As an event organizer, you pull out all stops to create a fantastic event. You make sure that venue is perfect, the music creates the right ambience and there is sufficient staff to handle registrations, greet the guests and generally maintain a sense of order amongst the chaos. After all, of these efforts, to ensure that you gain your target audience attention and push them to book or register for your event instantly, it is important to select your advertising medium very carefully.

When deciding your adverting medium, you need to consider the following – ‘who is your target audience’, ‘where they are located’ and ‘which advertising medium will deliver your message to them effectively’. Next, consider the pros and cons of each mediums. Here are four popular advertising mediums and their pro and cons:

Verbal Advertising ‘Grapevine’
Word of mouth aka gossip is one of the most effective and oldest forms of advertising. Most of us, unconsciously advertise for products and services of brands we trust. Every time, we recommend Surf Excel as a washing powder or Levis as a jeans brand or Honda as a car to our friends and family, we are providing these brands with a verbal testimonial that encourages them to purchase these brands. As an event organizer, you can take advantage of this unconscious human behavior to promote your event. Once your event details are finalized, mention the event to friends, family, colleagues and associates; 85% of them will mention it to their friends, family, colleagues and associates and so on, and so forth. Without spending a dime, you can create awareness about your event.

PS. This form of promotion is most effective with events like concerts that appeal to a large audience.

Print Advertising ‘Go Local’
One of the most commonly used methods of advertising is Print. There are numerous types of print advertising – billboards, newspapers, magazines, flyers, posters etc. This is an effective method of communicating to a selected audience because they are limited to a specific region, area or a particular consumer profile. For example: If you are organizing an Auto Exhibition, by posting an ad in an auto magazine, you can effectively reach all the enthusiasts out there. Other advantages of print advertising are - it is less expense that audiovisual advertising and there is a fixed consumer base so there is less wastage. A campaign that runs on TV reaches the general masses, there is no guarantee that your target audience will see it and it is expense.

Audi-Visual Advertising ‘Communicating to the Masses’
TV and Radio are two of the most popular mediums amongst the general masses. If the target audience for your event is the general masses, then either of these mediums will reach them effectively. However, advertising on TV or radio is expensives so unless you are organizing a concert or an exhibition, this form of advertising is not recommended.

Online Advertising ‘Communicating to the Masses’
Online Advertising is growing in popularity as more and more people go online to search for information, communicate with friends and family located abroad, generally surf and play games. You can effectively target these online users with online banners, posting information about your event on social networking sites, emails etc. (Tip: Post a banner on the website that your target audience visits most frequently.) The biggest benefit of advertising online is your ability to link all your advertisement to your event website. Thus, enabling interested visitors to learn more about your event and book or register immediately through your event website. This will enable you to capture and confirm registrations immediately.

Any of these advertising mediums will help you build awareness about your event provided that you use them effectively. So, carefully consider who your target audience is and where they are located before deciding on an adverting medium.

P.S. Always keep in mind that unless your target audience knows about your event, they will not register or attend.