Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Need To Grow Karaoke Night

Posted by Anonymous on 11/3/2004 at 5:39 PM ET 50 Points
I just started a Karaoke Night at Jillian's Entertainment in Westbury, New York- Its on a Tuesday night -- we are trying to add business to a rather slow night. It's from 7:30pm - 11:30pm. It’s in its 7th week. I have had night of 15 to 45 people. I have no budget to do paper or radio ads -except, I had a radio station come down one week sponsored by a beer distributor. So All I really have is the web and word of Mouth and Fliers. (Handing out fliers which I don't think does a lot) I have a talent agency working with me to give a grand prize gift getting their Big Break to sing with one of the top "Omnipop Talent Agency" Bands. We were schedule to start this contest in October but we haven't had a large enough crowd to really get this started. I really want this Karaoke night to take off. Please let me know any ideas that you would have to really launch and make a real crowd for Karaoke. I was thinking that I would invite VIP winner from our fish bowls to a free night of Karaoke and free appetizer platters. Any other ideas ? Thanks
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by mgoodman on 11/4/2004 at 7:54 PM Member
    Can you help me understand the "low budget" thing? I'm a big believer in "you get what you pay for," and a low budget is a great way to get minimal results.

    What's wrong with investment spending to achieve an objective that will ultimately generate more incremental profit than the cost to achieve it?

    This is not to say you shouldn't be prudent. I'm not advocating foolish overspending. But when you limit your thinking because you don't have a budget, the first thing you should do is re-examine the objective and ask yourself (or your boss) whether the budget and the goals are in sync with each other.

    If not, then either save your money and change the objective or come up with additional funds and make the investment work as hard for you as you can.

    I'm not trying to throw a wet blanket on the creativity, but I hate to see you fail in your mission because someone thinks that guerilla marketing is free.

    You get what you pay for.
  • Posted by SRyan ;] on 11/4/2004 at 9:57 PM Member
    Do some theme nights/months to find the best knock-off of one particular band or artist, like:

    The Partridge Family
    Abba
    The Beatles
    The Monkeys
    Elvis
    Britney Spears

    Find the right genre of local radio stations who play that kind of music (oldies, easy listening, classic rock, etc.) and get them to promote and sponsor that night or that series of nights.

    If you do a month-long promo for one "band," you can model it after the American Idol process of elimination.
  • Posted by ReadCopy on 11/5/2004 at 5:24 AM Member
    SRyan ;] beat me to it, I as going to suggest theme nights :-(
  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 11/5/2004 at 9:03 PM Accepted
    After visiting the website I could not see any promotion for the Tuesday Karaoke night. so either it's not there yet, or else it's lost in the noise. So fixing that would be a step forward.

    Also, people visit a website like yours when they are planning and event, or just looking for somewhere to go. Why not have a home page which shows what the next upcoming events are? So when someone types in your URL on Tuesday, they see Karaoke as one of tonight's events?

    I would definitely look at starting earlier. The post work-crowd would be great to catch, and while they may transition off earlier in the evening, others should be attracted by the activity and fill their seats.

    Set up competitions within businesses around your venue. Drop off flyers suggesting "Interdepartmental" Karaoke Sing-Offs"; "Men vs Women Sing Off", "Blondes vs Brunettes Night", whatever strikes you as gaining some traction with the audience...

    I noticed your comment about winners getting a Big Break with an OmniPop band... Perhaps American Idol has much to answer for but I think the average karaoke singer is looking for fun, to make fun of their colleagues, to push their personal boundaries a little, but not as a step towards a lucrative recording contract.

    I like the free beer idea. Might need to check whether it's legal in your jurisdiction though. If it is, maybe a team winning a comp could get a free tray of shooters or something like that. My personal experience with karaoke tells me alcohol is an enabler, a critical success factor.

    And if you do heed all these suggestions, then when you face the final curtain, at least you can say, "I did it my way!" :)

    Cheers

    ChrisB


  • Posted by SRyan ;] on 11/6/2004 at 6:23 AM Member
    I    love    you    BAAY-aby
    and if it's quite all right
    I need you,    BAAY-by
    To warm a lonely night
    I love you,    baby
    Trust in me when I saaaayy....

    Oh! Sorry, I was just rehearsing for Tuesday.   ;]
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