There’s so much more to marketing than just social media! See 50 ways to promote your event beyond a computer or phone.

Active & In Person

1. Paint the Campus Purple – cover the campus with purple ribbons around trees, lamp posts, etc. Chalk the sidewalks with event information. Decorate office windows in purple. Dye the fountain purple.  Get creative (and get permission)
2. Run a booth or table at orientation / welcome week / back to school night to recruit volunteers and get the word out
3. Ask your committee members, team captains, and other volunteers to wear purple ribbons to class, along with a sticker or button that says, “Ask me about (your event)”
4. Reach out to the other clubs and orgs, asking if someone from the ELT can present about your event and how to get involved
5. Get balloons, blow them up, attach info about the next event, and give them away at a school event
6. Ask the admin for permission to hold a special pep rally or mention your event at the next pep rally. Possibly find a cancer survivor who can speak during the rally
7. Work with one of your sports teams for the athletes to wear special cancer shirts or purple armbands. Make announcements during the game about the event and how to get involved
8. Place purple footprints (paint or chalk) on sidewalks or hallways to promote the fact that your event lets people “take steps to fight cancer.” Have the footprints lead to your tabling event

9. Ask teachers / professors if you can come in to class to give a 2 minute presentation about your event and hand out flyers

Differently Online

10. Create and include a QR code to your website and / or your social media on ALL your promotional materials – EVERYTHING! Work with your committee to make sure your website and social media are updated often
11. Log on to your school website and put your event information on the event calendars. Reach out to student news organizations to do the same
12. Put event information and a link to your fundraising site in your email signature on your personal and student email addresses. Ask the whole ELT to do the same
13. Get permission to change the home page of all the library web browsers to your event website for a week (or two)
14. Paint Your Socials Purple – Have your ELT and team captains wear purple or ACS / Relay gear on a certain day and post photos on social media to promote the event. Encourage them to tag their friends / clubs & orgs to join them
15. Post pictures from last year’s event on your personal social media page and challenge your friends to join you. Encourage other committee members to do the same
16. Start a video contest with participants over social media. Ask each of contestant to shoot a 1- or 2-minute video explaining why they support ACS.  Get them to post on their accounts.  Give an award to the best video at the actual event

Media

17. Check with your local campus news/radio organizations and ask them to run public service announcements for your event
18. Schedule an interview with the school media to help them do an interest story on your event
19. Ask a broadcasting class or club to feature the event in their next newscast
20. Take advantage of any morning announcements, if applicable. Share event information leading up to kick off and again before the event

Fundraisers

21. Get permission for people to throw change into the campus fountain or wishing well. Post signage saying the money goes to the event and promote the date, time, venue
22. Plan a fundraising sports tournament. Basketball, volleyball, dodgeball, kickball, whatever sounds fun! Charge a registration fee for each players. Partner with the rec center / physical education department for help planning, equipment, and referee
23. Organize a Penny Wars competition among classes or between dorms / Greek houses to benefit your event

24. Partner with a music organization and host a concert. Charge admission to fundraise and talk about your event during intermission. (Same for the theatre group, comedy club, any performance-based club!)
25. Plan a Candy Grams fundraiser around Halloween or Valentine’s Day. Include event information on all the bags
26. Leading up to finals, sell stress-relief goody bags of candy and stress balls. Include event information on the bags.

Passive Publicity

27. Place a banner or signs with your event information in popular / high traffic places on campus – outside the library, at the union, in the dining halls / cafeteria
28. Distribute event brochures to administrative offices and the student health center. Ask them to put them on the counter or in their waiting areas
29. Use colorful balloons to make an arch and place in a high traffic area. Include a sign or banner with the event information a few weeks before the date
30. Put flyers / posters promoting your event in local businesses that student frequent – bookstore, coffee shop, restaurants & bars, anywhere students frequent
31. Ask the bookstore / student store to dress mannequins in ACS / Relay gear. Include a poster in the window / display with event information
32. Have your event (or kick off) advertised on the campus TVs or electronic displays in all the buildings
33. At a school sporting event, put flyers on car windshields with your event information (ask for permission from the facilities director)
34. Ask the physical education teachers if you can line the track or football field with event signs so when students pass by, they see cancer facts and know the event is coming up
35. Ask your campus religious centers to post event posters on bulletin boards and in gathering places. Partner with them to host a Day of Hope at one of their gatherings
36. Place event info doorhangers on dorm room doors in all the residences halls or on the lockers in the hallways
37. Make event bookmarks that have “Save the Date” information listed. Ask your school library if they will put these in the books that are being checked out, or set them out around the library
38. Reach out to different departments / offices and ask if event information can be put in their department newsletters and / or update emails. Bonus – include specific information about your survivor celebration, inviting survivors to attend
39. Get a popular local pizza delivery place to tape info about your event to their pizza box tops. This works best with a non-franchised restaurant.
40. Place event signs near carpool lines and student parking lots a few weeks before the event. Make sure there are banners promoting when and where the event is happening.
41. Find a popular landmark on your campus and light it in purple for the week of your event. This could be a statue, a building, or a campus tradition
42. Ask your gym / student rec center to put up event flyers in the locker rooms and in the facility.
43. Chalk the sidewalks around campus the week of your event. Draw arrows and point people towards your event location.  Have signs up outside your venue, reminding people your event is taking place soon.
44. Write the event information, including website, on all the whiteboards in as many classrooms as you can.

Random & Fun

45. Ask your school dining halls to serve something purple in honor of general cancer awareness on the day of the event or the week leading up. Examples: grape jello or grape slushies. Hang posters promoting the event in the sales area that day. Bonus – see if they’d be willing to donate a portion of their sales on that day to the event.
46. Decorate the dorm door of a committee member (or team captain) who is doing a great job
47. Work with school administration to incorporate your event into the Spirit Week / Homecoming Week. Have a wear purple day, do a small fundraiser, do mission activities at a table, etc.
48. Ask a nearby restaurant (or a dining hall) if you can decorate their restaurant one night with all things purple – like purple tablecloths, table toppers with event information, balloons, etc.
49. Decorate the office / classroom of a teacher who is involved in your event – thank them for their support.
50. Host a vape and cigarette exchange program for the Great American Smokeout in November.

DOUBLE BONUS – Partner with other cancer related organizations to run a week of cancer related programming. Call it Cancer Sucks Week and promote the work of all the clubs involved.