PROCEEDINGS STATE AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION 185 



anything that produces a greater volume of advertising for it. If you can 

 get your local newspaper to undertake to put out a special edition and 

 solicit advertisements, they will do the work and you will get the columns 

 for news material in connection with that fair edition. We also run 

 our complete daily program in the papers. We do this in exchange for 

 tickets. 



Another "stunt" that works out nicely is to get a group of enthusiastic 

 people to appear before your various clubs, men's clubs arid women's 

 clubs, to boost the fair and urge people to turn out and see the fair. The 

 Chamber of Commerce undertook that last year with splendid results. 

 I believe there was more boosting on the part of the people of this 

 city last year and more real effort to entertain the fair visitors than 

 there had been for a long time. 



The average state fair expends approximately 10 to 12 per cent of its 

 gross income for advertising. That is taken from statistics from fairs 

 all over the United States. The Iowa State Fair expends approximately 

 7 per cent of its gross for advertising, so you see we keep pretty well 

 within the limit. The average county fairs, as reviewed from figures 

 which you will find in Secretary Corey's report here, spent for advertising 

 in Iowa this year from 16 per cent of the gate to one per cent. You 

 can see there is quite a wide range in this field. There might be a great 

 deal of good done by a committee of this organization getting together 

 and determining what percentage is wise for a county fair to spend for 

 advertising purposes. 



Now just a few further suggestions which you may find of value when 

 the time comes to put on your fair next year. The first suggestion I 

 have and the most serious suggestion is that, before you do a single 

 thing, you sit down and plan a definite budget for your advertising. It 

 is very easy to have a salesman come in and sell you one sort of ad- 

 vertising and another come in and sell you another, and before you know 

 it you are spending more than you should on advertising. It is equally 

 easy to keep these expenses down to almost nothing, and the first thing 

 you know you have not spent enough for advertising. Both are equally 

 disastrous. The best plan is to take every kind of advertising you can 

 find, weigh them all in considering your budget, and then select those 

 media which will give you the most attendance for your money. 



Now what are these media? I would first recommend newspapers. They 

 should be the backbone of the advertising campaign of any fair. I would 

 not rank the display advertising as highly as I would the publicity. A 

 good thing is to get your editor or editors personally interested in the 

 fair. Sometimes you may put your editors on the fair board and make 

 them real boosters. In your newspaper publicity don't limit yourself 

 to your own local papers. Send stories by mail to the papers all around 

 your territory. They will use them if they are written in good style. An- 

 other suggestion is, don't tell everything in one story. A string of good 

 stories has more value than one big one. You can get stories about your 

 amusement program, the horse races, the anticipated attendance, dope 

 stories about what your fair is going to do, stories on the various at- 

 tractions, a mayor's proclamation urging attendance and support of the 



