Pick & Mix

MARKETING & PUBLICITY Marketing is ―communicating about a product or service to encourage recipients to purchase or use the product or service‖ . It is a process that aims to create awareness, promotion and publicity to your target audience, focussing on their needs. To market your group, you need to think about who your target audience is and what their needs are. Read this leaflet for more information on how the best ways to attract publicity for your group and its activities.

FURTHER INFORMATION Student Development Tel. 0121 251 2424 www.guildofstudents.com/studentgroupsandvolunteering [email protected] Counter opening times Monday — Thursday 11—5.30 Friday 11—4.30

Student Development – student groups

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Using the Guild & University logos

All of your publicity materials should clearly state your group name, contact details, and have the Guild of Students logo on them No groups can use the University crest, apart from UBS Sports Clubs and those with special exemptions. However, if you want to, you can use the University word marque logo, although you need to be careful not to distort it or make it illegible in any way. You need to leave sufficient clear space around it (equivalent to the height/width of two of the letters). You need to make sure it‘s not too small (minimum 25mm width). Please ask if you‘d like those logos to be emailed to you. If you have any doubts about using the logos, or publicity in general, please ask.

Posters Posters are a simple way of communicating with your target audience to get your message across, but remember to…… ● Keep it simple - the simplest posters are the most effective ● Make sure its clear - if its difficult to read or understand, it‘s not going to reach anyone ● Have good artwork - bad artwork really sticks out. If you don't have anyone that can do this then just keep to text ● Ensure you‘ve got the correct information on it - double check dates, times and locations of events before you get it printed ● Check spellings!

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Flyers Flyers can be a great way to promote your group, as long as you utilise them properly. Leaving piles of flyers around is dependent on people seeking them out and so they often get ignored. Its because of this and our anti-littering policy that we don't allow groups to leave piles of flyers around the Guild, but also, if all 200 groups did it, they‘d be everywhere! The best way to distribute flyers is hand-to-hand. Go to prominent places where you know lots of people will be, such as campus entrances, the Vale and Selly Oak.

Publicity Distribution Publicity on Campus… The University campus is private property and even though you are a student here and part of a student group, you do not have free reign to distribute publicity. If you would like posters to be put up around the Guild building, please give them to Student Development; you can have up to six posters, up to A3 size. Please do not put your own poster up in the Guild. If you do, it will get taken down. If you need temporary directional signage you may do this with bluetack, but make sure that you take it down again afterwards. There is one board that can be used for A0 posters–ask for info. In University buildings, you can put posters up on general notice boards but you must ask permission from departments before doing so. You are forbidden from putting posters up on any external walls, fences or trees. Avoid flyering on campus itself, especially as people are busy with studying. It‘s best to target people when they‘re walking to and from university as they‘re more likely to read your flyer. You must not flyer within any University buildings. If you want to flyer outdoors on campus, you will need to get

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permission a month in advance using an ‗Event on campus‘ form which you can download from the committee members resource pages at www.guildofstudents.com/studentgroupsandvolunteering Publicity in Halls… Speak to each Residents Association about the distribution of posters and flyers (it varies from Hall to Hall). Please do not distribute any promotional material in halls without speaking to the Residents Association first, and you may also need to get permission from the site management. If you would like to put posters up in any of the Vale Halls, speak to the reception desk in Shackleton. They will stamp your posters to show that they‘ve been approved. The Vice President Housing & Community may be able to help you with any enquiries you have ([email protected]), or speak to Student Development staff for contacts. Publicity in Selly Oak & Surrounding Areas… It is illegal to attach posters or signs to private property and street furniture such as lampposts, trees, and signposts. Door-to-door flyering isn't illegal but is monitored, and do be aware that you can‘t be sure which houses belong to students and which belong to permanent residents. Be aware! When distributing promotional material please be conscious about the litter it can create. The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act (2005) makes it an offence to drop litter anywhere. Local authorities have new powers which require us to clear litter from our land. It also makes it your responsibility to clear litter you produce, which specifically mentions flyers, handouts and leaflets. Local authorities can also restrict the production and distribution of such material if it becomes a nuisance.

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Online: group website or Facebook Use your group webpage to promote your society to potential new members who may be browsing. Remember to also promote your webpage to new members by putting it on the bottom of promotional material.

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groups get a free webpage that can be accessed by students through the Guild of Students website. Make sure your webpage is attractive and as up to date as possible or it could put potential members off. As well as regular websites, Facebook is another great way to let people know about your group, so make sure that you‘ve got a page and that it‘s regularly updated with details about upcoming activities. However, remember that not everybody has a Facebook account.

The student newspaper is a great place to communicate with thousands of students as the paper is distributed and read throughout campus, halls of residence and Selly Oak. Find a way to make what you‘re saying interesting and include pictures and contact details. The more vibrant it is, the more likely it is to get it included in the paper. Please get in contact first (see contacts in the paper or at www.redbrickonline.co.uk). Due to space limits they may not be able to fit everything in, but are well worth a try. Coverage could be a preview or review of a particular activity or a general feature on what your group does. Space in the paper can be tight, especially for longer articles, so it might be easier to get it on their website.

BURN FM.com is the Guild radio station and broadcasts throughout the autumn and spring terms. It includes ‗beat bulletins‘ with information about what is going on each day. Email [email protected] or [email protected]

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My.bham campus announcement Getting a campus announcement on the University portal is a great way of reaching a lot of students if you‘ve got a good event coming up (. Please note these should be general messages that could be of interest to a lot of students, not specific messages that would only apply to a few people. To request an announcement, email [email protected] and give at least a weeks notice. You‘ll need to format your message with a fairly short headline, then the main body of the message can be up to 70 words long but it can include links to websites and Facebook events. Alternatively, if your group has a Twitter account, direct message @mybham and they‘ll retweet it so it‘s on Twitter itself and the Twitted feed embedded in my.bham.

