Promoting Your Week

How will you promote your event? What is the message? Who will you target? How will you advertise? All of these questions must be asked so that your hard work will result in the success it deserves! Some suggestions:

a) The Target Group

The characteristics of the target group will have a direct bearing on the content, format and distribution of event details.

• Location of the event is important. As the target group expands from in-house to include other organizations and the public, the amount of information, use of advertising tools and scope of circulation will broaden.
• Size and diversity of the event will determine the need for wider advertising to reach more individuals as well as key members.
• Identification of the knowledge base and needs of the target group will determine the content and format of publicity (e.g. use of technical language vs. non-technical language; function and job relevance; most frequent modes of communication used).

b) The message should:

• Communicate the mandate i.e. purpose, goals, objectives – of the event. The use of themes and slogans will highlight this.
• Create awareness and educate through informative statements.
• Invite active participation.
• Provide notification of presentations and activities (e.g. dates, times, locations, titles, summary of content, names of speakers, panel members, exhibitors, sponsors, etc.)
• Be simple and direct.
• Be brief. State no more than three major points concerning the topic.
• Be clear and comprehensible.
• Be designed to attract and hold the attention of the reader/viewer/listener.

c) Advertising tools

• Word of mouth is the most effective (and least expensive) form of advertising and is suitable for in-house promotion (e.g. conversations, public address announcements, agenda item at meetings)
• Circulars can include memos, bulletins, flyers, pamphlets and Email. The material should be neat and well designed, with a good layout. Bright colours attract attention. The use of humour helps people remember what they read.
• Tent cards can be placed on cafeteria tables, with your logo and theme on the outside, and Infection Control facts or questions on the inside.
  • Sample Tent Card
• Posters are used to quickly attract attention, both in-house and externally. They should be prominently displayed. Avoid being overly wordy, which will make the poster appear too “busy”. Use logos and pictures to attract attention. Avoid clutter and use “white space” to avoid overwhelming the reader with text. Make your posters are large, using print that is easy to read from a distance. Use colour to catch the eye. Don’t forget to display IPAC Canada’s poster (see top of page).
• Buttons can be used in-house both before and during the event. Buttons immediately invite participation, as the person wearing the button will identify with the cause. Distribute buttons widely to create agreater the sense of support and unity. Use a logo and a short slogan with a simple, colourful design.
• Mass media includes written publications, such as newspapers and magazines; radio interviews and advertisements; television advertisements, interviews and documentaries. If you are using mass media, make your initial contacts several weeks ahead. Implementation may involve a number of meetings. Be precise and concise with your request. Meet deadlines. Always listen and follow the guidelines of media personnel. See the media release at the end of this page.

Social Media

Help us promote your National Infection Control Week activities – on social media! We’d love to share your photos and stories. You can tweet them and/or post them to IPAC Canada’s Facebook page directly (this is preferred as it’s faster for us), or if you’re not on Twitter or Facebook, you can email us the photos and we’ll post them for you. Please follow the instructions below:

Twitter: You can tweet your photos from your own Twitter account; just include the hashtags #NICW and #IPAC, and tag us @IPACCanada

Facebook: We will have a post pinned to the top of the IPAC Canada page asking for photos and messages; you can post your photos in the Comments to the post.

If you don’t have a Twitter or Facebook account, you can email photos to socialmedia@ipac-canada.org and we will post them for you; please resize photos to no bigger than 700 pixels (height or width) – otherwise our Inbox will hit its data limit faster than we can get to it!

1. Photos should be attached in JPG format (not embedded in the body of your email), and no greater than 700 pixels (height or width) or 1MB in size, per photo. Make sure you give us a short description of who/what the photo depicts, and where it was taken.
2. Please ensure you have the permission of everyone in the photo for it to be posted; confirm this by including this text within your email: “I grant permission for IPAC Canada to post these photos on their social media sites, on the IPAC Canada website, and to include them in other IPAC Canada publications”

Good luck and have a successful Infection Control Week!