Holidays are an opportunity for bars to have a banner night and fill the register with cash. People love an excuse to celebrate, and holidays provide them just the opportunity they are looking for. Of course, there are the big 3: New Years, St. Patrick’s Day, and Cinco de Mayo. Every bar celebrates these holidays and employs some bar promotion idea to get people through the door. They use green beer, half-priced coronas, and champagne toasts at midnight, but if you want to be truly unique, you need to change things up a little bit and get creative. Here are 3 bar marketing ideas that incorporate holiday celebrations with a unique twist.
New Years
Every bar has some form of New Year’s Eve celebration, and most of them are remarkably similar. People dress in their suits and ties. There’s a DJ or live band. Everyone toasts the New Year at midnight with a complimentary glass of champagne while singing Auld Lang Sine. Simple. Effective. Boring. Have you ever considered running a bar promotion for New Years Day? National Hangover Day? Most people are off work, sitting at home, nursing a headache, and watching football. How about a day celebrating hangovers with pitchers of Mimosas and Bloody Marys for everyone? You can even have a unique version of the “Hangover Games” where patrons compete for prizes by testing their focus, ability to withstand bright light, and coordination.
Valentine’s Day
People who are in a happy, committed relationship love Valentine’s Day. People who are unattached hate it. Who is taking care of the miserable many on Valentine’s Day? An easy bar promotion is holding an anti-Valentine’s Day for the single folks. Decorate the bar with broken hearts, dead roses, and bullet-riddled cupids. Ban public displays of affection. Create unique drinks and shots that celebrate the single life. If no one else will take care of all those lonely souls on Valentine’s Day, you should step up to the plate. They need you.
Lesser Known Holidays
If you buy the right calendar, every day is a holiday. Why not celebrate a few? You will be the only bar celebrating National Talk like a Pirate Day or True Confessions Day. You can corner the market on weird and whacky holidays and bar promotions ideas. Be careful with holidays like No Pants Day; they can lead to people having way too much fun. The local boys in blue may frown on a large number of your customers leaving the bar with no pants. You may need to have a pants check counter.
Holiday promotions have been part of bar marketing strategies for years, but that is just the problem. Everyone runs a promotion, and it is hard to compete. You don’t have to follow the crowd. Do something a little different and set your bar apart from the competition.
