The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

This seems the perfect chance to utilize social media – Twitter, You Tube, etc. – in a way that would connect with some of the younger artists and audiences. It could be quite fun! Lots of ways to quip about “Who let the Dawgs out,” “Unleash the Dawgs,” “Dawg Fight,” “Ain’t Nothing But a Hound Dawg,” and a bunch of other light-hearted stuff to start piquing curiosity and raising awareness, getting people involved, etc.

How about get with a local rescue and have dog adoption center. Invite buldog rescue and other breeds to hang out with the “dawg” lovers. THe media loves animal stories.
It would be community service, and draw attention to your fun event.

Contact travel columns in local papers – since it’s summer people will be looking for things to do. As soon as you have pictures available make colorful flyers and pass them out to local hotels and motels. See if travel magazines have a website you can post to even if you’ve missed the deadline for the next print issue.

I have a couple of ideas for you. One is to make sure your talking to the local, regional and state tourism offices. Make sure you’ve got pictures that they too can post and use on their website.

With the price of gas you can surely get folks from the surrounding communities to come visit if you package it with some other attraction/exhibit in the area that makes it sort of a “two for one” kind of deal, especially if yours is FREE.

Make sure you’ve got a map (either printed or downloadable on your website…i must admit I haven’t looked yet…so people can find all of the locations).

Check out what Louisville did a few years back: http://www.louisvilleky.gov/Mayor/News/2004/Gallopalooza+Horses+Auctioned+for+Charity.htm

See if you can get the artists to post photos of their project (blog about it, too). Make sure the businesses are doing the same. (My suggestion would be to write something generic for the artist and something different for the businesses where they can fill in the blanks with the info that applies to them. If they modify or add that’s okay, it just takes the work off of them) Here are some examples: http://www.equinebatikart.com/Gallopalooza.htm
http://www.featoflouisville.org/home/gallopalooza.asp

Good luck!

Google “bulldog rescue” for several states around you
as well as the Bulldog Club of America and the bulldog meet up groups. The bulldog is also the mascot for the University of Georgia(as well as other places), maybe look for an alumni message board.
I’d also recommend posting a flyer at animal shelters in nearby larger cities, they promote dogs shows and cat shows and other pet activities. You could extend this to larger boarding and grooming
places.
You will probably attract some dog people in general this way, not just bulldog lovers.

My idea is to use interaction, voting, contests, etc.

Promote this as a family event with mini dawgs that kids can purchase and paint at the kick off (or related events) to take home. At minimum, host a coloring contest of dawgs and select a winner. Every festival we go to, my kids always want to enter a contest or color something.

One more thought is to have Ferris State tie-in with the event and promote it with alumni. Perhaps alumni could vote for their favorite dawg.

Once you get the sponsors together, how about putting together a joint flyer including special events or offers beyond those that your group is planning? The goal would be to increase the likelihood of visitors going into the stores instead of just walking by to view the dawgs. You could also post a downloadable version on everyone’s websites or include it with maps.

It’s a simple idea, and some sponsors may come up with it on their own, but this helps make a more unified message.

Example: Salon offers a coupon for a massage/pedi for dawg tired feet after all the walking around town, restaurant offers special on their hot dawgs.

Good luck! (from a fellow Michigander BTW)

Cheryl Pickett
http://www.publishinganswers.com