Thunder Over Louisville is coming tomorrow, April 20, 2013, and the city is abuzz with excitement. You may know many of the sponsors and special activities around one of the largest fireworks display in North America, but that’s not the limit of this event’s marketing impact.
Many companies and small organizations who are unwilling or unable to purchase promotional rights with the Kentucky Derby Festival’s grand opening event will still find ways to use its crowd to their advantage.
Obvious examples include the local river-cruise boats like the famous Belle of Louisville offering Thunder Event ticket packages for ‘the best view in town.’ Hotels, especially the famous Galt House offer overnight room packages for people wanting to avoid the infamous traffic altogether and party the whole night long. Restaurants and various businesses along the river also have packages usually including amenities like soft drinks, food and family activities.
These are all classic and obvious promotional opportunities for businesses, but what about something a little more clever?
The Clarks Landing Company, owner of the former Colgate Plant, is celebrating their third year of selling parking at their facility. So why am I mentioning this parking lot in particular? Because Clarks Landing got into the news by giving a percentage of their parking fees to Special Olympics. By doing this they get a spotlight through the news and get noticed as a generous, community-driven company. This is excellent marketing!
What if you don’t have a river-side location? The University of Louisville Foundation has rented space at the Frazier Roof Garden to create their own Thunder party. Likewise Against the Grain Brewing Company has a brew and specialty smokehouse goodies party happening in the Louisville Slugger’s Robot Room.
But, maybe you’re on a tight budget and can’t afford to rent a party room or tent space along the river. Then you might take a page from the University of Louisville Hospital, which ran a news article about ‘Thunder Babies’ with explanations about why the local hospitals prepare for a baby ‘boom’ during the earth shaking fireworks display. They included tips on how pregnant women should prepare and take care when attending the event. That’s great publicity for the hospital and puts them in the public’s eye as a fascinating expert.
Local wildlife enthusiasts used Thunder Over Louisville a few years back to get a news article published about the local bird population, particularly the first pair of breeding eagles in Jefferson County. Their concern was that the eagles might be disturbed and abandon their nest because of the air show. It was an interesting article that commended Thunder’s coordinators for giving consideration to the local wildlife and adjusting their flight patterns for a happy ending; none of the birds seemed affected.
Perhaps you don’t feel you have anything worthwhile for the news. You can still write a blog about Thunder. Yokley Racing did just that, so did several photography websites like Splash of Sunset, harping on it as a ‘must see event.’ Dick Watts Insurance wrote a blog filled with tips for safe boating during Thunder.
There are tons of inventive ways to promote your small business during big, crowd drawing events.
Thunder Over Louisville kicks off a fantastic two-week streak of publicity and fun culminating in the Kentucky Derby. It would be a real shame if you couldn’t at least throw a barbecue or hold a photo contest of some sort to help promote your company. With a little creative thinking you, too, can market your business to new customers in the next two weeks.
