“Wow! What a season!” But is that really all we can say? We have a lot we want to recap and touch base on so lets get started!

Weathering The Storm

2019 was a strange one for haunts all across the United States. The first curve ball was the shortened schedule. With Columbus Day falling later on the calendar than last year, our season didn’t seem to get that full Sunday attendance of 2019 until one full week later. The weather didn’t quite cooperate, either, as it yielded an extended summer heat wave running straight into October for most of the country. The heat coupled with end of season rain and flooding for many created challenges beyond anyone’s control. Sometimes, that’s just the way it is.

In the marketing field we saw some major changes within ad algorithms that in some ways helped our clients, and in other ways, hurt. One major takeaway is that ad approvals for creative seemed to be better this year. Or perhaps we’re just getting better at giving the platforms what they like. In 2018, ad disapprovals from Facebook and Google hampered our efforts and required some quick changes to creative. In 2019, we can proudly report we had minimal ad disapprovals. This, however, doesn’t mean we should all start taking risks again with our creative ad materials. You still need to make sure ads are not: too scary, gory/bloody, violent, offensive, show any nudity/bodily fluids/torture (perceived or otherwise). We need to continue to focus on highlighting the experience people have while on-site and not the haunt itself. Hopefully, your haunt is scary enough to get disapproved, so we can’t and shouldn’t show the event itself. We need to save that anyway.

Take Away: Build the best haunt you can, come up with new creative ideas, build awesome creative pieces to promote the haunt, and do what you can to alleviate weather problems (like putting gravel on your pathways, bringing in tents and more covered areas), and then we’ll all cross our fingers for better weather in 2020.

Attendance Reports

We heard from haunt owners across the country that overall attendance was low in September and the first weekend of October. Globally, 2019 gave us the warmest October ever recorded. That’s not too bad if you’re a ballpark, on a family cookout, a swimming pool, school event, football game, band competition, late season blockbuster movie, grocery store, or any OTHER thing that’s not a haunt. But for haunted attractions it can be killer, and not in a good way.

Let’s put some perspective on this. We all get to enjoy an extended summer with the early fall season being warmer than average throughout the country. What are you going to do that weekend? Cookout and soak in the last bit of summer? Go to a game? Play outside? Or go to a haunted house? Haunts are notoriously “hot and sweaty” for customers even in cooler weather. So, if it’s hot out it’s almost a sure-fire no-go for most people. On top of the obvious fact that cooler weather can be a conscious or even an unconscious queue to attend fall events, like haunted houses and fall festivals. Memories and associations are a powerful decision influencer when it comes to attending seasonal events. After all, who wants to go to the 4^th of July picnic when it’s raining? You want to attend a fall event when the weather turns.

So the question becomes: What things we can we do to better bring people out (especially to outdoor shows) in warmer weather? The answer is painfully simple. You can offer promotional discounts during unseasonably warm weather to move the needle. At the end of the day, though, people will come when they are ready. And when they are ready is all closely associated with “It feels like Halloween”.

Online Ticketing Services

Do you sell tickets online? We saw exponential growth once again this year in online ticket sales. If you aren’t selling online, you should be! Here are a few things to consider about online ticketing providers in 2020:

• Does the provider integrate seamlessly into Facebook? A provider that allows ticket sales directly within your page and/or events pages is a profitable, convenient feature.
• Does the provider integrate with your Google My Business account? A provider that allows ticket sales directly from Google, again, can be very profitable.
• Does the provider provide easy integration of tracking pixels and codes that properly report back to the ad platforms? (Facebook, Google Analytics, etc.)
• Do you have a plan B? You should plan for the potential of a ticket provider failing. If your ticketing provider’s app breaks on your biggest money making weekend…what would you do?

Didn’t see that last one coming, did you? This season we had the unfortunate experience of having a few clients that were affected by a ticket company’s technical issue. Essentially, the ticketing app reflected tickets were “sold out” when they weren’t. This halted ticket sales. The lesson learned, other than kicking that service to the curb, is that you must make sure your ticketing system is reliable. Your ticketing company must work every time, have the staff to fix issues if they arise, it must integrate with social platforms, and efficiently deliver data back to those platforms for better tracking and reporting.

