Haunt Marketing For the Financially Impaired

Yes, yes my little minions of horror, back by extreme demand ’tis I, your wonderful purveyor of fright, and Dean of Sick U, Jack Often, to deliver more sound and sage advice when it comes to haunt marketing. I must admit I have been busy with other dealings and will be offering a class on procrastination in the upcoming semester. But enough of my jabbering and on to more pressing issues.

Alas, Halloween has past and I’m sure some of our first year haunters are either (a) pulling out what little hair they have left or (b) kicking small dogs and babies and blaming me for not posting the follow-up to Haunt Marketing Part I. Well, assuming you read Part I of the haunt marketing romp, you probably didn’t screw yourself too bad and if you played your cards right, and did enough tricks on the streets, you’ll probably be able to run next year.

Guerilla Marketing: Haunters Take It To the Streets

Although, as first year haunters, or even aged haunters, dream of lush marketing campaigs fit for Disney, the reality is much more, shall we say, mundane. I remember when I first started haunting in San Diego, some 10+ years ago, and saw the wonderful advertising and marketing campaigns put on by the ‘big dogs’ of haunting, I thought it would be a piece of cake to replicate, I mean everybody gets Halloween. Hell, I thought, haunted houses pretty much market themselves, don’t they??!! Then I met that special moment where fantasy meets reality, and it enters in much the same fashion as a test dumby being slammed into a wall. As I stated in Part I, radio is only a mere facet of a whole marketing campaign, and perhaps your weakest stream at that. Just think about it, we are inundated with thousands of commercials everyday when we wake up, drive in the car, and then lay our heads down at night. It is nearly impossible, considering the time constraints most haunters have to go through, to effectively market their haunt on top of securing a location (unless you are one of the lucky ones to secure long term housing), pass inspections, deal with unruly actors and the list goes on and on. Therefore, I have complied a list of great guerllia marketing campaigns, not all my own I must say, but which have proven effective for getting that much needed jolt to get your haunt off the ground.

Guerllia Marketing Tactics: The Obvious

(1)In between searching for hookers on Craigslist.com or Backpage.com, I’d suggest placing multiple ads early in the season offering special prices for tickets for Craiglist/Backpage users. Not only does this help increase your search engine optimization for your website, assuming you have one and in this day and age YOU MUST HAVE ONE, it also gets the word out early on your haunt.

(2)Assuming you can secure a location early, add your site on MerchantCircle, which is a great resource not only for its SEO capabilities but also gives you great connections to local merchants who might actually provide sponsorship dollars to your event and best of all ITS FREE!! Definitely make sure to use their blog, newsletter, and coupon functions because everytime your update, than in turn will update your ranking on the internet.

(3)Make sure to list your haunt on every available haunt site out there which includes: HauntWorld, which by the way is a great site for getting more information on what professionals in the industry are doing and has a myriad of haunt links on which to showcase your haunt and HauntSpace just to name a few.

Guerilla Marketing Tactics: The Philanthrophic

This is perhaps the most underused and ignored aspect of for-profit haunting. Everyone likes businesses, and people, who give back to the community. I’m not saying that having a little kid piss his pants after a good scare isn’t good civic duty, but partnering up with a good nonprofit not only invites the media to run special interest stories it also promotes general good will.

Guerilla Marketing Tactics: The Obnoxious

Now comes the part where I add my disclaimer, some of what you might read in this next section is not encouraged, endorsed, nor sanctioned by your illustrious author. It is but a mere attempt to tell you some of the more egregious attempts at shameless self promotion haunters in years past have done to drum up publicity using less than conventional methods.

(1) Tie one of the hanging kicker props to a light pole which is quite visible to the public with a large sign saying so-and-so haunt is one mile up the street. Now one must use prudence if choosing this option (I’m not necessarily sure prudence was used in its inception but you get the idea), as I have heard this has caused accidents but is also brought the night news helicopter.

