Overview
Everyone loves trivia – where else can you put to use all those sports stats, pop culture tidbits or random science facts that you’ve held onto for all these years? Create a little friendly competition within your customer base by hosting a Weekly Trivia Night. Offer food and drink specials, and give away weekly prizes to the winning teams.
Inviting new and existing customers into your cafe, bar or restaurant for this special in-store event is the perfect way to create a sense of community through your business. Besides having fun, you can drive traffic and trial outside of your busiest dayparts.
Details
Hosting a Trivia Night is a relatively inexpensive way to throw an in-store event. Here’s what you need:
- Questions and (verified) answers.
- A lively MC / staff member to keep the crowd entertained.
- Discounted food and/or drink for the teams that are playing.
- A weekly prize for the winning team..
If you run a burger joint in a college town, offer discounts on table-friendly appetizers and beverages for teams playing trivia: sliders, onion rings, and pitchers of beer. If your restaurant caters more to families with children, create a child-friendly happy hour: half-priced chicken tenders and milkshakes. Think about what would make your customers pleased to sit and stay awhile, and then give them that.
Before you start, check out what (if any) other restaurants in the area are doing for their trivia events. Then, try to do it better. Better discounts, better food, better prizes, etc.
It can take a few weeks for trivia nights to gain momentum (especially in college towns, where many bars/restaurants host the same type of event), but don’t give up! Get a few happy regulars spreading the word to their friends, and you’ll have an excited following in no time.
We’ve prepared a document with the “recipe” for putting together your Trivia Night events. Click to immediately download. (Word Document, 130 kb)
To increase awareness of your trivia night, PROMOTE PROMOTE PROMOTE! Social media is the easiest and quickest way to get the word out. Taking out an ad in your local university or neighborhood newspaper is also a great idea. You can even list it on Patch if you have that in your town or submit a calendar list to local papers. [See Media: Calendar Listings]
Photo Credit: NYTimes.com
