The hard fact is — done correctly –– ladies night promotions bring the women, the men, the beverage sponsors and the profits. Over the last five years, many states have outlawed them as discriminatory. For those operators in states that still can hold these illustrious events, here are three potential promotional diamonds for the taking.

Ladies Love The Blue Bottle
    The Mandango’s chain has three locations  in California, with two more in the works. When Owner Scott Ashley decided to turn his ordinary Thursday into a Skyy Blue Thursday, it became a concentrated effort to move women through the doors and Skyy vodka off the shelves.
    “We have Skyy banners and Skyy flags. There are blue filters on all the lights,” Ashley says. “We have Skyy on all of our fruit trays, straw and napkin holders, blue balloons on the outside of the building, Skyy blue bags lit with candles — the back bar is completely engulfed in Skyy bottles.”
    And the best part — except for the bottles on the back bar, everything is provided gratis by his distributors.
     “It is soft, it’s warm –– not overwhelming,” he says. “It makes people feel really comfortable and makes them stay a lot longer. We are huge for sports, but all the sports end by 10 o’clock. Once you get the women through the door, the guys will always be there.”

Shake It Up A Bit
    “We did this regular karaoke night, and I looked in the paper and every other bar was doing it on the same night,” Lee Frankel, owner of The Crossroads in Garwood, N.J., says. “I wanted to do something a little more visual than audio.”
    Instead of regular karaoke, there are now two separate dance-off contests for the ladies. Backed by their images on a 10-foot, projection screen, as many as a dozen women will take the stage to display their best dance moves.
    The winners are rewarded with bar tabs, T-shirts and VIP passes for the initial rounds. At the end of the month, Miller Lite donates larger prizes such as snowboards and guitars.
    “The rep comes in for each event, and they are more than happy. We have gone through as many as 20 or 30 cases of their beer in a night,” he says.

Give ‘Em What They Want
                        In Phoenix, Ariz., the nights are hot, and the staff at Bobby Q’s is trying to make the women even hotter. Bobby Q’s ladies night launched this past May, incorporating seven weeks of Thursday night giveaways, all culminating at the final reward of a $5,000 certificate to a Scottsdale, Ariz., plastic surgeon. “It runs from May 11th until June 29th,” says former Marketing Director Stephanie Rothery. “We wanted to give away a boob job, but at the same time we didn’t want to offend anyone. So, we promoted the breast augmentation, but in actuality the certificate could be used for anything.” Adding to the shock value were a series of other prizes that female guests could be entered to win just by simply showing up such as Madonna tickets, spa packages and modeling contracts. “The kick-off party alone nearly doubled our sales,” Rothery says. Smirnoff sponsored all of the events and the bartenders sent out friendly reminders each Thursday of $3 you-call-it for everyone and $1 we-call it for the ladies. NCB