Three Keys to Getting a Full House: Publicity, Publicity, Publicity
The key to a successful screening is to cross-promote your event, ideally using all of the methods listed below. Each method will reinforce the other. Building an audience takes creativity, commitment, and hard work, but it can be fun and very rewarding.
Word of Mouth
This is the most powerful tool you have. Spread the word! Go tell it on the mountain! Tell everyone you know about the event -- that means every person that you and your team members come into contact with each day. Invite them to come, ask them to help spread the word to others. (see Internet Outreach section below for more ideas).
Have your core team make phone calls to the list of organizations you created. We recommend contacting the head of the group and telling them about the event and the film. Invite them to come, and ask for their help in spreading the word. If they’re not familiar with Tribe of Heart films, send them to our web site. Ask for their help. Some groups will commit to active involvement, become part of your core team, and give resources (it helps if you know someone there!) At a minimum, most groups will be willing to do one or more of the following:
- Putting out posters and handbills
- Sending email announcements and e-vites to members
- Posting notices on their web sites, listservs, chatrooms, meetups, blogs, etc.
- Putting announcements in newsletters and bulletins
- Doing postcard mailing to members
Try to get everyone you talk to at these groups to use this as an opportunity to invite their friends, family and acquaintances who may not be familiar with these issues. Remind them that Tribe of Heart films have inspired thousands of people to make positive changes in their lives.
| An apple for the teacher
Contact college professors, yoga instructors, cooking teachers, and other community educators who might be willing to make announcements about the film in their classes. Give them stacks of handbills (see below) to distribute. |
Flyers and Handbills
We recommend that you use Tribe of Heart's promotional materials instead of making your own. Flyers can be downloaded from the Tribe of Heart web site and customized for your event. We have both black-and-white (cheap to print at your local copy shop) and color versions available.
In addition to posting flyers, Handbills (1/4 page take-home reminders) can be left in small stacks at many different establishments in your area. Click here for a list of suggestions for where to post flyers and leave hand bills.
Two to three weeks before your screening, you should begin posting the flyers and distributing the handbills. Plaster the town! Then go back again once a week to replenish the stacks of handbills and to be sure the flyers are still up. A couple days before the event, make one more round -- this is the most critical time to have literature available, as a final push on top of your other publicity efforts, and as a reminder for those who make their plans at the last minute.
| You will need more flyers and handbills than you think!
Even for a small event (20-50 people), we strongly recommend you print a minimum of 200 posters and 400 handbills. For a mid-size to large screening (50-300), you will need as many as 500+ posters and several thousand handbills. Does that seem like too much? Think of all the places they can go! Keep in mind that you will need to refresh the materials every few days (flyers last between two and seven days on bulletin boards).
One person called us disappointed because only 10 people showed up to her screening when she had expected 100. We discovered she had only printed 20 flyers. Had she printed 200, she might have had a different outcome. The posters and handbills reinforce the other kinds of promotion you do (i.e word of mouth, internet outreach, mailings and media). It is important that people SEE the posters and handbills everywhere. This will convey the message that it's a "happening" event.
Create a postering route for your community
There are so many places flyers and handbills can go. Identify teams of dedicated volunteers who are willing to take on a portion of the route and check it weekly. Make sure to give them clear instructions on where to go and how often.
|
Internet Outreach: E-vites and Announcements
The internet offers one of the most effective and cheapest ways of spreading the word. E-invitations work great for publicizing your screening to individual people within your social network and that of your core team. Announcements are aimed at those who publish email lists that go out to many different people. Both are designed to propagate themselves, because their message includes a request to ‘help spread the word… please forward to a friend.’ Everyone on your core team should actively be sending these out to everyone on their email lists and every group they know. Social networking sites such as FaceBook and MySpace are powerful tools for recruiting volunteers and spreading the word about your screening event.
You can find free services online, such as evite.com, where designing and sending out your invitation is both easy and fun. Start sending them out 3 weeks ahead of time. It should be resent weekly as a reminder, with the last transmission happening 2-3 days before your event.
You will need to write up an announcement (see sample e-announcement) to help publicize your screening on listservs. Then, contact all the organizations who have agreed to help and ask them to send out your announcement to their staff and members, as well as post the announcement on their web sites.
