Is the flyer dead?

I do both…on a regular basis. For just local DJ shows i stick with only electronic as my following has already been made and they all know exactly what to expect for my resident shows that i promote.

However for shows where i bring a headliner in we have a crew that goes out and does paper flyering. Paper flyering is always going to be more effective imo.

walking around with a stack of posters you get a lot more public exposure other than people already on your mailing/facebook/twitter list. All the people on these lists already know about your shows…and so if they want to go they will.

You need to hit people outside of your normal community to expand and get more of a following. As well I find i often will sell most of my hard copy tickets to people i dont know walking around stapling flyers than i will just bombarding webpages.

The industry here is really cut throat and there are other promo companies that actually pay the homeless people to rip down other companies flyers…and no i am not joking.

I think if I threw an event and printed up flyers, I honestly would not know where to leave them now. Seems like stores that used to allow flyers have stopped, and others who still do have a mess on their hands from them.

I personally think digital flyers on social media is probably the most popular way to promote. The problem is too many overkill with the spamming of people, like when they tag everyone in the flyer image or attempt to post it on walls or send it via private message.

I’ll be honest that I’m a jerk in that I’ll block people from tagging me and will report PMs with club ads as spam, even if it means they get blocked by the site. This is the age when you had better put some thought and effort into your party plans if you want people to come, and you had better be ready to recruit the popular socialites to get all the sheep to come out.

Biggest mistakes I still see made in event planning are:

• Picking an easily-available venue over the right venue. A bar/club that’s off the beaten path and empty all the time is empty for a reason…and your throwing an event there might not help that.
• Booking too many DJs
• Putting only you and your unknown DJ pals on the lineup, pushing yourselves like superstars, but no one really cares because they don’t know who you are.
• Not booking DJs who will play to the crowd, as opposed to lining up DJs who play to themselves and thus clear out the room.
• Not building atmosphere or a vibe. If you want to charge $20 cover, then you had better have a fashionable place with booths, bottles, etc…or some major name headlining in the booth. If you want no cover and a relaxed vibe, then build that as opposed to attempting to please markets who won’t come to your event.
• Creating the wrong marketing materials. So if you want a relaxed evening with cool music, don’t put hot gold-digger-looking models in lingerie on your flyer. Don’t put your picture on the flyer unless you as a DJ can be a draw.

I think both is the way to go if you can swing it. Electronic because of ease of distribution and tracking how many people click it/see it/like it, etc. Paper, because holding something physical in your hand and reading it drives home the message at a much deeper level than just another ad crossing your computer screen.