MARKETING THE SUGARLOAF ART SHOW
Claudia Diller, July 2019
UpCountry Artists is currently gearing up to advertise for the upcoming Sugarloaf Art Show. As is always the case, the more you as individual artists share our information out there, the better the response will be for the show. Sugarloaf already attracts a lot of skiers during that weekend because it is their skier’s homecoming. We would like to try to get art collectors to attend too. It is usually peak foliage during that weekend, so we try to advertise that as a come see and stay.
ADS
Last year we tried AAA travel Magazine New England, Portland Magazine, Memories of Maine, Down East Magazine, The Sugarloaf Ski Club Homecoming newsletter, The Irregular Homecoming issue, and Sugarloaf’s homecoming material and events page on their web site.
It was determined that the only advertising that seemed to get results were ads in Down East Magazine, The Sugarloaf Ski Club Homecoming newsletter with an accompanying article, and the Irregular which also featured an article about us. This year we are trying Maine’s High Peaks Guide Book. We were represented in this publication with an article as well as an ad.
SIGNS
Signage for the show was enhanced with yard signs at the base of the Sugarloaf Access Road on Route 27 along with posters around the base area, as well as the sandwich board in the courtyard near the base lodge. We are hoping to put up an art show banner on Route 27 also to attract non-skiers. Unfortunately, Sugarloaf has a strict sign ordinance, so we won’t know whether or not we can do this until they give us a go ahead.
DISTRIBUTION
We will have rack cards and posters to hang. I have found in my experience that there is sometimes only room for a rack card, so if you are going to help us distribute, we’ll send both. We will also have rack cards at the Gardner Visitors Center, and I am asking any vendors at the Common Ground Country Fair to take some rack cards along with them. We ask you to please help us out with this. Please contact me if you would like to help distribute in your area. Please contact Claudia@claudiadiller.com or call 207.874.0292 if you want rack cards and/or posters to distribute in your area.
I will also provide everyone with a jpeg poster image, which will include show info to email to your customers and to use on Facebook, Twitter, etc. I post before and during the show. People need to be reminded A LOT!
COOP ADVERTISING
It has been suggested by members that we might try coop advertising with our members. We will try to come up with a format for this idea for next year. Any suggestions, please contact Claudia@claudiadiller.com or call 207.874.0292. Another idea is to attach a surcharge to the show fee so that we have more funding to run larger ads.
We are trying to stick to a single image to help us with branding this show. We use the same image – a new work every year, on all of our material. This year we will be using Doug Frati’s work.
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