CHRISTMAS IN JULY

OVERVIEW OF THE PROMOTION:

Christmas in July provides a unique opportunity to give patrons a White Christmas and increase the venues promotional activity. This presents numerous opportunities for venues to engage with the various customer groups, including your regular punters, local sporting groups, local families, business communities and corporate function clients.

Below is a list of suggested promotional & event-based activity to assist you to create a comprehensive Christmas in July schedule. When submitting your proposal, please include ALL activities you would like to run across the July period.

Before submitting your proposal, consider ALL opportunities that are available to your venue. Look at your different customer bases and see how you can connect with each one over the period.
SUGGESTED ACTIVITY TO CONSIDER:

Below is a list of suggested activity. To view details and costs associated with the activity, please click on the links under the activity heading.

THEMING:
DETAILS: Theming can be a great way to build atmosphere and customer interaction in your venue. Staff dressed in festive outfits / hats also encourages a positive holiday spirit within your venue. You may wish to run with Winter Christmas theming to be more aligned to the Christmas in July promotion.
Click here to show more information | Hide

Consider:

  • Santa Hats for Staff
  • Snow on Windows
  • Internal / External decorations including garlands, wreaths etc.
  • Xmas Trees
  • Tinsel
  • Stockings from fireplaces

Please include in your proposal:

  • Current decorations at the venue, condition & colours.
  • What you would like to purchase & a proposed spend.
COSTS
Dependent on your proposed selection.

OFFICIAL HOTEL XMAS PARTY:
DETAILS: Consider this event to be the signature event during the July period. This is your chance to showcase your venue and Winter menu. Consider what activity would best represent your hotel brand in a festive manner to your valued customers and wider community?
Click here to show more information | Hide

Food for thought:

  • Publican’s Shout (Publican shouts personally shouts guests a drink)
  • Promo Staff
  • Live Entertainment
  • Have a staff member / local dress up as Santa
  • Monster Raffle Draw
  • Santa Clause dress up
  • Consider a special guest such as a sporting great.

Please ensure to note all proposed event activity and associated costs in your proposal.

COST TO A&M:
Dependent on your individual activity. Publican Shout: requests for bonus stock will be considered. staff: $45 - $75 per hour, Live Entertainment $300.

MONSTER RAFFLE:
DETAILS: Monster raffles are a great way to get your customers in the festive spirit. Consider creating a monster raffle night for your customers, such as a toy raffle, or multiple ham raffle.
Click here to show more information | Hide

HOW TO RUN THE PROMOTION:

  • Customers purchase raffle tickets to go in the draw to win.
  • Purchase items from your local toy store through petty cash, then pay back with proceeds from your raffle ticket sales.
  • Any additional proceeds from ticket sales are required be donated to a local charity or club.

If your funds are not going to a local charity or club, you will need a TPL to cover this activity.
COSTS:
Dependent upon your offerings and raffle prizes.

MARKETING INITIATIVES:

  • In-house POS – focus in your family-friendly areas and main bars.
  • Staff Viral – Staff should talk up the raffle when it is on display and engaging with customers to encourage ticket sales.
  • Social Media – Take good images of the raffle and post on your Facebook wall with promotional details. Post the raffle, if you have a good sum to donate to charity, make sure you do a post with the winner and announce your charity donation amount.
  • SMS – Let your customers know you will be open
Media Release – This activity will be a great PR piece. Please contact Bianca Vlasic for assistance.

SEAFOOD & XMAS HAM RAFFLES:
DETAILS: Consider changing your weekly meat raffles to seafood & Christmas hams across the July period. It may also be an option to incorporate these raffles into your Xmas events when you have increased patronage in your venues.
Click here to show more information | Hide

COST TO A&M:
NIL – tickets should be covered by the ticket revenue.

CHRISTMAS SPECIALS:
DETAILS: Specific Christmas specials may be useful to entice local businesses, community groups and family and friends visit your venue. This should be Christmas focused (e.g. seafood, ham, turkey or chicken).
Click here to show more information | Hide

Cost:
Include the GP and expected ROI in your proposal.

CHRISTMAS COCKTAILS:
DETAILS: As a point of difference over the July period, you may wish to add Christmas Cocktails to your drinks range. This provides added activity that is good for communicating via socials and a way of encouraging patrons to drink something outside of their usual purchases.
Click here to show more information | Hide

Please cost any special Christmas Cocktails you wish to run and include the GP on these items. You will need to include this in your proposal as well as a Helpdesk request to have these added to your POS.

SUGGESTED MARKETING CHANNELS:

Suggested marketing initiatives are outlined above and again below. Not all will be appropriate to your venue, however, please suggest as many options as you feel appropriate in your promotion proposal:

  • Internal POS
  • Website
  • Staff Viral
  • Customer Till Screens
  • Social Media
  • Nightlife Eflyer
  • SMS
  • Local Media Release
  • Letter Box Drop
  • Sporting Sponsors

Marketing initiatives should include the following:

  • Bar till customer display screens- Upload to POS screens via OMG with scheduled finish date
  • Portrait Plasmas- Upload via USB or Riptide
  • Tri fold table talkers- Can be used to promote multiple Christmas activities
  • Staff Viral- Print out the event details and discuss in weekly manager meetings
  • Nightlife- Upload to Nightlife via OMG with scheduled finish date
  • Social Media- To be posted on venue socials, reach out to local businesses and community groups through social media and encourage venue sponsored teams to be hosting Christmas parties or dinners.
  • Posters in venue- Only to be used in venues where portrait plasmas are not available
  • E-Flyer- Only to be used in consultation with Customer Loyalty Manager
  • SMS- Only to be used in consultation with Customer Loyalty Manager
  • Local Media Release- Only used with when a newsworthy component (e.g. Wish Appeal) is included and the media release guidelines ae adhered to etc.

You should also have a think about how you could best reach your target market pending on the events you may be running.

SUGGESTED SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS:

Social Campaigns:

  • 12 Days of Christmas/ Advent Calendar: Post attractive images of the venue offers in the morning or the day prior to entice customers to visit your venue.
  • Hashtag Campaign: Create a festive hashtag for your patrons to use when sharing photos of themselves at the venue over the July period.
  • Decorative Campaign: To make your brand more impactful over the Christmas period, you can decorate your socials to be Christmas themed. Example: Change your cover photo to a flat lay of Christmas food, add Christmas hats or a wreath to your profile photo.

Social Captions:

“We’re halfway til Christmas, so we’re celebrating with Christmas in July, grab a Christmas themed cocktail any day this month!”

“Eat, drink and be merry with our Christmas in July seafood specials. Check out our tasty options online at www.XXXhotel.com”

“On the first day of Christmas in July XXX Hotel gave to me $10 Cocktails”

MEDIA LIBRARY: 30626 - 30633

REQUIRED IN YOUR A&M PROPOSAL

Allocated activity should be mentioned in your A&M Proposals; in your proposals, please include:

  • Each individual activity you wish to run including the day you will be running this, times and cost to A&M. You will also be able to provide any additional comments around the activity in the A&M Proposal sheet.

  • Please also include any changes to weekly promos you wish to make over the holiday period. Eg. If you are stalling your pool competition, include this in the promo, including the savings you will make. If you are simply changing your Friday meat raffles to a Christmas Ham – please indicate any changes in costs in the cost to A&M (there may be no change & no additional costs).

  • Proposed Marketing Activity

  • Any additional activity you may wish to include outside of the suggested mechanics.

  • For larger events, please submit these as a CREATED EVENT PROPOSAL through the OMG.