Entering the industry with some experience Any suggestions?

[HauntedDeadEnd]

Hello- I am new to the forums but have experience haunting. My friends and I used to be actors in school haunted houses growing up and moved it to my house for an outside/inside haunt. We are in the process and placed a bid on a warehouse to go commercially. We usually get over 1k kids/parents at my home haunt a year. Here is our website of the haunt at my house www.haunteddeadend.com this has grown bigger yearly which takes us to the 15th year. We have a group member that worked with haunts in St. Louis and Buffalo N.Y. who has been a tremendous help with expanding a home haunt commercially. This Haunt will be in Westchester County suburbs. There are small ones but we are looking to go BIG. there is a 44K sqft. room and we are looking to place 3 haunts inside so you get more scares for your buck. We have alot of props and always looking for more as I am sure everyone else. What are some good ideas as far as sponsors? I heard of Redbull and Monster what have they brought to the table to help? What are some good places to look for props inexpensively? Any other ideas, suggestions greatly appreciated. We are also looking for some DIY ideas especially the Claustrophobia room. Thanks

[mindtumor]

Where is westchester county?

[Umby]

What are some good ideas as far as sponsors? I heard of Redbull and Monster what have they brought to the table to help?

I'm not sure about Redbull but as far as Monster goes my rep told me that they "do not offer any kind of financial sponsorships because they do not wish to be associated with Halloween." However, they are great when it comes banners and such and they also, at least in this area, are good for coming out a few nights during the season with the big truck, a couple of Monster girls, and free Monster for all!!!

Good luck!!!

[Killer Katie]

We always had good luck with the local places, like pizza places, movie theaters, etc.
Anyplace that wants to get the attention of the teens that will go to your event!
Good luck!!!!
Where are you located?

[brad]

Good luck to you for your first PRO year!

As far as sponsors, etc., just like Killer Katie said. anywhere that tweens and teens and young adults will be at or associated with... that's where you want to get your name out.

The primary demographic of attendees is 15- 30 yrs. old. Anywhere you can go to advertise, do it.

[Frightguy1]

I agree

This is also my haunts first year opening it's doors to the masses. We agree with brad & Killer Katie. We have found local and privately owned stores to be very willing to work with us as sponsors.

Because we are not an established haunt with a proven track record of attendance we made certain to work up a detailed outline of our marketing plan along with what we have accomplished so far for example radio spots with local radio, full page ads that will be run in local newspapers close to the time of the event.

Once the sponsors new what kind of coverage they would be obtaining by working with us and adding their names and logos to our flyers and radio spots it became much easier to get that sweet YES! from them.

There is always some give and take but if you come prepared with the facts things become that much more easy.

Jason.
Producer
Grimlock Manor Haunted Attraction.
http://grimlockmanor.com/

[nzanesmith]

As I am somewhat experienced in getting sponsors (I'm an off road racer) the biggest thing is provide a good sponsorship proposal with all the info they need to make a decision. Also don't take a NO personally, many companies have a budget for marketing just like us and if they have already used up or allocated that budget then there's no way they can sponsor you so catch them early in the fiscal year so the can make room for you in there budget if they are interested. You'll also find it is much easier to get product donated then a financial donation. Also remember that they need to justify what they are spending in terms of donations of any kind in the form of customers through THERE door because of YOUR event. In other words if a local pizza place gives you a discount on pizza to feed your cast they don't expect much out of the deal then a few mentions of there name and the appreciation from yourself and cast. On the other hand if you get a company to say cover some or most of your print costs then they expect a reasonable return on there investment so be prepared to offer more to them. Think outside the box when it comes to what your offering in return for your sponsors, everyone will offer the logo on there site and on the posters and probable a banner at there event, what do you offer that someone else doesn't, why is there money better spent on you then say a commercial or newspaper ad? Also be sure to include information on your other efforts in terms of marketing as well as demographic information of your guests (16-30 year old men and women is not sufficient information about your guests), how long will they be in contact with a potential sponsors products or marketing materials, how much is the average sell at your event, how much of that can be related to products other then ticket sells, how much of that is a product your sponsor might be interested in? For example say your shooting for an energy drink company to sponsor your event, they need to know your mean customer is 16-30 male and female 40% make 60% female. average customer spends $10 on a ticket and an additional $4-20 on merchandise and refreshments of which a "bobs energy drink" is $3. Your haunt is a 20 min average walk through with a usual que line wait of 45 min. All this information lets them understand both your event and your audience better. and if they have 2 potential haunts to sponsor and one has a 60 min walk time and a 5 min line wait and the other has a 20 min walk through and a 45 min wait which makes more since for the sponsor to support? the one with a longer wait time since people in the house longer are no seeing ads or getting thirsty waiting and buying drinks. Also don't be afraid to go for 2 - 3 times as many sponsors as you would like to have, you usually get 2 yes's for every 10 tries and theres nothing better then declining a sponsorship because a competing company has already offered a better deal :-)

Nick

[Spookyfinder]

do it yourself Ideas

For adverstising The movie theaters and rollerrinks would be a good place to start I even used coffee HOuses to advertise the ones teenagers go to. even adults it brought in alot of people. I also advertised by putting the haunted house in conversation and I got out alot with Word of mouth. I even posted it in laundry matts. I went crazy with advertising but it worked and it got alot of people into the haunted house. To market your haunt to customers leaving I always will buy a nice hoodded sweatshirt with a cool logo on it for the haunt and wear it around when it's really cold outside. I also love pins I put pins on hats and purses that would be a good idea for your haunt. Also if you had a really cool coffee cup made up to Sell that looked unique that you couldn't get anywhere else with a hot choclate inside it.

another cool Idea for marketing that you could do is to have a little cafe set up with nice seats and heat and have all the coffee specialtys Halloween themed to go with your haunted house and you could have the cups that you put the coffee in have your haunted house name on it and have a blood drip on the lid or monster ooze. I hope these Ideas Helped you.