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  • Volunteers
  • Working with the media
  • Taking good photographs
  • Photo Gallery
  • Sponsorship
  • Risk Management
  • Promoting your event
  • Australia Day Logo Style Guide
  • Evaluation and reporting
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Promoting your event

This tool provides guidelines and ideas for event promotion with an eye firmly on what can be achieved with limited resources and budgets.

The tool contains examples of publicity and promotional work from some local Australia Day organisers.

This tool includes:

• Resource one — Promotion ideas and guidelines

• Resource two — Catching the eye

• Resource three — Checklists

 

Why use this tool?
Event organisers and promoters vie with lots of other events to attract audiences. Whether they are free or paid events, an audience is essential to success. Effective promotion can help attract interest and inform people of coming events. It may also help to attract sponsorship.

Using this tool will:

• ignite your creative thinking

• provide a basis for possible promotion tactics (lots of ideas and guidance)

• help you and your team put your best foot forward when implementing promotional strategies

• help you avoid mistakes and inefficiencies

• build on your work to promote celebration opportunities for your community/communities which are fun, family friendly and free.

Promotion and advertising — local context
Remember that the local promotion and advertising will be the most important to your community and sponsors. So while your state/territory Australia Day council or committee works across the state/territory to increase awareness of Australia Day in general, it is your advertising and promotion that will drive people to your events and attract the attention of potential supporters and sponsors.

Approaching promotion
Approach the development and implementation of your effective low cost promotion with a look at your:

1. event objectives (e.g. to raise awareness of Australia Day events)
2. target audience (their habits, age, interests, loyalties, hobbies)
3. ‘packaging’ of events

Packaging
Packaging hold things together. In this tool packaging refers what you use to capture, in a brief and attractive form, a picture of the events you are planning.

By combining some creative thinking with knowledge of your local community, the sort of budget you have and the events you wish to run, you can come up with a phrase which suits your community event. For example, ‘Aussies in the Bush’, ‘Australia and Boomsville - Celebrate What’s Great’, ‘Celebrate on Jan 26 by the Drasus River’. You could call this your local event tagline.

Brainstorming to get a tagline will help make your promotion path clearer (and it could be a fun activity at the same time). Ultimately you need to identify what is unique or special about your event and make that the focus of your promotions.

Implications of the January 26 date for promotion

Schools and harnessing youngsters’ Australia Day creations

• Schools are often still in the summer holidays. This means that the school cannot be directly active at the time or near the time to organise, remind or encourage young people’s involvement in the planned celebrations.

• Australia Day celebrations are only a part (albeit a significant part) of celebrating Australia. Schools provide opportunities for discussion and creative activities and learning of history and culture during the year. Resources can be created long before January 26.

• Children’s art work is appealing; and their ideas, from fresh minds, can be gems.

• Your local Australia Day group needs to work out ways to collect children’s work and ideas for events during the school year. This will involve some planning and establishing contacts with teachers. You could investigate or initiate a partnership or collaborative venture.

• Competitions and activities for school children are supported by the National Australia Day Council, state/territory Australia Day committees, local councils and local groups (e.g. Visions of Australia, Aussie of the month, competitions, art competitions, singing competitions, Young Australian of the Year Awards).

• Both the activity and the outcomes can be given recognition and can work as promotion, all the while affirming the potential of young people.

Media deadlines

• Find out the media’s deadlines for receiving information, then give them plenty of warning and remind them again as your event draws closer. This is especially important with Australia Day as many regional papers operate on skeleton staff over the January period.

Weather

• Around January 26 it is often very hot. It may be sensible to organise key events around mid-morning or late afternoon.

• If you have special ways of looking after or protecting people coming to your Australia Day events this itself could be an effective selling point. Local groups, or sponsors might support an initiative in kind (e.g. fruit, water, cheap hats with logo or flag, fans made out of old promotional material, flyers).

Enlist local support

• Don’t be afraid to ask people to help you promote your event. Often shops and community centres and recreation groups will be happy to help promote an event, particularly in a quieter time of year.

There are many ways to promote your activities and not all of them are expensive, as you will see from the suggestions included in the following resources.

RESOURCE ONE—Promotion ideas and guidelines

The following possibilities are commonsense, but you may not have thought of all of them.

