General Information Trade Information GETTING THE MESSAGE OUT One reason for holding the new Comic Expo in Brighton is that it has the country's largest arts community outside of London, itself only 50 miles away. The organisers believe that this huge catchment area can offer a massive increase in attendance over previous events, provided sufficient outreach promotion is put in place so they know the event is taking place...   LEAFLET DISTRIBUTION Dressed as superheroes (courtesy of local fancy dress shop Revamp), an attention-grabbing Comic Expo team is to distribute 50,000 leaflets in key locations around Brighton. Promoting the valuables side of the industry as an eye-catcher for non-fans, and ex-readers, its flip side is  headed What's It Worth, suggesting people search out their old comics and toys and bring them along to the event. A panel of experts will be sited in booths at the registration area, offering a Collectables Valuation Service to the public who take up this offer. Certificates authenticating value will be completed and given to those with rare items who, if they wish, can then register and offer for sale their buried gems to the attending dealer exhibitors, and also discover what they have been missing as they walk around the bustling hall. This event alone is already attracting major interest from local and national radio, TV and print news media. NEW WAVE AT THE SEASIDE Discovering an untapped market of comics-aware teenagers, Comic Expo's Dez Skinn has been working with the Foundation Art & Design students of City College Brighton and Hove, lecturing, assessing, encouraging and cajoling. Proving that comics are not the sole domain of the established publishers, often with limited vision, the project has been enthusiastically greeted by students, resulting in 25 of them producing story and art for a new comic being published this September by Quality Communications, in association with the Ace Comics chain of specialist outlets. Disproving accepted demographics for the industry, 15 of the 25 contributors are female, and none of the material is either superhero or manga influenced in the slightest. What these students realise, by instinct, is that comics is a story-telling medium for whatever ideas, reality-based or otherwise, they wish to develop. The end product, a 20,000 copy 32 page full colour comic is being distributed around the city in the eight weeks prior to Comic Expo as a giveaway. Along with a large colourful Comic Expo window poster, copies of Ace Comics are being placed in bars, restaurants, cafes, stations, surgeries, hairdressers and anywhere else people sit and wait, to be read there or taken home. As the contributing students have shown, comics should be for everybody, not just for fans! POSTER ADVERTISING In addition to the large high impact posters being displayed within Brighton's high street retailers, 30 double crown posters (measuring 20" x 30") are being placed at key points between the railway stations and the seafront. Back-lit illuminated sites are also being investigated. RAC ROAD SIGNS Flagposting the weekend event, Comic Expo has booked  twenty direction markers through the RAC (Royal Automobile Club). These are to be placed at key points along the route to the seafront Metropole hotel. STREET WIDTH BANNER ADVERTISING: BRIGHTON SHOPPING CENTRES Huge banners are being made for hanging across major Brighton shopping areas, including the pedestrianised North Lanes area (pictured, right) which attracts a flowthrough of thousands of tourists, students and shoppers every day. LAMPPOST BANNER ADVERTISING: TRUNK ROADS & BRIGHTON SEAFRONT A series of banners measuring almost 7ft x 2.5ft (2m x .8m) are being booked to cover major trunk roads linking Brighton to London and Gatwick International airport (A23) and the Brighton seafront and major shopping thoroughfares. These high profile lamppost banners have a potential advertising audience of up to a quarter of a million people in the 14-day build-up to the event itself.