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Page 1: Promoting Activities v1.2

Promoting Your ActivitiesPage 1

imperialcollegeunion.org/trainingimperialcollegeunion.org

Promoting Your Activities

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Promoting Your ActivitiesPage 2imperialcollegeunion.org/training

Contents

Contents 2

Introduction 3

How to Plan a Publicity Campaign 4

Posters & Flyers 7

Websites 8

Union Media 9

College Media 11

New Students & Freshers’ Fair 13

Version 1.2 - 21 October 2011

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Introduction

The Purpose of the Promoting Your Activities Booklet

This booklet is your guide to promoting your events and activities, to both people internal to Imperial and beyond. This booklet is intended as a reference guide for organisers of any event, social activity, show, concert, trip or tour.

Information on how to plan a publicity campaign, procedures and rules for posters, flyers, websites and social networking groups are discussed, as well as how to make use of the Union and College media outlets.

Other booklets exist which will aid those who may be reading this booklet: particularly Event Budgeting and Organising Events and Booking Spaces; full information is given online at imperialcollegeunion.org/training.

Important Contacts

If you need any specific help with anything related to what is containted in this booklet, you can get in contact with the Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) (see right) or the Union President (see right).

General enquiries can be directed to the Student Activities Centre by emailing [email protected].

Heather JonesDeputy President (Clubs & Societies)E: [email protected]: 020 7594 1763, extension: 41763

Alex KendallUnion PresidentE: [email protected]: 020 7595 8061, extension: 58061

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How to Plan a Publicity Campaign

The benefits of gaining good publicity for your group or for an event that you may be running should never be underestimated. There are four areas to consider when planning a publicity campaign:

Identifying your target audience

Publicity is only going to be effective if it is reaching the people who can potentially come to the event. Things to think about are:

• Who is likely to come? • What type of event are you running? • Will it appeal to students or non-

students? • Can you market it to students at other

Universities?

• Who has come in the past or to similar events?

• Where can they be exposed to publicity?

• What sort of publicity are they most likely to respond to?

• When is the best time to let them know about the event?

Timeline

The most important thing is to remember to plan thoroughly in advance. The best thing to do is to draw up a timeline for publicity, with clear deadlines leading up to the event itself. This way you can ensure that things can be foreseen and checked off once they are done. Main things to consider are:

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• Will people be able to book or buy tickets in advance? If so, advertising will need to happen earlier.

• How many other events are going on? If there are a lot, you will need to find a way to ensure that people notice yours.

• What are the lead times for companies you are planning to use, e.g. printing, t-shirts? Companies cannot normally make and deliver flyers or t-shirts within a day of you sending a design to them.

• Do not trust estimated delivery times. Deliveries will take longer than you might like, especially if it was free or ‘included’.

Budget

You must have a budget for the publicity campaign. This should be clear in the Event Budget which Club Treasurer puts together when initial planning happens. It is vital that the budget is adhered to. If roles are delegated, the person in charge will need to be very clear about the amount of money people are allowed to spend. If they spend above their allocated budget, the organisers do not have to refund them.

Ensure that the methods of publicity are carefully chosen with the budget in mind, e.g. there is no point in planning to print a thousand colour flyers with a professional

company if your event is a small-scale one with a budget of £20. In this case, printing a few hundred well-designed, black and white flyers on the printers in the Student Activities Centre or in College would be a better use of money.

Resources

Think about what things you have at your disposal to let people know about what you do; this can be sponsors, a good network of ex-members, the facilites (such as printing) provided by the Union, your website, and so on.

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Posters and flyers are a very popular means of advertising.

Pros:

• Easy to make and design. • Can be widely disseminated. • Eye-catching.

Cons:

• Overkill – there are hundreds of posters and thousands of flyers being given out during busy times (usually the second half of the Autumn and Spring terms). Your posters will have to be well-designed and high-quality to even be noticed.

• Space – there often is not much space in which to put posters during busy periods.

Poster Rules

The Union has a concise set of rules about posters1. The key ones are that posters: • Must carry the Union logo2 and the

words “Imperial College Union”. • Display the time, date and location of

the event. • Name the Club or Society or project as

a Club or Society of Imperial College Union.

• Be no bigger than A2 in size. • Be in English only or have an English

translation of anything said in a foreign language, the translation being equal or greater in prominence.

