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!!!

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!!!