Restaurant Promotion Idea # 34 - Pub Olympics

Add fun and games with a monthly Pub Olympics

  My boss wanted to add some fun as well as entertaining games in our bar particularly on weekends.  Thus he purchased a few items that we could use as party games such as blowpipe, speed stacking and so on. He wanted a variety of games in which the guest may take part during the band's break. So as usual I turned to the ever so wise World Wide Web for party games ideas. Instead I stumbled upon a great Restaurant Promotion Idea. Instead of holding a single game why don't we hold a Pub Olympics. Here some ideas on how I organized our First Pub Olympic in our bar.  

Mechanism

1. To have a min of 3 teams and a max of six teams. I only accepted 6 teams cause I didn't want to stretch the time. Nowadays people get bored fast.
2. The entrance fee was just to buy a bucket of 5 bottle of beer.
3. Prizes were medals as well as our Pub T-shirts.

 Opening Ceremony

To make it fun we introduced the teams with a lot of fanfare. We obtained a few theme songs and let each team select their preferred song.  Whenever we introduced them we played their chosen theme song. Just to make it entertaining.

 The Games

As we didn't want to drag our Pub Olympics too long. We just did 4 games a night. We plan to do this on a monthly basis. We changed the games around to give the guest a when they take part. Here are  a few of the games we played.

Darts Highest Score

Two players from each team will take turn throwing 3 darts, with the score recorded. The highest total score wins this event.

Golf - Hole in one

We purchased two small golf putting sets for our banqueting. We set up this, so when the guest came out for their tea breaks. They could de-stress just by putting a few golf balls. Just like the darts, two members of each team took turns to hit three balls. The team with the highest hole in one, wins this event.

Archery -blowpipe

As mentioned earlier, one of the games in which my boss purchased was a blowpipe.  And so we set up balloons with little lights in them. The pub was dim and the balloons looked nice in the dark. We made our own darts by using the filters of cigarettes and a wooden skewer. Each team had six darts to use. The team with the highest burst balloons were the winner of this event.  

Football- Ball Juggling

We bought a fusball  ball. Two players from each team  required to juggle  the ball with only their feet. The team that had the highest number wins this event. For this game you have to have a large space or else you will have a lot of broken glasses.

 Speed stack

My boss saw this game in a mall in the city.  Thus he purchased two. Just like all the other events, two players from each team took turn stacking the plastic cups. The team with the fastest time were the winner.

Closing Ceremony

For the closing we made 1st, 2nd and 3rd place podium. The first place winners received a gold medal, a pub souvenir, 2 jugs of beer to celebrate. We  also took the winners group photo and frame it our wall with their names.  For them to return to see it.  

ALSO READ

Restaurant Promotion Idea #5. Do Little Tournaments

Promote your Bar with Tournaments

We had a lounge in the hotel where I worked, that was not doing too well. We hired a band during festive holidays but people still didn’t come. Furthermore the salary of the band was eating into my profits. I noticed that customers preferred watching live football matches on the big screen than listening to the band. So I stopped the band, invested in some dartboards, bought another big screen TV and converted the whole bar into a sports bar. Business was great on weekends when the hotel was full and there were live matches. Now I needed a way to get in business on the weekdays. I found out that there were quite a number of avid darters in our area. So I organized on a bi monthly basis small dart tournaments. Here are the steps I took.   Click here to find out more, Restaurant Promotion Idea #5. Do Little Tournaments    

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Restaurant Promotion Idea # 33 - Father's Day Specials

Five Restaurant Promotion Ideas for Father's Day

Based on the research by the National Restaurant Association. Father's Day is the third most celebrated holiday right after Valentine's and Mother's day. They estimate that more than 50 million Americans will dine out on Father's Day in 2013. My friend, a chef used to joke that fathers are the ATM machines of families. When the family needs money, they will go to dad to request money. Thus it’s a good idea to create promotional activities in your restaurant for the breadwinner in all of our lives.

1. Dad and Kids Discount

Offering special discounts to attract people is a normal practice for restaurants. This father's day, offer discounts but with a difference. Create a table in which to highlight the percentage given out according to the number of children dining with dad. Below is an example that I found. * Dad that comes in with one paying child gets 25% off from his meals. * Dad that comes in with 2 paying kids gets a 50% off from his meal. * Dad that comes in with 3 paying kids gets a 75% of on his meal. * Dad that comes in with 4 or more paying child gets his meal for free. This concept works well if you are having a buffet on Father's Day.

2. Father's Week

There are some fathers who don't have the chance to celebrate Father’s Day on a Weekend. Those in the service industry or civil services have to work on Sundays. So to suit with this kind of Dads, hold a ”Father's Week" leading to Father's Day. It's not necessary to do a buffet daily. Just have special menus intended for dad. This particular restaurant promotion idea will help to fill your restaurant during the slow weekdays.

