who is spending what

[Rich Hanf]

Had a question to anyone out there that might answer.....it concerns advertising, what worked best for you, how much did you spend, what advertising would you consider changing. I'll start.....this year I was in Texas and ran a show called Nightmare on the Bayou. We spent over $100,000 on a combination of radio, tv, infomercial, posters & flyers, billboards. We will change some of the poster advertising, tv, and billboards as the smaller ones didn't seem to have the same impact as the larger highway ones did.
I ask because I have an idea, a connection, and I believe.... a way of putting more asses in the seats. Thanx Rich Hanf

[Barry]

Rich,

Tony W. posted about doing exit surveys and asking about where people heard about his haunt. The number one response was the internet. I would like to see this type of survey get more specific into this and find out where on the internet people are looking. Is it search engines, regional directories, national directories, etc...?

[MMManiac]

We are a much smaller haunt in Green Bay and spend rougly $10,000 in radio ads and flyers. The internet though is still our #1 advertisement place and the best part is its FREE!

Sean

[stafford]

Rich,

Is there going to be a follow up post, you said:

"I ask because I have an idea, a connection, and I believe.... a way of putting more asses in the seats"

Interested in your connection,

Chris

[scare]

I think internet and radio are the biggest

My question is how do you determine how much to spend on advertising

[drfrightner]

For us the biggest was net marketing. Driving people to your website is the key to marketing in this day of age. Once you get them to your website you can show them video, photos, offer them discounts, sell them tickets, give them directions, let them read reviews, or whatever else you want to show them, tell them, blah, blah.

Driving eyeballs to your website is the first and foremost key to success now for all haunters. Sadly many haunters do not spend enough money on their artwork, their websites, or on net marketing. Its not the key to success. We're doing less and less radio and more net marketing.

Larry

[stafford]

As I read some of the responses, I realized that I didn't answer Rich's question before asking mine.

We are a part of a co-operative advertising group, the Rocky Mountain Haunted House Guild. Together with other Denver Metro area haunted houses, we have tried nearly every form of advertising, some we have stuck with, some we have not. Surprisingly, one form that we do year after year is Newspaper, now I know a lot of people will say that newspaper does not work, and if the guild was to have started co-operatively advertising today, I would say that you are probably right. However, in our market, wether good or bad, we have conditioned people to look in the newspaper to find the haunted house guide. It's actually been in the paper so long that I feel parents now find it (as they did when they were teenagers) and give it to their kids.

Also, we print and distribute at all of our locations a full color brocher/map version of the Rocky Mountain Haunted House Guide.

In regards to the internet, we obviously also stick with this year after year. Collectively the group owns http://www.scared.com - the online version of the Rocky Mountain Haunted House Guide that is printed in the newspaper and handed out at the haunts.

Each year more and more people are letting us know that they found us online. However, knowing what the internet traffic is to scared.com and to our individual haunt site, I feel that the internet although growing, is not yet at the point where it can replace some of your more "traditional" forms of advertising. A few years down the road it probably will, so I feel that you need to position yourself now as best you can on the web for the future.

I agree with Larry that all of your advertising should point people to your website, but be sure to include the pertinent details of your event so that if people are making their decision based of of a newspaper ad they saw or a tv commercial, etc etc that you're not asking them to take an extra step to find out the basics.

I also agree with Larry that you need to try to put your best foot forward on your website, have one created professionally, the days of "my brother's friends cousin" can build websites are over, and our customers above all are very web savvy and getting harder and harder to impress.

It's an interesting time for advertising and trying to get your message out there, print media is shrinking (due to the web), radio is fading (due to ipod and sattelite radio), tv as well (due to Tivo type devices). The web, or some form of convergent media in the future, will definitely be where it's at, I just feel it's just going to take a bit longer to get there and may be a bit of bumpy ride till we do.

Rich, are you out there? What's your connection?

Chris

[twohlgemuth]

How to Market - The Key to Success

Hi Rich,

If I had $100,00 dollars in my budget for advertising I would consider adding daytime events to cross promote. Build daytime attractions that cross promote to the young adults before your haunt opens.

Let me first begin with saying this is for the long term, not a temporary location. Of course this marketing plan is not for everyone either.

We added daytime attractions that targeted young teens, schools and familes. All of our marketing dollars were spent on these daytime events. The results of cross promotion has been the key to success for our haunt. The young kids are introduced to our location and the mystery of the haunted attraction is cemented into memory. The thought of our location is "Top of Mind" when Halloween approaches. The ability to market directly to teens a month before October builds customer loyalty to return to a familar location.

Using the internet social sites like FaceBook and MySpace work amazing well. Create events on these sites and get your own staff to create buzz about your haunt. If used correctly these sites turn into thousands of tickets sales without you having to do much work. Trust me it works, no matter what you hear about these being a fad.

[Barry]

Trust me it works, no matter what you hear about these being a fad.

I was reminded of your comment this morning as I was reading some CES news:

LAS VEGAS — Cisco CEO/chairman John Chambers predicted that online social networking and streaming video will form the backbone of the next-generation Internet, and that government, business and educators must work together to ensure that the United States participates in the economic boom it will bring.

Read the entire article at http://www.twice.com/article/CA6518672.html?nid=2402