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Publicise your activity | page 1
Contents Page 3 Page 4 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 10 Page 11
Introduction How to plan a publicity campaign General rules New students and Freshers’ Fayre Posters and flyers Social networking Websites What’s on guide Union media
Support Staff Tom Worman Business & Marketing Manager T: 02392 84 3417 E: tom.worman@upsu.net
Jasper Snaith Digital Marketing Coordinator T: 02392 84 3102 E: jasper.snaith@upsu.net
Kelly Jones Events & Marketing Coordinator T: 02392 84 3102 E: kelly.jones@upsu.net
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Introduction This booklet is your guide to promoting your events and activities, to both people internal to the University of Portsmouth and beyond. 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 us of the Union and University media outlets.
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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: Your target audience
member is 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:
Publicity is only going to be effec- • Will people be able to book or buy tickets in advance? If so, tive if it is reaching the people who advertising will need to happen can potentially come to the event. earlier. Things to think about are: • How many other events are going on? If there are a lot, you • Who is likely to come? will need to find a way to en• What type of event are you sure that people notice yours. running? • Will it appeal to students or • What are the lead times for companies you are planning to non-students? use e.g. printing. t-shirts? Com• Can you market it to students panies cannot normally make at other Universities? and deliver flyers or t-shirts • Who has come in the past or within a day of you sending a to similar events? design to them. • Where can they be exposed to • Do not trust estimated delivpublicity? ery times. Deliveries will take • What sort of publicity are they longer than you might like, most likely to respond to? especially if it was free or ‘in• When is the best time to let cluded’. them know about the event? Timeline
Budget
The most important thing to re- You must have a budget for the page 4 | Publicise your activity
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publicity campaign. This should be clear in the budget which your activity 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. 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. Resources
be sponsors, a good network of ex-members, the facilities (such a printing) provided by the Union, your website, and so on. Recommended Suppliers The Union use, or have used, the following suppliers for their publicity materials. Fliers and Posters • University of Portsmouth • Express Printing Ltd • Senator Press • I love fliers Vinyl Banners • Colourbanners.co.uk • Venture Banners
Think about what things you have Clothing at your disposal to let people • Brilens know about what you do; this can • Ikon Sports www.upsu.net/training
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General rules The Union has a clear set of guidelines about publicity, found online at www.upsu.net/docs. The key points are: • All publicity should carry the Union logo (see the Union Brand section). • Display the time, date and location of the event • Name the Club, Society, Project or other recognised group as part of the University of Portsmouth Students’ Union. • Be no bigger than A2 in size in a printed of physical medium (if you require larger please ensure there is sufficient space by discussing options with the Students’ Union Marketing staff). • Not contain any offensive language. • Not contain material that may bring the Union or University into disrepute, is libellous, contravene copyrighted materials or registered trademarks. • Posters cannot be put up with sellotape or glue they should only be fixed using blu-tack or equivalent.
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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 a good publicity etiquette - don’t take down someone else’s event. • 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
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New Students & Freshers’ Fayre
Every September around 4,000 new students start at the University of Portsmouth, and Freshers Fayre 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’ Fayre occurs on the very first Wednesday and Thursday of the Autumn term in Ravelin Park all-day.This is the time when you 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 Fayre n order www.upsu.net/training
to give the Club, Society or Project a steady future. All new students will be sent information from the Union before term begins. A copy of the Pompey Guide and a wall planner will be waiting for each person when they move into halls. Information which goes to new students can generally be found online, on the Freshers pages of the Students’ Union website at www. upsu.net/freshers. This is the Union’s main communication method for new students, so take a look to see what information they are recieving. Also, information around the start of the year which is relevant to new students will always be posted on the Union’s website www.upsu.net Publicise your activity | page 7
Posters and Flyers Posters and flyers are a very popular means of advertising. Whilst they are easy to make and design, can be widely disseminated and eye catching there are hundreds of posters and thousands of flyers being given out during busy times and there is often little prominant space on campus. Poster locations The places where posters are allowed to be put up are: • Third Space poster board • The Student Activities Centre noticeboard • Noticeboards on the ground floor of the Students Union • Locked frame in the Library (posters to be handed in at the reception desk) • Locked frame in the Nuffield Sports Centre (poster to be handed in at the reception desk) • Posterboard in Richmond Building atrium • Posterboard at Richmond Building exit for room LT2 • Posterboard in the Portland Cafe page 8 | Publicise your activity