(2) Dress up in full costume and hit every major radio and TV station in your area. When I mean dress up, I mean dress up and PLAY THE PART. That means running around the building and looking queerly into every window displaying a sign talking about your haunt. Hopefully, you’ll only be asked to leave, but sometimes Irish costume jewlery, i.e. hand-cuffs, do come into the picture.

(3) Go into any book store and head straight to the magazine section. Make sure you’re armed with lots of 4″x6″ marketing fliers and procede to stuff every magazine with fliers. Although this can be very tedious and hopefully you can convince some of your not-so-bright friends to tag along, it can provide just the needed plug of legitimacy to your haunt that can arouse interest.

Well, I’m spent, hopefully I’ve illuminated a few of the finer points of guerilla marketing but I have by no means touched on them all and I’m sure there are greater and more efficient methods of marketing still out there. Till next time, happy haunting.

Capitalizing On Fright

In previous posts the main topic of discussion was start-up and operation costs, and how operators MUST properly manage these items in order to have a profitable haunt. Although marketing can be, and most assuredly is, a significant cost item, there exists the potential to turn this item into a lucrative revenue stream if handled appropriately. These next series of posts are dedicated to illuminating potential avenues of approach when trying to market your haunt, both for the start-up, as well as, the seasoned haunter.

Marketing 101: Haunt Start-Up

Marketing….what a simple word which elicits many definitions depending upon the person or group you ask. Well, I like to keep things simple and go directly to the source. The definition of marketing, as found in the dictionary is “(1) the act of buying or selling in a market, (2) the total of activities involved in a transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling.” First-things-first, define your market. Every haunter, including myself at one point, likes to state that EVERYONE is his target audience. It may be true you want to get as many people through as possible, however there are certain niches which haunters fulfill. Much of your market will depend upon the type of event you are hosting, i.e. is there extreme gore, are you a family venue with a pumpkin patch, are you corn maze, etc. For most start-up haunters, which do not have a built-in audience, trying for a more general theme will most likely work best, as you will be able to reach a broader, more diverse demographic.

Temporary attraction providers, which tend to have multiple themes, can utilize this effectively by segmenting their attractions, i.e. this section is for older customers, while other sections are more family oriented. This, in turn, can broaden the scope of your general marketing strategy. For example, start your haunt early and run a special for families with children, i.e. parents get in free or kids get in free or half-off adult tickets, etc. You can limit your staff and set-up the attraction more as a general walk-through and pass out candy.

Once you have established your location and market segment you are aiming for, you are then prepared to begin prepping your marketing plan.

Sponsors, Sponsors, How the F* Do I Get Sponsors??!! Radio?

If you’ve ever uttered those words consider yourself a professional haunter. Haunt sponsorship, as with any sponsorship, is a slow, grinding process which can turn even the most stoic of haunters into apoplectic fits of supercilious rage. First year haunts, are almost always the most difficult to sponsor. Outside of radio stations, which typically work on your naivety and lure you in with promises of great demographics and ‘sister’ station promotion, most ‘sponsors’ are typically unwilling to work with an unproven haunt. Even upon commencing with a radio advertiser, as most haunters choose this route, make sure you know what you are getting. See how many commercials you get per day, during what hours, and if they are willing to ‘stack’ your promotions towards the beginning, and up to one week before the opening of your season. The more times people hear your commercial the better. But let’s face it, radio is beginning its long, slow death. And although by no means at its nadir, it’s definitely not the medium it once was, say 10 years ago. Most haunters are tired of the bastard ‘sister’ station, main radio stations always try to pawn off as a way to ‘cross’ promote our haunts via other venues. Whenever a sales executive says lets ‘cross promote your haunt with our new, dipstick AM, no news just talk radio station,’ makes the hairs on a certain nether region twinge.

Perhaps this is why most haunters are slowly beginning to ditch the medium altogether. Although I’m not ready to abandon radio entirely, as its serves a function, especially in those beginning, awkward years, when you are trying to tie in other sponsors by selling them ‘time’ in your commercials. You definitely should know its limits. Nonetheless if you choose this route make sure to focus on the following:

(1) Buy radio ads toward the end of the year as most radio stations are setting their operating budgets for the following year. As such, they offer specials for commercials placed during this time. This, in turn, allows you to get more bang for your buck.

