Community Newspapers

Stonewall · August 19, 2007, 07:12:35 AM

Ever submit a CAP ad in a local newspaper? I've done it several times for free. Lots of local newspapers have a public service announcement section just for things like this. It's not a lot, but the target audience included parents who may have been prior members who now have kids. It worked more than a few times, and if it's free, why not?

Here's what I posted in the Fairfax Times...

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Civil Air Patrol is looking for young adults, ages 12 to 17 to join our ranks. Interested in aviation? Or maybe the military? If so, the Civil Air Patrol Cadet Program is for you. If you're looking for a challenge, join us for an informative introduction to Civil Air Patrol, the official civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force. Meet CAP cadets and hear first-hand what it's like to be a cadet. Learn about the incredible opportunities CAP has to offer, including flight training, leadership development, search and rescue, military drill, and much more. We'll explain all the benefits of belonging to one of America's finest youth programs.
Visit the Fairfax Squadron on September 15th at 8:00 pm during our open house. Fairfax meets every Monday from 7:00 to 9:15 pm at the Fairfax American Legion, 3939 Oak Street in Fairfax. For more information call (703) 742-XXXX or write fairfaxsquadron@comcast.net, and be sure to visit the squadron website at www.fairfaxsquadron.org

mikeylikey · August 19, 2007, 07:29:34 AM

How about advertising on pizza boxes? The national guard does it in most states. It was very popular with the Navy a few years back as well. I am sure it was mostly in larger markets, not so much in rural communities.

dwb · August 19, 2007, 12:40:53 PM

I've always been a proponent of more targeted advertising. Putting stuff in the local paper is great, and I definitely recommend it, but if you're looking to recruit, do something more targeted.

For instance, putting brochures and a copy of Volunteer in the local FBOs and flight schools to get pilots.

Or making contact with guidance counselors in a couple local middle schools and having them refer students interested in aviation or the Air Force.

CAP attracts particular kinds of people, it's not an organization that everyone wants to join. If you're going to spend your own time and money, you might as well try to aim at the people more willing to listen to you.

Stonewall · August 19, 2007, 12:56:08 PM

I absolutely agree, Dan. This was just a small suggestion that is probably neglected because some may consider it too difficult or cost money.

Another thing I've done that worked really well, brought in at least 4 or 5 potential members to the open houses, was to mail out 10 of the better quality CAP pamphlets to local libraries for their community awareness pamphlet area. In some cases, I'd drop them off personally, but make sure you get permission. On the brochures themselves, I'd use the 2" X 4" address labels and put contact info as well as a date for an upcoming openhouse. I'd do this about a month before the planned open house.

And then, of course, we had the 8.5" x 11" simple "posters" I got from Ninness that we plastered around schools, community centers and anywhere else that would let us put "public service announcements".

See attachment below.

addo1 · August 19, 2007, 07:31:19 PM

Awesome idea!

NIN · August 20, 2007, 03:31:19 PM

Quote from: mikeylikey on August 19, 2007, 07:29:34 AM
How about advertising on pizza boxes? The national guard does it in most states. It was very popular with the Navy a few years back as well. I am sure it was mostly in larger markets, not so much in rural communities.

Did that with the local Dominos. Put a 1/2 sheet flyer on the box for a week. Never did get a good feel for the "market penetration."

NIN · August 20, 2007, 03:41:14 PM

Here are the two flyers we're using for this next go-around.

They're pretty effective, you can print up about a million of 'em and they work as a bulletin board post, a store window, a hand out flyer, they can be folded up, etc....

dwb · August 20, 2007, 03:51:26 PM

Dude, your last web site update was in March? Tsk tsk. I'd remove the URL from the flyer unless the web site will be better post haste.

NIN · August 20, 2007, 03:53:55 PM

Quote from: justin_bailey on August 20, 2007, 03:51:26 PM
Dude, your last web site update was in March? Tsk tsk. I'd remove the URL from the flyer unless the web site will be better post haste.

Technical issues. That's being fix0rd this week.

