Publicity v2

Publicity

imperialcollegeunion.org/trainingimperialcollegeunion.org

Publicity

Publicityimperialcollegeunion.org/training

Contents

Contents 2

Introduction 3

How to Plan a Publicity Campaign 4

General rules 5

Posters & Flyers 6

What’s On calendar 8

Social networking 9

Websites 10

Union Media 12

College Media 14

New Students & Freshers’ Fair 16

Union Brand 17

Apprendix 1 - Publicity Policy 19

© 2011 - Imperial College UnionVersion 2.0 - 01 June 2011

Publicity

imperialcollegeunion.org/training

Introduction

The Purpose of this booklet

This booklet is your guide to promoting and publicising your events and activities, to both people internal to Imperial and beyond. This booklet is intended as a reference guide for organisers of any event, social activity, show, concert, trip or tour.

Information on how to plan a publicity campaign, procedures and rules for posters, flyers, websites and social networking groups are discussed, as well as how to make use of the Union and College media outlets.

Other training booklets exist which will aid those who may be reading this booklet: particularly Event Budgeting and Requesting Spaces; full information is given online at imperialcollegeunion.org/training.

Important Contacts

If you need any specific help with anything related to what is containted in this booklet, you can get in contact with the Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) or the Union President.

General enquiries can be directed to the Student Activities Centre by emailing [email protected].

Monya ZardDeputy President (Clubs & Societies)E: [email protected]: 020 7594 1763, extension: 41763

Scott HeathUnion PresidentE: [email protected]: 020 7595 8061, extension: 58061


How to Plan a Publicity Campaign

The benefits of gaining good publicity for your group or for an event that you may be running should never be underestimated. There are four areas to consider when planning a publicity campaign:

Identifying your target audience

Publicity is only going to be effective if it is reaching the people who can potentially come to the event. Things to think about are:

• Who is likely to come? • What type of event are you running? • Will it appeal to students or non-

students? • Can you market it to students at other

Universities? • Who has come in the past or to similar

events? • Where can they be exposed to

publicity? • What sort of publicity are they most

likely to respond to? • When is the best time to let them know

about the event?

Timeline

The most important thing is to remember to plan thoroughly in advance. The best thing to do is to draw up a timeline for publicity, with clear deadlines leading up to the event itself. This way you can ensure that things can be foreseen and checked off once they are done. Main things to consider are:

• Will people be able to book or buy tickets in advance? If so, advertising will need to happen earlier.

• How many other events are going on? If there are a lot, you will need to find a way to ensure that people notice yours.

• What are the lead times for companies you are planning to use, e.g. printing, t-shirts? Companies cannot normally make and deliver flyers or t-shirts within a day of you sending a design to them.

• Do not trust estimated delivery times. Deliveries will take longer than you might like, especially if it was free or ‘included’.

Publicity


Budget

You must have a budget for the publicity campaign. This should be clear in the Event Budget which the Club, Society or Project Treasurer puts together when initial planning happens. It is vital that the budget is adhered to. If roles are delegated, the person in charge will need to be very clear about the amount of money people are allowed to spend. If they spend above their allocated budget, the organisers do not have to refund them.

More information is contained within the Event Budgeting training booklet; information about finances is contained within the Finance Overview and Finance Operations training.

Ensure that the methods of publicity are carefully chosen with the budget in mind, e.g. there is no point in planning to print a thousand colour flyers with a professional company if your event is a small-scale one with a budget of £20. In this case, printing a few hundred well-designed, black and white flyers on the printers in the Student Activities Centre or in College would be a better use of money.

Resources

Think about what things you have at your disposal to let people know about what you do; this can be sponsors, a good network of ex-members, the facilites (such as printing) provided by the Union, your website, and so on.


The Union has a concise set of rules about publicity, found in Appendix 1. The key points are: • All publicity material must carry the

Union logo (see the Union Brand section) and the words “Imperial College Union”.

• Display the time, date and location of the event.

• Name the Club, Society, Project or other recognised group as part of Imperial College Union.

• Be no bigger than A2 in size in a printed or physical medium.

• Be in English only or have an English translation of anything said in a foreign language, the

translation being equal or greater in prominence.

• Not contain any offensive language, including implied offensive language.

