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sponsor so that he can park a vehicle at the farm on busy weekends.

Studies show that consumers need to hear an ad six times on radio before it registers with them. So, repetition is the key to success in advertising. And just because you played the ad six times on radio, doesn’t mean people had the radio on each time. Six spots do not automatically translate into six impressions.

A 2005 Ontario study of the farm direct industry indicated that:

• Word-of-mouth is the best marketing tool followed by signs. Consumers have to be able to fnd your farm.

• Curb appeal is third. Customers are drawn in while driving by, because the farm looked attractive, interesting and fun. Curb appeal is critical in attracting customers if your farm is located on a well travelled road. If your farm has such a visible location consider spending up to 50 per cent of your advertising budget just improving the appearance of your property to potential consumers driving by. • Newspaper advertising is fourth followed by school tours. The beneft of school tours is they can be an income source as well as a promotional vehicle. Alberta Agriculture has another calculator that deals just with school tours and offers a backgrounder and budget calculator.

• Consumers are becoming more and more comfortable using the internet to get the information they need to decide where to spend their family time. There are farm operations that say that internet (e-newsletters with coupons on their website) is their second best method of advertising. If you are not comfortable with designing a website, hire a professional or a

high school student who is. A basic website is surprisingly economical. Farms reported that they pay between $2,000 and $5,000 for a basic website (our budget puts the cost at $2,500). The annual cost to update the site also varies widely, but $800 is a realistic fgure.

Often, maze operations encourage sponsors who advertise in their farm fyer to take admission tickets on consignment. Some sponsors believe the more people who come to the maze, the greater their company exposure. As such, they may even subsidize the price of a ticket for employees, volunteers or customers.

Don’t overlook the value of local tourism groups. They are trying to promote your area and your activity will be one more attraction to draw tourists. Take a few brochures into the town offce as well. Tourists aren’t necessarily people from far away; they can be people from a neighbouring community who are looking for a family activity.

As a guideline, budget to spend at least 15 per cent of your projected income on advertising and promotion the frst year. If you have partners who are in a position to provide you with some promotion at no cost to you, you may be able to get away with less. Don’t go to all the work to build that great maze and then fail to tell everyone to come and see it.

Once you are established, a good rule of thumb is fve per cent of gross sales spent on advertising and promotion.

Don’t overlook local groups as potential visitors. Cubs, scouts, brownies, guides, church groups, birthday parties, and family reunions

are all looking for activities to do. They just need to know about your maze.

Controls

It is important to control traffc fow. When you only have 10 to 20 customers you may be able to keep track of who has paid and who hasn’t. But on busy days, you need controls to ensure that everyone goes through the entrance and pays your admission fee before accessing the activities. This can be done in two ways:

• Use fencing to funnel everyone from the parking lot through a central entrance gate where they pay their admission and then have access to all the activities.

• Fence the activities area and the entrance to the maze and charge admission to enter those areas. Depending on the size of your activities area this approach may require less fencing.

If you have a roadside market where you sell fresh products or baked goods, you can avoid upsetting customers by placing the retail area outside the admissions area. That way, customers don’t have to pay the