When Madness Is Greatness

The Promotions Clock is Ticking.
Prepare to Shoot, Score and Win!

Madness, I say.
Absolute Madness. This is the best way to describe what happens from the moment the 64 teams are announced in the annual college basketball tournament until the ceremonial cutting down of the nets by the newly crowned champions. And the most exciting part of the whole thing for operators is the three solid weeks of repeat on-premise sales.

Start Early
    The opening round of the 68th Annual Division I Basketball Championship, otherwise known as March Madness, begins Tuesday, March 14th. But, don’t wait until then! Start the celebration early, and make the whole month count. The two weeks that precede the tournament not only weigh heavily in the selection process, but also showcase many of the conference championships which can guarantee automatic berths into the tournament.
    Start promoting your specials and identifying yourself as THE place to watch the games. Title your lead up to the tournament as the March to Madness. The title game isn’t even in March. It’s in April. Make sure you’re focused on the whole tournament and not just on the Final Four.

Revenue from a Raffle
    Spectadium, “The Granddaddy of All Sports Bars” in Troy, Mich., has the right attitude when it comes to March Madness.
    “We step up because the people know,” General Manager Kim Rose says “It’s definitely the top event and busiest time of the year.” The crowds at Spectadium are known to come from near and far, even out of state, “because they know we have all the games. They get so spirited that it is not uncommon to hear them break out into their various schools’ fight songs.”
    And the local news stations are there to capture the extremely animated fan reactions in their post game reports. “It’s just huge,” Rose says. “By the end of each day, you feel like you’ve played in the games.”
Harpo’s Sports Café, which has two locations in the Cleveland area, has the capability of showing every game live and simultaneously with 80 televisions, including six 10-foot screens, so there is not a bad seat in the house.
    Owner Eddie Allman says, “The great thing about March Madness is that it is for an entire month. Instead of two teams, there are 64 teams involved, which brings a diversification of clientele and a greater sphere of interest. It’s always been one of our special times of year.”
    Harpo’s adds to the excitement with a raffle for everyone that enters the door for gift certificates, T-shirts and tickets to local sporting events.

Have Brackets and a Sense of Humor 
    The key is to establish yourself as the headquarters for all March Madness action, so start at the tournament’s tipoff and announce a Bracket Selection party. CBS will televise the men’s selection show at 6 p.m. EST on Sunday, March 12th. Take advantage of the suspense and announce celebratory drink specials when the hometown favorite is announced. Then, get your official bracket posted immediately. This should be on a huge vinyl banner, that you should be able to obtain from your local beer distributors.
    Not only should you be filling out your brackets, but your customers should be, too. You can find blank brackets on just about every sports Web site. Print these out, and have your guests to fill out their picks for a grand prize. Encourage everyone to play by entering everyone that fills out a bracket into a contest for a Final Four party. Award the grand prize after the championship game.
    Make sure you update your brackets directly after each game. You want to be the definitive source and expert for the tournament. Day old, non-updated brackets don’t exactly send the signal that you are the Mecca for tournament viewing. Make sure you know all the lines and have a daily report posted. Become a resource for your customers, and they will return.
    Capitalize on the tournament bracket frenzy and have all kinds of tournaments — pool, poker, Golden Tee, etc. All you need is a blank bracket and 64 people to sign up. Then, have a single elimination tournament coinciding with the games all the way up to the Final Four, and then have your Bar Championship Game follow the actual game. You can also have your own virtual NCAA Xbox tournament. This will allow you to recreate every single match-up in the entire tournament. You can schedule these for off nights or on the actual nights of the games. Give away an official tournament trophy to the winner.

Upset the Competition 
    Tap into your local alumni network and offer to make your bar their official home. You can entice them to make your spot home by offering a portion of their sales to local charities. The Crystal City Sports Pub in Arlington, Va., does an outstanding job of reaching out to the extensive alumni groups in the area, such as CAN, the Capitol Alumni Network, and the 180 colleges linked with it. This brings in the 28- to 40-year-old, educated, higher-income demographic, with dollars to spend.
    “The opening four days of the tournament sets a record for sales each and every year,” says Managing Partner John Finley. “Madness is exactly what it is.” NCB

• Put up a Nerf hoop (or a real hoop if you’ve got the space) and have free throw shooting contests.
• Add a sports hotline that your guests can call and update daily with the teams, times and spreads.
• Throw your own Big Dance and promote after-game parties directly after weekend games.
• Hire members of your local high school or college marching band to play during timeouts to give your bar   a real college basketball stadium feel.
• Have something for the ladies such as free manicures. Everybody might not want to watch the games.
• Make certain you have the Mega March Madness basketball package.
• Trivia contests: you might not remember what you learned in college, but you’ll be surprised at how many stats you and your patrons remember from previous tournaments.
• Label your televisions with future match-ups to reinforce that you will have the games on and to let your fans know where to sit.
• Offer alumni discounts for bringing in old student ID cards.
• Hire a face painter to amplify the team spirit in the air. Guests will line up to have their favorite school or mascot painted on their face.
• Announce different drink and food specials to correspond with each stage of the tournament (i.e., Sweet 16, Great 8, Final Four).