Max Hitchins ARTICLE How to ‘OWN’ the Melbourne Cup
I am a Melbourne devotee (See PickTheCupWinner.com.au). When we operated Billy The Pigs Pub in Sydney I set a goal to ‘OWN’ Melbourne Cup Day in the Eastern Suburbs. I set another goal to make it our biggest trading day of the year. I happily tell we achieved both goals. In this article I’d like to share thoughts and ideas for you to consider using in your place for the 2018 Melbourne Cup. • Most places make the Melbourne Cup a ‘one day’ affair. We madeit a month long promotion. With little notice you can still design at least a week long promotion. But it can easily run for two or three weeks. Melbourne Cup Day is November 6th. • Begin by having a daily Melbourne Cup Trivia Quiz every day up to Cup Day. Print out the daily trivia sheets and have a Daily Trivia Box. Your customers must fill out the daily trivia and place it in the Trivia Box. • There will usually be multiple entries who answer the Trivia correctly. You will need select one of the these and award them a prize. The prize can be anything from a free beer to perhaps a case of beer or bottle of spirits. • Remember you are not spending money on media advertising. So use what you might have spent as product ‘give aways’ to your customers. (Remember you are buying the alcohol at cost price!) • Don’t limit your prizes to alcohol only. Involve some of your local businesses. At Bondi Junction we had a Movie Theatre nearby. They provided us with heaps of free tickets to movies. Most ‘day time sessions’ run with many vacant seats. So it’s no big deal to get them to give away some seats to these sessions. These were very popular with our customers. • Do a similar promotion on your Social Media platforms. Treat them as two different audiences. But you can still offer virtually the same thing. • If you don’t have time to prepare the trivia send me an
email to max@hitchins.com.au and I will send you some prepared trivia sheets. All you have to to is photocopy them and distribute them. Make sure you distribute on Melbourne Cup Day and offer a major prize for the winner. • Have a Display Board in your place with ‘YOUR Melbourne Cup tips’ as a heading. Invite your customers to write down ‘their tip’ to win the Melbourne Cup. (Can only tip one horse). Request the date and time they write their tip. First person to do it who selects the Cup winner wins a major prize. Offer all people who tip the winner a ‘free drink’ on the day after the Cup. • Buy heaps of Mystery Trifectas. Advertise on your social media that the first 50 people to arrive at your Melbourne Cup Day will receive one or more Melbourne Cup Mystery Trifecta tickets. Make sure you include the fact that in 2017 the Trifecta paid $3410.20. • You will be able to buy Mystery Trifecta tickets for all races. Buy plenty and give them out during the day for various reasons. Any one wearing blue. Any male wearing a tie. Any female wearing a hat… etc. etc. etc. • Apart from the local Theatre talk to your suppliers and ask them for Melbourne Cup Prizes. Look through all of your suppliers to see what they might be able to provide. I’m sure you would be able to convince your Butcher that he should be able to provide you with a $100 voucher. • But the most important thing to do is involve your staff in a think tank session to assist you with the planning and implementation. By line: At HospitalityDoctor.com.au you will find tips, tricks and tonics to help you become a super Hospitality Industry professional. You will also find details of a series of eBooks titled “How To Develop A Memory Like An Elephant.”
October 2018 www.tha.asn.au
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