When the designs were all ready, we looked at print companies and the different types of flyers and posters on offer. Prices varied depending on colour and weight of paper, but in the end we went with a heavy weight flyer (300 gsm), and a combination of black and white and full colour posters. We got 5000 flyers and 300 A4 posters printed, 200 colour and 100 black and white ‘high impact’, as well as 4 A0’s.
Once we had all the flyers and posters printed, it was a question of sourcing the best places and events to flyer at. As we had bought poster space for 100 posters in shops around Bournemouth (Blunt Promotions), the rest of the posters were placed in the club and around town when we were out flyering. These would be taken down by the next day, possibly 2 days if lucky, but could be seen by anyone out in Bournemouth that night, and people who are out in town at night are generally the people to target. We spent many an hour at events like Dubnium, Enter, Bournemouth University Summer Ball and even in town and along the beach in the daytime. It’s good to get a mix because at events you are targeting the specific people you know are into the scene, where as in the day people generally look at the flyer and take in the information more, as they are not drunk, making a conscious decision on how interested they are.
We also set up the necessary Facebook and MySpace profiles/groups, adding as many people as we could think of. Although social networking sites are a great source of free advertising, you can’t always rely on the information regarding numbers of people attending the event, as some people just click ‘yes’ without thinking about it. I noticed some people I knew from back home on the Isle of Wight were supposedly attending, although I knew they wouldn’t. I also set up a paying advert 2 days before the event, which cost roughly £3.50 and was charged per click, 11 clicks in total. So it’s good in getting it out there more but it still cant beat traditional forms of interactive, personal promotional campaigns like flyering. It is so important to be passionate about what your advertising and this can influence people hugely as to whether or not they come, something the internet can’t always deliver.
