Marketing

Marketing Sub-Committee

A well-developed Marketing plan will create a buzz about the event and your organization. The culture/environment of OSU, the history of the event, a small display in the Barometer and word of mouth will fill the seats. A good buzz will increase member moral, build membership and allow the OSU community to celebrate the work that you do.

When determining the Marketing Plan, these items should be taken into consideration:

Theme and Goal of the organization and program
Skill level of committee members
Available money
Available time before the event
Various Marketing techniques; print ads, flyers, posters, press releases, activities
Headline performers
History of the event

The Chair of the Marketing sub-committee is responsible for:

Convening a committee
Setting meeting times and agendas
Supporting the development of a Marketing plan
Communicating the Marketing plan to the Event committee
Identifying needed human and monetary resources
Creating a planning timeline
Assigning tasks to committee members
Proof-reading all materials with the Event Coordinator
Evaluating the effectiveness of the Marketing plan
Thanking all of the participants

The Committee is responsible for:

Creating a Marketing plan
Reserving bulletin boards, table tent locations
Creating flyers, posters, tickets
Writing press releases
Arranging for interviews by news reporters, prior to and day of event
Including ticket information on all advertising
Hanging poster campus and the surrounding community
Documenting activities day of event

Publicity Tips for Marketing

It’s impossible to have a successful program without an audience. And it’s impossible to have a successful organization without new members. Your advertising should get people’s attention, draw them in and keep their interest. There are a lot of ways to do it. No doubt you will use a little of both.

The best way to begin is to form a publicity committee or choose a publicity coordinator. First, prepare a budget. How much money do you have to spend? Make sure you get estimates that are as accurate as possible for all your publicity needs. Don’t forget hidden costs like printing costs of fliers or mailing press release. Once you have completed the budget and you have determined how you would like to spend your money, it is time to think about some more specifics.

Timing is everything. When you are working with radio, TV, newspapers or other publications, they will have deadlines that you need to follow. Display ads in newspapers, including the Barometer, usually you have a deadline of three or four days prior to the event. Make a calendar going backwards from your event date to determine when it would be best to start your media campaign.

Who is your audience? It’s important to determine what populations will be most interested in your event and to target your advertising to those groups. If your target group is students, your advertising will be very different than if you are targeting the Corvallis community.

Types of Advertising

Word of Mouth - The cheapest and best form of advertising. Get the word out about your event. Talk to people. Do class raps - contact professors of large classes or classes with subjects that might have an obvious audience and ask them if you can make an announcement in their class.
Display advertisements and posters/flyers - Fun graphics and attractive presentation will attract people to read your posters and ads. Make sure you don’t forget to include the basics. If you have a logo for your organization or for the event, be consistent and use it on all your display ads. Posters should be hung all around campus and in the windows of local businesses. It’s important to ask permission of either the business owner, or someone in a campus building, before you hang your poster or it may be removed.