plan launches in February with more ads on top broadcast television shows, including the ratings blockbuster Grammy Awards on CBS. Go RVing’s aggressive media schedule also includes increased cable TV, print and Internet advertising for a total of more than 2.5 billion projected consumer impressions this year.

The $15 million media buy – up from $14 million in 2004 and $13 million in 2003 – includes an investment of $2.4 million in broadcast network television – almost a million-dollar increase over 2004 spending. Awareness of Go RVing ads rose to 30 percent of the family target audience after only five weeks on ABC last year, according to research conducted by SIR Inc.

This year, the “Pursue Your Passions” commercials are running for eight weeks on ABC and CBS primetime programs with high co-viewing levels of parents and children watching together. Spots are scheduled to air on 15 popular TV shows, including ABC’s The Wonderful World of Disney, America’s Funniest Home Videos, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Less Than Perfect and Hope and Faith, and CBS’s Amazing Race and Joan of Arcadia. The broadcast TV ads will make 338 million impressions among adults aged 30 to 64, the campaign’s target – approximately 50 percent more than last year.

“Forecasts for increased RV shipments this year allowed Go RVing to boost its anticipated media investment on the prospect of additional industry funding,” said Gary LaBella, vice president of public relations and advertising, Recreation Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA), which manages the campaign for the industry wide Go RVing Coalition. “This enables us to keep pace with ad rates as they rise and maintain hard-won ground.”

In 2004, the Go RVing media plan set records for consumer impressions and responses. “Last year’s ads made approximately 2 billion consumer impressions and generated 165,500 dealer leads,” said LaBella. “Most importantly, RV purchase intentions rose significantly, suggesting the campaign is successfully broadening the appeal of RVing.”

Advertising on cable TV, the Internet and in national and regional magazines continues to be the mainstay of the media plan. With an investment of approximately $6 million in cable, Go RVing's four 30-second spots will air nationally February through November on 34 networks such as A&E, ABC Family, Animal Planet, Bravo, CNN, Discovery Channel, ESPN, HGTV, History Channel, The Learning Channel, The Outdoor Channel, Outdoor Life Network, TBS, TNT, Travel Channel, USA and The Weather Channel.

Go RVing is sponsoring special outdoor-themed programming on the National Geographic 26 June 2004 RV NEWS Channel and continuing the campaign’s strong NASCAR presence on FX and Speed Channel. The emerging digital video recording audience is being tested with an innovative two-week buy on TiVo Showcase in February.

Hitting the newsstands in February, five “Pursue Your Passions” print ads are slated to run through November in a mix of 24 national and regional publications. Go RVing’s print investment of roughly $4.5 million includes ad space in Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel, Better Homes & Gardens, Child, Family Circle, Field & Stream, National Geographic Traveler, Outdoor Life, Parents, Popular Mechanics, Southern Living, Sunset, Travel & Leisure and Woman’s Day. Based on a highly successful test in 2004, Go RVing will expand the print plan to include business reply cards in select publications to garner thousands of additional qualified leads.

With an Internet investment of close to $2 million, Go RVing ads will appear February through December on 24 popular websites and search engines including AOL, Google, Mapquest, Weather.com, Yahoo! and MSN.com. In 2004, consumers clicked on Go RVing’s online ads more than a million times.

This year concludes the third three-year phase of the Go RVing campaign, with an overall budget of $59 million funded primarily by newunit assessments on RVIA member manufacturers. Record industry shipments have been bolstered by the campaign and contributed to its growth. The next phase of the campaign will run from 2006 through 2008.