Promotion of reality quests in million-plus cities and outback
In one of the previous publications was the question of how "Quest House" attracts reservations for franchisees in the regions. We tell.
For a long time, we at Quest House used a universal promotion plan for all branches and did not make any differences depending on the size of the city and competition.
Of course, before recommending any advertising mechanics to other cities, we test them in Novosibirsk. But after we have increased the number of branches in small towns, from time to time such situations began to arise:
')
- And be sure to add 2GIS.
- Where?
- In 2GIS, directory of organizations in the city.
- We do not have that.
- Yes, it can not be, I'll show you ... Oh, really no.
I want to talk about how the promotion of quests in different cities, depending on their size and the number of open locations.
In winter in Siberia, the light day lasts no more than 7-8 hours, so the luminous sign is mast hev.
In general, all advertising activities can be divided into two groups: before opening and after opening. They are different channels of advertising and the message that we want to convey to potential guests of the quest.
When a new quest is opened in the city, it is important to make an expected event out of this and get a preliminary reservation.
When the quest has already opened, it is important to start the word of mouth, attract new guests and work with the existing client base. If a person was in one of your locations and he liked it, then he will come to the second - it is only a matter of time.
We start the promotion of the quest from the moment when the partner decided on the scenario and chose the room. The theme of the script is needed in order to publish in the group content on the topic. The address is important because we want people to know exactly where the location will open and be able to immediately figure out when they will be there (on the way from the university, while walking on a day off). In the quests, about 20% of the armor from the series: "We walked, remembered that your quest was near" or "We walked, saw the sign, came in."
We try not to use paid advertising channels before the opening, because sometimes it is unpredictably shifted for reasons beyond our control. If you announce a hard opening date strongly in advance and start advertising, you can screw up without opening on time.
As I have already said, the main idea is to start receiving reservations even before the opening, so that the day the quest begins to work, guests will come. Before the start of paid games, we will definitely run a few focus groups. If people come to the quest, and there does not work a riddle - this is a file. At focus groups, it becomes clear which riddles need to be cut, and which, on the contrary, to stretch in order to keep the average passage time of the location within one hour.
The first cases we start a group in Vkontakte.
While the quest is under construction, we will definitely post content in the group from the construction site:
In addition, in social networks we tell interesting facts about the location, communicate with subscribers, organize interactive contests. Closer to the opening, we begin to play places in focus groups - due to such a competition, we get a great reach before the opening.
This scheme works fine in large and small cities, but there are differences. In big cities, the effect of such contests is less - every week someone opens (or closes, hehe) quest, often it goes unnoticed. When a city is small, everyone is waiting for discoveries there, and it becomes a bright local event. Sometimes it is possible to announce a new quest in the local media.
After the opening we hold regular contests and draws in the group on VKontakte. Purposes depending on the size of the city are different:
If at the start the group is small, it is very inconvenient to carry out any activities - there are few comments, likes and questions. To speed up growth, we put the group widget on VKontakte on the site. This gives a constant increase in subscribers - a couple of people a day turns into 1,000 people in a year.
When the partner has decided on the address where he opens the quest and chose the script, we, in addition to the social networks, immediately create a quest page on the common site. We get a subdomain, prepare the content and insert the reservation form for the location under construction. Usually, by the time of opening, about 10-50 phone numbers and postal accounts are being accumulated in this form. These are people who are waiting for the opening and want to complete the quest. On them we surely do newsletter at the time of opening. With such a distribution comes 10-15 teams in the first week. Often, it is they who start word of mouth.
We start the promotion for the main city requests, such as:
quest in reality% CITYNAME%,
reality quests in% CITYNAME%, etc.
By the time the quest is open, we already have 50–70 people a day coming to the page of the city. Partner starts from scratch.
Unfortunately, the normal amount of armor from this channel is calculated only in one million people. There is no demand in remote places, nobody searches through SEO quests. In this case, the CEO is the groundwork for the future, when the direction will start to develop. We will have a head start over competitors.
