PUBLICITY BASICS
In order to answer the Five W's (What? Who? When? Where? Why?), all publicity should include...
- TITLE OF EVENT
-
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF EVENT
(if not a recognizable event, include a one sentence description)
-
DATE
(include day of the week and month/day)
-
TIME
(If attendance is required, include an ending time, too)
-
LOCATION
-
ADMISSION FEE
-
SPONSORING ORGANIZATION(S)
(include all pertinent logos)
-
"FOR MORE INFO, CONTACT"
(direct to web sites, phone numbers or offices)
Check out this publicity matrix to help you out.In addition to the basics, you should also consider making your publicity effective. Here are some hints to help make your publicity more successful:
- People won't look at your poster for a long time. Make it eye-catching and get your point across. Your poster should take no longer than 5 seconds to read.
- Take a look around campus. What catches your eye? Take note of what you like and dislike about other publicity.
- Avoid using too many fonts on your posters. 2-3 should be sufficient.
- Avoid using script fonts (especially all-caps scripts). They are difficult to read, and are not intended to be used for posters.
- Incorporate a black text box with white font inside--this will increase visibility to your header.
- Use clip art (most programs have some form of clip art already installed). People are more likely to remember images than words.
- Add a border to your entire poster (or essential, important elements). Borders keep people's eyes focused on a specific area.
- Test your poster before copying it. Put it on a bulletin board and stand about 10 feet away. If it stands out, you have accomplished your goal! If not, see which poster stands out the most, and incorporate some of its graphical elements. (Don't forget to take your poster down after this exercise!!!)
- Color can make your poster unique.
- If you can't afford color printing, order color paper! FedEx Kinkos has quite a few different paper styles to choose form (and you can charge your copies to your club account!).