100 Ways to Promote Your Relay For Life

So, you are a Community Promotions Chair for your Relay For Life, or you are on the promotions committee and you are looking for some ideas. Below are 100 great ideas for helping promote your event. Other committee members can help out with these, too. 

1. Place a banner with your Relay For Life event information at your city’s welcome sign.
2. Distribute Relay For Life brochures to doctor’s offices. Ask if they will display them in their waiting rooms.
3. Log on to your local television stations’ websites and put your Relay For Life kick off and event information on their community or event calendars.
4. Use purple balloons to make an arch and put somewhere that is a high traffic area. You may want to put a banner beside it detailing the Relay For Life event information.
5. Ask leaders at your local schools if you can have a booth at their first PTO meeting or another school function to recruit volunteers or just get the word out about the event.
6. Have your committee and team captains wear purple or Relay For Life gear on a certain day, to promote the event.
7. Put Relay For Life information in your standard e-mail signature on your personal and work e-mail addresses. Ask committee members to do the same.
8. Put posters promoting Relay For Life in store fronts, prominent office buildings, community centers and churches in your city.
9. Ask a Boy Scout troop or other type of group to help you distribute flyers and spread the word across town about your event.
10. Have a “Paint the Town Purple” day where stores put purple bows at their fronts, or purple balloons in certain places. Basically, designate a day where all shops and businesses support Relay For Life in a visual way.
11. Get area stores to dress mannequins in Relay For Life Gear. Make sure an event poster is nearby to promote your event details!
12. Work with the sponsorship chair to see if any of your sponsors can put a link to your Relay For Life fund raising site on their website, or even a web banner. 
13. Get in touch with the person who develops your Chamber of Commerce newsletters. See what you can do to get some Relay For Life information placed in the newsletters.
14. Stuff Relay For Life information into bank statements and utility bills.
15. Get your event or kick off publicized on the local school’s electronic or static billboard outside the building.
16. Check with your local cable station and see if they will run some public service announcements for Relay For Life. If they will, contact your American Cancer Society staff partner and they can help you get what you need. 
17. At a major sporting event, put flyers on car windshields about your Relay For Life event, or possibly use the customizable door hangers available. Talk to your staff partner about getting these materials developed.
18. Contact your staff partner to see if the American Cancer Society is partnering with any local hospitals in activities for cancer awareness months, like breast cancer awareness month, or even Cancer Survivor’s Day. See if you can be one of the speakers or even set up a Relay For Life table at the event. In your speech, talk about Relay For Life!
19. Schedule an interview with the local television stations on their morning or midday newscasts about Relay For Life. Make note that sometimes you should focus on one station rather than another due to media sponsorships.
20. Get permission to decorate the bulletin board in the break rooms of some prominent businesses in your community – of course with event info! The Relay For Life caution tape that your staff partner may have is a good border for these bulletin boards!
21. Look into how you can post an announcement in the school newsletter or school newspaper to announce committee meetings. Maybe get your youth chair to write a letter to the editor about Relay For Life to the school newsletter.
22. Ask your local movie theater to use the Relay For Life theater slide to promote your event. 
23. Get your event chair to write a letter to the editor to your local paper. Make sure he or she includes a heart-felt invitation to join in the fight. You should help submit it.
24. See if the physical education teachers at your local school will let you line the track or football field with Relay For Life yard signs so when students pass by they can see the cancer facts and know the event is coming up.
25. Ask if you can use your local movie theater’s marquee sign for the week to advertise your kickoff or your event.
26. Get your committee members, team captains and other volunteers to wear purple ribbons to work along with a sticker or button that says “Ask Me About Relay For Life.”
27. Ask an electronics store to show a Relay For Life Recruitment DVD on their TV monitors when there is heavy retail traffic.
28. Sometimes high school clubs allows speakers at their meetings and if so, go speak or get a survivor to speak about being involved in Relay For Life.
29. Log onto your local radio stations’ websites and put your event information on their online event calendars. Many times, the promotions people from these radio stations take information directly from those calendars to use in voiced public service announcements.
30. Put info about your Relay For Life on your Facebook page.
31. Get your local high school television class to feature the Relay For Life in their next newscast. Treat them as a regular media outlet. 
32. Work with your online chair to frequently update your event's Relay For Life website with upcoming meetings and event information. Be sure to include the Relay For Life’s website on promotional materials.
33. Get your local school lunchrooms to serve something purple in honor of Relay For Life on the day of the event or the week before. You could even see if they will give you a portion of the proceeds. An example would be grape jello or a grape slushie. Make sure posters are up promoting the event in the lunchroom on that day.
