6/22/2010

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No Money? No Staff?

No Problem!

Presented by:

Penny C. ReehIndigoResource Group

Fredericksburg, Texas

Learning Objectives

• Understand the five basic rules of resource

allocation

• Implement priority-based planning

• Develop promotion strategies that are

appropriate to your event

• Learn at least 10 simple to use ideas to stretch

your promotional budget

Five Basic Rules of

Resource Allocation

1. Accept that you cannot be all things to all people.

● Increasing competition for entertainment dollars.

● The smaller the budget, the more focused

a festival must be in its approach.

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Five Basic Rules of

Resource Allocation

2. Know your product intimately.

● Strengths

●Weaknesses

● Opportunities

● Threats

Five Basic Rules of

Resource Allocation

3. Understand your customer.

● Demographic, geographic and psychographic data.

●What are their needs and expectations?

●What motivates their travel decisions?

●Who is in the travel party?

Five Basic Rules of

Resource Allocation

4. Cheap is good…free is better.

● Understand the pros and cons of the promotional tools at your disposal.

● Use your creativity to set you apart from the pack.

● Learn from the big boys, then do it leaner and meaner.

● Look around for dance partners.

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Five Basic Rules of

Resource Allocation

5. Only commit to what yields results.

● Do not tolerate any sacred cows.

● Break the “But we’ve always done it that way” mentality.

● There is no such thing as mistakes, only lessons learned.

● If it works improve it. If it doesn’t work, fix it or ditch it.

Understanding the Pros and Cons of

Promotional Vehicles

• Advertising – Print and electronic

• Direct Mail

• Internet

• Publicity/Media

Relations

• Word of Mouth

Advantages of AdvertisingAdvantages of AdvertisingAdvantages of AdvertisingAdvantages of Advertising

• Ability to reach large, but targeted audiences

• Chance to demonstrate your event

• Control of the message – You say what, to whom, how often

and in what way

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The Rules of Advertising

Have Changed

TELEVISION

• Declining viewership in certain groups

• Channel fragmentation

• TiVo

• Programming challenges

The Rules of Advertising

Have Changed

RADIO

• Channel fragmentation

• Satellite Radio/iPod

• Frequency needed to effectively deliver the message

The Rules of Advertising

Have Changed

NEWSPAPER

• Declining readership

• Competition from online news

sources

• Local/regional newspapers may be

the exception for festivals

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The Rules of Advertising

Have Changed

MAGAZINE

• Micro-niche formula

• Competition from online news

sources

The Rules of Advertising

Have Changed

ADDITIONAL CHALLENGES

• Learning to talk to younger consumers.

• Shifting demographic populations.

• Growing wariness of advertising in general.

How do I pick the right advertising venues

for my product?

• Compare the readership or viewership to what you know about your customer.

• Talk to other advertisers.

• Evaluate the editorial content of the publication/show.

• Test the source with a smaller “buy”.

• Track advertising response and conversion.

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Meet them and

understand them.

Understand how media sources differ.

• Television

• Radio

• Newspaper

• Magazine

• Travel Writer

• E-zine

Meet them and

understand them.

Learn their preference and formats.

• Read, watch and listen

• Focus on what the media covers

• Focus on “their” causes (Fans 4 San Antonio)

• Editorial trends

• Who advertises

Meet them and

understand them.

Actively build relationships.

• Join broadcast and/or press associations

• Invite the media to participate in your event

• Get involved in their events

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Understand their

culture.

• Deadlines, rating, time, space, sales and plenty of

stress are a way of life

• Scandal, death, war, crime, life….and

celebrations….fit the bill

• Pitching stories can be a home run or strike out

• Not all reporters are created equal (learn who writes

or reports about what)

Getting your

message ready.

• Is your story unique?

• Is your story timely?

• Can it be tied to a current trend?

• Is there a way to localize the story?

• Is there a visual element?

Getting your

message ready.

• Financial/

economic impact

• Lifestyle

•Human Interest

• Environment

• Sports

• Food/wine

•Home and Garden

• Entertainment

• Education

• Technology

• Calendars

Develop multiple story angles.

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Pack your toolkit.

Websites are essential.

▫ Include your URL on everything

▫ Create a media vault

▫ Virtual media room – access to images, press

credentials, news release archive, fact sheet, etc.

Getting your

message ready.

Telling your story.

▫ Timing is everything. Take advantage of slow news days. (Elvis turkey and trial stories)

▫ Think visual – even for radio and newspaper – and package everything the media needs to just show up and report

▫ Make a list of everything you think a reporter may ask you (especially anything controversial)

▫ Be available. This can make you a reporter’s best friend.