‘In your ear’ promotion via your answering machine
At work, at home or on your mobile re-record your ‘I’m not here to take your call’ voice message. Start the message with a few bars of the Australian National Anthem, a reminder that Australia Day is coming or even a suggestion to Celebrate What’s Great and then add your ‘I’m not here to take your call’ message.

Novelty events, friendly competition and ‘freebies’
The following all have potential for attracting interest and most require minimal preparation. The list includes some promotional ideas which depend on the availability of skilled people. Costs are minimal (except when professional people are employed or contracted).

• Workshops in for example the street, outside the recreation centre, by the footy club rooms, in a dry creek bed. Consider: gum leaf playing, making fans from recycled flyers, drawing with textas or sticking transfers of flags on a cup (to be used at celebrations), trivia competitions (you might even manage to attract some donations for these novel events).

• Pass the flag—an ‘impromptu’ event passing a flag from person to person down the street keeping it in continuous motion. You could use any object—an inflated kangaroo, an old billy, a pillow with an Australian flag pillow case, an old Slim Dusty audio tape…

• Acting out an Australian saying e.g. shake a leg, catch a wave, (needs a good performer but could be very interactive). A community group may be interested in supporting this.

• Street theatre—three ideas:

1. Australia on the corner/in the rotunda/on the steps of railway station.
2. A simple enactment; (requires quality actor/s).
3. Performance-based quiz ‘What Aussie animal is this?’(Could be great fun. Acting/ miming skill of good standard very important

• A competition such as eating a pie/watermelon without using your hands. (If this is a demonstration you only need donations of a few pies or watermelons. Offer the local baker or fruit shop promotion in return).

• Naming rights—hold a simple competition for naming something e.g. a mascot, a local performing character, a vehicle (The reward is that the name is used in events promotion).

In the local media

• Write a story for the local media or set up picture opportunities for radio interviews and television crews. Remember the story has to be newsworthy (first, newest, biggest, better, faster...LOCAL).

• If you want television coverage or a photo in the paper, there has to be something visually exciting happening for the media to capture - one of the novelty events, friendly competition and ‘freebies’ suggested above would be ideal.

• Send stories or story ideas to other local publications. For example, local councils, schools, sporting groups, the local tourism group, recreation groups and special interest groups often produce their own newsletters or hold meetings. Identify your key event messages such as ‘for the family’, ‘free’, or ‘food and wine fair’ and use these phrases in all of your promotional material.

• It’s free to list your event on a number of online event calendars, including at the www.australiaday.org.au website, which lists local events in each state and is searchable by postcode. The ABC also has an online event listing, the 'Big Diary'. See http://www.abc.net.au/thebigdiary/.

• You could also advertise your event on community notice boards and in local newspapers and the newsletters (hard-copy or email) of relevant interest groups.

• Some event listings in print are also free. Major newspapers will often list music or arts related events in their entertainment section. Education sections may also list events for schools or universities. The same goes for relevant special interest magazines.

• If you can’t get the media to attend your event, see if you can interest them in a follow-up story. Make sure you have print-quality photographs to offer them.

Spokespeople and local identities

• Identify a spokesperson and include their contact details (for office and home) on media releases. Choose someone who knows a lot about your plans, is easy to contact at all hours and most importantly is articulate.

• You may also want to recruit a local personality or business leader to help attract media attention.

Preparation and rehearsal as promotional opportunities

• Any rehearsals of events can also be a promotional activity, especially for local newspapers.

Flyers and posters

• Make up simple flyers and posters to distribute to local shops, schools, libraries and clubs.

Logos and branding

• Using the Australia Day logo in accordance with the style guide helps to ensure its value and integrity, and clearly promotes your event as part of a state-wide and national celebration.

Flags

• Attach flags (any or all of the three Australian flags) to a small moving object—a toy clothesline, a clockwork train, a mechanised animal or a rotating umbrella and display it in a public place like a shop or office window. This would need help of a local inventor type and checking to make sure it all worked smoothly.

• Or cover a surface such as a shop wall, office or meeting room wall, side of a water tank or a bicycle with flags. You may need to seek permission.

Collaborations and working together

• Consider joint promotions with other Australia Day committees in the region. This can be very successful with television and radio networks that broadcast to a larger area.

