Maybe you should be.

2024 has been a rough ride for most entertainment-oriented businesses, including haunted attractions. Concert tours have been canceled. Nationwide, restaurants are reporting business being down anywhere from 15-20%. Off-season event ticket sales aren’t charting as well as they have in the past.

This brings us to a very important question: Why?

For marketers, the answer is obvious. People are broke. Consider the last trip you took to the grocery store…groceries and household necessities cost a fortune right now and have been much higher in price for some time. Rent is high. Insurance premiums are through the roof. Credit card debt for the average American is stacking up. Times are hard right now, and we’re all working like mad to make ends meet. 

So, here’s another burning question: How are we going to sell tickets to haunted attractions this fall?

Here’s how:

During an election year, when people are broke, haunted attractions are going to be the escape from reality people really need, and just in time. Just like during the pandemic, haunted houses are the perfect escape from the real world. For an hour or so, attendees are transported into a world of their dreams (or nightmares). People absolutely love Halloween, and the mainstream popularity of Halloween is still growing faster than ever! It’s important to note that people will be picky about where they spend their money this fall, so make sure it’s for your event!

How do you make sure your attraction is the one they visit? Here are a few key elements to making this haunt season a big one, regardless of our economic state:

Make your attraction a big deal. Think about your Value Equation.

The value an attendee receives is more important than the price of admission. People will spend $60 each for 3-hours of entertainment more happily than $25 for 25-minutes in a haunted house. Increase the length, offerings and entertainment options to weigh the value equation in your favor.

The Perceived Value of an event typically equals the content they experience divided by the price they pay. Content/Price = Value. So, you could be a $25 haunt for 25 minutes and be ok with your value equation. But a $60 admission for 3-hours of fun including multiple haunts, a midway, stage show, food/drinks, merchandise store = a MUCH HIGHER VALUE. Build your value and people will be more than happy to spend more money with you. It’s not about time spent, it’s about the quality of the experience.

We have seen this trend increasing year after year, and now everyone is paying attention. The value equation works in the restaurant industry, as well. Provide a great meal with plenty of food, then charge a couple dollars less than you’d expect to pay, and people will rave about the restaurant and tell everyone to go. The same thing plays out for events. Provide more value than the attendee expected to receive at a fair price and they will become super fans!

Your CREATIVE has to be fantastic. Show the market that you are the BEST.

At FearWorm we often say that your creative is 50% of your success. Great creative with a poor ad schedule won’t work. Likewise, a great media plan with poor creative often fails. Your creative HAS to be great and stand out this year. People might just visit one attraction this year due to the tight economy, so your event has to be the FOMO-generating, excitement-building attraction of the year in your market. You can create this with engaging content that drives the market to action. 

How do you make this happen?

1. Shoot your own new videos and content rather than using stock content or dated photos and video.
2. Hire a professional. We see bad iphone photos time and again that just don’t cut it. A professional videographer or photographer that understands low-light situations is key to creating great haunt content.
3. Be cognizant of Meta and Google content restrictions. Great content that won’t air is not reaching anyone.
4. Be original. Enough said.
5. Highlight the benefit your customers will receive. Show the fun.
6. Feature your unique characters.
7. Make sure you are making advertisements, not movies. Most people don’t watch more than 6-seconds of a video, so you have to get your point across quickly.

Make offers that count. 

People are looking for deals. If you are in the top 5 or top 10 haunted house attractions in the country, you might be ok not offering deals. If your supply/demand curve is heavy on demand, you might be o.k. The rest of you should be thinking about offers.

1. Create a pre-season offer. Sell tickets before your competition does. Start selling in July. Promote an early season ticket offer that is of great value. 
2. Price by the day or by the hour. It’s ok if your prime Saturdays are full price, or extra expensive, but counter that with deeper discounted evenings or hours. 
3. To fuel your Sundays, offer a family four pack or a Buy 3, Get 1 Free deal.
4. Consider a Friday the 13th offer in September to kick off your season. Perhaps this is a once a season offer that supports ticket sales for your opening weekend.
5. Consider bounce-back coupons for discounted repeat visits.
6. Season passes or bundles anyone? Look to the amusement parks for ideas.

Get your biggest fans to visit twice this year.

Maybe you sell 10,000 tickets a year, and that is 5% of your area’s population. You probably won’t sell a bigger percentage than that. But what if you could sell 10% of that audience a second ticket? That would be a 10% revenue jump on the same number of customers. Consider bounce-back offers for a special night, for a VIP Experience, Blackout event, or even a bounce back to your Christmas event. One marketing budget, one customer, two purchased tickets! Make the most of your loyal fans this year. 

Consider taking a dive into your ticketing analytics and metrics over the last several years. Some ticketing platforms offer ways for you to identify your Super Fans based on frequency of visits and ticket purchases. Find those “ride or die” individuals, download that list of email addresses, and give them a great returning offer for the approaching fall season! 

At FearWorm, we help haunted attractions succeed in boom times and during economic downturns. In fact, a downturn is the best time to build market share for most businesses. Market heavily, have a solid year, then next year plan to absolutely kill it with your gained market share after our target audiences have hopefully experienced a more stable year. This is how you succeed in the long run in the entertainment industry. It is all about building your brand, delivering value to your customers, connecting and supporting your super fans, and all the while NOT cheating the marketing funnel. The strongest brands WIN during economic downturns, not the ones with the largest pay-per-click budgets.

Do you need help with your haunted attraction or seasonal event this year? Drop our Founder, Ernest Corder, a line at 512-554-8867 or email at ernest@fearworm.com.