The Haunt Marketing Timeline: May 2017

Haunted House Marketing in May. What Should I do?

Let’s talk about some things you can be doing now to get ready for this haunted house season. You don’t want to wait until the last minute to be dealing with all of your marketing and advertising; come July, August, or September it’ll be too late. Here are three things you should be doing RIGHT NOW to get a head start in your attraction marketing and advertising:

• Contact Traditional Media Vendors Today

There’s no bigger time-suck than dealing with traditional media reps, sales people, and vendors. Although TV and Radio are still important, these plans take the longest to properly setup, place, and plan. One huge plus of jumping on traditional media early is the competitive advantage of negotiating better deals, better placements, and getting ADDED VALUE back on your media spend. This also gives you plenty of time to investigate and evaluate any special promotions coming up during -or around- your season that you can take advantage of…before your competition finds out. Remember, the earlier you get a head start on this…the better.

• Start Conceptualizing Creative Concepts

What is your story? What is the “voice” you’re trying to get across in your advertising? This is the perfect time to start thinking about the creative aspects that go into your marketing plan. What kind of video do you want to shoot? What QUALITY of video do you NEED to shoot?  What’s your “Fearworm” for this year…?

By the way, a “Fearworm” is what we call a horror inspired tune/jingle or sound that identifies your attraction and gets stuck in your customers head. This can be as simple as a uniquely created sound effect that identifies your attraction…or a creepy jingle that sets your haunt apart from the competition. A good “Fearworm” can literally boost your attractions branding and overall market awareness.

Now is the time to sit down with your team and plan out the creative “voice” your attraction will have this year.

• Strategize Digital Media Plans

Digital. It’s probably one of the most important aspects of modern day marketing and advertising. May is the perfect time to think about what your attraction needs to do digitally to ensure a good haunt season. This ranges from creating an engaging content strategy for social media, planning social ad campaigns, deciding on various digital services like: Mobile ID targeting, Geofencing, Email Campaigns, Digital Video, PPC (Paid Search…like Google) Campaigns…and more. Speaking of Mobile ID Targeting…if you do anything right now, do this: Sit down and figure out all the major events happening in your area.

This could be concerts, fan conventions, theater events, etc. etc….anything a major group of your demographic will be at. Write down the event, where its held (the address), and when it happens. One HUGE advantage of Mobile ID Targeting is that we can take these events, go back in time, and capture the Mobile ID of every device that was there. We then use this data to run ads to those devices during your haunt season. HOW COOL IS THAT!!

That’s it…three things you should be doing right now to get your haunted attraction ready for this season. If you have any questions or would like more info on how Fearworm Hauntvertising can help your attraction this year, email us info@fearworm.com or click here.