Stall in the Guild Having a stall in Mermaid Square or in the retail area, outside the Spar, can also be a great way of raising awareness about your group. Fill out a stall request form which you can download from the committee members resource page at www.guildofstudents/studentgroupsandvolunteering.

Guild website events calendar Student Development supplies a weekly list of all activities held by student groups to Guild Marketing to upload onto www.guildofstudents.com. If you would like to be included in the upload, let us know the date, time, venue, and brief explanation to [email protected] in advance of Monday each week. The events will be live two days after submission of the list and is also pulled onto the sidebar on the TV screens in the Membership area, so you get two spots.

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TV screens in Membership Lounge Student groups can submit artwork for the TV screens in the membership area to the dimensions at 856 pixels x 480 pixels ( landscape) Screen resolution: 72 dpi supplied as a JPEG. There are 10 screen shots, on a rolling basis available to student Groups and spaces are provided on a first-come first-served basis. Artwork should be submitted a week in advance of your preferred live date and will be live for one week at a time. If you‘ve got anyone with graphic design skills, these can be very eye-catching and successful. Even if you don‘t want a poster, consider sending us a photo with a strapline about your group. You could also show a video clip (up to 1minute long, no sound). Email them to [email protected] GOS In Print GOSip is printed twice a term as an insert in Redbrick and it includes an events calendar and a society spotlight. Because of relatively long design times, you may need to supply information on events up to a month in advance. Please note that if you are planning on any promotional activity other than what is mentioned here, you must run it past the Student Development department to get permission. If you are unsure of anything then please do speak to one of the Student Development team who will be able to assist you.

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Publicity involving external venues If you are having an event at an external venue or are being sponsored by a company, the focus of your promotional material must be your student group event and not the venue/company. For example: POLO CLUB EVENT @ RISA

RISA POLO CLUB EVENT

Correct!

Wrong!

If you make the venue prominent then you are in effect giving the company free advertising which the Guild would charge the company for. This goes for putting any logos or information about companies on your promotional material. You will be doing something for free that they would normally pay a lot of money for. All student group sponsorship and promotional deals must be agreed by the Guild. Refer to the committee members resource

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www.guildofstudents.com/

studentgroupsandvolunteering. This also applies if the Student Group gets a cut of ticket sales. This is not a proper sponsorship deal and in effect you would be acting as promoters for the club, meaning that you are doing a job they would normally pay someone a lot of money to do! ● Student Groups cannot put up posters or flyer on behalf of any club. If you are unsure, then speak to a member of the Student Development team who will be able to help you or point you in the direction of the Guild Marketing department. Publicity Policy: Content ● No images shall be used on publicity that are inappropriate for their location or context. For example, graphic images, including those depicting war scenes and death, would be deemed inappropriate for posters on general display. These images might be included within information

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● leaflets, but only where the reader might reasonably be expected to find such images and has been forewarned. ● Publicity distributed by Student Groups shall not contain derogatory remarks toward any religion, race, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age. ● Any statements stated as fact must be qualified, with details of the source. ● Any unqualified statements must be stated clearly as beliefs, and by whom. ● If a student group is distributing publicity in a language other than English, a full English translation must be submitted to the Vice President Democracy & Resources prior to distribution. ● Rules of the content of publicity also apply to non-printed media, such as student group websites, whether they are hosted on the Guild servers or not. Publicity Do’s and Don'ts DO... ● Keep it simple– You don‘t always have to say everything, just enough to get people interested. Be careful not to be too cryptic. ● Make it look good– Well-designed, clear material is often the most successful. Using high quality images, clear and visible text, and subtle clean colour schemes you can achieve this. ● Keep to the rules– It‘s very important you keep to the rules. Follow the publicity policy, copyright laws and group-based policy. DON’T... ● Don’t try to say more than one thing– this can be confusing for people reading your poster. ● Don’t go design crazy– Remember how your printed material will be used. Crazy fonts and photos can look nice but can they be read? ● Don’t forget to proof read– Spelling mistakes and typos don‘t give a good impression. Try reading your material backwards to spot any mistakes. ● Don’t be offensive– Make sure that what you are saying isn‘t offensive, un-

Pick & Mix Pick & Mix leaflets are available on a variety of topics, designed to assist you as thoroughly as possible with running your group or understanding the Guild of Students generally

To find out more information, visit the Guild online: www.guildofstudents.com/studentgroupsandvolunteering The Student Development department is located on the ground floor of the Guild of Students, and supports student groups, volunteering and training. Student Development Counter: The first port of call for any queries and for any administration regarding your group, volunteering or training. During holidays, we‘re open 12-3pm Mon-Fri, and our general Term-time opening hours are: 11am-5.30pm Monday - Thursday 11am-4.30pm - Fridays. The general student group area for committees is open 9am-9pm on weekdays and 10am-8pm at weekends, which you can use for committee meetings, checking emails and organising your group. You have access to computers, a printer and photocopier, workspace and your pigeonholes.

Disclaimer: The information in this leaflet only provides general guidance. The leaflet should not be regarded or relied upon as a complete or authoritative statement. University of Birmingham Guild of Students will not accept any liability for any claims or inconvenience as a result of information in this leaflet.

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