Senior ad deadline approaches, yearbook staff faces difficulty meeting sales goal
December 16, 2021
In response to the school’s shift away from the use of paper, yearbook and senior ad sales will remain online for the 2021-22 school year. Senior ads are a designated section of the yearbook where family members can buy a segment of a page and use it to recognize their senior or seniors. People can order through yearbookforever.com, with yearbooks costing $55 and senior ads ranging from $45 to $360 depending on ad size. All senior ad payments are due Jan. 3. Additionally, seniors interested in submitting a personal photo to replace their school picture in the yearbook must send the image to [email protected] in JPEG format by Tuesday, Dec. 21.
Yearbook sales editor Paige Sells said the demand for senior ads has decreased dramatically compared to the years before the COVID-19 pandemic. She said although she is unsure of the reason, it could be a result of the lack of communication with students during the period of virtual learning from 2020-21.
In hopes of increasing senior ad sales, the yearbook staff is advertising more actively than last year.
“We’re starting to publicize more on our Instagram, and we’re starting to have more sales tables as well,” Sells said. “We had one at the homecoming [football] game, and we have some at lunch shifts.”
Sells is working with Brautigam and editors-in-chief (EIC) Will Andrews and Emma Hake to raise the number of sales by contacting senior families who may be interested in purchasing an ad. Andrews said the emphasis on technology over paper has negatively impacted yearbook and senior ad sales overall.
“One of our biggest selling events used to be the schedule pick up since a lot of parents would come in and pick up that stuff,” Andrews said. “But now that is online, it makes it difficult to have that big reminder to parents to order [a yearbook].”
Brautigam said COVID-19 restrictions also posed a problem last year, cutting into their ability to advertise. She said spreading the word of the books’ availability could be the only way to spike interest.
“Yearbook sales have already been better than this time last year,” Brautigam said, “but we’re still far off from our sales goal. This year has just been an adjustment adapting to selling with in-person tactics rather than virtual from last year.”
In terms of broadcasting the information, Andrews said the staff has had to be more creative and spent more time reaching out to people this year. Besides organizing tables during lunch and at football games, Brautigam said they have reached out to RBHS principal Jacob Sirna for help.
“Our EICs coordinated with Sirna to allow us to speak on the morning announcements,” Brautigam said. “We’re hopeful that as more seniors get senior photos back, we’ll see an increase in ad sales.”
Andrews said although the number of sales still has not reached the level of pre-pandemic school years, Sirna has helped get the word out by sending emails to students and parents with the link to the yearbook-ordering website.
“It’s definitely been more difficult without that constant reminder to buy them,” Andrews said. “But any way of getting our point out there and just selling is helpful no matter how much or how little it is.”
Anyone experiencing difficulty accessing the website can contact yearbook adviser Therasia Brautigam for assistance.
Have you ordered your yearbook yet? Let us know in the comments below.
