Promote your haunt at my haunt

[Mike Goff]

Our queue line sucks. We try to make it interesting for the customers, we show a movie, we play music, and we have actors that roam up and down the line, but it still sucks. Sitting around the campfire at the Legendary Haunt Tour really got me thinking. When Ben Armstrong said “make your queue line another event” it was like someone threw a pie in my face. It was profound, yet simple. It was embarrassing that I needed to be told this, but I did need it. Since that time, I have been drawing, taking notes and coming up with what I believe to be a great queue line show. Thank you, Ben… for the pie in the face.
Something that we have done in the past is to give away door prizes to people who check in on Facebook. This year we want to expand on this.
We will be constructing a stage that the queue line will wrap around. We will have bands, animatronics and all kinds of things thrown into the mix. I would like to give away prizes every half hour. If you would like to promote your haunt at my haunt, this is for you. I’m looking for tickets, T-shirts, and hats to be given away. We will also need you to submit a short paragraph of what you would like us to say about your haunt. We will ask the winner of the prize to make a post on Facebook that they won tickets to (insert haunt) while waiting in line at Scare Fair. We will ask them to tag us, so that everyone may follow along. We still have some details to work out, but I think that we are on to something.
You guys all give away T-shirts and tickets on the radio stations; why not do the same in front of a group of known haunted house fans? If anyone has any ideas to add, please share.

[Frightener]

I've been in retail for 15 years basically. Selling food, cars, computers and auto accessories. I can tell you, my theory is this: You don't need to eliminate your competition, but be the best your store can be. What I mean is, even in slow months, all of our stores have made it. Mine made it simply because I sit with my customers and explain everything when it's needed, I give them free advice, I also even do free tech, if it takes me 10-13 minutes to get it done up front (without having to check a computer into service for 3 days and a gauranteeds $45 bucks) then I do it complimentary. This has over doubled our business, even in the slow months. I personally have seen the change in this store since I've been here the last 5 years. With that said, I think you're on que bud!

Giving the customers a GREAT show is what it's about. Squeezing every ounce of entertainment out of that $13 dollars is where it's at. If you can make the customer's feel like they're already in a show and they're STILL IN LINE... wow, it's no longer a 15 min' show, it's a 1.75 hour show! They'll love that. And the next best thing is to SUPPORT our fellow haunters. I mean seriously, how many folks have you asked and they said "Ohh this is the only one we're going to" Haunt goers are VERY hungry, 90% of the time> I know only because I've spent 100's of hours in lines. And let me tell ya, my brother and I aren't very shy when we're together. We talk and aggravate EVERYONE around us. By myself tho, I'm as shy as the ghosts.

Anyways, I hope that wasn't too much to read, I agree and I think that's a great idea. Why not support fellow haunters and keep the comradery (seriously? Spell Checker is WRONG lol) Also guys, if you can find some local bands, they may work on that center stage CHEAP! I think that's a great idea in total, I don't know how you guys that's been running haunts feel about it, but it sounds GREAT from a business standpoint, and from a haunt addict.

Dewayne

[monsterwax]

Obviously, this would only make sense for other local haunted houses. (Who's going to want tickets from haunts out of state?) Other in-town haunts would be getting prime exposure to just the clients they should want, and if they reciprocate, it's a win-win situation. But it could also be used to give away other Halloween related prizes like Monster Drink, DVDs, computer games, etc. Also, having characters "work the line" is always a popular thing with the crowd. They love to pose with characters and get phone-photos which they often post on Facebook or email to friends. Magicians and people with close-up and personal routines are a lot of fun for the customers as well.

[Mike Goff]

Obviously, this would only make sense for other local haunted houses. (Who's going to want tickets from haunts out of state?) Other in-town haunts would be getting prime exposure to just the clients they should want, and if they reciprocate, it's a win-win situation. But it could also be used to give away other Halloween related prizes like Monster Drink, DVDs, computer games, etc. Also, having characters "work the line" is always a popular thing with the crowd. They love to pose with characters and get phone-photos which they often post on Facebook or email to friends. Magicians and people with close-up and personal routines are a lot of fun for the customers as well.

Yes, and no. There are so many haunts within driving distance from me that it's not funny. Life in the Midwest is unique in the fact that people do quite a bit more driving than what they do in the more populated areas. It is not uncommon for people to commute 30 miles or more to get to work. When talking to customers about going to other haunted houses, we get a pretty wide range of stories. Our customers go to Erebus in Pontiac, they go to the Haunted Hotel in Louisville, some go as far as Cleveland. This year we had a haunt that was 2 and 1/2 hours away plaster our town with billboards. Ohioans love haunted houses and will drive to see them. In a few rare cases, there are some very big haunts who brand themselves nationally, is it worth it for them to give away a T-shirt? Probably it's a great way to plant seeds. This isn't for everyone, but there are dozens, of people on Hauntworld who could benefit from this. Even if your haunt is not within driving distance, I believe that it is a topic worth discussing.
You are absolutely right about giving away other stuff and we are lining up prizes to do just that. I appreciate all suggestions, so thank you, and keep them coming.

[Frightener]

You guys, seeing that last post made me think of Horror in the Hollow near our town> i'ts a 45 min' drive from Paragould (where I live) and we'll get there and there'll be ALL KINDS of folks from Pennsylvania, NC, TEXAS... you name it. But here's the real kicker, whenever we tell folks around here? They're like "Horror what?" lol.

It's funny that while at the event over there, folks are from all over have heard about it and came to it, but than again directly local here, half the people don't seem to know about it. So yeah, i'd have to say since that's the case, it could work both ways, local and outta towners. Makes sense to me, I mean I KNOW we aren't the only fools to go wherever we can for a haunt, however we haven't been further than 100 miles though. So we're planning on it next year!!