Best of all, we manage to use contextual advertising in cities with high competition. There is already a demand.
Before the start, we conduct an express analysis of the situation in the context of the city - we look at the rates and advertisements of competitors in order to predict the budget.
Usually, a newly opened partner does not have a large budget to fill the entire city with the context, therefore at the start we use different strategies:
A lot of quests collect advertising campaigns on the knee and do not use all the possibilities - they are too lazy to make extensions, clarifications, quick links. And lose on this money.
If we talk about the effectiveness of the context, the average ROI is around 400%. At the same time, it is important to understand that this is only on the first sale, then the client comes to the quest several times with minimal expenses for its attraction.
To increase repeat sales, we agreed with other companies in the city and developed a joint loyalty program. With the help of the quest guests receive gifts: discounts on coffee and sweets, free pizza or a gift certificate in the climbing wall. There are 14 prizes in total: 7 for outdoor activities and 7 for a relaxed chill out. The loyalty program itself is gamified and similar to a board game:
The loyalty program is similar to the desktop - you save up stickers, choose which branch to pump.
In large cities, we are now checking the effectiveness of working with bloggers. Part of the reviews is direct advertising, part is native, when there are no direct calls to buy or book. One of the most popular videos featuring Quest House:
132,000 views and just one booking. With that, the audience of the blogger is from Novosibirsk.
It is clear that in order to book a quest, a person must at least know about it. Therefore, we consider such videos as a contribution to the awareness of the company. After some time we will conduct a survey and find out how many guests have seen this video. It is likely that it affects the armor indirectly.
The first thing that comes to mind is the distribution of leaflets. In 99% of cases it is a waste of money - leaflets are thrown into the nearest trash can. If we distribute printed materials, then not to everyone, but with meaning. For example, we can distribute discount certificates, acting as sponsors at an event at the university. If this is a competition, then our full certificate will be a gift for first place.
Discounts should be used cautiously - if you distribute too much and everyone in a row, people stop going to quests at the regular price and wait for discounts.
The second most popular idea is to place a large banner on the central street of the city. Our franchisees are regularly attacked by advertising agencies with such offers. From experience - the banner most often does not pay off and at best gives a couple of games. More effective to invest this money in contextual advertising.
In addition to banners, new partners love to buy advertising on the radio, although at the start of its effectiveness it tends to zero. Moreover, advertising on the radio for money is expensive, so we figured out how to do it for free (it works in nine out of ten cases).
We agree on the drawing of gift certificates on the air, but at the same time we also invite the hosts to come to our quest a day before the draw itself. You can do it in reverse order, but this should not be a manipulation.
When the presenters draw a certificate to the quest that they themselves passed yesterday, magic happens - they are shared by sincere emotions and the number of calls to the live broadcast increases.
Record with an example of a draw on the Yandex disk (starts at 13:24):
We are categorically opposed to posting “healthy” quests on Biglion. A year ago, when there were fewer quests, it worked fine. Now in the big cities of Biglion - a signal that the quest is all bad and this is an attempt from the last forces to beat off the rent.
However, Biglion may be relevant. We use it when:
For a long time, we at Quest House used a universal promotion plan for all branches and did not make any differences depending on the size of the city and competition.
Of course, before recommending any advertising mechanics to other cities, we test them in Novosibirsk. But after we have increased the number of branches in small towns, from time to time such situations began to arise:
')
- And be sure to add 2GIS.
- Where?
- In 2GIS, directory of organizations in the city.
- We do not have that.
- Yes, it can not be, I'll show you ... Oh, really no.
I want to talk about how the promotion of quests in different cities, depending on their size and the number of open locations.
In winter in Siberia, the light day lasts no more than 7-8 hours, so the luminous sign is mast hev.
Different advertising before and after opening locations
In general, all advertising activities can be divided into two groups: before opening and after opening. They are different channels of advertising and the message that we want to convey to potential guests of the quest.
