Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Looking for bar promo/fun ideas

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Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 01-28-2011, 12:02 AM:

Unfortunately, I'm not the most creative person in the world, and, as such, I am turning to the masses here at FT in efforts to help come up with some ideas to drum up business in the local bar/grill I manage.

What are some of the promo type events held in your local "watering hole"... I'm looking for something that is different than just offering nightly drink/food specials. Everyone does that.. Something fun that the patrons can participate in....obviously, something with mass appeal and little skill is nice...

We've already done the Team Trivia thing.. The host company whored themselves out to every place in town.. to the point that no one really does/did any business with it. We've done Bar Bingo, which went over really well for nearly a year.. now numbers are diminishing..

Anyone have any ideas? I appreciate any and all input you guys may provide!

Posted by Chase Pickett (Member # 5975) on 01-28-2011, 02:11 AM:

If you are close to a college campus, try doing beer pong tournaments. A friend of mine owns a bar next to DU here in Denver and he probably gets 200 college students in there a night just for that.

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 01-28-2011, 09:08 AM:

Here's a link to a bar my family owns. Not sure what kind of bar you manage, but my brother started "Thong Thursday" when he was managing. Mostly strippers came in and competed, there was/is a few hundred dollar prize for best ass. Check out the link, maybe you can get some ideas. Good luck.

Rick Thong Thursday

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 01-28-2011, 10:15 AM:

Karaoke and wet t-shirt contests are pretty common in certain "watering holes" around here. Buffalo Wild Wings and a locally operated sports bar both have electronic trivia game systems.

Female wrestling in mud, baby oil or whatever liquid like stuff can be pretty fun to watch if the contestants are in great physical shape. It reminds me of the Seinfeld episode that examined "good naked" versus "bad naked."

Thong Thursday sounds interesting, but again the contestants need to be in good shape. "Private Pyle, your ass looks like a hundred fifty pounds of chewed bubble gum!"

I've seen contests in arm wrestling, eating the most of various kinds of foods, air guitar, dance dance revolution, card games, best costume, best tattoo (tramp stamp)/piercings, etc.

In the end, the most effective business ploy is doing something that will bring in the ladies, but not hiring a male strippers production to do it. If plenty of ladies are in the bar the men are going to follow regardless of whether there's any special event happening or not. You gotta attract enough women to improve the male:female ratio enough so the crowd isn't a "sausage festival." That's a difficult thing to accomplish around here with Fort Sill being next door. It's pretty common for single people in my area to drive clear to metro Oklahoma City or even Dallas-Fort Worth to party.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-28-2011, 10:50 AM:

quote: Richard Hamilton
Here's a link to a bar my family owns.

That looks like fun place. Looking at the website made me sad... it's the kind of place I would have loved to go to "in my day," but now sadly, like Danny Glover, I'm too old for that shit. [Smile]

Posted by John Hegel (Member # 628) on 01-28-2011, 07:10 PM:

Does you state allow poker tournaments either with a house pot or player driven pot?

Posted by John Lasher (Member # 968) on 01-28-2011, 11:17 PM:

If you do karaoke, look for an outfit uses autotune, this way everyone can actually sound almost as good as they think they do.

Other than mud wrestling, jello wrestling, pudding wrestling, oatmeal wrestling, mashed potato wrestling, slime (cake batter + green food coloring) wrestling, methylcelulose wrestling, mac n cheese wrestling, gravy wrestling, and gunge tank trivia I'm afraid I can't offer any ideas.

...Oh, except for a foam party.

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 01-29-2011, 08:37 AM:

You could try 'Bar FTSE', the idea is a drinks stock exchange, you change the prices of the drinks through the night based on demand and have the occasional 'crash'. They did it at my College bar regularly, it seemed quite fun. If you search online there are better descriptions of the idea.

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 01-29-2011, 11:51 AM:

we had a bar in evansville that had quarter beer night every tuesday. It was the cheapest draft beer that the bar could find, but it was always standing room only. I went to a bar in western kentucky a couple of times that had a bladder bust night. It was about a 5 buck cover and you drank the cheapest draft beer for free until someone peed. It was packed as hell, and you couldn't get to the bathroom if you tried (you'd get your ass kicked). If you went outside, you had to pay a cover to get back in. Both "college" bars