July: Promotion & Publicity

When asked what the formula for their success was, one organiser once replied: “It’s all about the three Ps - planning, partnership and publicity!”

Your planning should by now, be quite advanced. You are also likely to have drummed up lots of support. Now is the time to make sure that as many people as possible can find out about your event. Even if there’s limited access to your property or activity you will want to attract maximum publicity to all the places available. So, how to go about publicising your event? 

The Power of the National Brand

By registering with HODs, you join a well-established programme with a logo that thousands of people instantly recognise and associate with “buildings and places open for free”. HODs is more than an event, it is a brand. Whether you use the promotional materials and templates we provide or decide to create your own leaflets, flyers or posters, the use of our logo will give your communications a unified and professional look and help attract the attention of potential visitors.

As the logo is registered as a trademark, there is a set of rules to observe. They are explained in our style guide which is available from the HODs website. Please check it out; it may also give you some ideas and inspiration how to apply our logo and colour scheme creatively.

Being part of the national event also means that you will benefit from the PR and marketing campaign which the Civic Trust runs with support from English Heritage to back up your local activities.

• The on-line directory lists every property or activity registered for the current year. So once submitted and approved, your event will be automatically shown there. To stand out amongst the thousands of entries listed, it’s important that your event sounds interesting. Title and description should capture both the attractions on show and, to a certain extent, your passion for the place because that’s what you want to share with your visitors. You may also want to upload one or two pictures.
• To raise awareness of HODs and its website, we produce a range of natio nal marketing materials which are distributed to hundreds of Tourist Information Centres, libraries and other outlets.
• From Spring, the press teams at the Civic Trust and English Heritage contact all major national and regional print and broadcast media to secure as wide a coverage as possible.

But most organisers don’t leave it at that. In fact, for the information to reach as many people and households as possible, it’s important that you get active too to promote your event locally.

Publicity Through Promotion

There are two ways to promote your events by:

1. Using marketing techniques,

2. Running a media campaign.

A combination of both will help you generate the amount of publicity you need to get the punters in.

Raising Awareness

To raise awareness of your HODs participation, your event neees to become visible. To achieve this, you need eye-catching materials that are displayed at places which many people or the specific audience group you might want to attract can access.

• Posters and flyers: are excellent formats to draw people’s attention and provide basic information locally. The Civic Trust provides posters with blank space which you can fill with your event details. This poster is also made available as an electronic template so that you can copy and paste your text and pictures on your computer.

An effective poster or flyer is simple and clear and answers the three w-questions: Where? What? When?

A flyer may also contain some pointers on how to get to your venue and contact details. And of course don’t forget the obvious message that visiting is FREE.

There are many possibilities for placing awareness raising materials: in libraries, Tourist Information Centres, on local authority boards and shops, on roadside verges, in any place where they can catch the eye of passers-by.

• Banners: HODs organisers can also purchase banners from the Civic Trust to draw attention to your building or event. Carrying the national event’s branding and web address, these durable PVC banners can be used year after year and help build up public awareness and create anticipation in your area.

Some organising groups, such as in Mole Valley or Maldon are able to create their own banners and other eye-catching publicity.
• Local directories: Some counties, cities or towns will also have funding for local printed event directories. These are usually very popular with visitors as they often contain additional information such as location maps and cater for those who don’t have internet access. Although some leaßets are lavishly produced they don’t need to be expensive to be effective.

Publicity Through Media

Our annual visitor surveys show that most HODs visitors find out about the event through the media. They may come across an article, interview or diary item in one of their newspapers, magazines, radio or TV programmes and then follow it up by visiting our website, their library or Tourist Information Centre.

Getting the media interested in your event can be a challenge, but hundreds of press clippings that reach us in the weeks before and after HODs prove that many of our organisers run very successful press campaigns.

In the April chapter we talked about how to make the most of your property’s assets and to create activities and events that appeal to different audiences. Now it’s all about telling a good story to your local press, TV or radio.

Where to Start, First Steps:

Start by studying your local media. Find out what stories are featured and how they are covered. Is there a particular journalist who tends to write up ‘community’ or ‘heritage’ stories? Which TV or radio programmes could offer you a platform? Is there an angle to your event that might fit in with news areas other than the obvious, e.g. gardening, education or the What’s On section? Is there a phone-in programme where you could plug your event?
Prepare some basic details on your property or event in writing. If you don’t have the name of a particular journalist, editor or producer, call the paper, radio or TV station and ask for the News Desk.
Take the name of the reporter you deal with and offer to forward a press release (by email, fax or post).
You can also offer advance tours or photo and interview opportunities for journalists. Why not invite your local MP, mayor or another local ‘celebrity’ along, too?

Writing a Press Release

• Keep to one side of A4 if possible. Write ‘Press release’ at the top and have a pithy ‘title’ or your release (althoiugh the jounralist might come up with the catchy headline).
• As journalists cut releases back from the end, your first paragraph is the most important one and should cover the famous five w-questions: What? When? Where? Who? Why?
• You can also download and adapt our press release sample.

If at First You Don’t Succeed . . .

• Target different journalists from the same newspaper or station with different aspects of your event. Emphasise the community aspects and make yourself available to them for further fact checking. Even if you fear a knock-back, stay positive and enthusiastic.
• And once you’ve exhausted the newspapers, radio and TV stations in your area, remember that there are many other publicity channels you can explore such as newsletters, intranets or email groups of different local organisations.

1. Check out our HODs Style Guide
2. Take a crash course in writing a press release
3. Use our press release template if you like
4. Get some insider tips on media campaigns from the Civic Trust’s PR and Campaign Manager (coming soon)