Cling to your message.Similar to many organizations, the Association Forum of Chicagoland The Association Forum of Chicagoland is a non-profit professional organization for association professionals and supplier-partners. As of 2007, it serves over 4,000 members. had a history of marketing its annual trade show, Holiday Showcase, through a variety of mass mailings. Members, past attendees, and prospects received as many as five mailed copies of the event brochure and three e-mail blasts prior to the show. And while the results of these mailings remained constant, expenses began to rise. So the association decided that it was time to try something new. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A new strategy. In 2004, the forum changed its strategy and slashed slash v. slashed, slash·ing, slash·es v.tr. 1. To cut or form by cutting with forceful sweeping strokes: slash a path through the underbrush. 2. its marketing budget by 25 percent. Part of the new strategy was to market the event from the "inside out" and limit the number of mass mailings. The association worked with ABS (Automatic Backup System) See backup program. Graphics, Chicago, to create a limited quantity of static-cling posters, which it distributed to associations in the Chicago area to help promote the Holiday Showcase. Two hundred forum members received the poster with a letter that invited them to post it on their office doors, windows, or cubicles cubicles individual cow bed spaces separated by half height and half length partitions. Usually located in loose housing cow accommodation in which the cow is free to wander at will. . The letter also encouraged them to move the poster around the office from day to day and show it to their colleagues. A great result. The poster was a phenomenal success on multiple fronts. It created a buzz within the association community because it was a daily, visible reminder of the upcoming trade show. Members were excited to learn about a new way to promote a program or event that requires no adhesive adhesive, substance capable of sticking to surfaces of other substances and bonding them to one another. The term adhesive cement is sometimes used in place of adhesive, especially when referring to a synthetic adhesive. and can be easily removed. While the cost for the static-cling poster was higher than traditional posters, the payoff was great. The new marketing tool enabled the forum to get inside 200 associations and market the Holiday Showcase at a lower overall cost than in years past. --Sheri Jacobs, CAE (1) (Computer-Aided Engineering) Software that analyzes designs which have been created in the computer or that have been created elsewhere and entered into the computer. , director of membership and marketing, Association Forum of Chicagoland; jacobs@associationforum.org |
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