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How to organize the Halloween contest?

Halloween – that time of year when everyone gets to dress up and pretend to be something they’re not. Moreover, Halloween is always a big business since this is one of the most exciting and favorite season of the customers. F&B Businesses is also not out of this fact. Hosting a Halloween Party, running Halloween promotion, offering new Menu included foods & drinks dedicated just for this scariest event are typical activities of coffee shops, restaurants, or bars in this season. For whatever activity kind, the F&B business owners purpose to create fresh & unique Halloween experience for their customers, in-the-end to engage with them while having the increasing income. One of Halloween activity kind that supports to not only enhance your F&B brands’ images but engage with customers through inspiring them to join with your stores is Halloween Contest.

The Halloween true story reveals that during Halloween season, 30% more fans enter contests & sweepstakes. So it’s time to launch your own Halloween contest for your F&B Business. Let‘s go through these complete steps to start:

Choose Contest Type

The Contest Type is the way you run your contest and get participation from your customers. Every specific contest type will have particular details throughout the happening time of the contest. 

  • Contest Timing: Before or After Halloween.
  • Contest Platform: Online or Offline.
  • Contest Criteria: Winners by results from getting public votes or determined by specific judges.

Brainstorm Contest Ideas

There are many favorite contest ideas for your F&B stores from the simple (Halloween Photo/Video & Costume) to the more complicated type (DIY Halloween Decoration or Foods/Drinks, Halloween Performance in the Halloween Party). 

To innovate new creative contest ideas for your stores, you should base on the information about your customers (segmentation, interests, and behaviors) through analyzing the business data or monitoring your customers in-store and on social media. 

Moreover, the aim of the contest is also supporting to promote your F&B brands, so that don’t forget to put into your contest ideas your F&B brand elements such as signature foods & drinks or favorite corners in your stores. 

Finally, after having the short list of contest ideas, before determining the final contest ideas, you should run a quick poll on your social pages or in-store surveys to let your customers express their opinions. This part is essential to check how your customers feel about your contest and also a pre-contest promotion activity.

Draft Contest Condition

Contest Condition is about how your customers join in your contest from the beginning to the ending. It’s a set of questions you should go through:

  • Where this Contest will Happen? Where this Contest get the registration, votes & scores, announce the final result and award for the winners?
  • When this Contest will Happen? When this Contest will start to receive the registration, votes & scores?; close for registration, votes & scores?; and announce the final result?
  • Who can Register this Contest?
  • How to Register this Contest?
  • How many Prize? What are Prizes?

Complete Contest Content & Condition: 

After answering all these of the above questions, to let customers have the overview about your contest; you should put all into a Contest Poster including:

  • A strong key message emphasizing the store spirit and contest idea.
  • Outlines of contest conditions in short.
  • Visual or Demo images from your staffs to let customer imagine overview about the contest and attract customers’ notice.
  • Halloween design: colors, icons or graphics.
  • Call-to-action for registration.
  • Prize images.

This Contest Poster you can publish on your social pages or place in table cards to communicate to your customers. Also, don’t forget to prepare social contents around the contest idea and Halloween subjects to influence your customers to register the contest.

Receive Submission/Registration

When starting to get submission or registration, you should have social contents or in-store communication to remind your customers. Beside that, to have the high connection with the registers, it would be helpful if you double check or finally confirm throughout their participation activities.

Communicate during Contest

During the contest, keep encouraging your customers to join in the contest by social posts about current submissions, customers’ moments when registering your contest or sharing around Halloween topics. 

Close Submission/Registration

When the final day for Submission/Registration is near, you should have social contents or in-store communication to countdown and remind your customers. Then, it would be best if you publish the official announcement about the ending of receiving contest applications.

Select Winners

During the waiting time for selecting winners, you can activate your social pages or in-store community boards by posts sharing best memories or submissions around the contest.

Announce Final Result

Like the opening of the contest, for the final, you should also put all results into a stunning Poster. Moreover, don’t forget to include other exciting information about the contest: total registration, total register, total submission, and funny facts & stories.

Award for Winners

Recording a video about winners & their reward moments, and writing a postcard to thank for the contest participation of your customers to share on your social pages or in-store community board would be the perfect completion for your contest. 

In conclusion, your customers now demand more experiences beside foods and drinks. If you do not show your effort in creating fresh and unique activities for your customers, especially in big holiday seasons like Halloween; they may not want to engage with your F&B brands. So, are you ready for the Halloween Contest of your F&B stores? Let's make it Dark but still Interesting to your customers and audiences.

PR & Marketing
Bar
Coffee Shop
Community
Customer Behavior
Customer Segmentation
Restaurant Event
F&B
Halloween Marketing
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Restaurant Contest

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