Groupon Type Deals

[monsterwax]

I've sure I'm not the only one who has been approached about Groupon type deals. They want to sell your tickets for 1/2 price, promising to fill so many slots on off days or whatever. The catch is that they then split the cost of the remaining ticket with you. That means you get only 25% of your normal ticket price.

Upside:
1. It's a guaranteed attendance on an off night, or the deal falls through. So they can really boost sales on nights that would otherwise be slow and boring for the staff.
2. Lots of new customers, many of which you wouldn't otherwise reach.
3. Zero advertising cost to you. They email their subscribers to line it all up.

Downside:
1. You basically lose a 75% commission on each ticket sold by them.
2. A long line of discount customers can make others who would have paid four times their price not attend because of the wait, and keep driving.
3. It can cheapen the perceived value of your haunt, as anyone who pays full price seems uninformed of the "sale" price.
4. Many of those who get the half price won't return unless they get the same discount again.
5. Some of the others in line will find out about the half price discount and could feel ripped off.

My open question is who has tried this and what was your result?
Those who haven't tried it, I'd still be curious about your input. There's pros and cons, some weigh a lot more than others. If you can think of other pros and cons, feel free to add those as well. Thanks for your feedback.

[HauntedMemphis]

Groupon got talked about in one of the marketing seminars at Hauntcon, and was generally looked at negatively by those that had used it.

[Bradenton Haunted Trail]

Groupon

Well we just had our feature start and it is for a off day this Saturday and it has sold over 100 already. I will let you know if I get any negative feedback. My thought is that it would help spread the word throughout the area about our new Haunt (first Year). Because of the 25% we get I do not think we will do it again. But hey first year haunt opening on the 1st and have over 200 guest first night can't be to bad.

Bringing your phobias to life in horrifing poetry
Shawn
http://www.twistedwoods.com

[Spookyant]

We just got on to Groupon. Our ad is running right now for three days. We are still building our fan base and we want people to know about our haunt here. We did Living Social last year to get the word out. We shall see how Groupon does.

[monsterwax]

Living Social has approached us as well. Did that work well or crappy for you? From what I can tell, they seem to be a clone of groupon except they don't guarantee a minimum number of sales like groupon can (in order to activate the discount). When it was all said and done, were you glad you did it or did you think "it wasn't worth it"? Did they negatively impact your regular full paying customers?

[Michelle]

We have used Groupon for our other business. We considered using for the haunt. We looked at it as STRICTLY advertising dollars. Yes, you do promote awareness with this ad, but you really don't generate income. Don't forget that you also pay credit card fees on top of the 1/2 they take, so you are making less than 1/4 of your door price. We decided against it for the haunt because it was not a big enough benefit
In my opinion, from running two deals with them, they are more concerned about pleasing their consumer, rather than you-their client.

[JamBam]

Advertising, not sales

Groupon and other deal sites are for marketing. Read through the Groupon material. The results can vary and you decide the deal. We did it in 2010 and sold 435, redeemed 375. It was run on the day before we opened. This year instead of half on one VIP ticket, we did two for one VIP. Sold 215 and it was two weeks before the start of the haunt. Our take is that in 2010, we reached 35,000 email receivers that may not have heard of us, which was the feedbcak we got from so many. The market segment is mostly college education upeer middle class women. These are the decision makers for families. In 2011, groupon said the Ft Wayne area had 135,000 email receivers.

Were we happy? YES. Why? Because we reached many new potential customers that not only came, but brought more with them. The VIP ticket is $ 15 so the people they brought also bought VIP tickets. Some income, but income instead of expenses for advertising.

[chuck weber]

i just got one fro a vip pass for the bates motel

glen mills, pa. i'm goin !!!!!!

[freak 'n' stein]

Our Groupon runs starting at 12:01 tomorrow morning...only real value I saw in it was to market the show. Another local haunt just ran a living social and it sold a very decent number of tickets so that's what we're hoping for. It seems to me Groupon and Living Social know what they're doing if they've reached out to all of us. It's not going to be about turning max profit more than it is about marketing and selling a slow night.

[HauntedPaws]

You may be better off using the funds you would otherwise give to Groupon on advertising for yourself. 50% cut is very steep .

here's the demographics:

[Bradenton Haunted Trail]

Groupon

Here is a update we are up to 175 sold for opening night so that is 350 tickets we did a buy one get one deal. That should start the word of mouth that we want. And my web site has had almost 700 hits after the deal started so I think it Marketing well worth it.

