A couple of weeks ago I talked about the economic crisis and announced PFL’s Economic Stimulus Contest. I don’t know why I was surprised, after all our customers are assertive go-getters, but we had almost 200 entries from customers across the country telling us their crisis-busting stories of how they are creatively marketing their businesses in these tough economic times. The winner of the contest for the month of October was a community theatre called the Cottage Theatre in Cottage Grove, Oregon. Their winning entry earned them $1000 in free printing from PrintingForLess.com. Following is their story:

As a community theatre, our organization tries to be as creative as possible when it comes to enticing new folks to purchase tickets to our productions. In a rough economy, being creative-at-a-bargain-price is even more essential. Our strategy is to wed our promotional tactics to the specific product (ie. play) we are selling. 

Here’s one recent example. This summer we produced a play called Harvey, a 1945 Pulitzer Prize winning drama that was made famous by Jimmy Stewart in a 1950 film by the same name. In the story, the lead character has an imaginary friend Harvey, who is a 6′1″ invisible rabbit. Harvey and his pal Elwood hop around the town, visiting local bars and businesses and making friends wherever they go. During much of the play, the rest of the characters are busy asking “Have you seen Harvey?” To market our show, we constructed three free-standing, wooden rabbit silhouettes (and affixed a play poster to each rabbit’s belly). We then sent an e-mail ad out to the local chamber of commerce members. The “Tall Rabbit Seeking Temporary Home” ad invited businesses to partner with us and display one of our 6′1″ Harvey silhouettes at their location for a couple of days. We went on to explain that we were expanding the drama of the play beyond our building and into the streets of our town. So, just like in the play, Harvey was spotted all over town, at banks, bakeries, video stores, bars, and even a local veterinarian’s office, never lingering in one place for more than 48 hours. We ran this promotion for three weeks, and we ended up having to turn down prospective business hosts, as we had such an overwhelming response to our simple e-mail invitation. When we picked up Harvey to move him to his next spot around town, he left behind a small bag of chocolate carrots as a thank-you present. . . . 

What was the result of all this? First of all, everyone in town had fun asking each other “Have you seen Harvey?” Secondly, we made a lot of new friends in the local business community. And thirdly, and most importantly, our production sold out! 

So our strategy for growing our business during a rough economy is to get creative and have fun! 

We were so excited about the stories and strategies used by our customers that PrintingForLess.com has decided to continue the contest in November and December. Enter the contest for your chance to win $1000 in free printing.