(2) Frequency: Make sure to stack your commercials prior to event opening, i.e. have your commercials play every half hour or greater. Then you can slowly tone down the amount of play time towards the end.

(3) If you can get in early, see if the radio station will sponsor your event. You purchase air-time and then they give you additional ‘free’ air-time. Make sure you get them to do ‘live’ remotes and when I mean ‘live’ I mean LIVE, like having an actual on-air DJ show-up, not his sycophantic interns.

(4) Try to re-sell your air time to other sponsors in the area. If you can purchase the commercials early in the season, this could possibly impress other possible sponsors by your ‘can-do’ attitude.

(5) Location, location, location, make your location work for you. Tie in your location with your radio advertising

(6) Make sure you do the custom audio on your commercials and not some disgruntled janitor the radio station picks up off the street. If this becomes cost prohibitive, at least make sure you hear a few takes before you sign off.

Well, that’s it for now…till next time….Happy Haunting!!!

Haunt Operation Costs Can Truly Be SCARY!!

Well, as they say (and by they I’m not sure who exactly they are, but I’ve never truly appreciated their axiomatic witticisms), this is where the rubber meets the road, i.e. where your budget and true operation costs collide into a hodgepodge of mania, perturbation, and, often times, generally confused analysis. Up until this point, much of your planning has been ‘paper’ planning with the general divergence into reality when you begin construction. Both your pre-open soft and hard costs, as elaborated in previous posts, are WAY easier to calculate and control, as time is on your side (this of course assumes you begin your planning and development process early). Nonetheless, nothing can truly prepare you for opening day.

True Cost of Operations

Awww, OPENING DAY, what a truly wonderful experience it is, all the planning, hard work, and general blood, sweat, and tears will now finally pay off!!! At least, that’s in the mind of most haunt operators. They see long lines at other haunted houses and expect similar results. Although I haven’t discussed a general marketing plan and a gorilla marketing strategy, not to fret as these will be discussed in later posts, you will need to have a handle on your costs as they will most assuredly arise once operations get underway. Below you will find some of the general costs associated with operations:

1. Actors: Actor costs can single handedly run astray if you do not keep a close check on them. Much of these costs can be mitigated in the pre-planning stages by trying to work with various community organizations and trying to get volunteers to work at your haunt. In my experience, volunteer haunters are your best as they actually WANT to be there. This isn’t to say that paid haunters do not provide a great experience; it’s just that on a cost side, volunteers are definitely the way to go when starting out. This of course will require a lot of planning and proper scheduling, as you want to make sure you are properly staffed/insured. It is helpful to have a general staffing plan in mind, and have someone in charge of actor management (further posts will include a how-to on actor management).

2. Ticket Takers: Well, if you are planning on running the ticket booth yourself, then you really don’t have to worry. If you have to contract this out make sure to keep careful counts on the tickets that are received at the gate. The industry, as a whole, has gradually become more technologically equipped, i.e. use of credit card machines and e-tickets, this has greatly reduced our dependence on cash. As such, ‘skimming’ off the top which occurred in past haunt eras does not happen with as much frequency as today. Nonetheless, we still accept cash and it’s a standard haunt currency especially if you are setting up a temporary haunt attraction.

3. Security: Another large portion of your operation costs will be spent on security. Again this will stem from your pre-planning process. See if you can hire off-duty police officers and trade out event security for tickets. Contact security staffing firms early and see how flexible they are with you on scheduling. On slow nights, you will want to lower your security staff to an acceptable level. However, these costs can remain quite high anywhere from $18 to $40/hour depending upon the firm. Often times, if not discussed previously, they will charge the full time even if you relieve some of the security staff early. For temporary haunts, especially those set-up in mall parking lots, working with their security can be of tremendous benefit, as they are constantly on patrol anyway. Make sure to talk with staff and see if you can have increased presence during haunt operation hours.