• Not contain material that may bring the Union or College into disrepute, is libellous, contravene copyrighted materials or registered trademarks.

• Contain any material that contravenes the law or the Union’s Equal Opportunities policy.

• Not indicate that the event is open to the general public unless previously agreed by the Union President.

The full policy is available in Appendix 1.

General rules

Publicity


Posters and flyers are a very popular means of advertising.

Pros:

• Easy to make and design. • Can be widely disseminated. • Eye-catching.

Cons:

• Overkill – there are hundreds of posters and thousands of flyers being given out during busy times (usually the second half of the Autumn and Spring terms). Your posters will have to be well-designed and high-quality to even be noticed.

• Space – there often is not much space in which to put posters during busy periods.

Poster Rules

• Be put up using blu-tack or an equivalent and cannot be put up with Sellotape or glue.

• Cannot be put up closer together than five metres apart or on adjacent poster boards.

• Cannot be put up on glass or open brickwork. • Cannot cover up other in-date posters. • Cannot indicate that an event is open

to the general public unless previously agreed by the Union President.

• Must be removed within five College days of the event being advertised having taken place.

The places where posters are allowed to be put up are:

• The Union Building with the exception of the Student Activities Centre, Bars, Metric, activity spaces and the Union Dining Hall.

• The Junior Common Room in the Sherfield Building, apart from the window areas.

• On the communal noticeboards along the Sherfield Walkway (where there are pictures of ‘blank open notebooks’).

• Stairway noticeboards at St. Mary’s campus, on each floor.

• Glass noticeboards in the Sir Alexander Fleming Building and in UMO student post room.

• Reynolds Building first floor walls and basement walls.

• Academic departments and halls of residence with the permission of the department or hall warden.

If groups break the poster rules, your posters will be swiftly taken down and you can be fined £5 per poster.

Remember, these rules have been agreed with College, and it is more often than not College staff who keep an eye out for offending posters, so do not try to get away with it.

If you think your posters have been removed unfairly, please get in touch with the Deputy President (Clubs & Societies).

Posters & Flyers


What’s On calendar

The What’s On calendar on the Union website, imperialcollegeunion.org/whats-on is a great way to advertise events. Details of how to add items to the What’s On calendar can be found in the Operating Workbench booklet.

What events should be added?

The only events which should be added to the What’s On calendar are ones that every student can go to, regardless of whether they are a member of the Club, Society or Project hosting the event. This might be social activities, introductory sessions, concerts or performances. Please don’t put in events which only Club, Society or Project members can attend.

What should events be called?

Please put what Club, Society or Project is organising the event in the title! Some of the events in the system are ‘Taster Session’ or ‘Welcome Dinner’, which is quite vague when there are nearly 300 different groups.

Publicity


Social networking

Flickr and YouTube

Flickr and Youtube are external websites which can be used to raise your Club, Society or Project’s profile. You can upload photos or videos for people to see and get a taste of what to expect, or embed them in your Facebook event page.

If your group has got some photos or videos you would like to share, then you can upload photos to Flickr or videos to YouTube. Tagging these with IMP150 may result in your group being featured in Union or College publications, they also feed directly to the Union and College websites.

There is more to advertising than making posters and flyers, and setting up a website. You can afford to be really creative and innovative in this aspect, such as customising clothing or items related to your club activity. The College and Union have teamed up to harness the benefits of social media.

Twitter

Make sure you follow Imperial College Union on twitter @icunion, as well as the College @imperialcollege. Be sure to advertise your events and activities on twitter, the Union or College might even retweet your adverts.

Facebook

Facebook can also be used to great effect for promoting your group. It is especially good at reaching very large numbers of people. Make sure you create an official facebook group for your Club, Society or Project and keep an event page up to date. Also make sure you link your page to the offical Freshers group to advertise to new students, and don’t forget the Graduate Students’ Association group for the postgraduates.


Websites

All Clubs, Societies & Projects will have their own pages on the Union website imperialcollegeunion.org which you can edit yourselves through Workbench and where you can sell memberships and other products. It is an excellent resource for publicity and is important to keep up-to-date.

Some groups will also have a website of their own. If you want to raise the profile of your Club, Society or Project, this is an important asset to have. Importantly, it can be used to notify people about regular and special events you are holding, as well as include additional online features.

