Well it’s that time of year. A couple of weeks ago we started planning this years Winter season open house shows. We usually have about 8 of them and they start just before Christmas and go through February.
Besides Newspapers and word of mouth, how do other clubs attract people?
I will sometimes look in MR for an open house near me, but I mostly try to find them on the web. What club do you belong to?
In addition to two local newspapers, we also put an announcement in the electric co-op’s newsletter that is distributed throughout the county with the monthly bills, and flyers are distributed to businesses that agree to let us advertise in their stores.
We have public service announcements on all the local radio stations and a series of 8 “Model Train Show” signs that are placed at strategic road intersections directing drivers to the clubhouse.
When we poll visitors to find out how they heard about the show, the majority are from the roadside signs.
The Club is St Albans RR. (STARR)
It’s at West Chester Pike and 252 in Newtown Square.
Thanks
We’re considering doing the road signs this year. They’re cheap enough and there are 2 major roads nearby.
Beside the usual newsprint and MR,RMC, and other listings we also print up flyers and post and distribute around the cape. Post office and library bulletin boards are fair places. Pizza joints and grocery stores also have spots for postings. The LHS always has a stack of them and the table of other shows will have some too. More visitors to our yearly show say they saw the flyer more than any other form of advertising. Some even bring it in to show us.
Another thing you can try if you have the room is to invite a few vendors to one of your shows and turn it into an open house and sale type show. If this becomes a success later shows will be a source of income to your treasury. We get $25 a table and one vendor always reserves 12 or more every year.
Pete
Our club does lots of free publicity on the web. You can place a free ad on this website if you go to the top of the page and click on “Resources” and pull down the menu to coming events. We also send out a message to a couple of Yahoo groups that feature info about model railroad happenings. You might also want to create some flyers and ask your LHS if you can leave some off. One more option to consider is contacting your local TV station and ask for their newsroom’s assignment desk fax # and fax them a flyer with a contact telephone #. If your show is on a Saturday or Sunday and it’s a slow news day, they might show up especially if a celebrity appearance from Santa is part of the plan.
All be honest with you, my local club tried the newspaper, it wasn’t worth the cost. We’re on the web, we’ve talked about ( I don’t know if ti’s been done or not) doing things on NPR, or a local station’s even calendar, and we do a lot of booths at a lot of trainshows. Also, make sure the club is on the Google Maps, and that there’s at the very least a contact number. We JUST picked up a member who’s building our site because he punched un model train club into Google and it spat out our locale, the under construction page, and a contact number, so it does work. There are also fliers at the Hobby Shops, not sure where else Steve has them.
Naptown White River,
Indianapolis IN
www.naptownrr.org (under construction, check back mid to end of August)
Our signs and fliers seem to draw a lot of local attention for our shows or open houses. Others find out from the website, at our club table @ the Amherst Springfield Show and the local newspaper. This paper will usually run an article w/ pics from previous shows for the upcoming event. Photographers from the paper attend our shows and will interview patrons and club members. This will help for future events.
Our club’s White Elephant table is a draw in itself. Many local modelers and dealers look forward to either placing items for sale or storming the place for some of the really great deals. We can always count on return patrons from this alone.
I was the show co-ordinator for my clubs show for 5 years and this is how I promoted our show.
Print up some flyers and take them to shows before yours. Most shows have a flyer table so just drop a stack on it. Also take some to all your local hobby shops, they too usually have an area for flyers.
Newspapers usually have a “what’s happening” feature for the weekends, get your show in it. You can also get your local paper to do a small story on your club just before your show, that sparks a ton of interest.
Community and local TV stations have the same “what’s happening” feature. Radio stations too. Offer a couple free passes in exchange for free publicity.
Contact your local Tourism office and tell them about your show. Mine prints up a little magazine every year and it’s free.
Contact the NMRA, Model Railroader and RMC and have them list it in their magazines. Model Railroader charges a small fee but the other two don’t. Lot’s of out of towners look at these for potential shows to visit.
Signs, the bigger the better and make sure they are very clearly marked and take people to the show.
The web. Search train shows in your area or state/province and see what pops up. A ton of people have websites dedicated to shows that would be happy to list yours for you. Even hobby shops and internet vendors have a dedicated show listing page so get your on them.
You do this and you should have a succesful show.