Title says it all really.. but do they?

As artistic,creative,amusing & clever as those I've seen on here undoubtedly are.

Or is word of mouth better.. or a combination of both????

Ta

Tony

No definative answer in my very fu.... humble op. But they don't hurt although they seem to work best when combined with word of mouth. Unless you have a well established and long running night i would say they were esssential to a degree plus they also act as a reminder, your punters are getting older and the old buggers tend to forget .......................now what was it i was talking about again??

At the end of the day unless you atract just local punters and can get away with a poster campaign i reckon they are a neccessary evil nowadays.

Title says it all really.. but do they?

As artistic,creative,amusing & clever as those I've seen on here undoubtedly are.

Or is word of mouth better.. or a combination of both????

Ta

Tony

link

I bloody hope they do... or I'm on my own for my birthday Flyers are an integral part of advertising so much as any other advertsing.. I dont think they play a great part such as main stream advertising mind... we are all conditioned anyway, to see what we want to see, and what turns us on....

Edited November 4, 200420 yr by Soulgirl

I bloody hope they do... or I'm on my own for my birthday   Flyers are an integral part of advertising so much as any other advertsing.. I dont think they play a great part such as main stream advertising mind... we are all conditioned anyway, to see what we want to see, and what turns us on....

link

Sorry but I find flyers really annoying, every venue you go to they scatterred everywhere, soaked in beer, an untidy mess. Once again I think as an underground scene, it should be word of mouth, I never pick up flyers, I know roughly 2 to 3 weeks a head where i'm going, and of course there is good old Soul Source if you need to check anything. Hopefully it's the History book for flyers.....

John

Sorry but I find flyers really annoying, every venue you go to they scatterred everywhere, soaked in beer, an untidy mess.  Once again I think as an underground scene, it should be word of mouth, I never pick up flyers, I know roughly 2 to 3 weeks a head where i'm going, and of course there is good old Soul Source if you need to check anything.  Hopefully it's the History book for flyers.....

John

link

That was part of the reason kavel and I started doing in town. It was a list on one A4 page of the soul nights in London. It could be stuck on the fridge and you didnt go home with half of Epping Forest in your pockets.

Mind you, there were so many soul things going on some months the writing would have been too small for the likes of JOT

The problem with flyer distribution is, that most distributors target the wrong type of punter. Flyers do work but in mailshot format not aimlessly dropping them anywhere.

Title says it all really.. but do they?

As artistic,creative,amusing & clever as those I've seen on here undoubtedly are.

Or is word of mouth better.. or a combination of both????

Ta

Tony

link

Combined with posters , on line guides and magazine articles. A feature in your local press is best of all and of course a mention on influential radio shows.

My son who runs a flyer team suggests that the people who hand out flyers should use them as an excuse to talk to people and persuade them to come to the night. Your PR team should look like the people you are targetting. I like seeing a well designed flyer. Goodfoot's were designed by Andrew Divine and Baillie does the Friday street stuff. I don't know who does the GOGo but they are instantly recognisable.

FrankM

Well you are all right but at the same time all wrong i think that Kev and Frank are closest to the truth on this one (then again they have both been around since Moses and i'm not talking Smith!!!)

Fliers are a right royal pain in the butt but they do work especially for a new night, I totally empathise with JM but they are a neccessary evil. Where i feel that most go wrong is that they indescriminently flood events with crudely made fliers that quickly get ignored and become a menace. When it is done right look no further than Nick Brown and the superb Scenesville Fliers handed out with a few words from the promoter small, classy and collectable. Roy O down at Plinston has also hit on a great technique with the ciggarette style cards they are Humerous (in some cases Hilarious) classy, small and again collectable!! Same goes for Soul Valley commandos whitty and practical (what other flier turns into a bus???) There are some great examples out there.

In todays climate of 357 soul nights on each saturday of the month you have to do something to make your night stand out from the rest, ultimately you can only do that by being different or the best at what you do, and whilst you may know that you are, you just have to convince others your paying punters that they should come to your do in preference to the other 356 that night and hopefully they will agree and bring their mates the next time. But you have to get them through the door to make that choice.....................

Trouty

(Did you know that the ancient Brittons used to collect up fliers mix it with all the left over talcum powder and add water and then shape into handy brick sized slabs to make their wattle and daub dwellings?? The joy's of the discovery channel )

IMO to a certain extent they do work, given that there have been times when we've picked up a flyer for a do we've never been to before and thought it sounded interesting so we tried it. Of course there has been a few do's that we wouldn't go to again but OTOH there are those that we wouldn't want to miss again!

However, I have turned up to a do and seen promoters handing out flyers in the town center to every tom, dick and harry that walked by. I have nothing against new people turning up (I can't, I have only been attending do's for the past couple of years or so (but have listened to the music for as long as I can remember)). But I'm not to keen on attracting the sort of people (mainly local chavs) who stand around all night taking the piss out of the music and dancers.

I have to agree though that word of mouth is the best advertising for an event.

kate.x

PS the design of a flyer also has some impact and I think this was pointed out in another thread on soul source. Has anyone seen the Holgate flyer? Classy.