Each Club, Society & Project is entitled to some webspace on the Union webserver at www.union.ic.ac.uk. This allows for much more flexible site-building than on imperialcollegeunion.org, and for this reason is utilised by many groups.

The Webserver

The root of the website is at union.ic.ac.uk; each Management Group has it’s own sub-directory, for example union.ic.ac.uk/arts, and each Club, Society & Project is assigned a subdirectory under this, for example www.union.ic.ac.uk/arts/choir.

The webserver runs up-to-date versions of Apache, PHP and MySQL, and uploads to the site are carried out using SFTP or rsync. Database

management can be carried out using phpMyAdmin. There are some rules governing the use and management of webspace which can be found in the Union’s Web Policy.

Obtaining webspace

First, check if your Club, Society or Project already has some webspace assigned to it. Your Management Group Chair should be able to do this. If it has not, you will need to email the Union System Administrator at [email protected] and request that it be set up.

Publicity


If you need to change the list of users who are able to edit your Club, Society or Project’s webspace, you will need to email the Union System Administrator from your Club, Society or Project account stating the following:• ICT username(s) of any users requiring access• The folder you wish to edit (e.g. /arts/choir)• The reason for your request (e.g. New Club, Society or Project web-editor)

Editing webspace

Access to the webserver is by College login. However, first you need to be added to the list of authorised users as described in the previous section. Once you have been given access, you can upload files to the webserver over SFTP. A good SFTP client for Windows is WinSCP. See www.union.ic.ac.uk/sysadmin for more information.

Websites cont...

MySQL

A MySQL server is available on request that can be used in conjunction with PHP to create a dynamic website. Many Clubs, Societies & Projects use it as a back-end database to host forums, wikis or picture galleries. To have a database created, you will need to send a request to the Union Sysadmin, and tell them which Club, Society or Project it is for.

Administration of the database can be carried out using phpMyAdmin.

Important notes

All Clubs, Societies & Projects’ websites must be hosted on the Union’s server.

Clubs, Societies & Projects with existing domain names should redirect from them to their www.union.ic.ac.uk address.


Felix

Felix is the student newspaper of Imperial College, published once a week, on Fridays during term time. It is free and full of news, reviews, events, features, comments and games. The Felix Editor is a sabbatical and works full-time to ensure that Felix has healthy finances and is published every week.

Felix is probably the most widely-read publication on campus, read by virtually every student and staff member at Imperial either in its print format or online at felixonline.co.uk.

As such, felix is an excellent place to try to feature your Club, Society or Project and your events or trips. There are four main ways in which to do this:

1. Write an article

If you want to write an article, you need to remember that Felix is meant to be interesting to read.

Therefore, try to restrain yourself from sending in articles which are purely propaganda for your group or event as this is unlikely to be interesting to most people. For example, if you want to publicise a play you are putting on, an

Union Media

Publicity


article about the playwright and their works would more likely be published than something which rambles on about how wonderful your production is.

If you are a sports club and you have success in your leagues or competitions, make sure you send in reports of these as soon after the event as possible. Send articles or questions to the Felix Editor by emailing [email protected].

2. Get your event in the whats on?

If you are putting on a big event (eg. a play in the Union Concert Hall, an orchestra concert, a cultural show, an art exhibition), the event can feature in the whats on. Get in touch with [email protected] for more information.

3. Get Felix to review the event

If your event is a performance of some sort, you can get in touch with the Felix Editor and offer free reviewers tickets. You will need to do this well in advance so that there is a better chance of reviewers being available at the time you want.

4. Purchase some advertising space

If you want to be able to shamelessly plug an event, you can purchase advertising space in Felix. This will cost money.

IC Radio

IC Radio is the Union’s Radio Station which broadcasts online at icradio.com. Get in touch with the IC Radio Station Manager [email protected].

stoic tv

stoic tv is the student television station. They broadcast on TV screens in the JCR and episodes can be viewed online at stoictv.com. Contact the Station Manager for more information: [email protected]

Union Newsletter

This is a weekly email sent out to all 15,500 students. Sent on Fridays, it details events happening in and around the Union the following week or near future. Email the Union President if you want to be included in the newsletter (though there is no guarantee that you will be).

