If a Registered Student Organization or university department has trouble bringing people to their event, The Flor-Ala is here to help.

The Flor-Ala is launching a new advertising campaign for RSOs and departments to promote their events this fall called Promote-It!.

Promote-It! involves a package deal that allows organizations to get the word out across campus and bring as many students, faculty, staff and alumni to their events as possible.

“The whole idea behind Promote-It! is to help boost attendance for RSO events,” said Business Manager Justin Blanchard. “This allows the organizations to be more exposed to the student body and to increase their audience.”

The Flor-Ala will utilize its design team to create 80 posters, which the staff will print and distribute all throughout campus for the RSO or department.

“I think it’s a bargain because of the designers, if nothing else,” said Student Media advisor Scott Morris. “We have trained people who can design all the elements of a great poster.”

In addition, the event will receive a quarter-page ad in The Flor-Ala, a listing in the calendar of events in both the paper and on the website and a Facebook and Twitter notification to nearly 5,000 followers.

“One of the issues on campus is that RSOs get funding for events, but don’t always have a lot of people there,” Morris said. “We can help them promote it with posters, and we have thousands of followers on Facebook and Twitter — plus the thousands of readers we have for online and print.”

The cost for the package is $250. Interested parties can contact Blanchard at 256-765-4427 or [email protected].

Two of the biggest perks of Promote-It! are saving the organization the burden of advertising their event while using top-notch designers and a strong platform to get the word out, Morris said.

“We do all of the leg-work for them,” he said. “They may not have that expertise in designing posters. Getting it printed takes time, and then putting them up is a big problem. They just write the check, and we do all the work.”

A well-thought out design could be the difference in gaining and losing an audience, said Graphic Designer Michael Meigs.

“By having a creative design, and by using it effectively, it alone can make the reader look more into the event and become more interested,” Meigs said.

With a rapid decrease in advertising sales in many print media companies, Blanchard said Promote-It! helps fill an income gap, but more importantly helps The Flor-Ala’s clientele gain a stronger audience through our platform.

“We brainstormed new ways to increase our income and to help our clients to advertise their event,” Blanchard said. “This will be very beneficial for audience attendance.”