The Best Way to Organize a March Madness Bar Promotion
The March Madness college basketball tournament, held each year in March and April, is one of the most exciting times on the sports calendar for any fan. March Madness bracket pools are a popular way for fans to wager on, and predict, the outcome of games, and sports bars are common locations for fans to gather when the games are being played. If you own or manage a sports bar, there are many ways to organize a successful March Madness promotion.
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Instructions
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Contact the local offices of different beer companies to seek sponsorship for your event. If your establishment is large enough, and if your plans for your promotion are appealing to the beer company, the company may agree to sponsor your event. In most cases, the sponsorship will include banners, signs and other advertising to decorate your bar. Sales reps will attend your event and arrange regular beer-related giveaways (T-shirts, beer mugs and other related items).
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Reach as many potential customers as possible through every possible medium. Word of mouth is an effective way of advertising, so ensure your staff members tell your regular customers about the promotion. Reach other potential customers through radio advertising, if possible, and signs on the outside of your building. Social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, are an effective and free method of reaching potential customers.
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Ensure you have an adequate number of televisions to support each of the games during March Madness, and purchase a March Madness television cable package for the full length of the tournament. During the tournament's opening rounds, several games take place concurrently because they're held in different locations. When this is the case, you want to ensure that you can show every game to satisfy every customer. Having televisions set up throughout your establishment, as well as the tournament's full broadcast package, can achieve this goal.
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Purchase or rent a projection screen television set that you can use to air each day's top games. Even in the early days of the tournament, there will be games that the majority of people will want to watch, either from a personal or betting standpoint. As the tournament advances, you can air the later-round games on the projection screen to give customers a giant view of the action.
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Gather a variety of prizes to use as regular giveaways. These prizes should include basketball-related items, such as team jerseys, hats, basketballs and other collectibles. If a beer company is sponsoring your event, it will provide some prizes, but the more you can give away, the more people will want to stay at your bar. Announce that prizes will be given away every 30 minutes, which will give customers an extra incentive to spend time at your establishment. The prize giveaways should increase as each day goes on; the best prize to be awarded at the end of the evening.
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Tips & Warnings
Do not use the term March Madness in your promotion, as it is a copyrighted name that is owned by the National Collegiate Athletics Association. Using this term is copyright infringement and you could be sued.
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