Union Media cont...

It should be remembered that Felix is a media publication. Therefore, if your group misbehaves, Felix may publish details of this so try to ensure that you feature in Felix for the right reasons!


1: www3.imperial.ac.uk/events/submiteventscalendar

College MediaThe College has a Communications department, who are responsible for College’s publicity as well as protecting the College’s reputation and brand. As a result, College media advertise events or activities which support the academic mission of the College. If an event sounds like it might be something they would be interested in covering, they can be contacted through the Central Services Manager, Alex Mckee, [email protected].

IC Reporter

This is the College newsletter, published every three weeks during term time. It provides news and highlights recent Imperial achievements, with a brief events listing. The newsletter is academic focused and submitted articles have a 300 word limit. The newsletter is circulated to all Imperial students and staff across the campuses so has a wide readership.

Events E-Bulletin

This is a weekly email from College Communications that can be subscribed to. It has an event listing around College, but its contents are of a more academic nature, such as talks or special lectures. The bulletin is also listed in the

bottom right corner of the main College Homepage. This means any visitor (prospective students, staff, visiting academics) might see this. Again, listings tend to be academic.

If you think this would be suitable for your event, then follow the instructions online1.

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Digital signage

Across the College are various forms of digital signage and advertising, mainly on screens by lifts and on the tills in commercial outlets. To have your advert appear in on one of the screens in the Union Building contact the Central Services Manager, Alex Mckee, [email protected].

For screens in the Student Hub, Ethos and tills in commercial outlets please contact the College Commercial Marketing Manager, Leena Barrett, [email protected]. For other screens please contact Sinead Caushaj in Facilities Management, [email protected].

Other ideas

• Customised clothing • Department and Hall newsletters: See

online for a complete list of Imperial halls of residences1.

• Emails: Utilise your mailing lists to let people in your group know what events you are holding. However, you need to ensure that you do not overuse them and spam people too often, as this may result in your emails going on a rule to Deleted Items.

• National press: If the event is particularly benevolent or noteworthy, then it is a good idea to get in touch with local/national media. However, keep your expectations realistic and be careful of media ‘spin’. If you have any queries

about national press attention, contact the Union President, preferably before the event takes place.

Important Things to Remember

• Plan ahead. • Do not waste money; if you spend

hundreds of pounds on printing posters and leaflets, but do consider where and when you can distribute them.

• Proof-read; no matter how professional you may want your event to appear, if there are spelling mistakes all over your publicity material, it will not be impressive.

• Shop around for the best deal. • Know who your target audience is and

play on your strengths. • Have good publicity etiquette: • Don’t put down someone else’s

event if they are at the same time. • Be organised and do not cause

stress for other groups (e.g. communicate well and in good time with Felix and stoic tv if you want them to cover your event or group).

• This will make the Club, Society or Project look good in the long term, and the event look that bit better in the short term.

• Be imaginative! There are 300 other Clubs, Societies and Projects wanting a slice of people’s time and money, you need to be able to stand out from the others.

College Media cont...

1: halls.imperial.ac.uk/


Every October around 4500 new students start at Imperial, and the Freshers' Fair provides a unique opportunity for your Club, Society or Project to engage with new people and encourage them to join in with your activities. Remember though, around half of these new students are postgraduates, so make sure you tailor what you have to offer accordingly.

Freshers' Fair occurs on the very first Tuesday of the Autumn term all over the South Kensington campus, all-day. This is the time when you can attract the most new people to your Club, Society or Project, get them on your mailing lists and get them involved in your activities. You need to ensure you make a positive impression at Freshers' Fair in order to give the Club, Society or Project a steady future.

New Students & Freshers’ Fair

All new students will be sent information from the Union before term begins, including some information about each Club, Society or Project. An issue of Felix will be waiting for each person when they move into halls, including a map of Freshers' Fair. Additionally Felix will be available to pick up around campus, also including a map.

Information which goes to new students can generally be found online, on the new students pages at www.imperial.ac.uk/students/newstudents. This is the College's main communication method for new students, so take a look to see what information they are receiving. Also, information around the start of the year which is relevant to new students will always be posted on the Union's website, imperialcollegeunion.org.