When a new quest is opened in the city, it is important to make an expected event out of this and get a preliminary reservation.
When the quest has already opened, it is important to start the word of mouth, attract new guests and work with the existing client base. If a person was in one of your locations and he liked it, then he will come to the second - it is only a matter of time.
Social network
We start the promotion of the quest from the moment when the partner decided on the scenario and chose the room. The theme of the script is needed in order to publish in the group content on the topic. The address is important because we want people to know exactly where the location will open and be able to immediately figure out when they will be there (on the way from the university, while walking on a day off). In the quests, about 20% of the armor from the series: "We walked, remembered that your quest was near" or "We walked, saw the sign, came in."
We try not to use paid advertising channels before the opening, because sometimes it is unpredictably shifted for reasons beyond our control. If you announce a hard opening date strongly in advance and start advertising, you can screw up without opening on time.
As I have already said, the main idea is to start receiving reservations even before the opening, so that the day the quest begins to work, guests will come. Before the start of paid games, we will definitely run a few focus groups. If people come to the quest, and there does not work a riddle - this is a file. At focus groups, it becomes clear which riddles need to be cut, and which, on the contrary, to stretch in order to keep the average passage time of the location within one hour.
The first cases we start a group in Vkontakte.
While the quest is under construction, we will definitely post content in the group from the construction site:
In addition, in social networks we tell interesting facts about the location, communicate with subscribers, organize interactive contests. Closer to the opening, we begin to play places in focus groups - due to such a competition, we get a great reach before the opening.
This scheme works fine in large and small cities, but there are differences. In big cities, the effect of such contests is less - every week someone opens (or closes, hehe) quest, often it goes unnoticed. When a city is small, everyone is waiting for discoveries there, and it becomes a bright local event. Sometimes it is possible to announce a new quest in the local media.
After the opening we hold regular contests and draws in the group on VKontakte. Purposes depending on the size of the city are different:
- if the city is small, we increase awareness and expect a lot of real armor right away,
- if the city is big, we first pump the group in order to rank higher in the search and take a place in the search engines, and then we collect a lot of armor.
If at the start the group is small, it is very inconvenient to carry out any activities - there are few comments, likes and questions. To speed up growth, we put the group widget on VKontakte on the site. This gives a constant increase in subscribers - a couple of people a day turns into 1,000 people in a year.
Search promotion
When the partner has decided on the address where he opens the quest and chose the script, we, in addition to the social networks, immediately create a quest page on the common site. We get a subdomain, prepare the content and insert the reservation form for the location under construction. Usually, by the time of opening, about 10-50 phone numbers and postal accounts are being accumulated in this form. These are people who are waiting for the opening and want to complete the quest. On them we surely do newsletter at the time of opening. With such a distribution comes 10-15 teams in the first week. Often, it is they who start word of mouth.
We start the promotion for the main city requests, such as:
quest in reality% CITYNAME%,
reality quests in% CITYNAME%, etc.
By the time the quest is open, we already have 50–70 people a day coming to the page of the city. Partner starts from scratch.
Unfortunately, the normal amount of armor from this channel is calculated only in one million people. There is no demand in remote places, nobody searches through SEO quests. In this case, the CEO is the groundwork for the future, when the direction will start to develop. We will have a head start over competitors.
contextual advertising
Best of all, we manage to use contextual advertising in cities with high competition. There is already a demand.
Before the start, we conduct an express analysis of the situation in the context of the city - we look at the rates and advertisements of competitors in order to predict the budget.
Usually, a newly opened partner does not have a large budget to fill the entire city with the context, therefore at the start we use different strategies:
- a lot of money, a lot of competitors - to interrupt the rates in YAN and on search, to run advertising on competitors,
- not enough money, a lot of competitors - just a search, with daily restrictions, we are not trying to win at rates,
- a lot of money, little competition - moderate advertising on search and a lot of advertising in YAN (to reach the maximum of people),
- little money, little competition - search advertising.
