Our model railroad club hosts a model railroad show and it is usually successful with over 2,000 visitors (in a city of less then 50,000). The problem is that we find most of our visitors are from
out of state according to the door prize drawing questionnaires. Our club has always had a policy of not paying for advertising, other then the flyers we hand out, but we are now in a situation that
we may be able to do it.
The questions are:
1: What methods of paid advertising does your club use, and have they been successful.
2: What are the best ways to reach local people?
We go on the noon news the day before the show which seems to help a bit, and we place flyers everywhere, including the hobby shop and now at the new Hobby Lobby. Any other suggestions?
Perhaps someone else can explain what should be included in a press package.
Local newspapers:
Don't pay for advertising. Send stuff into the department that lists things to do this weekend. If they want a photo, be sure to include people, and or kids. They want to see photos that normally we
would not want. They want to see a smiling kid, and the size difference between the person, and the model trains.
Radio:
Send stuff in as a Public Service Anouncement. These are free. Airtime is expensive.
Don't forget barber shops, and grocery stores that have a place to post things. You said you wanted to draw in the locals. These are some of the places the locals go. If they all went to the hobby
shop, this would make it easy, but they don't.
For out of towners, Next year, actually near the end of this year send out a press package to as many magazines as you can think of. I am not just talking about MR, RMC, etc. Don't forget Things like
VIA (AAA, formerly Motorland) Sunset, Better Homes and Gardens (Garden Railway layout?).
I hope you get the idea.
Many of these magazines have 3 month, and longer lead times. The events schedule may be longer. Start sending stuff out in September, or when specified by each magazine.
Remember to take photos of the crowds looking at the trains this year.
Larry,
We mostly use "free" announcements in community activity sections of local paper and radio. We do pay for one decent sized newspaper ad over the weekend before the show. If you do this too soon,
people forget, if you do this too late, people already have things planned.
While we have no "data" to evaluate the various methods we use, I think that having the show at a "regular" time (our shows are always in early to mid April) and at a "regular" place help most. Next
best is the weather. If it's too bad, nobody shows because it's hard to travel. If it's too good, everybody wants to go oupoors instead of indoors in the Spring.
We also use large wooden signs placed on the major road the day of the show. This seems to help with those looking for the location as well as attracting the casual visitor.
We also found that putting the flyers out too soon will make them "invisible." The flyers become just part of the background of a person's field of vision and they get covered over by other flyers or
torn down if put up too soon. Also people will think "ooh that will be fun! but good grief it's two weeks away," and then they forget. So hit the local area with flyers, community activity
announcements, and newspaper ads in the week or two just before the show.
David.M.Bott
One thing that you might explore that I didn't see mentioned was that you might approach your Chamber of Commerce to see if they will cover some of your advertising costs. Our Thief River Falls (NW
Minnesota) C oc C covers $200 worth of advertising for our local show in October. We are a lot more isolated, are a much smaller show and draw smaller crowds than you do in La Crosse, but the city
fathers (and mothers) feel it is money well-spent to draw people to town to shop, eat and stay.
Charles Schwartz