Super Bowl Sunday Marketing Ideas for Your Sports Bar

Super Bowl Sunday is more than just football. From the promotions down to the advertisements released prior to and during the game, Super Bowl Sunday is an annual cultural phenomenon where advertisers take advantage of the sports’ success to market their businesses. It has become customary for large corporations to spend millions of dollars for a 30-second ad space to appear on the game’s halftime show.

There’s nothing wrong with riding the coattails of Super Bowl Sunday for the sake of turning in a profit. In fact, the way advertisers have positioned themselves as part of the event serves as a testament that effective marketing works.

As a sports bar owner, it would be logical to hold a marketing ploy to get more patrons to dine in or drink at your place during the game. While this is far from a revolutionary idea, below are tips and advice to help pump new life to your campaign and set your bar apart from the competition.

Create special packages and offers on your food products

To make your campaign more creative, sell pre-ordered tickets to your Super Bowl Sunday event which includes a buffet plate, in addition to other products you have in store. Raffling out shirts or apparel with your branding printed on them is a nice touch to extending your promotional efforts once the event is done. Doing these allows you to create an air of exclusivity to your campaign so people will be more enticed to visit your bar and watch the game.

Want to make it extra memorable? Set up an after-viewing event with games and interactive booths, such as a photo wall with custom printed backdrops.

Get your sports bar fixed

On a more fundamental level, you need to iron out the kinks of your sports bar to provide a great viewing experience for your guests. Get all your toilets and faucet fixed, stock up your tissue dispensers, odorize your bathrooms, and get those locks to actually lock. Make sure that the tables and chairs are assembled properly to avoid complaints from customers about broken seats after sitting on them.

Stock up on food supply

Always remember that it’s better to have more than run out of food when the game is still on. Supply extra food and drinks on your inventory so you’ll have a lot more left even when the orders keep coming. Of course, you need to determine which among your food products sell out the most so you can stock up for those specific products instead of buying for everything. This allows you to save on cost and focus on what sells.

Rent parking space

If you’re expecting lots of guest to attend your super Bowl Sunday event, make sure that you have ample parking space to accommodate everybody. Aside from the lot at your own bar, try renting out parking spaces from nearby establishments so you can lead parking patrons over to those spaces once your lot is filled.

Promote, promote, promote!

Advertise your promos by displaying posters on your windows or banners in front of your store to increase your reach. You can send over postcards or flyers throughout your neighborhood using the USPS Every Door Direct Mail® for a more targeted reach. Aside from print marketing, make use of your social media profiles to post about your promos to your followers. Create a page on your site informing them of the promos included in your bar so they’ll have a place to look for information about your Super Bowl Sunday event online.

Additional resources:

• Ten Marketing Rules from Super Bowl Ads (BusinessWeek.com)
• The Super Bowl: A Marketing Course of Its Own (Business School Journal)