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Union brand

This section briefly outlines Imperial College Union’s branding guidelines including what fonts we use, our colour palette, correct usage of our logos and more. If you are producing publicity material if should include the Union’s logo, so it is important you use this correctly. To download the Union logos head to imperialcollegeunion.org/brand. This page also allows you to download the Union’s complete Brand Guidelines. For any questions on the material contained in this booklet, contact the Central Services Manager, Alex Mckee, at [email protected].

Logo

The Union’s Logo is one of the key parts of our graphic identity and brand. It is important the logo is used consistently and correctly in all communications. The logo is available in black or white. The older blue and orange versions should no longer be used.

Logo safe space

To ensure the logo is best represented and not cluttered there must be a minimum distance around it. This area is called the safe space.

5%100%


Union brand cont...

Font

The font used by the Union is Univers. We primarily use Univers Light for all body text and Univers Bold for titles. As Univers is a licensed font that is not a standard install, Arial should be used in place of Univers if ncessary. Where possible headings should be kerned to bring the letters together. This can be achieved by using the tracking function, or letter spacing as it is called in Microsoft Office. Typically, a kerning value of -40 is used in InDesign.

Univers Light Univers BoldFor body text. For titles.

Colour Palette

The Union’s Colour Palette is made up of Primary and Secondary colours.

Primary Colours

C 100M 94Y 0K 0

C 100M 31Y 0K 10

C 71M 10Y 1K 0

Secondary Colours

CM 100Y 0K 0

C 100M 0Y 0K 0

C 55M 55Y 55K 55

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Appendix 1 - Publicity Policy

Juridistiction

1. This policy applies to all Union activity, including commercial, welfare, representation, Clubs,Societies & Projects and other recognised groups. This includes their activities which take place beyond Imperial College London facilities and campuses.

2. Publicity material is defined as any communication electronic, paper or otherwise whose purpose is primarily to inform and engage, this may be related to an event or cause or neither. Mailing lists, websites and social media presence are all included, as are unorthodox mediums such as t-shirts, TV programs etc.

Authorising publicity material

3. No unauthorised publicity material should be distributed in any public forum. Publicity is authorised by: i. the Sabbatical Officers, ii. the Union Operations Manager and Line Managers, iii. Chairs, Captains or Presidents of Faculty and Constituent Unions, GSA, Clubs, Societies & Projects; other Union Officers and role holders within the Representation Network

4. The persons in 3 may nominate another to authorise on their behalf, but are responsible for their nominee’s actions. The President may remove the authority of anyone to authorise publicity materials.

Rules on publicity material

5. Those authorising any publicity material should ensure they adhere to the following rules, and apply them appropriately to the medium being used: i. Carry the current ICU logo and the words “Imperial College Union” or those of the relevant Faculty Union with their President’s permission. This can be found at imperialcollegunion.org/brand ii. Display the time, date and location of the event if applicable. If the


material relates to a cause or general activities an expiry date no later than 1 month after the material is used must be visible on paper publications. iii. Name the Club, Society,Project or other recognised group as a Club,Society, Project or other recognised group of Imperial College Union if applicable. iv. If a printed or physical medium be no bigger than A2 in size except under exceptional circumstances where the permission of the Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) should be sought v. Be in English only or have an English translation of anything said in a foreign language, the translation being equal or greater in prominence. vi. Not contain any offensive language, including implied offensive language. vii. Not contain material that may bring the Union or College into disrepute,is of a libellous, or potentially libellous nature or which contravenes or is likely to contravene copyrighted materials or registered trademarks. viii. Not contain material that contravenes any UK or EU law, particularly regarding The Equalities Act 2010 or the ICU Equal Opportunities Policy. ix. Not contravene the Equal Opportunities Policy. x. Comply with the College Code of Practice on Freedom of Speech where relevant, when in doubt seek the opinion of the DPCS xi. Not indicate that an event is open to the general public unless previously agreed by the Union President. xii. Indicate if an event is likely not to take place if a minimum number of attendees is not reached or other limiting criteria are not met xiii. Be put on the Union What’s On Calendar, unless open to club members only xiv. Distributing publicity material whose content is produced by groups or organisations external to the Union or College is not usually permitted. Petitions to permit it must be made to the President via the Deputy President (Clubs & Societies)

6. When posters are put up they must: i. Be put up using blu-tack or an equivalent and be properly secured. ii. Not be put up with Sellotape or glue. iii. Not be put up closer together than 5 metres apart or on adjacent poster boards iv. Not be put up on glass or open brickwork v. Not be put up over other in-date posters vi. Be removed within 5 College days of the event being advertised having taken place.

