Publicity and Promotion for Educational Programming
This page is based on the guide Programming with Pizzazz!!
presented by Heidi Lang during the Spring Semester 1996 East Region
Resident Advisor Training at North Carolina State University. It covers
most of the important tips to making sure your educational programs
are well publicized.
Publicity and Promotion Guidelines
- Publicity can make or break an event. Poor publicity will
give people the idea that the event itself will be poor. Creative,
eye catching publicity adds credibility to the vent and to the
group who is putting it on.
- Make sure all the publicity is legible and approved by the
appropiate office if necessary.
- Don't depend on only one type of publicity use several such as
flyers, posters, banners, tables, media, and word of mouth.
- Publicity must be timed properly, not too late and not too
early. Allow plenty of time for people to see publicity, but
don't put it out too soon, so that people read it and just forget
about it. Waves of publicity are a good idea!
- Utilize high traffic areas, such as breezeways and bathrooms,
for advertising.
Content of your Communication
Publicity should always include:
- WHAT: title, brief description and highlights of event
- WHEN: day and time
- WHERE: place, room, building, and directions to get there
- WHO: sponsoring group (make sure to give your group some recognition)
- WHY: the purpose behind the event
- HOW MUCH: the cost to attend the event. If it is free say so.
Readibility of Colors for Publicity
According to advertising experts the following combinations are listed
in order from the most readable to the least:
- Purple on Yellow
- Black on White
- Yellow on Black
- White on Black
- Purple on White
- White on Purple
- White on Green
- Green on White
- Read on White
- White on Red
- Black on Orange
- Orange on Black
- Red on Green
- Green on Red
- Yellow on White
- White on Yellow