I don't think anyone who has met you would consider you as anything other than welcoming and friendly, matey. Certainly you're the only member of 2010 that is universally liked, trusted, and respected.
RE: Advertising - The first port of call for most conventions these days is their website. The flyers that go out are just a way to get people to the site.
And when they get to the website, that's when we (Continuum) give them a detailed idea of what they will be getting for their money, what the guests have done, the events to be expected, panel highlights, etc.
On top of that, they get as much detail as possible on each guest. The Fan Guest is included right there with the other guests, so it's understood why they are also a guest. So we never hide our Fan Guest on what we consider to be our core advertising.
The website is our core advertising because, from the feedback we got, something like 90-95% of people discovered the cons via the web, or visited the site for more info. Only a tiny percentage of members came out of the thousands of flyers we produced.
Our early flyers were A3 sheets folded down to A4 or A5, with all the info you could ever want about all the guests, venue, main events, etc. And what we found from our feedback was that all this work was a waste of time and money. People looked for a website address, and went to that.
Continuum learned from experience that the simpler the flyer, the clearer the message, the more likely people were to want to find out more. Flyers were gradually redesigned to be as simple as possible, and even then there was a lot of basic info. Dates and location of the convention, theme, guest names, website and postal addresses for getting more info or joining up (we had membership forms and prices on the back) - all on a simple, clean A5 flyer.
I don't believe in relying completely on the net, hence a postal address that also clearly states that people can ask for more info from it. I hate it when cons that don't have clear snail-mail addresses, and the invite to write to them using it.
To be blunt, if you get someone to the point of looking at your website, or writing for more info, then you're halfway there.
I still believe the Fan Guest is an important part of cons, and should be on the flyers, but I can understand the arguments for maximising the advertising space.
So long as the Fan Guest isn't short-changed on the website or the con-book, and is treated with the same respect as the other guests (hotel room, walking around money, travel costs covered, proper introduction at the opening, etc.) then I'm prepared to accept it.
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Date: 2008-03-28 06:04 am (UTC)RE: Advertising - The first port of call for most conventions these days is their website. The flyers that go out are just a way to get people to the site.
And when they get to the website, that's when we (Continuum) give them a detailed idea of what they will be getting for their money, what the guests have done, the events to be expected, panel highlights, etc.
On top of that, they get as much detail as possible on each guest. The Fan Guest is included right there with the other guests, so it's understood why they are also a guest. So we never hide our Fan Guest on what we consider to be our core advertising.
The website is our core advertising because, from the feedback we got, something like 90-95% of people discovered the cons via the web, or visited the site for more info. Only a tiny percentage of members came out of the thousands of flyers we produced.
Our early flyers were A3 sheets folded down to A4 or A5, with all the info you could ever want about all the guests, venue, main events, etc. And what we found from our feedback was that all this work was a waste of time and money. People looked for a website address, and went to that.
Continuum learned from experience that the simpler the flyer, the clearer the message, the more likely people were to want to find out more. Flyers were gradually redesigned to be as simple as possible, and even then there was a lot of basic info. Dates and location of the convention, theme, guest names, website and postal addresses for getting more info or joining up (we had membership forms and prices on the back) - all on a simple, clean A5 flyer.
I don't believe in relying completely on the net, hence a postal address that also clearly states that people can ask for more info from it. I hate it when cons that don't have clear snail-mail addresses, and the invite to write to them using it.
To be blunt, if you get someone to the point of looking at your website, or writing for more info, then you're halfway there.
I still believe the Fan Guest is an important part of cons, and should be on the flyers, but I can understand the arguments for maximising the advertising space.
So long as the Fan Guest isn't short-changed on the website or the con-book, and is treated with the same respect as the other guests (hotel room, walking around money, travel costs covered, proper introduction at the opening, etc.) then I'm prepared to accept it.