Appendix 1 cont...

Publicity


7. When fliers are distributed they must: i. be handed to individual students or be left in position with clearance from the area authoriser - flier distribution should never cause a littering problem ii. make every effort to comply with the environmental policy regarding minimising waste and environmental impact iii. not be mail dropped in departmental or hall pigeonholes without explicit permission from the Department or Warden iv. not be distributed in halls or departments without permission of the Department or Warden

Electronic media

In relation to electronic media: i. Facebook groups/events should be moderated to disallow inappropriate comments wherever possible and groups should note that in using the College name they have the ability to bring the College into disrepute. ii. Responses to facebook events may be taken as an indicative guest list for events, and may be used as such iii. Fictitious online profiles must not be used, profiles created for publicity of specific events must be in accordance with the requirements in section 5 iv. All websites created for specific publicity purposes should be hosted on the Union’s servers v. Publicity videos and photographic material should apply the requirements of section 5 as appropriate to the medium. Videos and photos uploaded to YouTube and Flickr should be tagged IMP150

Publicity stunts

In relation to publicity stunts: i. May not occur on the Queen’s Lawn, Queen’s Lawn Terrace, Prince’s Gardens or Upper Dalby Court without the consent of the College Secretary ii. Should never be offensive or dangerous – including contravening Health & Safety considerations. A risk assessment must have been submitted and approved.

Appendix 1 cont...


iii. Have appropriate permissions sought as required, this includes lecture theatre advertising where the lecturer’s permission must be sought

Locations

9. The Union, under the Code of Practice with the College, is responsible for student noticeboards along the Sherfield walkway. Without further permission posters may also be placed: i. on Union Building poster boards with the exception of the bar areas and the Union Dining Hall and those covered in glass ii. The Junior Common Room pillars, but not glass, in the Sherfield Building iii. Stairway noticeboards at St. Mary’s, on each floor. iv. Glass notice boards at SAF and in UMO student post room. v. Reynolds First floor walls and basement walls.

10. Permission should be sought from the Head of Department or Warden to display posters in Halls of Residence or Departments.

Silwood

11. Posters may be put up in any areas at Silwood which are under management control of the Union or used for Union activity. Posters may put elsewhere in compliance with any rule set by the relevant Head of Department or Warden. 12. The Silwood Union Committee may make such amendments to these rules, including on content and approval of posters as they see fit for their campus, though not any permitting offensive, disreputable or libellous posters.

External posters

13. External organisations may only put up posters with the permission of the Union President. Students may only put up posters on behalf of external organisations with explicit permission of the President.

Appendix 1 cont...

Publicity


Election publicity

14. Election posters must be authorised by the Returning Officer. They do not require the Union’s name or details of events (unless that particular election requires it). They must not use any College, Union or Constituent College Union insignia, including crests and logos. 15. Elections posters are expected to adhere to the other poster rules above, and any additional ones laid down by the Returning Officer or elections committee.

Enforcement

16. Where any publicity material is deemed in breach of this policy it must be removed within 24 hours. The disciplinary policy may be invoked as a consequences of any breach, especially those with reputational impact on the Union or the College. 17. A £5 per violation fine may be issued to any student group or other part of the Union by the Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) if the contents of this policy are not adhered to. . This will include per e-mail sent, per poster and per flyer fines. This will be considered a summary punishment under the Union Disciplinary Policy, and is subject to appeal.

Exemption

18. The President may exempt a person or constituent part of the Union from any of these rules, except those requiring use of English and prohibiting offensive, disreputable or libellous publicity.

Appendix 1 cont...

Imperial College UnionBeit QuadranglePrince Consort RoadLondon SW7 2BB

Tel: 020 7594 8060Fax: 020 7594 8065Email: [email protected]: @icunionimperialcollegeunion.org

Publicity v2

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