Fantasy Football News

Fantasy Football Hospitality Contest Program

08/07/2008

Shrewd bar and restaurant managers everywhere are realizing the tremendous draw of fantasy football. Fantasy Football is one of the most popular activities today. Over 20 million Americans play fantasy football. With the primary fantasy football demographic being affluent, college educated males with above average incomes, it has great appeal to businesses. This is especially true of bars and restaurants.

With today’s sluggish economy competition is fierce for discretionary income, which is what makes a fantasy football promotion a great idea for bars and restaurants. Because the primary demographic is affluent, there are more discretionary dollars within the target market. It also gives patrons an exciting way to get involved in fantasy football, and creates a competitive advantage over other establishments who are taking the same old approach when the market is craving something more.

So how does a bar capitalize on the success of fantasy football? Here is how you can use fantasy football to draw new customers and retain your customer base.

The first thing you can do is to offer your customers a way to get involved in fantasy football. Even if they haven’t played fantasy football before, or don’t know how it works, a properly designed program can get everyone involved. A Minnesota company, fflcommish.com, LLC, has introduced a program designed to do exactly this.

The fflcommish.com Hospitality Fantasy Football Contest program is designed to create excitement and give you a great promotion to offer your customers by giving your patrons an easy to play format that even a complete stranger to fantasy football can play and enjoy. The program is designed to offer great prizes for playing. And best of all it gives managers a great way to reach out to their customers on a regular recurring basis to promote specials and products.

Participating establishments are given their own unique website address to run their program. The website allows a bar or restaurant’s customers to view the weekly and year to date standings, view lists of prize winners, and fill out contest entries. The website also gives the establishment tools to publish specials and promotions, as well as an event calendar. When the customers visit the website to view the results and standings, or to submit new picks, they will see these promotions, specials and events.

The contest works by collecting some basic contact information from the customer, most importantly an email address. Since the contestants are eager to see their results and standings for the week, they will get an email each Wednesday with their points for their last entry, their location and overall ranks for the week and for the season to date. This email will present the participating bars and restaurants yet another opportunity to inform their customers of promotions, specials, or any other marketing message they want to get out to their customer base. Another email is sent out on Friday reminding the participants to make their picks before the deadline, and a link to the location’s contest website allows them to easily submit their entry online.

The contest format is very simple, and in fact it does not require any knowledge of football at all to complete. The contest has fifteen groups of players, grouped by players of similar ability at the same position. The player simply selects one player from each group. An entry form can be completed in less than a minute. Although more sophisticated players undoubtedly will want to scrutinize the players in each group. Prizes are awarded to the top participants at each location each week as well as the top participants in each prize pool.

Participating locations are grouped together in groups to create a more attractive prize pool. This is what allows the participating bars and restaurants to offer high end prizes like a high-definition TV, iPods, and other great prizes. The majority of the program participation fees are redistributed in the form of prizes. One HDTV is awarded to the highest year-end total within each prize pool, and additional great prizes are awarded for other achievements. To encourage everyone to play random prizes are also awarded each week, so everybody has a chance to win something just by playing.

This program is a great way to create some excitement, continually reach your customers with a marketing message, and keep your establishment in the minds of your customers to keep them coming back. This program is even more effective with some addition football related promotional ideas.

One idea that has proven to be a great benefit to those that have offered it is a fantasy football league draft party promotion. With the number of fantasy football participants in the tens of millions, and a great many of these players in multiple leagues, this equates to a multitude of fantasy leagues. Very commonly leagues are among old friends who rarely get a chance to get out and visit one another, or a group of friends who like to hang out together often. These groups are ideal candidates to get out to a local bar or restaurant and get together for their fantasy league draft.

Each fantasy football league conducts an annual draft, typically in the two week period prior to the first scheduled NFL game. This is where each of the teams in the league establishes their team for the upcoming year. It is a very fun and social event for most, and for many leagues it is the highlight of the fantasy football season. The average football league consists of 10 to 12 teams, and a typical draft will last for several hours and beyond. Astute bar and restaurant managers can easily recognize the benefit of having 10 to 12 close friends getting together in your establishment for many hours at a time in a fun and festive environment. Many drafts last all day, which can mean multiple beverages, appetizers and meals.

Fantasy football drafts remain a relatively untapped market. For years leagues have sheepishly drafted in dark corners, basements, and garages because they were ashamed of their potential geek status. Fantasy football has since become enormously popular, and bars that openly encourage fantasy football participation will draw out these hidden gems and make them feel welcome to practice their favorite hobby in public.

Bars and restaurants looking to gain business from this market need to reach out to these leagues and encourage them to draft in your establishment. Offering drink and food specials is a great place to start. Catering to their unique needs on draft day will also be a strong selling point for them. Having a reserved area where 10 to 12 league members can comfortably sit for hours at a time is crucial. Most participants will likely have loads of paper and notebooks to track the progress of the draft and try to locate their next sleeper pick. Those that are more technologically inclined, and these days that includes nearly everyone, will likely want internet access. Free wireless internet access is a strong selling point for most of these leagues. Many leagues might also benefit from a large white board to record picks with. The more you can do to meet their unique needs, the more likely you are to make your establishment a fantasy football league draft destination.

In order to assist you with offering enticing reasons to draft in your establishment, fflcommish.com will provide you with discount coupons you can offer them for discounts on league management fees on the fflcommish.com Fantasy Football League Management website. This can help you put together a seductive package that will draw fantasy football leagues into your place of business. Then you can get them to keep coming back by alluring them with your fantasy football contest.

If you are interested in growing your customer base and finding more ways to retain your current customers and give them more reasons to visit you more often, fantasy football is a great way to accomplish this goal. With the assistance of the fflcommish.com Hospitality Fantasy Football Contest Program you can make this goal a reality. Contact fflcommish.com to discuss how they can help you put together a program to incorporate fantasy football into your marketing strategy.