Discretion and good judgment are just as necessary for success with your publicity as enthusiasm. Please follow internet etiquette and refrain from sending email to people who don't know you or who haven't asked to be on your list. Also, it is a good idea to limit your email reminders to once a week or less.
| Plug into the power of the internet
Are there people on your team who enjoy being online? Ask them to actively research and post the announcement to FaceBook, MySpace, web sites, blogs, chat rooms, online community news sites, message boards, list serves, meetups (try meetup.com), etc. This should be ongoing, and should include a clear request for people to forward the announcement on to others. |
Letter to the Editor
Depending on the newspaper, and how much mail it receives each week, you might be able to get a letter to the editor published that will greatly help your publicity efforts. It is said that letters from readers are one of the most widely read sections of newspapers, so this opportunity should not be overlooked.
The purpose of the letter is to call people's attention to a special event that is happening in their community. It is important to include in this letter some local angle about why people should see this film (eg: if there's a lot of agriculture or animal industries in your area, point out the film's relevance. If there was recently an animal abuse case in the headlines, point out that the film provides valuable insight into the human-animal relationship. If it's a college town or a community that's into the arts, point out that the film is touring film festivals around the country and that this is a unique opportunity to see it locally, etc.) Be creative, and think about what will best pique the interest of those in your community.
To increase your odds of having the letter printed, look for someone (or a group of people) in your community who is well known and respected and willing to sign the letter. If there is going to be a guest speaker, be sure to mention that (as well as the refreshments!) And it's probably best to have just one really well written letter sent to the editor (possibly signed by a number of people), than several letters.
If your letter gets printed, let us know. We will be collecting these published letters to inspire and give ideas to others who are planning screenings.
Direct Mailings
If you or the organizations you are collaborating with have the resources to send out targeted postcard mailings, we recommend sending them out three weeks before the event. Click here for a sample postcard that you can download and customize to your event.
Newsletters, Bulletins, Calendar Listings
Send a notice to the organizations who have agreed to list the screening in their newsletters or bulletins. Make sure you know their deadlines for submission.
Create a list of the calendar listings in your area (print, radio, public TV, cable access TV, online) and their deadlines. Send them notices of your event.
Most radio stations, public TV and cable access TV stations air public service announcements (PSA's) for community events. Make a list of the stations in your area and their deadlines. You can use Tribe of Heart's sample Press releases for ideas, or come up with an approach uniquely suited to your community.
Paid Advertising
If you or the organizations you are collaborating with have the resources to do paid ads (radio and/or print ads) we recommend running the ads between one and seven days before the event. Give yourself enough time to reserve the ad space. Weekly papers especially tend to need more than a week's advance notice.
Please contact Tribe of Heart for sample print ads.
MEDIA HOUNDING 101
How to get media coverage for your event
Step 1: Create Your Media List
The purpose of contacting the media is to try to get a feature story or interview about your screening and the film. This is what we call ‘free media’ and this kind of exposure is worth its weight in gold!
You will need to identify a person in your group who will contact the media. Ideally, it's someone who has done this before. If not, look for someone who is a skilled communicator and has great enthusiasm for the film.
Take the time to create an up-to-date media list with contact names, phone numbers and email addresses. Editors decide what stories will run. Reporters write them. If you know a reporter, that helps, but get the decision makers’ contact info: feature editors, entertainment editors, news editors. Media personnel change jobs not infrequently, so make sure your information is truly up-to-date.
If you have a professional publicist as an ally, you are really in luck because publicists and PR firms subscribe to specialized online databases that list the most current media contact information. Otherwise, you can usually find the information you need on the publication's web site -- look for staff listings or links that say "contact us."
Step 2: Create and Send Your Press Release
Download one of Tribe of Heart's sample press releases and customize it for your event. Direct any interested members of the media to our online Press Room. This page contains images and detailed information about Tribe of Heart films that journalists can use for writing stories. The filmmakers are also available for interview by phone. Contact Tribe of Heart if a journalist expresses an interest in interviewing the filmmakers or any of the film's subjects.
As stated in the screening guidelines, please refrain from using words such as "Premiere,” "PK Tour," etc. in association with screening events not directly run by Tribe of Heart. Please also send Tribe of Heart final versions of press releases, e-vites, and e-mail announcements for approval before you send them out.
Important TIPS for contacting the press
View Full List of Actions