A lot of quests collect advertising campaigns on the knee and do not use all the possibilities - they are too lazy to make extensions, clarifications, quick links. And lose on this money.
If we talk about the effectiveness of the context, the average ROI is around 400%. At the same time, it is important to understand that this is only on the first sale, then the client comes to the quest several times with minimal expenses for its attraction.
Loyalty program
To increase repeat sales, we agreed with other companies in the city and developed a joint loyalty program. With the help of the quest guests receive gifts: discounts on coffee and sweets, free pizza or a gift certificate in the climbing wall. There are 14 prizes in total: 7 for outdoor activities and 7 for a relaxed chill out. The loyalty program itself is gamified and similar to a board game:
The loyalty program is similar to the desktop - you save up stickers, choose which branch to pump.
Bloggers
In large cities, we are now checking the effectiveness of working with bloggers. Part of the reviews is direct advertising, part is native, when there are no direct calls to buy or book. One of the most popular videos featuring Quest House:
132,000 views and just one booking. With that, the audience of the blogger is from Novosibirsk.
It is clear that in order to book a quest, a person must at least know about it. Therefore, we consider such videos as a contribution to the awareness of the company. After some time we will conduct a survey and find out how many guests have seen this video. It is likely that it affects the armor indirectly.
Offline advertising
The first thing that comes to mind is the distribution of leaflets. In 99% of cases it is a waste of money - leaflets are thrown into the nearest trash can. If we distribute printed materials, then not to everyone, but with meaning. For example, we can distribute discount certificates, acting as sponsors at an event at the university. If this is a competition, then our full certificate will be a gift for first place.
Discounts should be used cautiously - if you distribute too much and everyone in a row, people stop going to quests at the regular price and wait for discounts.
The second most popular idea is to place a large banner on the central street of the city. Our franchisees are regularly attacked by advertising agencies with such offers. From experience - the banner most often does not pay off and at best gives a couple of games. More effective to invest this money in contextual advertising.
In addition to banners, new partners love to buy advertising on the radio, although at the start of its effectiveness it tends to zero. Moreover, advertising on the radio for money is expensive, so we figured out how to do it for free (it works in nine out of ten cases).
We agree on the drawing of gift certificates on the air, but at the same time we also invite the hosts to come to our quest a day before the draw itself. You can do it in reverse order, but this should not be a manipulation.
When the presenters draw a certificate to the quest that they themselves passed yesterday, magic happens - they are shared by sincere emotions and the number of calls to the live broadcast increases.
Record with an example of a draw on the Yandex disk (starts at 13:24):
Biglion
We are categorically opposed to posting “healthy” quests on Biglion. A year ago, when there were fewer quests, it worked fine. Now in the big cities of Biglion - a signal that the quest is all bad and this is an attempt from the last forces to beat off the rent.
However, Biglion may be relevant. We use it when:
- the location is about to close and we want to drive through it as many people as possible,
- there is not a very popular location among others at this address,
- when we discover something new, with which people are not yet familiar - for example, a virtual quest or a quest with eyes closed.
findings
- Start advertising is necessary long before the opening of the quest. The construction of the quest itself is an interesting infoprovod, it is worth talking about it in detail, it is interesting to people.
- The CEO is an excellent traffic channel in cities where demand already exists. But even if it is not there yet, it will still be worth the effort, because in the future it will produce results and pay off.
- Competition in context is good. Firstly, there is already a demand for reality quests and you can show ads to those who are looking for your competitors. Secondly, you can outrun competitors with good ads, not bids.
- The loyalty program is an element of gamification that provides re-sales. If you have not yet developed it, it is worth spending time on it.
- Advertising from bloggers does not give direct sales in reality quest, but it well raises the awareness of potential customers.
- Distributing flyers to everyone in a row does not work (this is news!). There is a distribution of discount certificates at events where your potential target audience is going.
- Accommodation at Biglion just like that - for wimps.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/323394/
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