Al Sayre · August 20, 2007, 04:06:01 PM

Those flyers are great! You wouldn't have the Word copies of those so we could blatantly plagarize them would you?

Stonewall · August 20, 2007, 04:15:29 PM

Al,

I know mine is B&W, but it worked just as well and it's in Word. I found it easier in B&W because I'd print them on a quality printer then use the quality photocopier at work and make, oh, about a thousand of them. I went so far as to keep them in my car, see a 12 or 13 year old get out of the car with their parents at Target and then throw one on their windshield.

Color ones are better, of course, but I had to go with what I got.

Al Sayre · August 20, 2007, 04:29:20 PM

Thanks Kirt,

I think I'm going blind in my old age... Yours was what I was looking for, I really just needed the format.

NIN · August 20, 2007, 06:09:42 PM

Quote from: Al Sayre on August 20, 2007, 04:29:20 PM
Thanks Kirt,

I think I'm going blind in my old age... Yours was what I was looking for, I really just needed the format.

Al,

http://www.cadetstuff.org/archives/000115.html#000115

If you go to NHQ and order up recruiting material, they link there, too, for "posters you can print yourself."

Don't forget the 2 fonts you need.

I'm famous. *cough*

(Full disclosure: The original "Fall In" poster was designed and executed by Lt Col Matt Johnson for the San Francisco Cadet Squadron 86 in Adobe Illustrator. Since Illustrator is not terribly accessible by the great unwashed masses, but Word is, I "re-did" the concept in Word so that you could change it if you wanted to. the "Take Off" poster is another version, cribbed from Matt's Fall in concept..)

Al Sayre · August 20, 2007, 08:31:07 PM

Thanks NIN!

genejackson · August 20, 2007, 09:15:54 PM

Those posters from National are great. I've downloaded them and changed the names/addy as needed for different squadrons in my Group. One other thing we found very helpful was to print them as posters (3' x 4') and put on kiosks at local malls. I am fortunate to have a HP 650C plotter that prints in color and it makes wonderful posters. Got it at an auction of school computers and nobody bid on it so they put it outside for the trash man. I guess they didn't know what this monster was.

We've found that most every mall was very accomodating to having posters placed on one of their boards for something as worthwhile as CAP.

One other thing we've done is put these posters next to one of our crash targets. I have a C152 fuselage and two wings. I put it on an 18' trailer and set it up as if it went nose down into the ground. We use it for our aircrews to train on so that they see the real deal from 1000' agl as opposed to a tarp or parachute, etc. Very realistic training. Since every car that passes see this airplane nose down to the ground, these posters are great advertisement.

Gene

NIN · August 21, 2007, 01:07:47 AM

Quote from: genejackson on August 20, 2007, 09:15:54 PM
One other thing we've done is put these posters next to one of our crash targets. I have a C152 fuselage and two wings. I put it on an 18' trailer and set it up as if it went nose down into the ground. We use it for our aircrews to train on so that they see the real deal from 1000' agl as opposed to a tarp or parachute, etc. Very realistic training. Since every car that passes see this airplane nose down to the ground, these posters are great advertisement.

For a number of years, we wanted to find an old clapped out 152 or 140 or something and do something similar: make the wings removeable (tailplanes, too, since a 152s horizontal stab is 10' wide) and park the whole shebang on a trailer for various purposes:

SAREX: roll it off the trailer, remove the nosegear (with the area under the prop/cowling conveniently reinforced for this purpose), nose the thing over in a field and place the wings convincingly on the ground.

Aerospace: Demonstrate controls (cables/bellcranks), and aircraft structure. Making the wings removeable would make this interesting. Make some panels removeable. You could do the whole "preflight" part of Flight 1 at a meeting, for instance.

Recruiting: Hang the wings on it and leave it on the trailer and drag it along your pre-surveyed parade route with the prop lazily turning (electric motor) and 2 cadets inside waving at the crowd. Or park it out in front of your meeting place with the strobes going on the wing tips and the tail and your squadron's recruiting banners hanging from each wing.. That would be an attention getter.