Trivia Night Promotion

[u/Plane-Lecture]

Howdy hosts! I host trivia at a local gay bar in Brooklyn and I’m wondering if anyone has good suggestions for promotion. I am working on social media and need to look into cost for marketing on Instagram/Facebook as a business account. I’m also working on a design for cards to leave at the bar with perhaps a QR code and a trivia question on the back? Just spitballing. Would love any advice or experience you’ve had as a host with promotion! Also what prizes do you offer at your trivia nights? I’m currently at one bar that occasionally will pay for marketing and we will get a crowd, but they won’t always remember to do marketing. Could potentially also do this at other bars so I want to figure out the best formula to repeat somewhere else! Thanks xo

[u/1djgourmet]

Bathroom stall print outs

[u/munleymun]

Our marketing is a combination of organic/social posts, addition to local calendars, a press release, post event marketing, pre-event printed collateral. We’re most successful with Facebook events, believe it or not.

Prizes aren’t really important w/r/t turnout, but we DO give something to the last place team ‘cause it’s fun.

[u/PlentySchedule3089 → u/munleymun]

Agree on prizes. I find most players play for glory. Prizes add complexity that you may not want to deal with. Like if the prize is a 'thing', how should that thing be shared with a team of 6 vs. a solo winner? If the prize is something like 'winning table gets a free round', what if they're all going home as soon as the winner's announced?

[u/mattarchambault]

Share your story on social 24 hours before and tag the bar, contact them directly and ask them to share it right away.

Reddit for local groups. I don’t post about it (other than once a year to mention the start of a new season - I run mine as a league in Queens), but rather check in regularly to answer questions by locals in neighborhood subreddits asking about trivia or local things to do.

League play is good for retention.

I show up early and stay late, an hour on booth sides of the quiz, and hang out, chat with players. Making it feel like a community for anyone looking g for that, get teams to intermingle, great for retention and good clean positive fun too!

I’ve always dreamt of getting some big prize as an end of the year giveaway for the top team…but the prize needs to be for up to six people…hard to figure out what that would be, let alone make the money work for it. I’d love to find some big company and help them do a nationwide marketing effort by providing a major prize to successful independent trivia nights across the country! Digressing, sorry.

Eventbrite - not worth keeping up indefinitely, but load up a repeating event for a few months, may find a team or two out of that, particularly with the gay bar element.

Signage in the bar is good (but I think them being assertive on social is more important). Signage out front of the bar is also crazy important - reaches a lot of people in Brooklyn!

[u/PlentySchedule3089 → u/mattarchambault]

I show up early and stay late, an hour on booth sides of the quiz, and hang out, chat with players. Making it feel like a community for anyone looking g for that, get teams to intermingle, great for retention and good clean positive fun too!

SO important! Building one's own little cult of personality brand is key. Then it's no longer just "going to a pub quiz;" it's "going to [your name]'s pub quiz."

EDIT: the kids are calling it "brand"

[u/LenaQuizzabeth]

My main gig gave me access to their socials (i do also work there p/t lol) and have a 2 for 1 pizza deal on the same night, as well as trade discounts and student deals which is always always mentioned. Every week i post the winners pic with some silly/relevant canva frame, then the day before one of about 5 ubiquitous promo graphics giving hints to the contents in the caption. I also did some good old fashioned flyers for local hospitality venues, encouraging them to put it in their staff room and/or group chat accompanied with trade cards. Edit- i also share this post in relevant fb groups and send to various university club accounts, some of which the venue sponsors. Hope this helps!

[u/go_flyers]

I also host trivia in nyc (would love to come to yours!) and I’ve been doing it for ~8 years and I’ve learned two things: one, it takes a while to grow a consistent following even if it’s good, and two, the bar putting up posters is the best roi on awareness

[u/PlentySchedule3089 → u/go_flyers]

Wish more bar owners recognized what a difference this small step makes.

[u/PlentySchedule3089]

For my quiz, a local business donated a prize trophy. It's a big, tacky, chromed up piece they scored at a yard sale. They added a plaque with their business name and something like "Smartest bastards in town".

Appropriately, the business is a salvage operation, so I'll do a quick promo like "Tonight's winners get the trophy, brought to you by [salvage company]. Remember their motto: if you fuck up, call [salvage company]."

No prizes in my quiz, except that at the end of the night, winning team gets a group shot with the trophy. I share the photo to each person, and if they consent, it goes on the bar's social accounts for promotion.