I have got some quotes for getting handbills for our next play to be distributed in some local community magazines which are free through the door. Just want to know if this is a rip off or a good deal.

?125 for ad on half A4 page (whch we can't afford) and
?20 for 1000 handbills (one magazine only covers one postcode region of the place where I live)

?33 for 1000 handbills (to go to one postcode area again)

What do you think????

Louise


ps-the people who post them get paid so it's not like the mags will get thrown away somewhere.

..but the mag's inserts go straight in the bin!. We tried this in the past and it didn't work. It's a tough one but in the end if it's not too expensive, even if you only get a couple of bums on seats i guess it's worth it. (Especially if it means you don't have to do it!)

Have you tried asking local shops etc to have them on their counter? Again there's no guarantee of success but at least they're not lost if you need to reclaim some.

Or get members to distribute them themselves. Get volunteers, find out where they live and where, close to them, you want to target and give them 100 or so each. Won't take more than an afternoon.

We produced fliers asking for new members a couple of years ago and targetted new estates (working on the, perhaps tenuous, assumption that new people in the area might move to new estates). Out of perhaps 1000, we got two members. One of whom is still with us and very valuable. But, hey, it cost us nothing and it may have raised awareness of the society in the area.

We used to pay to have handbills delivered to every house our village (about 3000)

When we stopped doing it our audience numbers went up!

If you are going to try handing out in the street I'd not do this...

I did it for Little Shop of Horrors one afternoon in Stains..

Nothing worse than seeing your show lying in the gutter after people just take it and then throw it...

Don't force people to have one...

We finally targeted charity shops, (couple of free tickets to the show each) which got a fair few in actually... Also Tesco's or that.. Get a few people in character if it's a panto or something like that...

Hmmmmmm sound interesting...

Perhaps people say the "bill" and in their heads said (as we do with all junk mail) load of b****ks... and throw it.. so already it's in their head that they don't want to see it...

hmm interesting thought that...

Just a quick note about handing out in the streets - If you are going to do this...be very careful about local authority legislations - very often you have to apply for license, and then they will tell you where you can and can't stand (obstruction etc.) and quite often they won't let you do it at all.

Some places are fine but just be careful - especially where the area is pedestrianised as the area outside a shop is usually theirs by law - so you could be tresspassing without knowing.

I forgot to add that this is just one method I was thinking of using as an extra to the usual ways and means of getting the posters and handbills out. I hadn't even thought about going out and handing them out in the street, besides that option is not something we do. I know that there are some very good threads on the other topics in this publicity forum, getting noticed by the press etc and how to get your members to help out. Some are more helpful than others and some have more time to help than others. We do what we can. Anyway, I have got all our online publicity in place so I have to wait for the posters to be produced. Thanks for the mixed replies.

Louise

You are allowed to hand out leaflets on any public street, provided you are not selling anything, forcing them on people, entertaining or obstructing the highway.

Now we found that after a 2-hour High Street distribution for "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" (in costume) on a Saturday afternoon, we had an enormous upturn in tickets sold that day (but only that day).

We use High Street posting as a last resort on the Saturday before the show opens, usually in several towns.

You're not allowed to do this inside shopping centres. We actually found the best place was at a slow traffic light junction in the middle of town, which was actually in sight of our theatre as well, so it could be pointed out to people!

Regarding the placing of handbills in local newspapers....this works a lot better if it's a "bought" newspaper rather than a free one. We have found that around 70% or more of free newspapers, along with all insterts, are thrown away as soon unread as soon as they are posted through the door. Local newspapers that people actually have to buy are read over 90% of the time, therefore if you can get in those you have better potential to reach your audience.

The best way is mailing out to people. Our theatre keep a database (of course within all legal limits) and will print out a list of address labels for us to send handbills to. It works well, e.g. if you're doing a Shakespeare you can get a label printout of all people who bought tickets for a Shakespeare in the last 2 years, or all people who have been to see that group perform in the last 5 years, or all non-musical audiences, and so on.

It does cost money, but marketing always does. That's how to get bums on seats.