I actually sometimes collect up the clean A4 flyers on the way out of a venue at the end of a night. My 7 year old son loves to draw pictures and they are excellent for that. Can't think of anything else they are good for though.....

JM

As expected pretty even divide pro & con.

I would agree that word of mouth is probably the best form of advertising,...

but if they don't come through the door, they ain't gonna talk bout it.

ta

Tony

kate.x

PS the design of a flyer also has some impact and I think this was pointed out in another thread on soul source. Has anyone seen the Holgate flyer? Classy.

link

Cheers Kate!

(Now who could have done those....???)

I think flyers work, i still have some banging ones from the 80's (yeah i even collected those) Stafford advertising the O'Jays, Clifton Halls xmas nighter,the Ric-Tic revue at the Ritz 1983. Annabelles Bradford with Little Anthonys photo on the page, Cleethorpes winter gardens. In the early 80's it was a help to find places to go to, but things have moved into the 21st century and good old Soul Source has cornered the market.

The Scenesville flyers were done by Sweeney (a Soul Source member), they were beautiful, matched only by the George Jackson flyers (by Sweeney's brother), both of which became collectable. I've had friends in the States asking for pristine copies for framing. Sweeney has been asked to do the next Scenesville one for April, so let's keep the beer off it eh?

Edited November 4, 200420 yr by lisahurley

Yes Flyers definately work (some of the 80's club flyers are works of art) and in conjunction with word of mouth they are best marketing tool a promoter can use

I also design flyers as well as collecting them, have done for years

valley Soul Commandos flyers

............Andrew

.soulcommandos.co.uk/flyersept.htm

Edited November 4, 200420 yr by andrew bin

As long as they are used correctly, throwing them on tables in the vain hope someone might pick one up, is a waste of time IMO, I also think people who walk up to you and thrust one in your hand without saying a word is also a no,no, i just screw them up and chuck them on the floor.

To actually take the time to speak to people and tell them about your venue while handing them out is surely the best way.

JM

Flyers...are these the bits of paper you write the last record played, a phone number or address for a tape or cd down on

Yes Flyers definately work (some of the 80's club flyers are works of art) and in conjunction with word of mouth they are  best marketing tool a promoter can use

I also design flyers as well as collecting them, have done for years

valley Soul Commandos flyers 

............Andrew

.soulcommandos.co.uk/flyersept.htm

link

I like your flyers Andrew, isn't it great not to have to pay rights to use the images? ha!

Flyers...are these the bits of paper you write the last record played, a phone number or address for a tape or cd down on   

link

Nice one Chalky, I new they were there for some reason, Ha ha.........

I have collected the scenesville flyers from day one, I even have two of only a handfull from the first ever night, which were on paper (even Nick doesnt have one of these teehee)

I enjoy handing out flyers too, gives me a chance to chat to people all over the clubs that I am at. I think they do work esp for people who arent on the internet

Nice one Chalky, I new they were there for some reason, Ha ha.........

link

Like the topical avatar john

My old man was born in the house in York that Guy lived in!

(interesting note: Guy Fawkes was an 'old boy' of St Peters school in York. On Bonfire Night, pupils of the school are not allowed to burn a Guy!)

flyers work in getting punters in.

saying it should be word of mouth is great if you know everyone on the scene,but not all of us do,and not all events are posted up online or advertised in mags.

picking up flyers over the last couple of weeks means i have a do to go to every weekend up to chrimbo.half of which i havnt seen advertised anywhere else.

so keep handing out flyers,otherwise ill end up spending weekends on the sofa,making small talk to the wife :angry:

I think flyers are useful as long as they are well designed and of decent quality. I'm no fan of the paper ones as they look cheap to me (although I'm sure some budgets dictate their use at times) or the A4 ones as they are too big (posters really).

We've had people collecting ours ......... someone painted their scooter in one of our designs a couple of years ago too.

I'm putting my old promoters hat back on next year with three Detroit/Chicago Allnighters and a down to mid tempo second room at Sheridans,Dewsbury and will be using the flyer as a promotional tool, i totally agree with all the points raised so far but every avenue will be followed to promote the gig and flyers are without question one of the best possible tried and tested ways to get the gig out there.

Long gone though are the days of badly designed A4 black on white home made jobs, i think you have to present any event thesedays in a professional manner, glossy, small and most importantly dynamic with something that stands out and catches the eye,attention and imagination of the soul scene.

Another brilliant way to get the message out there is of cource the wonderful 'On The Scene' monthly gig guide, a unique idea acting as a flyer within a flyer with a print run of some 15,000 per issue, which is distributed on a national level, but you still need the flyer and need to be seen doing all the leg work as you can't expect people too attend without putting the hard work in.

I have three dates thus far booked and confirmed at Sheridans and where the venue capacity may only be 250 i still intend to produce around 5,000 flyers as the percentage of people attending against this number of flyers may only be around 5% or less, also posters are a good way to promote in specialist shops and other venues if allowed.

I'm sure we have all been to venues recently where there are dozens of flyers on offer, so again you need to produce something that really stands out, trouble is it's far more important to host a quality event rather than a shit hot flyer but again it's all about presentation and style.

Regards - Mark Bicknell.