34. Get some Relay For Life balloons from your staff partner. Blow them up, attach info about the next Relay For Life event and give them away at a community event. 
35. Get your local drug store to staple a small flyer to their prescription bags about Relay For Life. Of course, this works best with local stores.
36. Ask the local bank if you can use their marquee sign for the week to advertise the kickoff or the event itself.
37. Make a big display outside of your kickoff – with purple balloons and such – to invite people into the event. There they can learn more about Relay For Life. Maybe even put a banner outside that says “Come inside to help us fight cancer.”
38. Decorate the office of a team captain or committee member who is doing a great job. In turn it will create awareness about your event.
39. Make sure your event is listed in your hometown newspaper’s local calendar of events section. 
40. See if your local church will let you post Relay For Life posters in the Family Life Center or any other gathering place.
41. A group of Relay For Life volunteers can donate their time to the school’s Fall Festival or Spring Carnival.  Make sure they wear t-shirts to promote the event!
42. Ask the local school principal for permission to hold a special pep rally or mention Relay For Life at the next pep rally. Possibly find a cancer survivor who can speak during the event.
43. Place Relay For Life door hangers at the dormitories of your college or university.
44. Whatever sport is in season, get athletes to wear a special Relay For Life or purple armband. This can be done on the community sports level, or even the high school level.
45. Make Relay For Life bookmarks that have “Save the Date” information listed. See if your local library will put these in the books that are checked out.
46. Post pictures from last year’s Relay For Life on your Facebook page to generate interest about this year’s event. Encourage other committee members to do the same.
47. Somehow get Relay For Life incorporated into your local high school’s “Spirit Week” which is usually around Homecoming. They are already doing things like “Wear Your Pajamas” Day, so why not “Wear Purple Day?”
48. Be sure to send out your Relay For Life newsletters! You can even send them to people who aren’t a part of the event – possibly distributing them in a local community paper or through a local business.
49. Ask a local restaurant if you can decorate their restaurant for one night with all things purple – like purple tablecloths. Also put table toppers on each table detailing the Relay For Life event.
50. Work with other committee members to make team fund-raising club signs are distributed and are being used by sponsors or teams and placed in their front yards or business fronts.
51. Partner with the local schools to have a Relay For Life night at the local football/basketball game. Everybody wearing Relay For Life gear gets into the game at a discount, and you could even feature survivors at half-time.
52. Get your local pizza delivery place to tape info about Relay For Life to their pizza box tops. This works best with a non-franchised restaurant.
53. Find out when your local civic groups meet and request to speak at those events. These could include Rotary, Civitan, Kiwanis, etc.
54. If your community has a popular park, set up a pretend Relay For Life campsite during a popular day there or during an event there to promote the event. Make sure you have signage so you can explain what you are doing.
55. If you have the necessary equipment, post testimonial videos online on YouTube to recruit new teams and get the word out. You can even email this link out to possible participants, teams and sponsors.
56. Get with your event chair to organize a change collection among classes to benefit Relay For Life. This kind of competition among youngsters does lead to good word of mouth for your event. Make sure you send out appropriate letters to inform parents about the contest and the event.
57. Send out email messages to your friends that aren’t through the fundraising site explaining why you are involved with Relay For Life. You may even include a picture of the reason you Relay. It could be a picture of your mom, dad or maybe your child. Be sure to let them know when the kickoff or the event is so they can take part. Tell them how easy it is to form a team.
58. When you are painting the town purple, don’t forget about the schools. You can put purple bows on lockers, classroom doors, car antennas, etc.
59. During a cancer awareness month, like breast cancer awareness month, get the Relay For Life yard signs that particularly connect to breast cancer, tie pink bows around them and display them in a heavy traffic area.
60. Get your Relay For Life mentioned in the local PTA newsletters.
61. Put some information about your event in local religious organization bulletins. Specifically target the larger congregations.
62. Paint “Relay” on your car windows and some more information about the event.  Just driving around town will spread the word. Encourage your committee members to do the same.
63. Send out evites to your friends about Relay For Life. Encourage your committee members to do the same.
64. See if your local dry cleaners will staple small Relay For Life flyers to the dry cleaning bags of their customers.   
65. If you have a strong youth committee, start a video contest with them over Facebook. Ask them each to shoot a 1 or 2 minute video explaining why they Relay. Get them to post it on their Facebook pages. Give an award to the best video at the actual event.
66. Take part in your community’s local parades. Some cities have great Christmas parades, while others have Veterans’ Day parades, St. Patrick’s Day parades, etc.