4. Site Maintenance: It is helpful to note that this shouldn’t be a ‘major’ cost, however if you are not near ‘civilization’ and/or are in other remote locations finding a garbage disposal crew can be a bit tricky. Furthermore, you want to make sure that your site is free of loose debris as this can create additional hazards.

5. Electrical/Water: Although this should be considered when choosing a site, this can cause significant costs in the long run. Will you be using temporary or having a temporary power pole installed to run electricity? In one of our haunts last year we had a problem where we were one day from opening and the power company had not installed our power line. As a result, we were forced to use a temporary power generator. Generators vary in expense, especially when it comes to location. We were lucky in that we only strayed from our preliminary lighting budget by about $1,500, nonetheless without proper planning this can be a devastating blow to a start-up operation, which runs, typically, on a shoe-string budget. Water can be another concern, especially if you are required to run fire sprinklers, fountain feature props, etc. Developing a temporary water source can be costly and should impact the location you decide to lease.

6. Misc. Equipment: This will include Port-O-Potties, flashlights, safety gear,croud control, search lights, (although this can be categorized with marketing its still an equipment expense), actor ‘hangout’ area, etc.

7. Charity: This is where my two cents definitely come into play. If you don’t want to hear it, just skip this section. We, as an industry, myself included, have strayed from doing more community outreach and/or tie-ins with community organizations. But there’s more to it than in its base altruistic sense, it is also good marketing. Make sure to give back, because the community is giving to you. Make a $1 or $2 donation to the charity of your choice. Not only goes a long way for the success of your haunt, it is also good stewardship for your community.

8. Management Fee: Last but not least make sure to create a line item in your budget TO PAY YOURSELF!!! I mean you’re doing all the heavy lifting, putting an entire show together you NEED to get paid. I always hear haunters say I’m doing it for the love of the haunt. Yes that’s true; most of us wouldn’t be in this industry if we weren’t passionate about it. Nonetheless, passion does not pay back ‘Knuckles’ for your loan nor does it pay a mortgage. Typically, the only thing passion leads to, outside of pregnancy and/or other strange forms of STDs, is DIVORE or BANKRUPTCY. After you pay yourself for your time then you can get a true sense of your profitability (if you are a for-profit haunter).
I should have included this in my last post, so I’ll make up for it in this one, make sure to always leave a 10% margin for cost overruns. Most likely, at least in your beginning years, you’ll have cost overruns well above 20%, at least it will help hone your skills as a business person.

Also, at the end of the night, when you are tired, pissed off and hungry, make sure to do actual counts of all costs and total revenue. If it’s your first year you’ll have to do some creative budgeting in that you will not have experience and other numbers to compare. Nonetheless, you must constantly strive to do better each year. The day we stop learning is the day we’re looking up from the other side of the grass. Until then…..Happy Haunting

How to Use You Capital Efficaciously

Let me first start that when preparing a proper budget for your haunt you should discuss this matter with your investors, partners, and a good banker/accountant. It is imperative that everyone is privy to your budget and understands how you will implement your business plan. Throughout our years of haunting, one of the first questions we are inevitably asked is, ‘I live in such-and-such location, there are a few okay haunts, I KNOW I can build a haunt better than theirs. I have all these ideas what is the cost going to be?’ Although a seemingly straightforward question, there are many costs not realized and/or not accounted for when developing a proper budget. As such, this section will cover general costs associated with haunt ‘Start-Up Costs,’ i.e. costs which are incurred prior to beginning the show and ‘Operation Costs,’ i.e. those costs which are incurred during the haunt run.

If You Build It They Will Come

Think of your haunted house project as akin to a construction project. All construction projects have general timelines, many rules and regulations to follow and a general standard under which they move forward through the various city/state and other governmental processes. Construction costs, much like the costs of a haunted house, can be furcated into two types:

1. Soft Costs: Are those costs associated with the development of the project which do not go directly to the actual or ‘physical’ construction or improvement of the project, i.e. engineering, architectural, logo design, etc.

