Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Many years ago, I spent the best part of my wasted youth in arcades. I even got good enough at Air Hockey to be ranked as high as 7th and make some spending money at it (just so you know my cred).

Word of mouth is the best plan. Do a deal where whenever anyone brings a new friend they get 2-for-1 tokens (up to a certain amount) or something like that. Sure, there will be abuse and some people will come many times, but you will get young people talking about it to all of their friends and that is exactly what you need - WOM. Unless things have changed, we usually stayed until our money ran out (and usually later), so if you are giving away free playtime it just means people will leave a little later, but still with empty pockets.

Tournaments are another great draw. Everybody thinks they are the greatest and everybody also loves watching the finals among the truly best. Players also want to get in more practice time as the tournament approaches which means more revenue. There are many sponsorship programs targeted at your demo so a lot of the prizes would come to you at no cost.

Also, be sure you have the latest and greatest games first and build anticipation by promoting them weeks in advance. It was always a big draw when a very-hyped game hit the arcade. People would wait in line to play the ones that they were most geeked about.

You could also do promos like the one I mentioned earlier but tailor them for the local youth organizations, schools, churches, and sports teams. Or do a free-play reward for kids who get good grades in the local school. The schools will become your bigest promoter.

Wish you were nearby so I'd have an excuse for the wife to come play for a few hours. :)

Best of luck, Johnny B.
if you like the advice, read the blog: https://bit.ly/75KkSG

you should recruit a couple of the kids to help promote. offer free tokens for bringing there friends in. Make sure to give some of there friends tokens as well when they come in. keep them interested. even if you not seeing a huge mark up on them right away thats ok. we just want them to come in. young people have limited places to go other than the mall. if they establish your arcade as a gathering place. it could get and stay busy on a regular basis. "hey what r u doing after school?""Were going to the arcade, see you up there!

Good Luck

Joe