Stap isi

22 March 2009

Can we get more vim into local government promotion?

Councils are not very good at promoting events. We rarely use humour and never set out to surprise or shock.

Looking at our promotional material you see an ersatz Australia where everything is just middling. You know the place – it’s well signposted by WordArt arcs and oh so apt clip art (stick guy scratching his head! 50s cartoon man giving a thumbs up!).

Council staff, bless them, retain a touching faith in the pulling power of stapled newsletters, colour (!) laser-printed A3 posters and photocopied Publisher flyers (on coloured paper!). If a designer is contracted, the brief is anodyne.

Yet we’re out there competing for attention with sophisticated agency-created marketing campaigns and raw, authentic cultural products in musical, magazine and video form. Attention is fleeting and our constituents are adept consumers. Most ignore our material because they don’t live in this bland parallel universe.

I’d go as far as to say most Council-run events that do get good numbers do so in spite of their promotion.

And now – the internet and social media. Where the same routine is being played out. Except instead of posters on noticeboards, it’s “can you put this on the front page of the website?”

One too many of those has inspired this rant. That, and a very good blog post 19 paying punters can’t be wrong.

— b3rn   design, marketing, promotion   Mar 22, 03:33 PM   #   Comment [1]