3. Father's Day contest

Most people love contest. To get more leverage for your restaurant create some exciting Father's day contest. Use Instaqram in which people can upload their pictures. Come out with a theme. Perhaps father and kid look alike, sweetest as well as cutest father and kid picture. You can even have a "Best Dad" or "Why I adore My Dad " essay writing contest.

4. Fathers Day Gift Baskets

As with my post Valentine's day ideas " Restaurant Promotion Ideas # 29 – Valentine Specials" to get incremental business, you could sell picnic baskets. Even for father's day you sell picnic baskets. Do some research. If you are located in near to a golf course, create special picnic baskets for golfers that kids can buy for their golfer dad. Have a wine bottle or 6 pack of beer together with some snacks that dad could bring on the golf course . If you are located close to a fishing area create a picnic basket that will suit anglers.

5. Pre sell coupons

l discovered this particular idea on Pinterest. Exactly how this works is that the family can buy gift vouchers for their dad. They can pre buy drinks vouchers for their dad, that dad can redeem later on. Offer interesting gifts such as beers, wines, cocktails all at a special price. Give the vouchers a validity of 3 months. All through this promotion, hire a photographer or get your staff to take out photos of families having a good time in your restaurant. Get their email address and inform them that you will send the pictures to them via email. This is a great way email addresses for future promotional activities. Special occasions great opportunity to bring in both new as well as existing customers.  

 Also Read

Restaurant Promotion Idea #15:- Halloween Specials

Halloween like Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day is another festival that is currently being commerlized by businesses especially those related to Food and Beverage. Instead of doing it on the Halloween day like most establishments, we held our ipromotion for a week and on the Halloween’s Day we made it really grand. As with most of my promotions in this blog, below is a simple account on how we organised our Halloween Week. Hope if it will be of some help for your establishment.
Read more here, please CLICK HERE.  

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My Hotel Review - ramarama Hotel Melaka

ramarama Hotel Melaka - Reasonably Priced Budget Boutique Hotel in Melaka

Last weekend I had a wedding to attend in Melaka, my niece was getting married . And a Eurasion wedding in Melaka is a tiring but fun whole day affair. There's the toasting at the bride's house, then the church ceremony followed by dinner and dance.

Even though Port Dickson is just about an hours drive to Melaka, we felt its best to stay at a small hotel and later go to the bride's house as we needed to be there very early. A friend spoke of this new budget boutique hotel that just opened in Melaka called the ramarama. Located near the Melaka Sentral and just by the side of Aeon Melaka.

The rooms are designed to have that rustic look with red brick walls. The beds and headboards are made of rough wood. Looks nice but you have to be careful of splinters. Otherwise its beautiful, my wife said we should make one like this at home. Even the bathroom door and cupboards are made from the rough wood with latches like similar to ones you will find in traditional villages. Some 20 years this kind of design for a hotel might be frown upon cause it was deemed as being cheap. But nowadays it will seen as unique. The beds and pillows are comfortable, each bed had 4 pillows as we took the room with 2 king size beds we had 8 pillows and 4 towels which was enough for us. There were no toiletries, face or handtowels like other hotels. But the two king bed room only cost RM135. What they gave was sufficient. The room had a small lcd tv with all the local channels, electric kettle with some 3 in 1 coffee as well as bathroom equiped with hot water shower. And Wifi is free.

Ramarama hotel doesn't have any restuarant in its vicinity but its ok. There's plenty around. There a chinese muslim restaurant and a western restaurant just next to it. The Aeon Shopping Mall is just walking distance from the Ramarama Hotel. So there's lots to choose from.

Two King Size Beds

Bathroom

The Cupboard

The Reception

My verdict

If you looking for comfortable reasonably price lodgings, then Ramarama Hotel is for you. Its near to the Aeon and Tesco shopping malls, so food won't be a problem. Presently the shoplot are not fully open, so the area is rather quiet. To locate it just look for the Seng Heng electrical store. Ramarama hotel is just at the back of Seng Heng. From their website they even have a room that can house 7 people in bunk beds complete with curtains, lights, power socket and lockers. 

To know more about this place please click here ramarama Hotel Melaka

 
Also Read

Restaurant Review – Food Paradise at Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall

Being in the Food and Beverage Industry I am always on the lookout for unique and one of a kind food experience. Not only in unique food and beverages but unique dining experience. Recently a friend told me of this food court in Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall which is located just in front of Hatten Hotel. Its called Food Paradise. The unique thing about this food court is that they have incorporated the Melaka Street culture without the heat and the dust.
To know more about Food Paradise, please CLICK HERE.

