There’s no easy way to get the word out about something. Unless you are tight buddies with Josh Hinkle or have the money to scrape together an ad to run in the local newspaper, you are stuck with word of mouth, and maybe a few fliers at a few businesses.
We have tried, oh boy, have we tried. Justin (our staffing/promoting coordinator) has slaved for hours marking up maps, typing out lists, dealing with Copyworks (who apparently have to take one hour to print out one map) and making copies of fliers for us.
We have this whole plan of the Nexus Map of Evil Conquest. The last section of the city that I got assigned to distribute fliers to was the Lindale Mall area, and consisted of 19 stores that might let us put fliers up.
The only problem with this master plan is this: the list of places that will let us leave flyers is tiny. Miniscule, compared to the size of Cedar Rapids and all of the businesses that we have. Not to mention many of the places that one might think would be happy to promote local events (such as Journeys, the uber-hip shoe store in the mall or Panera Bread) had to turn us away, telling us that they wouldn’t be able to let people pick up fliers even for one day. That’s the one thing that really gets to us.
I’ve noticed many people complain that there is nothing to do in Cedar Rapids, and if they want to do anything then they have to make the half-hour drive to Iowa City. It’s not just highschoolers that complain, either. I (along with other members of the staff) have noticed adults crabbing, too. But we are trying our hardest to get this information out there.
One week, countless hours and a few tanks of gas later and our whole staff has plastered (or as much as we can plaster) the city. Next time you are out and about, ask the store if they have a bulletin board and go browse. You will be sure to find a few colorful fliers from yours truly, Nexus.