67. Have your mayor or county judge sign a proclamation declaring a Relay For Life day, week or month.
68. If committee members are giving gifts to sponsors around the holidays, use Relay For Life balloons. Make sure they are delivered during business hours so people around can see the presentation and learn more about the event.
69. Get with your committee to see if they have issued any Relay For Life challenges between businesses or organizations. Sometimes these can help generate talk value and media opportunities.
70. Take advantage of any morning announcements at your local schools. Get Relay For Life information in there!
71. Get your committee on the local radio or cable show to answer questions about Relay For Life. 
72. Find ways to tap into a unique community event. For example, if your town has a huge bass fishing tournament, see if you can have a “Fishing For Relay For Life Teams” booth.
73. If you have a downtown shopping area, place purple foot prints (paint or chalk) on sidewalks to promote the fact that Relay For Life lets you “take steps to fight cancer.
74. If you use photo sharing services online like Shutterfly, send the link to your Relay For Life album (with pictures from last year’s event, or this year’s kickoff), out to get people pumped about this year’s event.
75. Take a cue from politicians. Get Relay For Life supporters to show their support through yard signs.
76. Place the yard signs from your staff partner near the carpool lines of your local school the week of kickoff or the week before Relay For Life. Make sure there are banners promoting when and where the kickoff is.
77. You can also place yard signs in other high traffic areas, like bank drive thru lines.
78. Find a popular landmark in your city and light in purple for the week of Relay For Life. This could be a statue, a building, or even a large water fountain. It will create some buzz about your event easily. It could also generate some media coverage.
79. During a cancer awareness month like breast cancer awareness month, wear a pink ribbon on one side and a purple one right beside it to promote awareness of both breast cancer and Relay For Life.
80. Place a Relay For Life banner on an interstate or highway overpass, but please be careful. Talk with your staff partner first to discuss the safety issues involving that particular bridge or overpass.
81. See if your local hospital will let you put up posters outside or inside their elevators about Relay For Life.
82. Gather great stories from some of your participants to share with your local media outlets.
83. Make purple small ribbons to go on car antennas and get team members, captains and committee members to display them the month before Relay For Life.
84. If there is a well or large water fountain in a prominent place in your city, get permission for folks to throw change into it. Post Relay For Life signage saying the money goes to the event, and promote the actual event through banners.
85. Work with your local college and get sports announcer at games to make announcements on how game goers can join the local Relay For Life. Set up a “Join Relay For Life” table at upcoming sporting events at the college.
86. Designate Relay For Life spirit days/contest days at your workplace (who wears purple every Friday or who has raised the most money, etc).
87. Ask if Relay For Life information can be put in your company’s newsletter.
88. Ask your gym to put up flyers on your local Relay For Life. Ask the gym if they’ll conduct a fund raiser for the event.
89. Ask your hairstylists to display Relay For Life material in his or her beauty shop. Ask if they’ll host a fund raiser.
90. Work with your staff partner to nominate some of your Relay For Life volunteers to the newspaper or television stations for their special segments. Sometimes media outlets have special programs or articles like “Volunteer of the Week” or “Look Who’s Making a Difference.”
91. Ask your local city council to recognize the American Cancer Society and Relay For Life coming up in your community. Some council meetings are broadcasted on city cable channels.
92. If you have a local minor league team in your community, talk to the marketing people with the ball park or arena and see if they’ll have a Relay For Life night. Or, at least see if they’ll advertise the event on their big scoreboards.
93. Get a local business to use car paint or something washable to write a Relay For Life message on their store windows.
94. Promote your Relay For Life at the local bowling alley by asking them to put small flyers about your event in each pair of shoes once rented, or at least post posters for the event near the cash register and restrooms.
95. If you participate in any team like sport like bowling or softball, wear your Relay For Life gear during practice or even see if there’s a way to incorporate Relay into the games.
96. Check with your local billboard company to see if they donate space to charities. 
97. See if your local mom and pop gas station will let you put up posters about Relay For Life near the filling stations. If not, at least a flyer or brochures near the cash register.
98. Work with a local magazine or newspaper to hold a “cutest baby contest” that will benefit Relay For Life. Through those promotions, you can promote your event. Be sure to work with your staff partner on this one as well.
99. Don’t forget to also check with local dentist and chiropractor offices to see if they’ll display some Relay For Life posters or brochures.  
100. Some bowling alleys have cosmic bowling nights where they turn the lights off and blast neon lights here and there. See if they can show only purple beams, and make announcements about the Relay For Life during the evening.

*Shared from Relay Nation.