1st and 2nd year question

[HauntedPaws]

for 1st years how close to your attendance projects where you and how much did you spend on advertising to get that number?

for 2nd years want percentage did your haunt grow the following year once you had proven yourself?

[HauntedDeadEnd]

Hi while I do not have numbers in front of me we just completed our 2nd year.
Our first year we didn't project what our attendance would be if we got 1 or hundreds of people we kept expectations high and did successful.
We promoted by fliers with coupons as well as ads in magazines, newspaper.
We had a very successful first year not knowing if we would get 1 person we hit thousands.
We were opened on the last 3 weekends in Oct. Fri-Sun.
The second year (2011) snow killed for the last 2 nights for us since our haunt is an outdoor/indoor attraction but we met our numbers in less nights so we had a second year of success.

[HauntedPaws]

That's not bad. Plan for the worst hope for the best.

[Frightener]

Nice, thanks for the answer! Helps us out as well. I figured if you establish yourself, it'll just keep growing, ya know. When we had a new haunt come to our town, we went the first year, it was good / decent, but the #'s were low. We went 3x's and only waited about 30 min's at the most and that was the last night we went (about a week before halloween)

The next year, the MINIMUM we had to wait was 1 hour. They BLEW IT UP! it seemed like, we went about 4 times and had a great time each time we went, we noticed some improvements to the place.

By the 5th year, they were gone! THe sets had gotten NICE, no big animitronics but the make up, actors, everything was great. Then they dissappeared but I can tell you they grew a big following! EVERYone we talked to at other haunts were like "Hey, did you guys go to_______ yet? It was great this year"

I don't want to down anyone at all, but we got a new one in town that's been here a few years now. The first time we went, they were paired up with a fire dept. in a small town. They had flyers up, radio ads and 1 or 2 ads in the newspaper. When we went, it was 2 hours in line! THey ROCKED IT! Both the fire dept's haunt and the other one was awesome!

For the last 3 years, it's gone down hill. There's rumors that the owners are addicts, and they just blow their money and don't give any proceeds to the charity they claimed. This year, they didn't even add to the ads that they were giving to any kind of charity. They were a 10% place, where they supposedly gave 10% to some kind of charity.

This past year, we went twice, just to see if it had gotten better after the 2nd weekend. It did not. It was so bad. I've been to SMALL yard haunts that was better. There was masks from Spirit hanging on the wall with tags still on them... for a ROOM! that was it. Everyone we talked to in line? "We're here because we know the name's been here for years" or "yeah, we heard they were great afew years back"

They advertised and advertised, the haunt was weak, very weak, and I still got a rumored number of 12,000 for 6 weekends. However, it was after that, that we found out that the also had another small haunt in the middle of town. So some of their numbers were probably from that.

Sorry for rambling, but my point is... they sucked. They didn't even try guys, I know it's horrible of me saying this but I promise, it was terrible. and... because of advertising, they kept big lines!! So to me, it seems that it'll always grow from year to year as long as you don't get lazy on the ads. Now the thing is, if you blow up the media, they will come! No matter what you did the year before, if you blow up the radio, or even tv ads, you'll grow. There's TONS of people that don't know a certain haunt even after I've seen ad after ad. And we all know, for ever 1 person that goes to a haunt, usually there's more either with them, or someone they told is coming too. Hope this is able to help somehow.

[HauntedDeadEnd]

There are some good ones here in NYC and suburbs. Some you wait an hour (well worth the wait) others fixed their timing issues to make lines flow smoothly from getting tickets to entering attraction. Some the price is low and the event is too quick. Some the price is right and you get the most bang for your buck. We stay away from animatronics and try old school way by makeup on the actors are scarier and some masks. Some animatronics are very fake the realistic ones are nice but costly. Every Haunt that I have went to I enjoyed alot each vendor does there own "scare factor" some work well and some don't but it is all in good fun. reasonable cost for great scares are the best. I do not believe in prices like $35 for a 10 min haunt then a RIP express line for $60 for the same 10 min haunt. Everyone does advertising different we did posters, flyers with coupon, groupon, news paper ads, lawn signs, Face Book, Some work well then others and this year we are going to hit more radio etc.

[HauntedPaws]

$35 for 10mins WTF?? I must say I agree with the animatronics, some are great the majority are to slow but offer a good distraction or fluff. Gore galore's new AOAs are the new way. Animation plus human allows for some ridiculous things which as an animatronic would just be slow and boring. "it's not real...OH MY GOD!!" It seems to me I'm over estimating my ad budget here as many of you lead me to believe you can get a person for roughly 1-2 dollars of advertizing. Obviously some areas this maybe more but generally this is what I find from polling some of you.

Also in various areas having an iconic personality for TV, radio and print is the way to go. Having someone to associate with the haunt is invaluable. Even on TV variety shows the solo acts tend to win because one person is associated with the act and people are able to relate to that.

[Frightener]

"AOAs are the new way"

You mean like the jumpsuit w/ mask actor on an electric chair acting like an animatronic? Yeah, those are killer! When I first saw those, I KNEW we had to implement some of those ideas. I didn't know it was a setup one could buy. Just saw them on youtube etc and thought it was just an idea for ppl to do. If they have soundtracks, chair etc I'll be interested in buying the setup. I'm sure we can build it, but we need to support our vendors whenever possible imo. If we don't buy, they don't stay!

[HauntedPaws]

Like these:

[Frightener]

Ahh, yeah. Thanks for posting. Ya I saw a dinosaur one on youtube. Since then I had been thinking of several ideas of my own. The best thing I can think of is cable hung w/ handlebars. If I can afford one of those this year I may just buy one. But budget is very limited for my first year.

See, there's NOTHING like that around here. Even the Horror in the Hollow (very NICE haunt) only has eye candy and no real beasts like these things. They don't "need" them, no. But Implimenting ideas like these will help set us from the rest.

[HauntedPaws]

Something like this is worth the $$ for the shear factor is got itself on the news and undoubtedly perked some viewers interested into coming. So if your 1st year has 300 more people due to it then it's already paid for itself and you can sell it or change the head next year.

The dinosaur one is Ancient evil which is gonna be on sale this TW as well as another rat head. Kevin is planning something even bigger (size and complexity) which I'm hoping will fit in my theme as it.

Having this or something fancy is worth the free PR it'll generate in news, FB traffic and ticket revenue.

[Frightener]

"Having this or something fancy is worth the free PR it'll generate in news, FB traffic and ticket revenue. "

Yes! I agree. That's whY i'm selling my 74 nova SS and taking tax returns to TW... if I can get in. I want ONE HUGE, EXTRAVAGENT item, be it a nice Facade, or The Angel of Death sorta thing. I want something that everyone around here will be like "Ohh EFfin Crap! THAT'S COOL AS YELL!" So... hopefully they'll talk the snot out of it and spread the word!

"dude, it's totally worth going just to see that big arse thing they got up there"

Yeup... I'm excited :P

[DDJR]

Hauntedpaws not to burst your bubble but the days of 1 to 2 dollars per person are over its more like 3 and up of course thats just my opinion

[HauntedPaws]

As with all things in this business it depends on your market and how effective media types are in that market.