One of my friends is in charge of a festival once a year that is held by the ocean in Charleston, South Carolina where we live. It is a summer-kickoff event and it raises funds for a non-profit organization in the Lowcountry. Each year she arranges for food vendors, music performances, and other fun activities for children and families. It seems in Charleston that there is an outdoor festival or celebration nearly every week, but over the past 5 years, her event was the only one taking place each first Sunday in May.
Well April showers bring May flowers, and rain it did in April. All of April. Many of April’s festivals were either canceled or rescheduled, and as luck would have it, a very well attended annual event was rescheduled for, lo and behold, the first Sunday in May.
Of course my friend became quite nervous about the success of her event. She had always raised a substantial amount of money and was always able to provide for the non-profit. She really didn’t want to let them down this year.
Your friend should promote her event! But did she have much money set aside for advertising?
Being a fundraising event, my friend of course did not have much of an advertising budget. Radio and TV time costs a lot of money, and commercials can become ineffective in the world of technology where people can choose to skip over promotional advertisements.
A well positioned billboard seemed like a smart type of advertising, since in the very neighborhood as her event would automatically see the advertisement every single day. But as we all recall, her budget simply wouldn’t allow for it.
So what did she do?
My friend thought long and hard and finally arrived to a conclusion. And what did she decide to advertise with? An over-the-street vinyl banner! New-age banner printing procedures have made full color street banners an especially cheap and very professional way to alert the city of the date, time and location of an event. And not to be overlooked, street banners can be two-sided at nearly no additional cost!
Street banners have all the advantages of a billboard but at a much lower cost. Actually, viewers are statistically more likely to pay attention an over-the-street vinyl banner than a billboard, since street banners aren’t terribly common in most towns and cities.
Are there any special regulations for a vinyl over-the-street banner?
For public safety reasons, most cities have rules as to how street banners should be made. A few of these requirements include using 20 ounce, extra heavy duty blockout banner material with tough webbing sewn into the hem for extra re-enforcement. For the max amount of durability and wind resistance, street banners should have grommets placed every 2 feet. And wind slits are usually required to substantially reduce wind loads.
I’ve heard enough facts already! I’m dying in suspense…was your friend’s event a success?
Hands down, the answer to your question is YES! Not only were more Charlestonians in attendance than any year past, they also set a record in money raised! Plus as the city later released statistics announcing the attendance at both my friend’s event and April’s rescheduled event, she was excited to learn that her event was attended by more people! Her street banner certainly stirred up a lot of excitement, and to this day, she credits that custom banner for saving the celebration!