• Be put up using blu-tack or an equivalent and cannot be put up with

Posters & Flyers

1: imperialcollegeunion.org/data/files/07-06-11-poster-policy-23.pdf 2: imperialcollegeunion.org/brand

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Sellotape or glue. • Cannot be put up closer together

than five metres apart where there is insufficient space for other posters.

• Cannot be put up on glass. • Cannot cover up other in-date posters. • Cannot indicate that an event is open

to the general public unless previously agreed by the Union President.

• Must be removed within five College days of the event being advertised having taken place.

The places where posters are allowed to be put up are:

• The Union Building with the exception of the Student Activities Centre, Bars, Metric, activity spaces and the Union Dining Hall.

• The Junior Common Room in the Sherfield Building.

• On the communal noticeboards along the Sherfield Walkway (where there are pictures of ‘blank open notebooks’).

• In the basement of St. Mary’s. • Stairway noticeboards at St. Mary’s, on

each floor. • Glass noticeboards in the Sir Alexander

Fleming Building and in UMO student post room.

• Reynolds Building first floor walls and basement walls.

• Academic departments and halls of residence with the permission of the department or hall warden.

If groups break the poster rules, your posters will be swiftly taken down and you can be fined £5 per poster.

Remember, these rules have been agreed with College, and it is more often than not College staff who keep an eye out for offending posters, so do not try to get away with it.

If you think your posters have been removed unfairly, please get in touch with the Deputy President (Clubs & Societies).

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Websites

All Clubs, Societies & Projects will have their own pages on the Union website which you can edit yourselves through Workbench and where you can sell memberships and other products. It is an excellent resource for publicity and is important to keep up-to-date.

Some groups will have a website of their own. If you want to raise the profile of your activity, this is an important asset to have. Importantly, it can be used to notify people about regular and special events you are holding.

For more information on setting up a website, see the information sheet on Creating a Website.

External websites, such as Facebook can also be used to great effect. Facebook is especially good at reaching very large numbers of people. Make sure you create an official facebook group for your Club, Society or Project and keep an event page up to date.

Flickr and Youtube are external websites which can be used to raise your Club, Society or Project’s profile, as you can upload photos or videos for people to see and get a taste of what to expect, or embed them in your Facebook event page.

Photos and videos should be tagged with

IMP150 – they will then appear on an automatic feed and both the Union and College websites.

Pros

• Can hold a lot of information • Easily updated • Free • Very wide exposure

Cons

• Not very targetted • If websites are poorly maintained

and/or designed, it can be counter-productive

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Felix

Felix is the Union newspaper, published once a week, on Fridays. It is free and full of news, reviews, events, features, comments and games. The Felix Editor is a sabbatical and works full-time to ensure that Felix has healthy finances and is published every week.

Felix is probably the most widely-read publication on campus and is read by virtually every student and staff member at Imperial.

As such, it is an excellent place to try to feature your Club, Society or Project and your events or trips. There are four main ways in which to do this:

1. Write an article

If you want to write an article, you need to remember that Felix is meant to be interesting to read.

Therefore, try to restrain yourself from sending in articles which are purely propaganda for your group or event as this is unlikely to be interesting to most people. For example, if you want to publicise a play you are putting on, an article about the playwright and their works would more likely be published than something which rambles on about how wonderful your production is.

If you are a sports club and you have success in your leagues or competitions, make sure you send in reports of these as soon after the event as possible. Send articles or questions to the Felix Editor.

2. Get your event in the whats on?

If you are putting on a big event (eg. a play in the Union Concert Hall, an orchestra concert, a cultural show, an art exhibition), the event can feature in the whats on. Get in touch with [email protected] for more information.

Union Media

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3. Get Felix to review the event

If your event is a performance of some sort, you can get in touch with the Felix Editor and offer free reviewers tickets. You will need to do this well in advance so that there is a better chance of reviewers being available at the time you want.

4. Purchase some advertising space

If you want to be able to shamelessly plug an event, you can purchase advertising space in Felix. This will cost money.

