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  • #16
    This topic seems to rotate through every other year or so!! Usually because we get new people who want to open a haunt, they see some hanuts with sponsors and assume they can get sponsors to pay enough money to open their haunt!!! Simple answer is NO WAY!!!

    Sponsors are very usuful and you can get them, the best way is to always put yourself in the shoes of the sponsor. What would YOU do if you owned the business and the haunt owner came to you with the same deal????

    BEST way to deal with sponsors is to get "in kind" donations. That is you are getting a value, but not necessarily money. But thing of it this way, if you get goods or services that you need, that frees up your capital to spend on other things!!!

    Remember this, an advertiser works on impressions, how many times his name or message is being seen versus the cost.
    Say you get a TV ad that costs $1,000 but it is seen by 300,000 people your impression is only about 1/3 of a penny per impression.
    If you want to charge $1,000 for a sponsorship to put a banner on site and you get 10,000 patrons.... your impression is .10 each.
    So the trick is to find ways to increase the impression rate.

    One of the easiest ways to deal with sponsors is to trade for services. Say you need a generator and the rent would be $500 for the month. Approach the sponsor with trading the use of the generator for $500 in tickets! Explain that he can use them for his employees and give them to his customers!! Now you get the generator you need and save $500 you can use for something else. Good part is that while you gave a value of $500 in tickets, chances are you will only see a percentage of the tickets returned. QUICK NOTE: always put a date requirement on your free tickets, push them for use the firts couple weeks you are open and NEVER Halloween weekend!

    I also focus and using sponsor in my advertising program. I list them on all my coupons, web site and all my radio spots. My radio spots tell people to go to the various sponsors to get their discount coupons. In exchange they must also list me on their advertising, tagging me on their advertising. Using this program I have several TV commercials and radio commercials ALL reminding people to visit MY haunt!!! I end up with over $280,000 worth of advertising for a small per person percentage which averages out costing me 3% of what I get!!!

    The trick is that the Haunt becomes the reason for the sponsors to get their name out during this slack retail period before the big Christmas season.
    You HAVE to go to the sponsor during October to get the discount to the Haunt. Our radio sponsor uses us as a tool to get other sponsors on board which increases your value!! Again, this frees up cash to use for props or other COOL stuff.
    R&J Productions
    Las Vegas, NV
    www.LasVegasHaunts.com

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    • #17
      Thanks for this post RJ, that really helps me out a lot!
      Brad Bowen
      Owner/Operator of the Ultimate Fear Haunted House in Shreveport, LA
      www.ultimatefear.net

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      • #18
        Hey Guys! So i work everyday until 7 lifeguarding but I'm on my phone right now during my lunch break, I've gotten about 5 emails today alone and probably sent this to another 20 people over the past couple of days. I'll be sending out one massive email at the end of each night just cause it's easier. Incant attach Ry document from my phone but feel free to email me and I'll make sure you get it I've had a lot of people really like the updated copy and a few people even told me they got sponsors because of it! So keep up the awesome work everyone and RJ said it very well. But it isn't impossible to get sponsored your first year and I'll gladly help anyone out, just hit me up!

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        • #19
          Thanks RJ very helpful

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          • #20
            Could you send me a copy

            to hauntedfarm@frontier.com thks Bobby

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            • #21
              We create really nice sponsorship kits then try to figure out target companies who target same audience as we do. However I must say we have put a lot less focus on finding sponsors because times have really changed... having a zillion places to put your coupons isn't as important anymore now that most of all coupons we get back now are from our website.

              Larry
              Larry Kirchner
              President
              www.HalloweenProductions.com
              www.BlacklightAttractions.com
              www.HauntedHouseSupplies.com
              www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com

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              • #22
                Sent it out to everyone who's asked recently. And Larry and RJ, you guys make great points. I don't want anyone to think that I am guaranteeing any sponsors, feel free to ask me more personal and specific questions. My little "document" is a short, simple, and easy to read list. It is NOT the complete idiots guide to obtaining sponsors, if you'd like more help feel free to pry and bother me as much as you'd like. =)

                I may be an 18 year old Halloween geek but I have already managed at a separate attraction, and created my very infamous 1 day haunt in May at the Relay for Life at my college (Southern CT State University) which is entirely set-up, decorated, inspected, and running for one day for about 8 hours but manages to pull in a very nice chunk of change for charity. If you'd like to know more, or make a donation of new or used props/costumes/whatever please feel free to contact me at any time.

                Here's what has been sent out to half the people on here since I first offered my little advice, so read this, it'll save you an email and time in waiting for me to send it to you.

                "Bobby Arel’s Tips-n-Tricks to Obtain Sponsors!

                1- Be Professional!
                You are asking for someone else’s money or product! Look like you know what you’re doing. Proof read and spell check EVERYTHING. One mistake can cost you big, especially with corporate sponsors.

                2- Create A Professional Signature!
                Here’s a template, FOLLOW IT.

                Your Real Name
                Owner, Such and Such Haunted House
                Owner, Your Company
                Yourname@yourbusiness.com
                (123) 333-6666

                4- CHARITY! CHARITY! CHARITY!
                There’s no better way to convince people to donate to your attraction than telling them it is to benefit a charitable organization! Even if you are first starting off and in debt up to your eye balls or risking everything on this investment, you should highly consider sponsoring a charity. Typically, you can agree to a minimum $1000 donation or 7-10%, whichever is greater. This will provide you with my next tip.

                5-TAX ID NUMBERS!
                Sponsoring a charity will provide you with their tax ID number. This is an extremely powerful thing to have. Your sponsors need to know that you have this, so that they can claim their donation. This number allows your sponsors to sort of be “reimbursed” by the government for their donation, by receiving a tax break that is usually equal to the amount they donated.

                6-Offer Advertising
                In addition to being able to claim their donation, your sponsor is also going to want to let the public know that they are assisting in your efforts to raise money for your charity. Do not wait for them to ask for it, be bold, offer it when you ask for their sponsorship. Tell them that you want to advertise for their company and that by helping you out they will receive not only the tax break, but gain a larger clientele and improve or maintain the positive way in which the public views them.

                7-DO NOT BE SHY!
                Ask EVERYONE! Do not back down; do not say to yourself “nah…these people will never donate”. You need to be on you’re A game and ask every local business, vendor, energy drink company, retailer, or business you come across. You never know who might just say yes, and the worst that could happen is they say no. You aren’t losing money by asking, so just do it.

                That’s it for this quick, down and dirty guide on how to obtain sponsors for your attraction! I hope I was helpful, and should you be interested in donating/sponsoring my attraction where 100% of all ticket sales go directly to the American Cancer Society (thanks to super incredible people such as you!), please contact me at bobbyarel@gmail.com or (203) 988-2440

                Thank you for reading this article, I wish you the best of luck this upcoming season! If you have any other questions for me just ask!

                Sin-SCARE-ly;
                Bobby Arel

                (P.S- I WAS A PERSON OF THE WEEK! WOO!! Check it out! http://www.theday.com/article/201010...own=East-Haven )"

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