• Investigate joint promotions with other events on or around Australia Day. This can reduce costs, expand the size of the team working on promotion, and possibly also lead to longer-term benefits of association.

Local bands, local bards and an ‘Aussie Spot’

• Local talent will sometimes offer a performance for the local community. You could try enticing them by offering exposure to a large crowd, publicity (e.g. names on posters, in newsletters, acknowledgement at events, photos posted on web sites with identification and acknowledgement).

Local resources and local networks

• Use existing networks within your community to promote your events and programs. For example: involve the local sporting associations, library and other community groups. All will have their own mailing lists or other means of communication that may be useful.

RESOURCE TWO—Catching the eye

Photographs

• Remember to take lots of photos of your event to use for future promotion. Your local newspaper may appreciate a photograph and details of your event to use in print. Although this kind of promotion is done after the event, and will not attract people to attend this year, it will still publicise your special event.

• It is also important to take photographs for possible use in promoting future events. If you can show how successful your event was last time, they might be keen to help promote your next event. You can also use photographs when approaching businesses for sponsorship or when asking them to donate goods, services or prizes for your next event.

See more tips in the Taking good photographs tool.

Photo competitions
Photo competitions also reap some great shots that could be used in promotion. The local media could be interested in an article on the competition, in a display of the best (or winning) photos, and an interview with some of the photographers. This could be a no-cost promotional opportunity.

Posters and flyers

What's the difference?

• Posters were originally produced to be hung up (posted) and were generally larger than flyers and more robust. Flyers were less costly productions, designed to be left for the taking at shops, public meeting places, under windscreen wipers, stuck to posts etc. Flyers are smaller and less robust, can be handed out to individuals and usually contain more information than posters. Today the poster/ flyer distinction seems to have blurred somewhat.

• Consider approaching a printer to see if they will do a special deal for you in exchange for having a credit on your poster (e.g. ‘printed by XYZ printers’ in small print). Make sure you get a reliable group to distribute the posters.

• Don’t display them too early or too late; around four to six weeks prior to your event should be suitable - remembering that four to six weeks prior to Australia Day is holiday season. Prepare before Christmas to send out just after the New Year holiday.

Poster competitions

• Poster competitions also reap some great products (or ideas) that could be used in promotion. The local media could be interested in an article on the competition, in a display of the best (or winning) posters, an interview with some of the artists.

Children’s artwork

• In tandem with teachers and carers (schools, after school care, child care places, even kindergartens), children could create pictures, posters, mobiles, puppets etc. and know that these things are being created for possible use on Australia Day. Teachers and Australia Day organisers could work together to set up a collection labeling and storage scheme.

• Children’s artwork can be evocative and attractive. With permission, children’s art works could be used in posters and promotional material, for badges or labels, as the ‘tag’ for local events, in a simple publication.

RESOURCE THREE—Checklists

Essentials in promotional materials—a checklist

1. Name of event
2. Location of event
3. Date and time of event 
4. How much will it cost?
5. Why is the event being held? 
6. Contact information
7. Logos 
8. Tag line if available
9. Some eye-catching element/s
10. Has relevance and quality, even if it’s a simple promotional item.

Guidelines for posters and flyers

Posters

This poster worked very effectively for the Australia Day Council of South Australia to promote its Australia Day Parade

Combine textual and visual elements in an attractive and informative way. Provide a visual, colourful, simple way to communicate community issues and events—are also suitable for display in community spaces. Provide basic information about a process, project or document in an immediate, concise and clear way. Provides easier ways to absorb information for those more comfortable with pictures than words (and those from other cultures who speak languages other than the dominant language). Can be humorous, and may include cartoons and diagrams.

 

Features of a good poster

• Quickly orients the audience to the event through an informative title and supporting, eye-catching images.

• Has clear logical connections between text and graphics.

• Has a strong visual impact.

• Presents accurate information in a brief, punchy style.

• Is clear, well-spaced with no large blocks of text.

• Is easy to read.

• Has effective use of colour.

• Uses no more than two fonts or typefaces.

Related tools
Working with the media
Taking good photographs
Ideas for events
Sponsorship
Knowing your community

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References
Thanks to Thea Saliba on ActNow, a web-based service that provides young people with the resources they need to create change: http://www.actnow.com.au/Tool/Promoting_an_event.aspx