Flyering / Postering Etiquette

By David Barber
Commotion Music Promotion, Inc.

Your band has a gig coming up, you've printed up stacks of flyers and posters and now you need to get them out there where people will see them. Seems fairly easy, right? You just staple or tape up posters hand out a bunch of flyers and sit back and wait for the crowds to roll in. Right? Sure. Just be careful and avoid a few simple mistakes.

First off, never put up posters for your show at venue A inside venue B. Postering space is limited inside any venue, even the ones that let you tape it up anywhere you want. They aren't going to be excited to see posters advertising a show at another venue. Same goes for flyering. Don't put out free tickets for your upcoming Herman's show on all the tables at your Dove show. Likewise, don't plaster the restroom at the Cricket with posters for your show at the Toad. This kind of behavior is simply discourteous to the venue you do it in and likely will result in them being less inclined to book you there again.

Is there a way around that? Yes. It's usually acceptable to mention your upcoming gigs while you are on stage. It's also acceptable to walk around the room and personally hand your flyers to people you know or have just met, as long as they don't immediately drop them on the floor and walk away. "Put this in your pocket." is a good way to handle it. Also a poster that has been printed up with a month's worth of shows can be safely hung in most venues without fear of pissing anyone off. It's not gonna stay on the wall past your gig in that venue, but if you post it a couple weeks beforehand, it might be helpful.

Along the same lines, it's not cool to flyer outside of most local music venues. Don't put them on all the cars in the parking lot, unless it's for a gig at that venue. Don't hand them out to patrons leaving a venue unless it's for an upcoming gig at that venue. A major exception to this rule is to hand them out as people are leaving a large concert venue. Hang on the sidewalk out in front of the Fillmore or the Pepsi center when a compatible national act is playing and hand out your flyers. It's an excellent way to build your fan base.

Don't run afoul of the law. In many cities it is against the law to put up posters on telephone poles, etc. A few cities even enforce these laws. You can be certain that they will know exactly what band is responsible, by simply reading the poster or coming to the show.

Always bear in mind that your promotional activities can also reflect upon the venue. If you plaster all the cars in front of Herbs with flyers for your show at the Skylark, the management of one place may well call the other to complain. Remember, venue owners and booking people do talk to each other, even while competing. Word can spread quickly, so try not to piss these people off.

What Makes A Good Poster?

By David Barber
Commotion Music Promotion, Inc.

Every band that promotes itself (and if yours doesn't, you're already wasting your time by reading this), has dealt with the problem of posters. Some bands get lucky and discover an artist who is also a band member, friend or relative who will design cool posters for free or cheap. Many bands, though, struggle with this. Even the one's who have a professional graphic artist in their midst sometimes lose perspective and put out posters that, while they are cool or like works of art, are completely worthless when it comes to promoting the gig.

That's the bottom line: The poster's sole purpose is to promote the gig(s). Don't forget that. It doesn't matter how cool the artwork is, if people can't see it or can't read the important details, it's not doing the job.

We have a friend who collects old psychedelic era concert posters. They are expensive, the art is terrific and some are very rare. You know, the ones from The Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Did you ever try to read one of them? Even at full size and up close in good lighting, it's sometimes nearly impossible to read the names of the bands, the venue, and the date. While it's cool to have those as collectors items now, they were nearly worthless at getting the word out about the gig.

Here's our rule of thumb: All the information should be easy to read from at least six feet away in a dark smoky bar. If you can't see the name of the band (or an easily recognized logo), the date and location, what's point?

Now, sometimes you have to decide where the posters will hang before you can make the call. If they are on telephone poles and you're hoping drivers will see them, then there's no point in using any fine print. If they will hang in coffee shops, which are usually well lighted, then maybe you can expect curious patrons to step in closer and read a little more. A short description of the music is a great idea. That way, someone who isn't already familiar with the band could become interested. Potential new fans want to know what kind of music you play, so even if you have to make something up, put it down. Even something as simple as "Rock" will work most of the time and it's way better than nothing. If you can't describe your music, you've got bigger problems. (We'll write an article on that one later) A website address is helpful, too.

When designing a poster, you also need to think about printing. Making full color 11" x 17" copies at Kinkos gets expensive pretty fast. So think about what that same poster would look like at 8.5" x 11" in black & white or black ink on colored paper. Make sure the design will not be ruined by B&W printing. If you're gonna send your posters out in electronic format to venues or street teams out of town, you better expect them to be printed in B&W.

Make A Generic Poster: This will save you lots of time and cash in the long run. Make one cool poster design with a big blank white space at the bottom (about 1/4 to 1/3 of the poster) and have 1,000 of them printed up in full color at a professional print shop You can use them for any gig for years. Just don't put a photo of the band on there unless you're certain nobody will leave the band before you can use them all up. CD cover artwork is perfect for this.

Don't be afraid to experiment. Have fun with your poster design and play around with things. Just remember what it's for and it'll be that much more effective.