Karaoke Forums

I started a new promotion tonight. A couple of days ago I went to the dollar store and picked out a variety of items that I thought would be good for prizes. There were items appropriate for both male and female in the lot I bought. I ended up spending roughly $10. Some items were less than a dollar and I ended up with 11 items. The last prize is a coupon for a free beer on my tab.

Then I sent this out tonight to all my karaoke group members on Facebook:



In less than one minute, I had a group member messaging me if she could bring some of her products to donate for prizes. She is a consultant for a home based sales business. Of course I said yes!
She brought 3 items that had a fairly decent value of roughly $5 - $10 each.
The night was a great success and we had people show up that hadn't shown up in quite some time. Everyone had a great time and I'm confident that they will return next week and probably bring friends. I'm hoping also that they will come early in order to get more slips in the hat.
I've also had offers from 2 others for more prizes next week!
I'm very pleased with this and thought maybe you might like to hear about it.
The best part is that it's completely in my control, NOT the venue owner's, so I can keep it as a totally random draw.
As of late, I've been worried about the lack of customers coming out and have actively feared that the gig might get canceled. With this promotion, I think I've secured my place!

Sounds like a great plan, and something I've done in the past as well. The latest one we did at the Thurs night venue: Everytime someone paid for a drink, they got a ticket. The matching ticket went in a big beer pitcher. About 30 minutes before the show ended, we drew the winning ticket - They got a $25 gift cert. to the restaurant. So the non-singers also got rewarded - I want to keep them happy because they are the bulk of the people who come to the show. I'm not sure that a lot of venues understand the actual value of a gift certificate to their own place -- simple to arrange, people use the g/c and spend more than that most of the time. And it's a great way to create that "happy feeling" in a customer. The first person who won at this had NEVER been to the venue before. One happy dude.

Clever idea. Cheesy items or not, people love free stuff.

Another idea for prizes would be to hit the owner up or a vendor for alcohol knick knacks. They're always getting or giving little promos. Whether it be tshirts or a bottle opener, knick knacks like that. I doubt you'd be around to ask a driver directly with a beer delivery, with the time Karaoke starts and all. Unless you set up earlier in the day.

Very great idea.. I used to do something mildly similar.

For the first half of the night, your slips went in for a drawing for a free drink.

Half way through the night I would break for the drawing and have a non-singer actually draw the slip so it would be perfectly fair.

Before I would start things back up, I would get everyone else involved. I would play a song and ask a trivia question related to it. I would have them write their name and answer on a slip of paper and drop it in the bin.

About half way through the balance of the night I would give them one more chance to get in on it...mostly for anyone who wasn't in when I asked it the first time. I would play the song and ask the question one last time. When the song ended, I would have the bartender draw the slip. If the answer was correct they won, if not another slip was drawn until we got a correct answer.

Everyone seemed to enjoy this... even the bar owner! The patrons stuck around because they wanted to see if they were getting a free drink. While they were waiting, they were drinking. Bar covered the drinks because the people staying and drinking more than covered the cost of ANY 2 drinks they had.

All great ideas guy! Thanks!
I wish I could get the owner to kick in a prize, but he's extremely cheap and to be honest, I really don't want him to because once he does, he may think he can dictate how the "contest" goes,
Yes, I said contest.because that's how he will see it - as a contest.
Once he has that idea in his head, it will be all downhill from there. He'll start demanding that they must "do something" to win. Perhaps be a "better singer". Thats how he destroyed my customer base last time. He held a "contest" that was clearly slanted to favour the people he liked. It was run over the course of a month with main prize being $500. The participants were supposed to accumulate "points" over the month based on criteria known only to the owner and his wife. The only two criteria we knew for sure was the number of times you sang and whether you were a "good" singer.
Unfortunately, the winner was a guy who got in on it for the first time on the last night, sang only one song, and not very well, either. Turns out the "winner" owed the owner a boatload of money.
Needless to say, my custies were PISSSEEED!
This is the same "ethnic" owner I've had trouble with in the past.
I don't dare ask him for a gift certificate or free drinks, though I know they are fantastic ideas and would increase his business a lot. What a bummer dealing with astubborn old man stuck in the "old country"!

I love hearing new ideas and everyones twist on them. It made me think of this one.

White Elephant karaoke That would be a neat idea around xmas. We have a xmas party every yr just for the regulars.

Thanks Diafel

_________________
[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

ooooo Do tell, Babs. How does it work?

Haven't done it yet. I got the idea from your post. I'm thinking have everyone bring in a white elephant gift and put it in a big barrel. Of course this is for singers only. I'll pick up a bunch of $1 items from the dollar store for singers who didn't bring something to cover all basis. Then after they sing a Christmas song they can pick from the barrel. The fun part is it is white elephant, so there will be some interesting gifts in there.

_________________
[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

OOOO I like it! I may just steal it!
Thanks, Babs!

Just had another thought... Ever see the movie "Crossroads" ? (I know... Britney Spears.. Yuck.. my 14yr old daughter was 6 at the time and gave daddy the puppy dog eyes)

There is a scene in there where their car has broken down and they enter a karaoke "Contest". In all honesty it was almost like being a street performer.

Rules were simple, while the singer is singing a bucket gets passed around the room... you like them, put some cash in.. you don't like them, don't put any in.

Just thought it might give someone another option... not as stressful as a traditional "Contest"

I like the ideas. I'm thinking that what could be the best prize on a busy karaoke night but the chance to be the next singer in the rotation. Doesn't cost anything and you would just have to move them from where they are in the rotation to the next spot. Of course it wouldn't be that good of a prize if you were already next.

I will be doing a contest a lot like tarzan is talking about soon. it is a fund raiser where people donate $1 per vote, can vote as much as you want to. winner gets a % and charity gets the rest.

_________________
the voices arent real, but they have some good ideas