• Posterboard in the Portland reception foyer • Anglesea Building foyer (ask at reception) • King Henry Building posterboards (ask at reception) • Park Building basement posterboard • Halls buildings (posters to be given to the Union’s Marketin department for weekly distribution) • Eldon Building Catering outlet • Cafe Coco community noticeboard If you wish to place a poster anywhere on the Ground Floor of the Students’ Union you must have a UPSU marketing stamp on it or it will be removed.This can be gained from the Students’ Union marketing department. If you are holding a nightclub event outside of the Students’ Union it must be clear it is your group holding the event (for example: Your Society presents Event Name in big writing and the venue in smaller writing) and not advertised in the Waterhole Bar due to competition with the venue. www.upsu.net/training
Social networking
There is more to advertising than page up to date. Also make sure making posters and flyers, and set- you like your page to the official Freshers group, which will be adting up a website. vertised via the Union’s website. Twitter Flickr and YouTube Make sure you follow the Union on @portsmouthsu, as well as the Flickr and YouTube are external University on @portsmouthuni. websites which can be used to Be sure to advertise your events raise your Club, Society or Proand activities on Twitter, the Union ject’s profile. You can upload phoor University might even retweet tos or videos for people to see and get a taste of what to expect, your adverts. or embed them in your Facebook event page. Facebook Facebook can also be used to great effect for promoting your group. It is especially good at reaching very large numbers of people. Make sure you create an official facebook fanpage or group for your Club, Society or Project and keep an event www.upsu.net/training
The most important thing to remember for Social Networks is to carry a conversation. The word social is key here, be friendly, be concise, answer questions quickly and keep people updated through regular conversations - not spam! Publicise your activity | page 9
Websites
What’s On guide
All Clubs, Societies & Projects will have their own pages on the Union website. You can also sell memberships and other products through our website. It is an excellent resource for publicity and is important to keep up-to-date.
The What’s On guide on the Union’s website is a great way to advertise events. All you need to do is send the following information to events@upsu.net:
• Title • Venue/Location Some groups will have a website • Start Date of their own. If you want to raise • Finish Date the profile of your activity, this is • Start Time an important asset to have. Im- • End Time portantly, it cna be used to notify • Description of the event people about regular and special The only events which should be events you are holding. added to the What’s On calendar The Union has website space avail- are ones that every student can able to all sports clubs and socie- go to, regardless of whether they ties. It costs just £10 and includes a are a member of the Club, Society free .co.uk website address! Please or Project hosting the event. This contact the Union’s Digital Mar- might be social activites, introducketing coordinator on webteam@ tory sessions, concerts or performances. Please don’t send events upsu.net which only Club, Society or ProAccess to the webserver is pro- ject members can attend. vided via FTP access - the University and the Union recommend Please ensure the title of the event CoreFTP free for this purpose. A is descriptive of what you’re doMySQL server is available on re- ing as well as including your activquest that can be used in conjunc- ity. Rather than sending a title of tion with PHP to create a dynamic ‘taster sessions’ send a title of ‘Unwebsite or power a members fo- derwater Hockey taster sessions’ as there are hundreds of activities. rum or photo gallery. page 10 | Publicise your activity
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Union Media The Galleon
2. Get The Galleon to review the event
The Galleon is the Union funded, but editorially independant, student newspaper. It is free and full of news, reviews, events, features, comments and games.
If your event is a performance of some sort, you can get in touch with the reviews team and offer free reviewers tickets. You will need to do this well in advance so The Galleon is probably the most that there is a better chance of rewidely-read publication on campus viewers availability at the time you and is read by virtually every stu- want. dent and staff member at Portsmouth. It is an excellent place to 3. Purchase advertising try to feature your Club, Society space or Project and your events or trips. There are three main ways in If you want to be able to shamelessly plug an event, you can purwhich to do this: chase advertising space in The Galleon. This will cost money. 1. Write an article If you want to write an article, you need to remember that The Galleon is meant to be interesting to read. Therefore, try to restrain yourself from send in articles which are purely propaganda for your group or event as this is unlikely to be interesting to most people. If you are a sports club and you have success in your leagures or competitions, make sure you send in reports of these as soon after the event as possible. www.upsu.net/training
Pure FM Pure FM is the Union’s Radio Station which broadcasts online at www.purefm.com. UPSU TV UPSU TV is the student TV station that broadcasts exclusively online at www.upsu.tv and creates programmes for CCI TV in Halls and Creative Industries plasmas. Publicise your activity | page 11
University of Portsmouth Students’ Union Cambridge Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 2EF business@upsu.net | 02392 84 3417 page 12 | Publicise your activity
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