/Sports marketing guide / Camps
To fill a spring break camp, publish your dates and price in early January, open registration by the end of January, and sell each week of the break as its own camp. Parents are booking around work and travel, so the camp with clear dates, a clear daily schedule and a quick reply gets the booking.
In BC, spring break is two weeks long. I think you should sell it as two short camps, not one long one.
In Metro Vancouver, spring break 2027 runs from March 15 to 26. In Toronto, March break is March 15 to 19. Dates vary by district, so check the ones your families use. Put the exact dates on your camp page, because "spring break camp" alone tells a parent nothing.
The details:
| Area | Spring break 2027 |
|---|---|
| Metro Vancouver (Vancouver, Surrey, Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam, North Vancouver, Langley, Delta) | March 15 to 26 |
| Surrey Schools | Spring break March 15 to 19, then school closure days March 22 to 26 |
| Toronto District School Board | March 15 to 19 |
US camps: spring break dates vary by district, often across March and April. Look up the districts in your area and build a week for each.
/Sources: Metro Vancouver · Surrey · Toronto
By the end of January. Families plan March around work, travel and childcare well before February. Many camp registrations begin as early as January, according to a University of Toronto guide for parents. Publish your dates in early January, open registration by the end of the month, and close a week before the break.
A simple countdown:
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| Early January | Publish dates, ages and price. Open an interest list |
| Late January | Open registration with a dated early-bird price |
| February | Ads to local parents, reels from past camps, "spots left" posts |
| Early March | Final call. Close registration a week before |
| During the camp | Film everything, and hand out summer camp dates on the last day |
/Sources: as early as January
Sell each week as its own camp, with its own page section, price and register button. I'd bet a lot of families only need one of the two weeks, because of work or a trip. Two short camps let them book the week they're home. If a family wants both, offer the second week at full price, not a discount.
That's the same take I've had on winter break camps. A long break sells better as two short ones. And I'd rather add value than cut the price.
What two-week pages get wrong:
Everything a working parent needs to book in two minutes: the exact dates for each week, daily drop-off and pick-up times, ages, what the day looks like, coaches, price, what to bring and the refund policy. Put the register button at the top and the bottom.
A checklist:
Start with families who already know you: your club, last year's campers and your winter break families. Then run local ads to parents of the right ages from late January. Follow up every inquiry the same day. A camp that replies in an hour beats a camp that replies on Monday.
The plan:
Leads come in and nobody follows up. That, not the ad budget, is usually where camps lose families.
Working parents of kids in your age range who live near your facility. Spring break camps are childcare as much as sport, so distance and drop-off times matter more than they do for a summer program. Keep your ad radius tight and say the hours in the ad.
Good targeting signals:
Say three things in every ad: the dates, the daily hours and the ages. A parent scrolling at lunch should know in one look whether your camp fits their week.
Post every day of the camp. Short clips of drills, a coach explaining one skill and the end-of-week games give you next year's marketing and show this year's parents what their kid did. Parents share those clips, and their friends are next year's campers.
More every year, so show the value plainly. The Aspen Institute's Project Play survey found US families spent $1,016 on a child's main sport in 2024, up 46% from 2019. In 2024, the American Camp Association put the average day camp at $87 a day. Your page should make it obvious what a parent gets for the week.
/Sources: $1,016 ... 46% · $87 a day
It's your best summer lead list. Every spring break family has already trusted you with their kid for a week. Hand them your summer dates on the last day, give them first access to registration, and email them before summer registration opens to everyone else.
The camps that fill every season plan the whole year at once: winter break, spring break and summer. That's what I mean by owning the intake calendar.
/Keep reading
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