Contact the media.

• Communicate on a routine basis

▫ Learn their preferred method of receiving

information (phone, fax, email, regular mail)

▫ Conduct media blitzes

▫ Offer media vault

services

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Capturing attention.

• Appeal to the tummy (reporters never turn down

food)

• Do something unusual, even crazy

• Provide an “at ease” spokesperson

• Understand the potential pitfalls of a celebrity

spokesperson

• You are there to promote, but don’t oversell

• Deliver what you promise

Does your website do enough?

• Is it continuously updated?

• Does it periodically change looks?

• Is it intuitive?

• Is there an interactive element?

• Can you buy stuff?

• Is it search engine optimized?

• Is it fun?

Social Media Outlets.

Embrace or be left behind.

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It’s really all about

conversation.

Begin With Strategy

Developing a social

media strategy.

Source: AMA Social Media Boot Camp

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Developing a social

media strategy.

Source: AMA Social Media Boot Camp

Developing a social

media strategy.

Six Step Plan

• Outline your objectives

• Define your audience

• Choose the best social channels

• Integrate it into current program

• Tie into metrics

• Implementation

Social Networking Sites

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Some Facebook

statistics.

• If Facebook were a country, it would be the eighth most

populated in the world.

• More than 400 million users, half of which use

Facebook daily.

• 70% of users are outside the US

• Fastest growing demographic of users is 35+

• Average user spends more than 55 minutes/day on the

site

• More than 20 million people become fans of pages daily.

Content is still king.

Add engaging

features.

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• Passed 100 million viewers in March 2009

• Forbes estimates YouTube generates more than

a billion views a day

• Ad Age reports 15 hours of video are being

uploaded every minute of the day

• Beware of copyright issues

• Take steps to monitor and enforce content

YouTube.com

Video/Photo Sharing

Add engaging

features.

www.wildfireapp.com

Pricing starts at

$5/campaign, plus

99 cents/day

Parting thoughts.

• Think about policy issues and potential legal matters.

•Transparency is a must.

•Social media is not an island, it is another tool in our marketing mix.

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Mobile Marketing

Mobile statistics.

305Million

people 267million

have

mobilephones

115 million

have

mobile web

49.7

million use mobile web daily

Source: Nielsen Mobile (12/09)

What makes mobile

superior?

Traditional Usage

7a.m. - 9 a.m.

Newspaper and radio

9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Internet and Radio

5 p.m. – 7 p.m.

Radio

7 p.m. – 11 p.m.

Television

Mobile Usage

24/7

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How do festivals use mobile.

• Sends message directly to user

• Delivery is guaranteed since it is a premium

service and payment is made to carriers for

each message delivered.

• Can be scheduled and precisely tracked.

• Weblinks and offers can be embedded.

• Open rates typically exceed 90%.

SMS (short message service)

How do festivals use mobile.

• Basically sending email through a SMS

gateway.

• Free. But since it is free, messages are sent

when traffic allows.

• Not guaranteed.

• Hard to track.

SMPT (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

How do festivals use mobile.

• Hardware that automatically sends a message

to any bluetooth-enabled device within 300

feet.

• Can be used to offer coupons, general info,

directions to the venue, schedule, etc.

Proximity Bluetooth Messaging

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What’s coming?

• Sites especially designed for

smart phones to load content

more smoothly.

• Expected to increase in

popularity over the next 36

months.

Mobile Optimized Websites

What’s coming?

• Video based messages with guaranteed

delivery.

• Tech sources predict technology and

bandwidth improvements will be in place by

3Q of 2010 to make this a more common

delivery model.

MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service)

What’s coming?

• Will allow smart phone cameras to be aimed

at a 2D barcode and produce a 3D image.

• Predictions place this technology in the

marketplace in roughly 18 months.

Augmented Reality

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E-Mail Marketing

Email made easy.

www.constantcontact.com

Pricing starts at $15/mo.

www.realmagnet.com

Initial set-up fee (based on

features enabled) + fee per email

delivered

Distribute & track, plus cool add-ons.

• Allows WYSIWYG design

• Easy to embed links and graphics

• Integrates with Outlook address book

functions

Microsoft Publisher

Email made easy.

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Always remember…

Not-for-profit is a

tax status, not a

business plan.

Stay In Touch!

Penny C. Reeh

Indigo Resource Group

P.O. Box 1025

Fredericksburg, Texas 78624

830.990.0180

pennyreeh@ktc.com