Restaurant Promotion Ideas # 32- Theme Party

Creating fun and unique theme parties to surprise your customer.

Creating a weekly theme dinner party is an excellent strategy to provide your customers with something different . Once a week transform your deco, food and even the staffs uniform to suit the particular theme. Select a theme that will suit with your customers as well as your location. Should you be located in a young housing area such as young working adult, college or university goers. Consider a party theme like Mardi Gras or even Spring Break. If you are located in the vicinity of families then do a fun theme which the kids will love such as a Pirate's Theme. A properly plan theme party will definitely be a great hit especially during the slow days.

Throughout Malaysia during the Ramadan, many hotel as well as restaurants hold buffet dinners. This is to entice Muslims as well as their friends to break fast. Everyone will try to out do one another to increase revenue. Even Cherating, the competition was great and the pool of customers small. So my General Manager came out with this idea of doing theme dinners every year. Each year we did the buffet with a theme in mind. One year we did a village theme, in which the food as well as decorations got a sort of nostalgic feel. Our assistant manager even planted a padi field in front of restaurant. Even the flyers we did to looked like police summons. You can read about the Summons Flyers here. The following year we create a theme after the well-known Black and White Era Malaysian movie star P.Ramlee. We dressed the staff in costumes from his movies. The food is from his era. By doing this we managed to increase our business yearly as people came to see what was Buffet theme that year.
Here are some theme party ideas that you could try.

Caribbean or Hawaiian Night

These are fun as well as casual theme nights. Decorate your restaurant with palm trees, shells and exotic flowers. Add some surf boards and perhaps a few tiki torches around. Welcome everyone that walks in with a flower garland. If you are carrying out a Caribbean Night, play some nice reggae music. A nice BBQ may go along with both of these themes. Some of the cocktails that you promote will be Pina Colada, Cuba Libre as well as Mojitos. As for your staff they can put on colourful shirts, shorts and even in some cases grass skirts. With regards to decorating ideas, just visit my preferred site on decorating ideas "Pinterest" To make the night more enjoyable, some party games such as limbo rock, coconut bowling and even a photo booth with the background of the beach. Make sure your restaurant logo is prominent. so people will remember the enjoyable time they had at your restaurant.

Themes from Another Country

One easy theme party to consider and set up is themes after ethnic foods associated with various countries. Stick with a country that you as well as your chefs are familiar with. Just research the world wide web for decoration ideas. For the Italian Night what we did was reused wine bottles as candle stands. After a few times the melted candles created a beautiful uniquely designed candle stands. Staff was dressed in white shirts and black pants along with an apron. We played a few light Italian music which we kept it low so customers could talk. Another good theme is an Asian Theme. Asian countries usually captivate people with their mystery, wonders and traditions. Put up paper fans, Oriental lanterns as well as Oriental umbrellas. If you don't have a cook that can prepare Asian cuisine, work with a good Oriental restaurant to get their cook over for the day. Just promote their restaurant too by Creating a Special Oriental Chefs Night. You can read about how I created my Chef's Night here.

Mardi Gras

One holiday that encourages partying is Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday, is the last day before Lent. It's lots of food and fun parties. Its an excellent reason to get customers into your restaurant. Dress your restaurant in the colours connected with Mardi Gras, green, purple and yellow. Have a competition where by whoever shows up in the best Mardi Gras costumes wins a discount or even prizes. Search the web for Mardi Gras food like jambalaya, crawfish gumbo and so on. Play some festive music to create a party atmosphere.

I've noticed that by doing theme parties the staff will also have fun. Cause they are trying something different. So use your imagination and create a weekly theme that your customers will love. The list is endless.

 Also Read

Restaurant Promo Ideas # 24 :- Chef’s Night Buffet

One promotional activity that some restaurants as well as hotels prefer to carry out is to have Guest Chefs. Should they possess the budget, they will get a Celebrity Chef to prepare some dishes. Most of time hiring a Celebrity might not bring you the profit you desire after taking out the chef’s expenses as well as their perks. However its a good advertising and marketing hook in order to let people know that you are around. Nevertheless, you also need to ensure that your kitchen prepares food as good as that which was made by the Celebrity Chef or else you will only end up being busy when the he is around. Another alternative would be to create certain theme and obtain Chefs from that region to prepare. When I was attached to a beautiful resort in a little village on the East Coast of Malaysia known as Cherating. Each year for a month in September we used to bring Chefs from our sister property in Thailand to do a month long Thai Promotion. We did some fruit carving as well as Thai food cooking classes for our guests. We even hired a Tuk tuk to shuttle guests from town to our resort. It was really fun. Read more here please CLICK HERE        

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