Marketing Budgets

It’s never too early to talk about next season’s marketing budgets! What we’re talking about specifically is setting aside roughly 50%-60% of your total marketing budget now and not touching it for any reason during the off-season. Say your marketing budget is $40k. You should set aside anywhere between $20k-$25k right now to help get you through the first few weeks of your campaign and pay for creative (graphic, photos, video) costs. Why is this? Keep in mind that some advertising and creative costs need to be paid in advance. Most media sources will not provide credit to even established events. We find that haunt owners do not set aside enough money to cover marketing expenses and as a result rely on credit cards and personal loans to get open. One of the biggest differences between a good and great season is early season attendance. Not only do haunts need to start their campaigns weeks out from October to get the public groomed for the upcoming Halloween season, but if they want to have a great season as opposed to a good season, they need to stack the marketing dollars early and taper down as the season progresses, and the crowds grow naturally.

Set your marketing money aside and do not touch it. Remember, 2020 is a major election year. Ads will be more expensive, more regulated, and have more “noise” competing against your messaging. Get ready now!

Slaying the Social Media Beast

Lively, calculated social media content is more important than ever to the success of your attraction. At FearWorm, we separate Social Media Marketing into two distinct categories: Paid Social Advertising and Organic Social. Paid Social, being the ads themselves, involves our marketing strategies inside Ads Manager directed at earning your brand increased web traffic and hopefully sales. Organic Social is the more interactive, customer-facing side of your Social Media. Remember, Social Media is meant to be just that…social. This should never be a constant sales pitch or a sea of promotional reminders. People don’t want to be pitched, they want to engage with your brand, have fun, and learn about you through a social connection.

If you don’t have an effective and curated organic social strategy, you’re missing the biggest piece of the puzzle for long-term brand success. Appropriately handled Social Media should effectively present your brand and give it the platform needed to interact with your audience directly and conversationally. This means crafting and boosting posts that are shared with one goal in mind: sparking conversation and inspiring audience engagement. Once content is posted, you must interact with your audience in a playful, yet on-brand manner. Whether it’s answering a few questions about your event or simply dropping in a funny GIF response to provide some fun social currency to your page, responding to your audience is a huge part of the on-going and ever-fruitful social conversation.

Over time, all these efforts will better “feed the algorithm” and, hopefully, increase and improve your organic reach. Here are a quick few takeaways from our 2019 social season:

• Look at what times of the day your audience is most active and post during those times. This data is there for a reason, so use it to your advantage!
• Audit and adjust your page info, bios, images, and videos. Be inviting and current. Your open times need to reflect your current schedule. Double check website links, email information, and generally any piece of info shared.
• Post frequency during haunt season should amplify a bit. Try to post 3-4 times per week on Facebook and daily on Instagram.
• Use proper hashtags to help reach new audiences. Hashtags that are not used at all by anyone are not doing your brand any good. Moderate your use of hashtags, check spelling, and don’t oversaturate your post with them. Try to get local with your hashtags.
• What works for one haunted house may not work for all, so consider your market. Think of your audience, be present for them, and give them the content they want and need. Be the local Halloween expert they deserve!
• Pushing a “Story” from Instagram and sharing automatically to Facebook via Instagram profile settings (connecting a Facebook account in-app) saves time, and gives a direct (at top of feed) view of content for an in your face reminder. Story updates are great for real-time information and “open tonight” images or videos.
• Weekly “Conversation Starters” are a must! These are the pieces of content that get your audience to comment or share their view on a given subject. Discuss entertainment news, or talk about things that they are interested in to keep them engaged!
• And last but not least…lean on your team! Your organic content (unless boosted) will usually not perform as well as your ads. But, you can definitely give your content your own form of boost without spending one dime! When you share great content, ask your actors, employees, friends, and family to share your page’s posts. Have them do this within the first hour and it will vastly increase your page’s performance! Having content that bursts with engagement and attention within the first hour shows the platform that you are producing content that people like! This serves your algorithm and molds it into something that works for you and not against you on social media! If you are a content leader, your content becomes preferred!

No Rest for the Wicked

In summary, the 2019 haunt season had its challenges. Many haunted attractions were hit with forces beyond their control. While some haunts were up, others have reported lower-than-expected attendance numbers. How do you make your best attempt so this doesn’t happen in 2020? Some of it is luck, like with the weather. But even in regards to the weather, you can start planning your event now to better weather the storm. You can also start on your branding and planning now. Your creative, the images and media you share to get the public’s attention and entice them to attend…those pieces deserve time, calculation, and more importantly, they deserve to be seen! Save for your 2020 marketing campaigns now! Set money aside and plan to use it to do what we all want you to do…SCARE MORE PEOPLE.