Planning the Year Ahead: Promo ideas for your FEC (plus a free Holiday Calendar)
From Valentine’s Day to spring break and the winter holidays, there are plenty of opportunities throughout the year to bring more customers through your doors and create exceptional guest experiences that will make them want to return again and again.
The key to capitalizing on seasonal trends, festivities and holidays is building them into your marketing strategy ahead of time. Otherwise, you’ll end up scrambling at the last second to throw something together which is likely to result in disappointing sales.
To save you some time, we’ve put together a Holiday Marketing Calendar that gives you a quick summary of dates and holidays you can use to plan your holiday promotions for 2020. Add these dates to your calendar and use some of our recommended ideas to make this your most profitable year ever!
Groundhog Day
If you’re looking to add a little fun to your holiday promotion schedule, then Groundhog Day is just what you’re looking for. Even though Groundhog Day isn’t technically a holiday, it’s a good opportunity to run fun promotions in your store. Use this day to promote your spring specials for a nice sales boost before summer promotions arrive.
Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day provides an opportunity for much more than one special deal at your facility. Think outside of the box when preparing this year’s Valentine’s Day marketing campaigns. Instead of offering yet another discount, consider creating some Valentine’s-themed packages, and make sure to reach out to your customers via email and invite them for an Arcade Date Night with their loved ones at your location.
Saint Patrick’s Day
St. Patrick’s Day is a great opportunity for facilities that serve alcohol to make a significant amount of bonus income. This holiday is mainly known for being a day where people wear green or drink lots of beer, but it’s also associated with luck. This holiday is great for offering an “Eat, Drink & Play” Irish-themed combo available on the day.
Mother’s Day & Father’s Day
Reward moms and dads with special pricing/discount if they come to your facility to spend time with their children during this week.
If you know which of your customers are mothers, send them a special card by email with a coupon enclosed. For example, A FREE $10 Game Card or a FREE session of Rock Climbing for the whole family (valid only for that day). This simple Mother’s Day promotional gesture will certainly be remembered and could result in a burst of word-of-mouth marketing.
You might also want to create a ‘Dad plays for FREE on Father’s Day’ offer; when his kid gets a $20 game card, dad gets one free.
Grandparent’s Day
Have kids take their grandparents to your facility to enjoy being a kid again for the day! Consider offering a discount during this weekend where any senior citizen pays kid’s price admission for your attractions and a discounted price for your combos and packages.
Halloween
Halloween is all about dressing up, decorating, and making weird and wonderful treats, so decorate your facility with spooky touches and be sure to have a costume contest! Invite your customers to dress up and give away prizes and credits to play at your facility to the best-dressed person.
You can also offer Halloween deals and discounts, and freebies for every purchase. You can maximize revenue from every customer by setting a purchase threshold. Once they reach that threshold, give them a special Halloween treat.
Thanksgiving & Black Friday
As a business owner, you can’t afford to miss Black Friday. Everyone is expecting sales and crazy deals so be sure to offer packages at deep discounts. Advertise that these special deals will be available all throughout the Thanksgiving Break.
Christmas / Holidays Break
A really fun way to get into the Christmas spirit is to create a 12 Days of Christmas promotion where each day you unveil a surprise new deal/special offer. Keeping the deals a secret until the day they are released builds excitement and anticipation, and encourages people to purchase multiple packages. Plus, customers have a reason to visit your location each day.
And remember to promote your play cards as a great holiday gift!
School Holidays
School holiday dates vary depending on your school district, but you’re likely very aware of when they happen for your FEC. This is a prime time to advertise promotions and create incentives to get people into your venue. But don’t forget your Back-to-School promos! Consider running some ongoing promotions to encourage repeat visits as kids head back to school such as an After School Special to incentivize purchasing and reloading cards with an in-store Back to School Discount. For Example: ‘Load $25 and get $5 free’.
These are some of the most popular holidays you don’t want to miss, but there are plenty of other dates too, many interesting and fun ones you could play with to do something different and give your promotional marketing some character. Did you know there was a Video Game Day for example? Celebrating National Video Game Day is not only easy, but it is also fun as well. For example, you could offer double game credits for all your video games on that day.
But wait, there’s more …
What else is happening in your business? It’s a good idea to include in your planning important events specifically related to your venue. Some of these business-type dates include anniversaries, birthdays (staff), opening & launches, awards, etc.
For example, for your five-year anniversary, you can accentuate the number “5” in your promotions. You may have special pricing by offering $5 off with any purchase over X amount. You could also give away five Gift Card or VIP memberships every day during the week/month of your anniversary.
Every holiday or major event is an opportunity to build your brand awareness, increase revenue and bring new and existing customers (back) to your venue, so use it to your advantage. In order to see results, you need to start preparing your holiday marketing campaigns ahead of time.
Get your 2020 Promotional Calendar now and start planning your Marketing schedule for 2020 so you won’t miss any chances to boost your sales.
If you like this article and want to learn more about this topic, check out our blog post 5 Keys for a Successful FEC Promo where we share five essential elements of a successful promotion, and how you can use them to bring new and existing customers back to your venue.