Concerts, Cook-Offs, & More: Marketing Outdoor Events

Summer is generally the time of year for community block parties, concerts in the park, and other outdoor-centered activities. In our modern day and age, it’s not at all practical to rely on word-of-mouth or a local telephone chain to ensure word is spread appropriately about upcoming events. If you want to garner attention and encourage great attendance, you’ll need to put effort into getting the word out where the local community will see.

Preparing Your Marketing Plan

For many businesses these days, any marketing plan is going to have a heavy digital focus.  Digital marketing campaigns are a great way to get the word out about deals, new products or services, and anything else that recurring customers may want to know. When it comes to community events, however, digital marketing can be more complicated. You have to rely on people expressing interest and signing up for email lists. Otherwise, the options generally boil down to paid advertisements. If you want to advertise a free community event, that may not be the go-to option.

Since the idea for many of these events is to get the local community engaged, often the best idea is to market in and around the community you want to reach. This can include options like:

• Posters/flyers
• Billboards
• Light pole banners
• Bus/taxi wraps
• Street furniture advertising (bus shelters, benches, kiosks, etc.)

With quality advertising materials, you can easily spread the word around town without the need to invest in TV ads or go overboard with your online ad budget. With purposeful planning and quality materials, you can easily spread the word about your upcoming chili cook-off or Taste of the Town event.

Choosing Marketing Materials

When discussing marketing materials that will exist outdoors, the biggest factor is durability. Keep in mind the climate where you live, but generally speaking, you’ll need to find materials that can hold up against wind, rain, and sunshine. Depending on where you live, you may also want to consider even more damaging factors like hail, snow, or high heat. Needless to say, regular paper-based marketing materials probably aren’t going to hold up well if they have to stay up more than a day or two. 

The other side of the coin is budget. For non-profit events and other community events with a lower budget, it may not be possible to invest in bus wraps or taxi advertising space. Even light pole banners might be out of the question depending on the size of the budget — and whether or not you have permission to advertise on the city-maintained poles. Advertising real estate can be surprisingly limiting factors when budget is a major concern.

Better Marketing Through Better Materials

TerraSlate offers a whole range of waterproof paper products that can be customized based on your event. We make everything from waterproof printer paper to posters, adhesives, and more. Our goal is to provide the versatility in our materials to help you create whatever you may need in terms of signage — and, more importantly, to give you options that won’t break the bank and will stand up against very nearly any wear and tear.

Whether you choose to create large posters or small flyers, our waterproof paper products offer some key benefits. As the name implies, TerraSlate products are totally waterproof, not just water resistant. Along with that, our waterproof paper repels grease, oil, and most solvents and chemicals — making it perfect for posters that will hang outside in the snow and potentially get splashed by snow removal mixes. Our waterproof paper is also rip-proof. It can still be cut by scissors or other sharp implements, but our rip-proof paper can withstand a great deal of rough handling from people and high winds alike. Check out the tear test to see for yourself!

Arguably the most important factor on top of being waterproof and rip-proof is the ease of use. All of our products are designed to work well with the standard laser printer, so you can create durable marketing materials without the need for specialty printing processes. Our waterproof paper and other products are all colorfast and provide the other benefits straight from your printer — no need for lamination or other expenses to experience those benefits, either.