Shawn
http://www.twistedwoods.com

[Darkangel]

Why on earth would any haunter do a groupon deal? You are only open for a handful of nights. If you charge $20 a ticket you'd end up only getting $5 for your ticket, how is that worth it for you all the responsibility is on you not Groupon but they get a %. I'm shocked when I see haunters falling for this these days. More people at less price means more headaches for less money. YOU ARE UNDER CUTTING YOUR SHOW PEOPLE WILL NOT BUY YOUR TICKET NEXT YEAR BECAUSE THEY WILL WAIT UNTIL THEY SEE IT ON GROUPON OR LIVING SOCIAL YOU LOST THAT CUSTOMER FOR LIFE!!!!! It's great for a restaurant or other business open all year and they want to boost sales after Christmas or in their slow season, haunters are selling a hot ticket for peanuts....As a customer I would buy the groupon tickets but I want to support haunts and always pay regular price instead, but most people are not like me they want the deals! lol

DA

[monsterwax]

I agree that a significant % of the Groupon customers won't return unless they get the same discount next year, but most of them would not have come unless they found out about it in the first place from Groupon. If you provide a great haunt, it is also a safe bet to assume some of them WILL return (perhaps with friends) even at regular price, but I doubt that is half as many.

But remember, one would always set these Groupon or discount nights on the SLOW nights, and we all know it's better for the staff to have a busy night than a slow one. The slow nights get boring for them and aren't as exciting as the crazy busy nights. But there is also a "too much of a good thing" factor to consider as well: If the line is too long with Groupon folks (were you only get 25% of the ticket), then some full price customers will keep driving and (who knows what % of them) won't return. This is particularly a problem for the haunts that do small groups instead of continuous lines. We can't rush them through like the "conga line" places do, so a long line can take an hour or so to process. (Unless they buy the VIP tickets, but most students don't want to spend the extra $10 for those.)

So it is a tricky decision, not as cut and dry as it my first appear.

Another consideration no one has mentioned (including the Groupon and Living Social reps) is the sales tax. Do they include that in their 75%? Our rep gave a dollar amount per double ticket they would pay. If we're stuck paying the full sales tax for each ticket (and I have a bad feeling they don't plan to contribute toward it) then that's 7.5% x 75% of the cost of the ticket that cuts into the remainder, reducing the 25% (or whatever final figure) by a significant amount.

Feedback from people who have tried this is really helpful and appreciated (although all comments are welcome).

[Brandon_K]

As a heads up, Google is launching Google Offers in select markets. One of their sales guys has been up my ass about starting a campaign with them. It's basically Groupon except through Google. Two $25 VIP tickets would net out to $12.50 for us. Worthless.

I'm sure it would be good to get the word out for a 1st or 2nd year haunt, but not for the established IMO. You're better off using Foursquare / Twitter / Facebook. At least if you do a BOGO on a VIP ticket or the like, you're getting $25 out of it and not $12.50. Plus, you can start and stop those at will, no middle man.

[drfrightner]

Okay listen up my friends... I am a marketing master and let me tell you none of these types of things fool me one bit. I went back and forth with a Groupon guy over about 25 emails. I told him flat out... 'I could be your #1 salesman if I worked there, I'd get all the bonus, all the money, all the success, heck I understand how to sell your company better than you, so don't try to snowball me'.

I was very a matter of fact... I was explaining to THEM why it would work for certain people and not others. Additionally I explained to him there is about 100 other people trying the same thing from your local TV stations, newspapers to other new start ups.

They admitted I was right. To make a long story short... they offered to only take 30% of my money NOT 50% as some of you have stated.

I told them if I did their program they would make a FORTUNE ... I thought they'd sell 10,000 tickets. That would NOT HELP ME... they tried to convince me it would over and over and I got more and more ignorant back and the more they dropped the percentage.

Look here is the bottom line... and DO NOT take this the wrong way.

If you have a VERY small haunted house this might be a great deal for you because you gain some exposure. But you gain exposure from people who might not have otherwise come so in other words not your core group or audience. Either way if you are one of those VERY SMALL Haunts with very little business, nothing can hurt your business.

If you have a bigger haunted house with lots of marketing this WILL HURT YOUR BUSINESS...

If they take 30=50% of your money plus you have to offer some outrageous discount you LOSE MONEY and let me say TONS OF MONEY!

If you are a LOW ROLLER haunted house owner who doesn't spend money on marketing, nothing can hurt you! But if you are a low roller then simply MAN UP and SPEND REAL money on marketing, websites, blah, blah and STOP looking for FREE stuff to promote your haunt.

YOU WILL NEVER become a RICH BIG BAD haunt working with Groupon, you need to man up and purchase radio ads, tv ads, sponsors, get a kick ass website and hey don't forget Hauntworld banners. LOL

GROUPON WILL NOT make money it will help you LOSE A TON OF MONEY.

When you stop and think here... you give them 50%, you also offer a huge discount and you sell lets say 3000 tickets. Let me say this is my haunt... hmmm.


3000 tickets sold at $20.00 is $60,000.00

I give away 50% as some of you stated that is $30,000.00 given to GROUPON. ARE YOU F*CKING CRAZY!


How many radio ads could you buy for 30k, how many google ads could you buy, how many hauntworld banners could you buy... think about it.

LASTLY... lets NOT forget one more thing... you had to offer like 50% off the ticket so now you just lost even more.

DO NOT BE A TOTAL FOOL... BONE UP and market your haunted house RIGHT!

Groupon is a gimmick and your haunt will NOT benefit the way you think.

Just my opinion.

Larry