Shops team up for photo show success; an Indiana frame shop and photo lab staged a photo contest that generated quality entries, good will and several new customers - shop talk - Brief Article

Art Business News, April, 2002

There might be an untapped group of new customers snapping photos in your own backyard. That's just what Linda and John Thompson, owners of Alley Frame Shop and Art Gallery of Columbus, Ind., found when they co-organized a photography contest with a local photo lab. Expecting only about 25 entries from the town of about 35,000 people, they were flooded with 150 submissions with little advertising.

"It was just such a huge success for the first time, and we really didn't put a lot of effort into it," said Linda.

The idea for the contest came out of a conversation between John and Tim Cooney, owner of Advantage One Color Lab. Both had been thinking of hosting one, so they decided to share the duties.

To promote the contest, which was held last fall, they put posters up around town, posted information on their Web sites and displayed entry forms at their shops and a handful of other local businesses. Linda and John included contest information in their customer newsletter and sent it to Cooney's customer list as well. And Cooney promoted it through his regular cable advertising.

According to the contest rules, one person could enter up to six photos that were matted, but not framed, to a certain size in a variety of categories. Most entries did their processing and matting at Advantage One and the Alley Frame Shop.

Once all the entries were in, they were delivered to the judges. "We did not get any bad pictures. They were all really, really good pictures so it was really difficult to choose," said Linda. "The judges thought they could do it in 30 minutes, and it took them about four hours."

The judges picked a first-, second- and third-place winner and two honorable mentions in each category and then chose the top overall photo as best in show. The winner of best of show, Wayne Cannon, won $250. The first place winners received $100, second places got $50 and the third place finishers got $25. Suppliers, such as Larson-Juhl, Tru Vue and Crescent Cardboard, contributed money to help cover the prizes and other costs. It was free to enter the contest, but the organizers will most likely charge for future contests. "The interest is here now, so I think that we can probably feel comfortable in charging a small fee next time," said Linda.

All this excitement has translated into new customers for the Thompsons and allowed them the chance to stress the importance of conservation. "It brought people from out of town, and they've been back for other things. They've been in the shop, and they can see what we can do, and they're quite pleased about that.

"We're going to make it an annual event," said Linda. "We all had a good time."