Re: How do successful shows succeed?

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Posted by Lisa on February 24, 2002 at 08:19:43:

In Reply to: Re: How do successful shows succeed? posted by Chris on February 21, 2002 at 13:01:10:

Chris,

Actually this is exactly part of our problem. I had been in charge of the free advertising for the show from the beginning (except for this last show, my work schedule prevented me from helping out at all unfortunately, and there wasn't anyone to take up the slack so to speak.

In the past, I had placed an ad in the free "Calendar of Events" listings, in all of the more major newspapers from Erie, to Altoona, to Wheeling, and Morgantown, to Columbus to Cleveland. But for free ad space, newspapers follow the space and radius principle... Ads are placed as space permits, if they have more ads than they have space for, they will pick out the ads that are the farthest away from their normal radius of distribution, and cut those ones from the list. And they don't tell you that they have done this, so it is difficult to know if a free ad has been printed or not.

Another problem is during the summer, when there are lots of fairs, etc. competing for ad space, and in Nov./Dec. when Christmas events are everywhere. Papers are more likely to print ads for events with a "wider target audience" as one adman said to me.

So that is why we have to start doing a lot more paid ads (guaranteed printing), and we should be doing the planning and budgeting now.

But I worry about doing a huge ad campaign, only to have our vendors no-show again. Tons of people with little to buy. Especially, when most of what does show up in venomous! That's just something else we have to work on...

Lisa

: I don't know about the hamburg show because I never been there and I am new. However, I do have some opinions about how shows succeed.

: First, I don't think that it's just one thing. I think that it's a combination of factors. Some of which are timing, people power, and marketing/advertising. And each of these have various things that influence them.

: I think having shows like the columbus and monroville ones does hurt us, even though they don't permit venomous species. They still take people and vendors away. However, I don't feel it's a big problem. It might even help later on. I think that a major problem is the lack of help that we have. I feel that if we can succeed with this then the show will succeed. It's is also probably going to be the hardest thing to overcome. We need people to help call vendors, help with advertising, and help with the planning. Which brings up another issue. I think that we need more advertising. We need to get the word out. If I was not a member I would have never known about the show. I think that we need to do whatever we can to get as much advertisment as possible. Now I don't know how much money we have to spend on this or how much it costs to advertise on various mediums. We need to get as much free advertisment as possible. Like calling all local TV and newspaper companies. See if they will do stories or write ups. With all the news about snakes killing people they should want to do something like this. And when we talk to vendors tell them that we are going to advertising on TV, radio, or newspapers and try to explain that this is going to bring in more people/business.

: This is just my 2 cents on things.

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: Chris, : Actually this is exactly part of our problem. I had been in charge of the free advertising for the show from the beginning (except for this last show, my work schedule prevented me from helping out at all unfortunately, and there wasn't anyone to take up the slack so to speak. : In the past, I had placed an ad in the free "Calendar of Events" listings, in all of the more major newspapers from Erie, to Altoona, to Wheeling, and Morgantown, to Columbus to Cleveland. But for free ad space, newspapers follow the space and radius principle... Ads are placed as space permits, if they have more ads than they have space for, they will pick out the ads that are the farthest away from their normal radius of distribution, and cut those ones from the list. And they don't tell you that they have done this, so it is difficult to know if a free ad has been printed or not. : Another problem is during the summer, when there are lots of fairs, etc. competing for ad space, and in Nov./Dec. when Christmas events are everywhere. Papers are more likely to print ads for events with a "wider target audience" as one adman said to me. : So that is why we have to start doing a lot more paid ads (guaranteed printing), and we should be doing the planning and budgeting now. : But I worry about doing a huge ad campaign, only to have our vendors no-show again. Tons of people with little to buy. Especially, when most of what does show up in venomous! That's just something else we have to work on... : Lisa : : I don't know about the hamburg show because I never been there and I am new. However, I do have some opinions about how shows succeed. : : First, I don't think that it's just one thing. I think that it's a combination of factors. Some of which are timing, people power, and marketing/advertising. And each of these have various things that influence them. : : I think having shows like the columbus and monroville ones does hurt us, even though they don't permit venomous species. They still take people and vendors away. However, I don't feel it's a big problem. It might even help later on. I think that a major problem is the lack of help that we have. I feel that if we can succeed with this then the show will succeed. It's is also probably going to be the hardest thing to overcome. We need people to help call vendors, help with advertising, and help with the planning. Which brings up another issue. I think that we need more advertising. We need to get the word out. If I was not a member I would have never known about the show. I think that we need to do whatever we can to get as much advertisment as possible. Now I don't know how much money we have to spend on this or how much it costs to advertise on various mediums. We need to get as much free advertisment as possible. Like calling all local TV and newspaper companies. See if they will do stories or write ups. With all the news about snakes killing people they should want to do something like this. And when we talk to vendors tell them that we are going to advertising on TV, radio, or newspapers and try to explain that this is going to bring in more people/business. : : This is just my 2 cents on things.

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