can everyone help me with some input for my job? :)

I work at a museum in a department store. I work for the Hudson's Bay Company, which is Canada's oldest company (it was around before Canada even existed) and was part of the fur trade back in the 16 and 1700s. We have guest speakers come into the gallery every month, and I'm working on a proposal to give to my boss about how to advertise it. We have had some pretty well known people come in, but no one shows up because up until now, there has been almost no advertising. So what I need from people: what grabs your attention? Posters? newsletters? I need to know what would make you want to come to a session at the gallery. We have talks about company/canadian history, fur trade, Victoria history, etc. But at this point, I want to know how to best advertise these speakers. If you could all give me input on what works for you to make you stop and read a poster/newsletter/etc, that would be really great :)

PS - I hope this all makes sense.. I'm kinda sleepy :p

Well, I don't know how much this is going to help to grab EVERYONE -- but what ALWAYS grabs my attention is something with an animal on it. Commercials, TV shows, billboards, newspaper -- anything with an animal grabs my attention everytime.

In fact, when flipping through channels on TV and there's a commercial with an animal on it, I stop and watch until the commercial is over. :p

Hehe.. well maybe I can get a picture of a beaver on it :p that's really the only animal that relates at all to my work!!! :D

Thanks! good suggestions

With our business local radio is the best bang for the buck. We had a remote once to get people to know to get to the show room. I know you have government radio so I don't know if it would work for you. Also the small free papers that you pay for the ad works well , usally fairly inexpensive.
Flyers to civic groups that have something to do with the speakers talk are good to.
You sound like you have a terrfic job. I worked in a home store that carried rustic cabin themes we had quite a few of the items from the Hudson bay store . I sure miss that job I was manager and did alot of the ads and sales decsions it was fun. Too bad my boss was not much of an accountant and lost it all to the bank and creditors.
Hope i helped some , things can be different in the 2 countries shame since we are so close and have the same ideals. Good Luck you'll have to post the speakers here as I travel alot lately maybe I could plan a business trip around getting to one. It would be fun and I could meet you.

radio is a great idea - I hadn't even thought of that! Thanks!

Once I get a newsletter design, I will post it here :)

Yes, like Corrina said, radio is a great medium for telling the world about your beaver! ;) You might even get free coverage on community radio too and be able to talk on air about the exhibition.

The "what's on" sections of newspapers and local papers are also good.

What demographic is your usual visitor? Maybe ask a few about how they look for things to do and follow their lead :)

It depends also on the budget. Radio is much more expensive than print. How about regular ads in magazines like -how is it called in Vancouver -"Georgia Straight"???- that you can find in pubs, restaurants and hotels and that give you all the information about what's on in that week.
You need a design for the campaign that is always the same -for all ads, so people will know what to expect after some time.

It sounds interesting: I would come!

We have a museum here that hosts tea parties. They make the whole thing pretty old fashioned. They employees all dress in the corsets, long dresses, hats, etc... Maybe taking that stance, and then putting flyers out inviting people for tea and a guest speaker. I'd look at a few other museum websites and see if you can get ideas off of their special events. Here is our museum's website... http://www.mchenrymuseum.org/

.... We have guest speakers come into the gallery every month, ... what grabs your attention? Posters? newsletters? I need to know what would make you want to come to a session at the gallery. We have talks about company/canadian history, fur trade, Victoria history, etc. if you have access to the mailing list of the museum, i'd consider getting a season in advance listing of all the speakers and mailing that list to the local historical groups, vintage clothing shops, libraries, the local colleges, in particular the history departments, things like that. i've done a few mass mailings and it does get the word out. hope this helps

Also poll those who come to your talks, to find out which ways of advertising works best.

I would leave flyers at local libuarys and any local history groups.

Flyers should be bold design with simple phrases. :D

Also ask those who attend your talks to fill in simple form if they want to be added to a mailinglist.

Then you can mailshot interested parties with the details
of future talks.

Contact both the Local AND Out-of-Town Bus Tour Companies -
they are always looking for "events" to generate interest in their tours.

Alert the local Chamber of Commerce and/or Tourisim Bureau...
the folks who work on bringing Tourists into the area.

And there's probably a Governmental web site that promotes
Canadian Tourism...

Do some http://www.google.com searches with "tourist" and
regional Place Names...
then go to the hit sites and see if they might be interested
in promoting your events.

/s/ Phred

Thanks everyone :)

Some of these things we have already looked into, so hopefully we will have success.

Thanks for all the ideas, though - keep them coming! I will definatly look into these suggestions :)