2. Hard Costs: Are those costs which go towards the physical development of the haunted house

When starting out, set-up a budget for each of your costs. If you are just starting to develop a pro-haunt, we would suggest hiring a consultant. As consultant’s go, there’s a plethora of them so be sure to choose someone from research. Not to toot our own horn (but when it comes down to it, it is to toot our own horn), but we do provide consulting services, either way make sure you have someone who has operated a haunt in the past and can assist you through the myriad of processes you are about to embark upon. Below you will find a comprehensive list (although not necessarily complete as locations and types of haunts vary wildly) of the costs which can be expected at start-up:

1. Consultant: This can vary, however your consultant should be able to assist you in developing preliminary layouts, electrical plans, scare scenes, logo design/development, marketing strategies, etc. This will, in turn, allow you to address more exigent needs, i.e. engineering/permitting, in a more professional way.

2. Engineer: This is largely contingent upon what type of system you are running, i.e. static – in a physical building or temporary, i.e. container/semi-trailer or other open-air/canopy system. Each municipality has their own codes which can impact the need and use of an engineer.

3. Electrical Engineer: See answer above

4. Site Plan: Can be used in conjunction with your engineer, if needed, or just a general layout of what your haunt will look like

5. Electrical Plan: Should be used in conjunction with your site plan so that you know which areas of the haunt you want to ‘flood’ with light and therefore spend a higher degree of cost to make those areas quite elaborate

6. Props/Lighting/Fog: Props can rapidly become a major expense to any haunted attraction. However, if you use your electrical plan to its highest degree, then you should only concern yourself with those areas that need to be highly decorated. Large props do not necessarily equate into highly entertaining screams. Playing an audio track of horrific screaming in the haunt is often times enough to place your patrons on edge and keeping your total cost low. Additionally, if you do have a budget to purchase large props make sure you have enough technical staff which can assist when the prop malfunctions (I’m not saying that all large props have problems, however you can bank of this, the more moving parts the more likely something will go wrong).

7. Location: Although not always the case, especially if you can work out a sponsorship with an owner of the property, most property owners require a portion, if not all, of the lease amount up-front. If you are purchasing a property then there are other tax/cost implications, however for temporary events this can be a sizeable portion of your overall budget. Parking lot costs and/or other open area costs can be from as little as $5,000 to upwards to $200,000, if significant site improvement is required. Whenever you are researching a location make sure to ask the following questions: (1) Does the location have power or do I have to bring in a temporary power generator? (2) Does the location have access to water, if not, what are my alternative sources for water?

8. Insurance: Rates do vary per carrier, however we met a few insurance reps at this past Transworld which were quoting $0.10/customer for a $1M general liability insurance policy. Essentially if you expect 5,000 patrons your total premium would be $500.

9. Pay Yourself: This is especially true if you are receiving money from investors, as you should be compensated for your work in organizing the event. Additionally, if you are applying for a bank loan, bankers want to see that you are going to be paid for your time. As is the case with many start-up haunters and business owners, paying yourself usually comes last. If you can’t pay yourself up-front, in the least build in a ‘management’ fee to be paid from operations of the haunt.

Look for Part 3, which will include all the costs associated with operations. Until then…..Happy Haunting

How To Finance Your Haunted Attraction Part 1

Since Halloween is fast approaching, and many of you, much like the SlightlySick Crew, love haunted houses; we thought it would be beneficial to teach a small course in haunted house how-to’s and put to use our collective 20+ years in the haunted attraction industry.

This particular class is not necessarily technically inclined, in that it will not focus on the actual development of a haunted attraction, rather it’s emphasis is on capital and its use when trying to start a haunted attraction. Over the years, we, and others in the industry, have worked with many home haunters who want to turn into pro-haunt operators. Filled with the vivid images they see at Transworld and the literally thousands of props, lights, fog, etc. you can choose from, we become kids in a candy store, buying everything while not fully realizing the full impact of our financial decisions. This blog will focus on several keys points when it comes to financing your haunt.