IC Radio

IC Radio is the Union’s Radio Station

which broadcasts online at icradio.com. Get in touch with the IC Radio Station Manager [email protected].

stoic tv

stoic tv is the student television station. They broadcast on TV screens in the JCR and episodes can be viewed online at stoictv.com. Contact the Station Manager for more information: [email protected]

Union Newsletter

This is a weekly email sent out to all 14,000 students during term time. Sent on Fridays, it details events happening in and around the Union the following week or near future e.g. Union bar nights, large sporting events. Email the Union President if you want to be included in the newsletter (though there is no guarantee that you will be).

Union Media cont...

It should be remembered that Felix is a media publication. Therefore, if your group misbehaves, Felix may publish details of this so try to ensure that you feature in Felix for the right reasons!

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1: www3.imperial.ac.uk/events/submiteventscalendar2. halls.imperial.ac.uk/

College Media

The College has a Communications department, who are responsible for College’s publicity as well as protecting the College’s reputation and brand. As a result, College media advertise events or activities which support the academic mission of the College. If an event sounds like it might be something they would be interested in covering, they can be contacted through the Central Services Manager.

IC Reporter

This is the College newsletter, published every three weeks during term time. It provides news and highlights recent Imperial achievements, with a brief events listing. The newsletter is academic focused and submitted articles have a 300 word limit. The newsletter is circulated to all Imperial students and staff across the campuses so has a wide readership.

Events E-Bulletin

This is a weekly email from College Communications that can be subscribed to. It has an event listing around College, but its contents are of a more academic nature, such as talks or special lectures. The bulletin is also listed in the bottom right corner of the main College Homepage. This means any visitor (prospective students, staff, visiting academics) might see this. Again, listings tend to be academic.

If you think this would be suitable for your event, then follow the instructions online1.

Others

• Customised clothing • Departmental newsletters • Hall newsletters: See online for a

complete list of Imperial halls of residences2.

• Emails: Utilise your mailing lists to let people in your group know what events

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you are holding. However, you need to ensure that you do not overuse them and spam people too often, as this may result in your emails going on a rule to Deleted Items.

• National press: If the event is particularly benevolent or noteworthy, then it is a good idea to get in touch with local/national media. However, keep your expectations realistic and be careful of media ‘spin’. If you have any queries about national press attention, contact the Union President, preferably before the event takes place.

Important Things to Remember

• Plan ahead. • Do not throw money away; if you spend

hundreds of pounds on printing posters and leaflets, but do not consider where and when you can distribute them, they are no good to anyone.

• Proof-read; no matter how professional you may want your event to appear, if there are spelling mistakes all over your publicity material, it will not be impressive.

• Shop around for the best deal. • Know who your target audience is and

play on your strengths. • Have good publicity etiquette: • Don’t put down someone else’s

event if they are at the same time. • Be organised and do not cause

stress for other groups (e.g.

communicate well and in good time with Felix and stoic tv if you want them to cover your event or group).

• This will make the Club, Society or Project look good in the long term, and the event look that bit better in the short term.

• Be imaginative! There are 300 other Clubs, Societies and Projects wanting a slice of people’s time and money, you need to be able to stand out from the others.

College Media cont...

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Every October around 4000 new students start at Imperial, and the Freshers' Fair provides a unique opportunity for your Club, Society or Project to engage with new people and encourage them to join in with your activities. Remember though, around half of these new students are postgraduates, so make sure you tailor what you have to offer accordingly.

Freshers' Fair occurs on the very first Tuesday of the Autumn term all over the South Kensington campus, all-day. This is the time when you can attract the most new people to your Club, Society or Project, get them on your mailing lists and get them involved in your activities. You need to ensure you make a positive impression at Freshers' Fair in order to give the Club, Society or Project a steady future.

New Students & Freshers’ Fair

All new students will be sent information from the Union before term begins, including some information about each Club, Society or Project. An issue of Felix will be waiting for each person when they move into halls, including a map of Freshers' Fair. Additionally Felix will be available to pick up around campus, also including a map.

Information which goes to new students can generally be found online, on the new students pages at www.imperial.ac.uk/students/newstudents. This is the College's main communication method for new students, so take a look to see what information they are receiving. Also, information around the start of the year which is relevant to new students will always be posted on the Union's website, imperialcollegeunion.org.

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Imperial College UnionBeit QuadranglePrince Consort RoadLondon SW7 2BB

Tel: 020 7594 8060Fax: 020 7594 8065Email: [email protected]