Paying actors... would this work

[gotwilt]

Give each actor 100 tickets with an actor number printed on them. They would give out these tickets to anyone they wish, however the tickets would not be paid for yet. Whomever got the ticket would come to the box office, pay for the ticket and 15% or so would go to the actor.

So if the actor would give out all 100 tickets and all those folks so up @ $10 each = $1,000 gross total. Then the actor would get $150 of that.


Incentive for them to actually get the tickets into the hands of people who will likely show up for the event.

[Spookyfinder]

Are you saying this is the only way you would be paying actors? Or would this be in addition to a fixed salary? It sounds like a really good idea if it's in addition to some sort of fixed salary, but then they might not be as motivated to get the tickets into the hands of people who will buy them. Therein lies the problem.

However, you may want to also consider doing this with other non-actors, just to get tickets out there to people that will buy them. Give tickets to people who want to make money and give them this 15% (or whatever %) commission for each ticket that is bought with their number on it. You may get a lot more business this way. So it sounds like a really good marketing concept to me.

[Jim Warfield]

Oar?

Duct tape half a broken fishing rod to their back and hang a weenie infront of them from the fishline. This doesn't work for Veggans though.
"Work!" "Work!" Darnitt!"
"Get that weenie before it goes green!"
An automatic cattle proder in the undies covers both ends of the persuading.
"Forward! I say!"
(Avoid red cheeks from weenie-slap, have the line pulled in enough. You are welcome!)

[Greg Chrise]

Unless all of your actors are formerly girl scouts that have been forced to pimp out cookies for brownie points from an early age, there is not a high ikely hood you will se anyone do more than give tickets to immediate family members. Which is how they sell lots of vacuum cleaners. They get 20 people in a room and give them this plan on how they are going to get rich if they just begin making lists of everyone they know and then schedual to see 3 of those people per day every day for a week.

Yep they will sell one vacuum cleaner in a 1:20 shot. The evil vacuum company though sold 3 that week as there were 3 days of 20 people coming into the room looking to get rich.

Take the challenge yourself. If you had to get 1000 tickets out to qualified intrested customers, can you do it in a certain time frame? How much would you spend on gas to get everywhere or minutes on your cell phone? What salve will you use to heal all the paper cuts on your head as they all throw back all the unpimped tickets at you.

So the mommy or daddy who refuses to drive junior around on such a mission makes the actor that can't sell more than a few tickets a loser?

Then there is the problem of people just getting in line because they "have" a ticket. Now, passing out coded $2 off coupons, that works.

[Jim Warfield]

$2.00 coupons!?

"Aww "Grasshopper", your logic may be flawed, if the spooky-terrible haunted shack's admission is only $1.50! You would burn much gasoline driving back and forth to the bank getting yet another roll of quarters as your customers all demand "Change"!
Paying customers to come to your haunt/shack is a verifiable method to inspire repeat business, I have to consult the tea leaves to comprehend how much repeat customers I can stand to pay for.
Maybe the Moon-Lizard will tell me as he suckles from my slight breast full of implied satisfaction?

[monsterwax]

Maybe I'm missing something, but why would the person bring the free ticket and pay for it? Wouldn't most people just show up and get a regular ticket? or is $10 cheaper than the regular ticket? It would be nice to think people would do it to help the actors, but most probably wouldn't. Most people are very apathetic. I have a tough enough time getting our helpers to pass out flyers, and they can stick those anywhere in piles.

[Zombie Manor]

Now, passing out coded $2 off coupons, that works.

I agree. That is how we started.

[Haunting Copy]

I could see this working *if* the person who received the ticket from the actor were to get a discount, as well.

Let's say the discount came to $2 per ticket. The customer would get $2 off, and then the actor would get an additional $2 added to his or her paycheck.

That means you are paying double for this particular discount promotion. You would need to make sure your were still reaping a profit on each ticket.

BUT, I think it could be a VERY, VERY powerful technique.

Sarah