A poetry competition can raise awareness and recruit members

CPRE Warwickshire found that a poetry competition can be a wonderful promotional tool

A competition inviting people to enter poetry celebrating the beauty, tranquillity and diversity of the Warwickshire (but it could be yours!) countryside was run by the local branch.

They received 175 entries, far more than they'd expected, helped by excellent coverage in a number of local papers, including two front-page stories, and ... but I'll save that for tip no.2!

Objectives:

gain positive media coverage for CPRE
promote CPRE's wortk to those who hadn't heard of the branch before

Here's what they did:

Offer 2 prizes of £50 for under 18s and over 18s
Promote to the media
Target specific types of people (schoolchildren? retired people? book or art lovers?)
Promote in schools and colleges throughout the county
The awards ceremony is the climax - preferably with a celebrity tie-in, and a link to the county
...include a poetry reading by someone well-known
...invite an experienced adjudicator to judge the competition
...invite the local media to the event
...invite each entrant to the event, and encourage them to join CPRE
Publicise afterwards, to those media who haven't already covered the event

This year's event in Wiltshire was planned in Stratford-on-Avon, coinciding with the week of Shakespeare's birthday celebrations. It combined a poetry reading with the awards ceremony.

The branch managed to book a Shakespearean actor who happens to be Judi Dench's brother, to read a few selected poems.

Reproduced with permission from the April 2010 issue of Fieldwork, CPRE's member newsletter

Fiona Cowan
18 May 2010