1. Start-Up Capital

2. How to Use Your Money

Start-Up Capital

Have you ever walked into a bank and stated, ‘I have a wonderful business idea which is going to make a lot of money, all I need is a small loan to get me started.’ Upon hearing your wonderful haunt idea, and after several minutes of considerable laughter, the banker ends up saying ‘NO!’ If you haven’t had this experience, then you haven’t been in haunting. On par, most banks will not lend to start-up haunted attraction operators. This is due to many reasons which can include: poor credit, limited operation time, lack of credible location, or just a plain misunderstanding of your business plan.

As a result, many haunters look towards friends, family, credit cards, and/or highly competitive ‘loan sharks’ (LOL) to fund their venture. Most people view pro-haunting as simply a larger version of their front yard. Well this is simply not the case, considering legal obligations, fire code compliance, insurance, weather, construction, etc., etc., etc. All these costs add up, and most are incurred prior to you starting your event. Then, once operations begin more costs continue to mount, and for the unprepared operator this can spell financial disaster. Any successful business must base its decisions in REALITY!!! The first and most important aspect of any business is thoughtful preparation of a budget and business plan. Furthermore, STICK TO IT!! This should not prohibit you from making vital changes where applicable but do have a process in mind before you make any changes. For example, before you stray from your planned costs build a pro and con analysis on a simple sheet of paper. If there’s more pros than cons go with it, if not definitely consider why you are making a change. Also be sure to inform yourself, and potential investors, that building a successful haunt, like any successful business, takes time. In business school they state it often takes approximately 2-3 years before most businesses reach operating profitability. Take this into consideration when budgeting for your first year of operations. As such, depending upon the type of company you form, payouts and/or returns (ROI) should be based over the long term. If however, you have an incredible run other tax consequences can arise, which also need to be considered.

How to use your money

Well now that you’ve convinced Bob ‘the Knuckles’ Smith to finance your haunt, where should you invest your money? As was stated previously most haunters love to deck out their haunts with the best, most innovative animatronics, pneumatics, and props they see at haunt shows or their favorite haunted house. But we must keep in mind that generally speaking haunted house construction averages $15 to $25/sf, without the inclusion of any incidentals, such as fire compliance, lighting, props, building (weather temporary or static) etc. Additionally, these costs are only increasing due to stricter fire/safety regulations, as well as, increased materials costs. In our previous blog, make sure you have a highly detailed plan which will help illuminate specific costs, i.e. lighting only those scenes which are highly detailed, while allowing dark and/or ‘bare’ scenes remain that way for effect.
Additionally, purchase props/equipment which have increased life spans (although I am by no means an accountant and you should consult with one prior to haunt opening) when you make a large purchase make sure to amortize the expense of the big equipment. Not only will this allow you to recapture some of the up-front cost, it will also allow you, in proceeding years, to use the value of the equipment as collateral for an operations loan with a bank. By creating an ‘Asset List’ you will be more likely to obtain bank financing, and perhaps be able to pay off ‘the Knuckles’ earlier and with little to no broken bones.
Outside of location, there is no greater benefit than MARKETING!!! In future blogs we will be detailing various successful marketing plans, but as an industry standard and contingent upon marketing mediums, for every dollar spent in marketing approximately $2 to $3 will return through the gate. Therefore, take a very practical approach to budgeting, is it more important to spend $1,500 on a brand new animatronic or would that money be better put to use in your marketing campaign?

Well that’s it for now, until then Happy Haunting!!!

Well boys and girls, outside of running the world’s sickest Univeristy, which of course is Harvard….alright only in my dreams, it’s Slightly Sick University, we absolutely LOVE Halloween. Although our penchant for all things gruesome and freaky exceeds even most ‘normal’ peoples love of the macabre, I, the Dean of Sick U, will be running a special little series on the best Halloween Haunted Attractions across the US. These attractions are sure to get your blood pumping and lead to temporary incontinence and vomitting. Additionally keep checking back at SlightlySick Gear for Halloween related items like t-shirts, hats, blood splattered aprons, etc.

Our first attraction for review is Haunted Hoochie at Dead Acres located in the outskirts of Pataskala, OH. Don’t say we didn’t warn you the movie you’re about to see if frickin intense. Also feel free to check out their website: www.deadacres.com