Spending is BOOming. How are you capitalizing?
Halloween is more than a child’s holiday; all age groups get into the holiday spirit. That’s why running a Halloween-themed contest is a great way to drive sponsorship revenue from advertisers. Our How to Sell a Halloween Contest webinar provides actionable tips on how to successfully prepare your sales team to target the right advertisers for a Halloween contest.
To learn more, watch a recording of the presentation, flip through the slide deck, or read our top takeaways below.
Let’s dive into how you can be successful with a Halloween-themed contest.
- Spending is up for Halloween. Seven out of 10 Americans will celebrate Halloween and what’s even more exciting is that the average person spends over seventy dollars on costumes, candy and decorations. Advertisers want to find a way to reach this audience to drive traffic to their stores.
- Target Seasonal Advertisers. Halloween provides a great opportunity for you to bring in new advertising dollars. Lots of speciality shops and themed events are trying to reach Halloween spenders – your contest provides a fantastic and unique opportunity for them to do so. Target corn mazes, haunted houses, costume shops, Halloween supply shops, party stores, pumpkin patches and speciality food shops.
- Offer an Unbeatable Promotional Package. Whether you sign one exclusive sponsor or ten sponsors, you should be putting together an integrated Halloween promotional package. Potential components you should include are: naming rights for the contest, web ads, on-air spots, print ads, sponsor-branded emails, and more. Send emails with your sponsor’s logo in all your contest communications. To give your sponsor even more exposure, offer your players a coupon for a discount of their next purchase at that sponsor’s store. This allows all your players to be winners!
- Run Contest on Facebook & Mobile. By running a Facebook and mobile version of your Halloween contest, you get the chance to gain additional sponsorship dollars by selling ad spaces on each. You can also monetize Facebook by selling the contest to your advertiser and allowing the contest to run on their page as well.
- Find Prize Sponsors. Find sponsors who want to donate great prizes and offer them promotions in exchange. Prizes could include free admission for pumpkin patches, corn mazes and haunted houses or gift certificates for Halloween supply shops.
- Be Unique with a Themed Contest. If you’re looking to stand out, approach your advertiser with the idea of doing a more targeted contest. Reach out to them and ask them what gets them excited. What kind of contest would they like to sponsor? This is a great way to cater to your sponsors needs and it lets your sponsor feel involved in the contest. Some contests ideas could include:
- Sweepstakes: “Win Tickets” to a haunted house or other Halloween activity
- Photo: Adult/Pet/Scariest Costume Contest
- Video: Best Thriller Dance Contest
Julie Foley is Second Street’s Director of Affiliate Contesting Success. She works with nearly 2,000 UPICKEM partners to help them succeed with online contests. As a former partner and Online Sales and Marketing Director for The Statesboro Herald, Julie was a huge advocate for the power of contests. In her time at the paper, she ran 50 contests and generated thousands of dollars in sponsorship revenue.
