looking for ideas to draw a crowd

[skyy]

Hello all. I've recently been hired as a "Promotional Bartender" at an insanely popular bar in my city. The catch is I am competing with 20 other hopefuls for a few of the fulltime spots this bar actually has available.

What they are doing is making Thursday nights (which currently are not a busy night at this bar) the night that us promo bartenders work and they have instructed us to bring as many people to the bar as we can. Those of us that bring the most people to the bar and create the wildest atmosphere while we are working will receive permanent full-time positions with the bar. Basically I have to tell them when I want to work (2 weeks from now, 6 weeks from now, whatever), throw a party at this bar, promote my night and get as many people as I can to come. I'll get to party and drink with those who come AND bartend and make tips. PLUS they are going to pay us $1 per person we bring! And they're having crazy events and specials going on Thursday nights to help us draw people (free hotdogs and hamburgers, cheap drinks, volleyball in the dining area, night club dance area, reverse cowgirl bull riding (not sure what that is yet lol), etc.).

If I am one of the best promoters they'll teach me how to bartend (which I currently do not know how to do) and give me a fulltime spot with there staff. They have locations in New York, Las Vegas, Philly, etc. that I could transfer to if I wanted. This is such a good opportunity for me to learn to bartend AND land the hottest gig in my city. Thats why I'm posting this thread.

There mentality is bascially that the cream of the crop will rise to the top and get the positions. There are a ton of opportunities for managing and promotional positions as well if I can prove my abilities at bringing in people to the bar.

I have experience throwing and promoting raves and have been successful in the past; however, this bar atmosphere (think wild college girls gone wild) and clientelle (your average college student) are different from the hardcore ravers I'm used to promoting to. I'm confident I have all the qualities they want (I'm super outgoing, very likeable, approachable, young, and attractive) and I know I'd florish with this company if I put my mind to making Thursday nights successful for them. I imagine the other promo bartenders are only trying to bring people in mainly by asking friends and friends of friends to come.

I want to be extremely creative in drawing a crowd and blow the owners out of the water. My job there is what I make of it so I want to go all out and really make a name for myself. Any ideas on what I can do?

The main idea I have right now is I was thinking about throwing after parties (since I have experience throwing rave-type parties) and having admission be free if they got a wristband from me earlier that night at this bar I'll be working at. People would meet me at the bar, get a wristband, party at the bar for a few hours then we'd all go to my afterparty, they'd get in for free, and have a blast with live djs spinning and more drinks, etc. I just wonder if an afterparty is enough to get people to actually come to the bar.

Any suggestions?

[owneroper]

wow what a concept


would you go to a bar to go to an afterparty?

[skyy]

i would if i was friends with the person putting it all together and i wanted a night of partying. i don't know if i would go if i didn't know him/her.

[owneroper]

I am guessing the real test will be the register numbers and not the crowd. Will all of your partygoers come and drink and then get the bracelet. You can have a bar full and still do poorly if they are not drinking or drinking very little

[Hazard]

The Uni system in Aust works differently to the states. But here's something that works phenomenally in my city. Every thurs was student night in the central part of the city but ALL the college kids would go to one bar. WHY? because the shitty little irish bar would talk to the "social conveners" of each college (a dorm/frat/sorority type thing here in australia. College is different o uni) who elected role each year is to organise the bashs. Esentially they were using the dorms social conveners as sub-promoters. The pub would send out buses to the dorm houses at about 8.30 and again every fifteen mins till 9.30. So the college kids, after being told by their conveners about the event, would have predrinks in their dorms and get dressed up, hop on the bus and the buses would ferry the people to the door of this pub. The place was so packed every thurs you would wait for 40 mins easy for a drink. Sure the drinks were cheap to keep people there but they key was the buses. Pieces of shit buses that people could vomit in and it wouldn't matter and the trip to the club was only about ten mins.

[skyy]

thats a great idea. the bar already has shuttles that go around to the hottest college areas in the city and pick kids up. are you suggesting i do my own shuttle service? remember i am a bartender trying to bring people to my bar so i can get hired fulltime from the amount of people i personally bring in.

[Sumotext]

Have you looked into text-messaging and the possibilities for your Bar?

Email me: david@sumotext.com

[themarketinggal]

You have to compete - and that means making your event better than the rest! How about trying something a little crazy? Since summer is almost here, how about "Take It Off Thursday"? This is fun for everyone involved and is also a good way to spruce up a bar as the night gets later and the alcohol starts wearing off...

1. Get all the bartenders working a shift with you to wear 4-5 t-shirts you have made, and girl bartenders with bikini tops underneath. (Better yet, get a liquor sponsor to give you the t-shirts for free - and name it after them)

2. Every hour, sound an airhorn and get on the mic- telling people it's time to take it all off. For every $100 the bar makes, the bartenders will "take it off" shedding one shirt for every $100 - get a lot of hot chicks- and the drinks will be ordered like crazy! To make it even better, have a specialty ****tail that costs $20 (fishbowl, giant martini, etc-and if you have a sponsor, use their liquor!) for a fast sell. Post the $$$ on a chalkboard behind the bar.

