UW-Oshkosh Becomes Third Paper to Carry Flesh Wound Ad

Today has been a great day.  I spent the morning finalizing the display ads for the Gazette and for Royal Purple, the two newspapers who were first to return my calls and emails requesting ad space for Flesh Wound.  Then I was able to get some early holiday shopping completed, which included a trip to the Milwaukee Art Museum.  As I was standing in a gallery with floor to ceiling windows overlooking a turbulent Lake Michigan pounding against one of the breakwaters offshore, enormous waves exploding in cascades of whitewater spray, my cell phone rang.  It was the UW-Oshkosh Advance Titan, the other student newspaper outside of UW-Whitewater's that I really was hoping to get my ad into.

I spoke with a student sales rep and she forwarded the file specs and other details needed for the ad, and assured me I could get it into the 12/3 and 12/10 issues.  So my ad will appear in three newspapers in December: the Gazette, the Royal Purple, and the Advance Titan.  I am pleased with this progress!

Flesh Wound ad in the Wisconsin Gazette

In my last blog I'd mentioned what a pleasure it was to do business with the Gazette, and nothing has happened in the last two days to change that opinion.  I'm working with Jim, who has helped redesign the ad I'd sent so that it will have the greatest impact once it is printed.  He also helped me by resizing the ad into the required space, which is just under 2.5" x 5.5".  The final ad will appear as shown to the left.  Again, I'd highly recommend the Gazette to anyone who wants to run a display ad.  Working with them is fantastic.

Flesh Wound Display ad, Royal Purple at UW-Whitewater

I also finished the ad for the Royal Purple, and sent it off this morning.  I was able to resize this ad myself using Photoshop and Pages and then saving it as a PDF, all on my Mac.  The final ad will appear as shown to the right.  I'm pleased that it is somewhat different than the Gazette ad.  It will be interesting to see which ad generates the most response.

I'm planning to use this latter ad in the Advance Titan as well.  It has the advantage of most closely matching the posters hung on both campuses, so students should recognize the image and fonts and start to build the brand for Flesh Wound in their minds.  This will be especially helpful if I am able to schedule some book discussions on campus after the Christmas break.

So looking back, I originally set out by contacting five newspapers about running display ads.  Three of them have contacted me and will be running the ads in December, which was my goal.  The other two will not.  The UWM Post sent a form e-mail yesterday, five days after my initial inquiry, saying they had shut down for Thanksgiving break and would contact me December 1 about my ad request.  The Marquette Tribune never responded to my phone call or email.  I won't be running ads in either paper right now.  If I do a second round of advertising I will consider them.  But UW-Whitewater, UW-Oshkosh, and the Wisconsin Gazette all replied to my request promptly and professionally, and thus earned the business.  Note to UWM and MU future newspaper executives:  when a customer contacts you and wants to give you money, take the call.

Have a terrific Thanksgiving!  We got our first snow squall today, and more sloppy weather is expected tonight.  At this time of year, this weather is fun.  Time to build a nice fire in the fireplace, settle in, and enjoy some turkey and football.  And take some time to read something this weekend that inspires nostalgia!  Thanks for reading!   -Jon