Karla Kinstler of Houston, MN writes:
I coordinate the International Festival of Owls, held annually the first weekend in March in the tiny little town of Houston, MN (population 1,020). It began simply as a hatch-day party for Alice the Great Horned Owl, the Houston Nature Center’s only live animal, and grew into an event that last year brought in people from England, Jamaica, and Alaska. It is the only full-weekend, all-owl event in North America.
The event is entirely focused on owls, including live owls, owl prowls to call in wild owls at night, top-name “owlologists” as speakers, owl-themed food, owl photography sessions, owl crafts, the presentation of the World Owl Hall of Fame Awards (derived from a Publicity Hound suggestion!) and more owl things than you can shake a stick at.
While we’re developing an international following, our attendance has yet to climb over the 500 mark. With great events for families, biologists, and photographers, I truly believe our attendance should be at least 1,000, given our very rural location.
Owls are such a fun subject to work with, I’m betting there are some hounds out there with excellent publicity ideas.
I would do a search for environmental groups, owl lovers, nature conservationists and sites that feature unique events. Send a press release and try to get posted on their events calendar or get listed as a reciprocal link.
Two quick suggestions – first look at Owlcatraz here in New Zealand (www.owlcatraz.co.nz), a native and wildlife park that does owl rescue/rehab, and second hurry up with a tie-in to Halloween – if you have the facilities, maybe offer overnight camping and owl watching to kids groups? What could be more scary than hearing live owls hooting at night in your rural area when you are 8 years old!
Hi Karla,
March has a National Girl Scout Week and National Wildlife Week.
Perhaps you can alert the press to your event by pointing out it is National Wildlife week, and what the center does to increase wildlife awareness. A second thought is to have a event centered around the the Girl Scouts, maybe host a badge ceremony. Adorable children are always a great front page picture in the newspaper.
Best of luck with your event.
Mital
Karla,
What about finding a contact with Animal Planet or Discovery Channel? This sounds like something that one of their shows might do a mini-segment on. You may also be able to interest the Sierra Club, perhaps they would promote it in their publication.
What about communications and tie-ins with bird lovers and bird watchers? What kind of groups and publications exist for them.
And this sounds like it would be an interesting segment on National Public Radio too.
Hi,
The Owl is the mascot for Mensa members (Wisconsin for sure – but I think internationally). I would suggest a tie-in with Mensa International. I know they would love to place an article about your event and/or organization in their monthly publication. These folks are also a great source of puns, if you want some “humor.”
You could tie into Harry Potter’s beloved owl in your press release and get it out on the Potter airwaves. . .”If Hedwig had just one bash to to go, surely it would be our International Festival of Owls.”
Or you could make it a singing press release and add vocalizations. I notice that some of the owls have a really fine screech (!), so you could set it up in such a way that you hear the screech first and the hook says “You CAN’T miss this year’s International Festival of Owls! Not with all the fantastic things to do!”
Something like that. I think maybe you need to hook into some new “owl streams” and bring them up to speed about your great festival.
Jess
The owl is sacred to the Goddess Athena, and the Owl Festival would be a wonderful gathering-place for the increasing number of pagan womens groups across the country. Try publicizing the festival with an article submitted to Sage Woman Magazine. It could prove to be the focal point of a religious pilgrimage! Blessings to you.
http://www.msaudubon.org/hummingbird07.php
We went to the Hummingbird Festival in Mississippi, found out about it on a flyer at the Visitors Information Center, rest area. They have over 800 people over their weekend. We just happen to be driving thru the weekend before, saw the flyer, and planned to stop by on our way home. Probably not terribly creative, but may be something worth doing if you haven’t done it yet. Get the people who are passing thru ” the neighborhood”.
How about a scavenger hunt of some sort? Since this event celebrates egg-laying, maybe participants could search for special “owl eggs” (plastic easter eggs) with facts inside. Or prizes.
This would be a great family-oriented activity.
There are many organizations dealing with wildlife.
A Google search will get you a bunch of places to send your info. Many rehabbers, as they are called, specialize in specific animals, so your info will
be forwarded to generalists as well as owl specific
people.
When I was a kid, we visited our local nature center a lot. When it came time for help with school science projects, guess who I went to see. Maybe you could set up a day at the center with experts available to help with science projects that involve the life sciences.
In additon, someone from your organization could give presentations about any owl subject in nearby classrooms. Also, some schools allow you to provide stacks of flyers which they will send home with their kids. You can simply call and ask making it easy to do this for schools a bit farther away than you can visit, but that are still within a reasonable travel time for the festival. Figure all of these activities are for promotion and leading up to, rather than during the event.
Best of luck!
I would love to come…wish I lived closer. I would think a blitz of 250 mile radius with TV/radio and print should easily boost attendance to 1,000.
What about a live owl watch cam on your website to generate interest?
Your website is full of great information and terrific pictures…but it is not communicating the sense of fun that I think this owl festival could be? Home page especially could pack a lot more punch and wow to encourage people to go on.
My first thought was how did all those people from around the world find out about your festival? Research how they found aout about the festival.
What you wrote in you short summary seems to me you could use as basis for press releases, i.e.
“Owl’s About That..Small Towns Festivals Puts Unique Spotlight On Minnesota’s Natural Heritage”
“Owl’s You Kidding Me…This Small Town Helps Jamaicans Put The Hoot In Their Reggae”
(*here you could focus on the international interest in your festival)
Hootenanny the name ties into owls so why not have an Hootenanny festival along with your own.
Invite folk music artist to perform at the festival.
Lots of sports teams have owls on logos or as nicknames perhaps you can tap into an argument that
this is bad for the animals because it trivializes them to sort of cartoon characters and makes people less sensitive to efforts to prevent extinction ala similar disputes about Native American names on sports teams.
Invite amaetur nature photogs to festival and provide them a platform to show off photography skills have judges award an “Hoot Illustrated Award”
This is a takeoff on the Sports Illustrated Magazine because you’re tapping into beef with sports because you believe…
“Owls Should Be Seen In Nature Not On Football Helmets!”
See if you can tie into fundraising joint ventures with other Owl sensitive groups. One I heard of is called the Hungry Owl Project.