3. The person who gets you to $100 first gets the t-shirt.

This is great as it may become a bar staple-sexes up the bar a bit and shows the bar manager you understand the need to make $$$!

Good luck!


-The Marketing Gal
https://www.themarketinggal.com

[realityrox.com]

Hire or book a celebrity talent to host the event.

(I know, shameless self promotion)


Jen
RealityRox
http://www.realityrox.com
booking@realityrox.com

[RyanTheTerrible]

dwarfcagefighting.com

hands down, biggest draw. It is outrageous, insane, and will draw huge numbers.

My last event we did 1,100 people at $15 in advance $20/at the door each. Did over $25,000 in liquor sales IN 6 HOURS. We've been on bubba the love sponge twice, all the local papers, the news etc. It equates to hundreds of thousands in free advertising.

One club we were at was over capacity (500 capacity, 600+ were crammed in there). The cops and firemarshall showed up. The owner and I approached them to ensure them that the event would go smoothly with no issues and we will stop letting people in. They said they didn't care, they were there to see the fights! hahha.

if interested, drop me a line for more info.

[Fifth Avenue]

That's very interesting, nice turn-out. Always something to consider.



Cheers,

T

[Ruben]

Hello all. I've recently been hired as a "Promotional Bartender" at an insanely popular bar in my city. The catch is I am competing with 20 other hopefuls for a few of the fulltime spots this bar actually has available.

What they are doing is making Thursday nights (which currently are not a busy night at this bar) the night that us promo bartenders work and they have instructed us to bring as many people to the bar as we can. Those of us that bring the most people to the bar and create the wildest atmosphere while we are working will receive permanent full-time positions with the bar. Basically I have to tell them when I want to work (2 weeks from now, 6 weeks from now, whatever), throw a party at this bar, promote my night and get as many people as I can to come. I'll get to party and drink with those who come AND bartend and make tips. PLUS they are going to pay us $1 per person we bring! And they're having crazy events and specials going on Thursday nights to help us draw people (free hotdogs and hamburgers, cheap drinks, volleyball in the dining area, night club dance area, reverse cowgirl bull riding (not sure what that is yet lol), etc.).

If I am one of the best promoters they'll teach me how to bartend (which I currently do not know how to do) and give me a fulltime spot with there staff. They have locations in New York, Las Vegas, Philly, etc. that I could transfer to if I wanted. This is such a good opportunity for me to learn to bartend AND land the hottest gig in my city. Thats why I'm posting this thread.

There mentality is bascially that the cream of the crop will rise to the top and get the positions. There are a ton of opportunities for managing and promotional positions as well if I can prove my abilities at bringing in people to the bar.

I have experience throwing and promoting raves and have been successful in the past; however, this bar atmosphere (think wild college girls gone wild) and clientelle (your average college student) are different from the hardcore ravers I'm used to promoting to. I'm confident I have all the qualities they want (I'm super outgoing, very likeable, approachable, young, and attractive) and I know I'd florish with this company if I put my mind to making Thursday nights successful for them. I imagine the other promo bartenders are only trying to bring people in mainly by asking friends and friends of friends to come.

I want to be extremely creative in drawing a crowd and blow the owners out of the water. My job there is what I make of it so I want to go all out and really make a name for myself. Any ideas on what I can do?

The main idea I have right now is I was thinking about throwing after parties (since I have experience throwing rave-type parties) and having admission be free if they got a wristband from me earlier that night at this bar I'll be working at. People would meet me at the bar, get a wristband, party at the bar for a few hours then we'd all go to my afterparty, they'd get in for free, and have a blast with live djs spinning and more drinks, etc. I just wonder if an afterparty is enough to get people to actually come to the bar.

Any suggestions?

1. How will throwing a rave party help the club? The club isn't the rave so they aren't spending the money on the bar at that place.

2. The type of crowd that goes to raves don't tend to go to bars as its a different atmosphere.

Your best options are to go with Jen RealityRox and see if the club will hire a celebrity to come and host alongside you the night. Sure your having promos and all. How are you getting the word on the street about it? Have you done up flyers... If not then get to it. Discuss this with the owner and tell him we need flyers to get people out. You put a theme party proposal together and trust me the owner will be like O he's serious because I can bet 100% that the other bartenders will not spend the time putting something together.

The top stripping shirts is very good idea! There is no nude so you'll be fine with the state liquor assosiation.

You need to sit down and read up on the forum some great ideas. There are a lot of them!

You want to get all the girls in your town to come out. Get with a jewler and see if he will give away a necklace or some short and you'll bring him business by advertising their business. He can produce fake diamonds with a number inside the winning one. It will make everyone go to his shop inorder to determin if the person won.

Etc etc there's a lot of things!! You have show them you want it and that proposal will make you standout a lot more and makes you look like your serious about it.

But the rave plan I don't see how it would benefit the club....in fact it might just bring drugs into it and then there will be problems on your part and you'll look extremly bad!