Your 2020 Advertising Dollars At Work

As the 2020 sheep show and fiber festival season draws to a close, BLU would like to remind our members of the advertising dollars spent promoting the breed and the breeders during the year.  This has been a strange and difficult year for these events, with many cancelled, or held virtually online.

Since 3 of BLU’s stated goals are promotion related:

• To engage in the education and promotion of Bluefaced Leicester sheep, 
• To provide interested people with information about Bluefaced Leicester sheep and their products, 
• To promote interest in the Bluefaced Leicester breed of sheep wherever possible in order to attract new breeders for the propagation and well-being of the breed.

the board feels strongly that a large portion of the budget each year should be spent on promotion and advertizing.  This year, $1293.60 was spent, which is one quarter of the budget for the year.

Here is a list of the shows and festivals where advertising dollars were spent in 2020.  These events have traditionally been attended by BLU members, either showing sheep or BFL fiber, or as vendors in fiber shows.  

• Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival – $410.00  This included support for the working herding dog demonstration given by long time breeder, Nancy Starkey, using BFLs. Also included was a sponsorship for a special award for the winning BFL fleece in the wool competition. (this was paid in Dec 2019)
• Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival – $195.00   The national show was to have been held here but was postponed.

Because of 2020 BFL national show, there were special ads place in magazines to promote the event.

• The Shepherd Magazine – $410.00 for 2 ads during the year.
• Black Sheep Gathering spring issue – $110.00
• Ringside Magazine – $106.25

 Besides promoting BFLs at shows, there are also ads placed in the major sheep magazines – The has a paid listing in the breed section of each magazine, at a total cost of $40.00 per year.   The Banner magazine provides space for notes from breed associations at no cost – a great benefit!    

Because we also have 7 members in Canada, an ad was placed in Sheep Canada for $382.35 for 4 quarterly issues.

There is a new group on Facebook called the Wool & Fiber Arts (WAFA).  They were formed to provide a place for fiber vendors to sell during this time when so many venues have been cancelled.  It has been wildly successful, and now has more than 12,000 members.  This fall, they offered an online raw fiber source listing, and BLU paid $50 for a very nice ad in it.  

New on the website are 2 pages; Find a Farm and Classifieds.   Find a Farm allows you to list your farm email and website and provide a list of products you offer for sale.   The classifieds are for specific breeding stock, fleeces, fiber, etc that you may have for sale. 

The board would like to invite any member who attends a show or festival with their BFL sheep or fiber to submit a request to advertise at that show.   We’d also like to remind you that BLU has banners available to borrow if you’d like to promote the breed registry at events.  Besides banners, there are also promotional materials available to print from the website.  These materials are slated to be updated in 2021.