Here at York there are over 200 societies, as well as sports clubs, student media, volunteering groups and more, so sometimes it can be difficult to get your College's voice heard!
We’d suggest the following to help plan your publicity campaign
The Five Ws
Who, What, Where, When and Why are you publicising? Discuss this with your committee - these should help you set your marketing plan.
Plan
As soon as you’ve set the date of your event, work back at least four weeks in advance of the event date to set your publicity officer/team deadlines. Make sure you turn your rough marketing plan into a real action plan with dates and delegation.
Suggest-Fest
Hold a meeting with your committee where everyone has the chance to suggest publicity methods. Don’t hold back – write down as many different ideas as you can. You could write down associated words, themes and ideas; reflect on previous publicity; or draw inspiration from designs and adverts you currently like.
Branding
Try to develop a style or brand identity that all your communication material will carry. This enables you to create an identity for your campaign or event. Having a brand could mean having a certain colour, logo or tagline for your group, then making sure that you maintain it across all your publicity. This should make you more recognisable. Always keep in mind your target audience.
Time
Take into account how long design work will take to turn around, when to launch Facebook events, when to submit plasma screen artwork, and so on, so you don’t miss any deadlines.
Design an advert to feature on the slideshow of images on the York SU plasma screens, which are located in areas of high footfall all across West campus. Simply e-mail Jake (j.tattersdill@yorksu.org) an image with the dimensions of 1920px (height) X 1080px (width) in JPEG format. Please see this guide about formatting images.
If you are advertising a ticketed event, please include a link and a QR code to the product page so people can easily navigate to the site.
Note: there is no guarantee that we will be able to upload your image to the plasma screens. It depends how busy the slideshow is at the time, as we can’t have too many on simultaneously. We will do our best to upload your images whenever possible.
The University and departments also manage a number of digital screens across campus. If you would like to find out more about advertising on these - you can find more information here.
Four stalls are available in the foyer from 12-2pm during term-time, for student groups to promote their activities. These stalls can be booked through the College Administrator (vanbrugh@york.ac.uk) on a first-come, first-served basis, and are a popular feature at lunchtimes.
Don’t forget the old techniques like flyers and posters! We’d just ask you to try and be as environmentally friendly as possible and only order the number of flyers you can be sure to distribute. If you’re advertising an event this way, be sure to put it on your EMF. If you want to guarantee your posters won’t be taken down, use one of the three concrete circular billboards we’ve got around campus - there’s one outside James College, one in Market Square, and one outside the Glasshouse.
You could consider creating a cheap banner using bedsheets and paint, but note that this will need to be fire-guarded by our Health and Safety Coordinator before you can put it up. Alternatively you could purchase long-term printed banners to roll out at all your events and sign-up opportunities. You can pick these up relatively cheaply, but just remember not to put any dates on them!
Make sure your designs are memorable, with the correct details on them! Include calls to action (buy a ticket, follow our Instagram) and only the necessary information - don’t crowd the space with lots of additional stuff, and consider whether you’re using the most effective marketing technique for your purpose. If you are advertising a ticketed event, you should include a link and a QR code to the product page so people can easily navigate to the site.
Ensure that your poster does not cover the white accessibility strips on the black poles across campus.
These help students with visual impairments to navigate around campus and must not be covered. Your poster will be removed and you will receive an email reminder.
It is illegal to put posters on council property.
This includes lampposts, bus signs, and bus stops. The council has the legal power to seek recompense for the removal of these items, which means your College Committee could be charged.
College Merchandise (e.g. hoodies, t-shirts) not only makes your committee and members feel part of something but it spreads the name of your group and raises awareness on campus. But merch doesn’t have to stop there - consider badges, mugs, pencils, water bottles, keyrings, and think about whether there’s an item directly relevant to your College Committee that you could use.
Maybe you could collaborate with another College? Or is there another Student Group you would like to work with? Find their contact details on our website and reach out!
Make use of Student Media Groups! They could give your event a shoutout, run a feature on your successes, or provide you with more substantial advertising services. Get in touch with Nouse, Vision, URY, and/or YSTV to see what you can come up with together.
The University’s Office of Philanthropic Partnerships and Alumni (OPPA) have a programme called YuConnect, which is aimed at helping you stay in touch with your alumni. If you use them well, you could make massive gains; they might be able to mentor you or your members, and even provide work experience, internships, or graduate opportunities. They might also support you in any projects you decide to run through their knowledge or even a financial donation.
Here’s our step-by-step guide to connecting with your alumni, if your College hasn’t already:
Set up a Facebook or LinkedIn group
Promote it to recent graduates and your final year members, and ask them to spread the word to people they know who used to be part of the College. If people pass the message on, you’ll garner a pretty big network pretty fast. Please share the link with alumni@york.ac.uk, too - the Alumni Association will promote it.
Appoint an Alumni Officer
This person could be in charge of maintaining and growing your alumni Facebook group; putting on and promoting events to and for alumni; and be the first point of contact for alumni about goings-on in your College.
If you’ve any questions or want to get in touch about using your alumni, email OPPA’s Matt Ingram at matthew.ingram@york.ac.uk.