Mad for March
Harnessing the Goodness of Madness

With March Madness just around the corner, many bars and nightclubs are gearing up for what traditionally has been one of the biggest promotional opportunities of the year. With the prolific availability of sporting packages on television, high-definition everything and satellite broadcasting, technology has made sports a perpetual entity. Just how important traditional bar promotions sporting events are to yearly revenue is a question that is continuing to be answered. Here are a couple takes on that.

The East Coast Swing
    “Between the end of football season with the Eagles and the beginning of baseball season with the Phillies, March Madness is a huge promotional event in Philadelphia,” says Cheldin Barlatt of McFadden’s, in the City of Brotherly Love. “It’s a huge factor here. Just like the Super Bowl is the peak of business during football season, March Madness is the peak of business in the late winter.”
    Barlatt says that distributors are still very willing and excited to help bars promote March Madness. “The promotion effort ranges,” she says, “but it’s anything from giving away trips to games to best fan competitions with t-shirts to drink specials. The best are the trip giveaways.”
    She also says that promotions are driven by the size of the account, and distributors are eager to work with smaller bars too.
    March Madness is also a good time to promote competitions involving basketball, and your alcohol distributor is a good place to go for help with that.
    “They are always willing to provide basketballs,” Barlatt says, saying the freebie balls can lead to anything from free-throw competitions in bigger bars to dribbling competitions.
    As far as what products drive March Madness in Philly, Barlatt says it’s still predominantly a domestic beer scene.
    “I would say that Heineken Light is interested in entering the youthful market of March Madness, but right now domestic beer is No. 1 in sales and promotions.”

Two Points and the Foul
    “Our promotions really depend on the distributors,” says Paul Kupercio of Yankee Doodles in Santa Monica, Calif. “Being a sports bar, March Madness does bring in tons of business,” he says.
    Yankee Doodles has earned the City Search accolade of “the most unique sports bar in North America” because it covers all major professional and amateur sporting events every single day of the year. The venue features 22 televisions and 23 pool tables.
    “Whatever sport is playing is beneficial to us, but March Madness is still a big event,” Kupercio says.
Kupercio agrees that domestic beers are the order of the day during March Madness.
    “Bud and Bud Light have been huge for us this year throughout football season, and I don’t see any reason for that to be any different for basketball season this year. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.” NCB