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Eating Challenges

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pizzafanatic

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To try to build up our dine-in business, we recently introduced an eating challenge where 2 people attempt to eat a 24" pie in 45 minutes. If they do it, it’s free. There’s been a lot of hype built up around the challenge, but I haven’t had too many people actually attempt it. We’ve had about 12 in the first month and a half. Out of the 12, two teams have successfully completed it.

I would like to get more teams try it, but I’m kind of stumped with how to get more into my restaurant to actually try it.

In the six weeks, we’ve put boxtoppers about the challenge and put a large A-Frame sign in front of the restaurant.

Do any of you do something like this? Any suggestions on how I can get more people to try it?
 
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Maybe check with your insurance company. Would you be covered if something happened?
 
I recently saw the same type of promotion on one of the food network shows. They offered an even larger pie if i remember correctly…I think 30" and it was like 10 pounds. The catch was 60 minutes and not just a free pizza but they had a couple hundred dollars on top of it. Money talks. :mrgreen:
 
I thought of a similar antic a few years ago but my wife corrected me (as usual :cry: ) by asking is that the style of operation you want. We went for a nice fit out in our dining area to encourage people to dine-in in comfort and style. The eating challenge went directly against what we wanted to achieve, so as she was right (AGAIN !!!) I dropped the idea.

In todays obese society should we be more responsible by not encouraging binge eating just as those who sell liquor don’t encoutrage binge drinking.

just a thought and not disrepect to what pizza fanatic is doing.

dave
 
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I know of one place that offers a 28" 12 lb pizza. They have a challange where 2 people have an hour to finish it. If they succeed they get the pizza for free and a prize of $100. If they fail to finish they pay for the pizza. Set a particular day at a certain time for the challange and advertise it along with the prize if you decide to offer one. As for the insurance issue that gregster mentioned,I asked mine about it when I was thinking about this and they said its not an issue. It would be the same thing as if you had a customer come in and eat 5 pizzas on their own. They did suggest that you get them to sign a waiver excluding you from any problems if they decide to take the challange.
 
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The reason I mentioned insurance is because I remember a few years ago a radio station had a deal where contestants had to drink a bunch of water to win something. Seemed pretty safe at the time… One of the contestants died from too much water shutting their body down somehow.

The Guinness Book of World Records people no longer accepts eating records over a certain volume of food in a certain period of time. I suspect they did this due to problems in the past.

The combination of the above two pieces of information lends me to believe that any ingestion contest needs serious considerations of liability before continuing. A waiver might not protect you if the practice was deemed overly dangerous to begin with.

Perhaps contact a few national eating contest sponsors to see what they do to limit liability would be advisable.
 
We did this for about a year and also didnt get many takers of the challenge so we dropped it. I think that you need to be in a high exposure place to make it work. One place that does it is Randy’s Wooster Street Pizza. They have been featured on the show “Man v Food”. Check out their website and maybe it can give you some ideas how to promote it if it really is something you want to continue.
 
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It’s strange but we were just discussing that radio cantest last week in the store. It was “Hold your wee to win a Wii” The scenario was contestants were required to consume a bottle of water every so often, something like every 15 minute, I don’t recall the time frame. They were eliminated if they failed to keep up on water consumption, they threw up, or if the relieved themselves. The last one standing won a Wii system back when they were impossible to get.
A healthcare profesional called during the live contest and warned them, on air of the dangers. They laughed and said thats why we have them sign a release. Shortly after that a woman contestant became distressed and eventually died inthe hospital. She was trying to win the system for her kids. Very sad story.
 
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I’ve seen this work. The trick is to tell the “story” and “promote” it like anything else. Don’t just put up flyers about the contest. Take pictures of the winner (of particular interest) and put it in a large frame with the story and proudly display it in your store. Whenever new people come into the store they can read about it. Its much more effective than just reading a flyer. Put a link on your website, put small captions about it in your ads, tell your newspaper or local magazine about it.

Its also not real important that many people try it. You just want people to talk about it.
 
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Are you promoting it on Facebook or Foursquare? Maybe you can have a special tab on your facebook page or a special badge that people can unlock as “supereaters”

Also, one of our local pizzerias also puts up pictures of both the winners and losers for their eating contest on the wall - if you lose you can keep coming back to try and move your picture over to the winner side and it is a constant reminder of the challenge and how elite the winning crowd is.
 
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Thanks for the replies.

Insurance- yes, got ok from insurance company… no issues there.
Waiver- yes, already have them sign one releasing all liability and also consenting to use their name and photo from marketing purposes.
Facebook and Twitter- Yes, we post their pictures and progress

I guess I was just expecting more participants. I was trying to ride the wave of the popular Man vs. Food show. Like Pizzapirate said, I guess I was too concerned with how many people actually attempt the challenge. When I look at the numbers of people that just normally ordered the 24" pizza since I introduced it, it has been successful. We have been averaging about 2 a day, with our daily record of 8.
 
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Remember that a “waiver” is not a 100% defense…Even with a signed “waiver” they can still sue you and sometimes get the courts to toss it because of some silly reason…And depending on how your policy is worded your deductible might come into play even for defense costs…And if they other side abandons their claim before the court rules, you may not be able to recover your “costs”…
 
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I think there’s a pretty narrow market for people interested in doing an “eating challenge”, and that’s why you’re seeing a small amount of interest. Personally, I can’t think of anybody I know that would be interested in doing something like that. I think it’s great that you found 12 teams that wanted to try it.
 
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most of the challenges on Man vs Food is at least 5# per person… in which the majority of people would not try because of the quantity… plus i would’nt want them yaking in the restaurant or bar (already get drunks that do that now and again), it’s a little disserning to other guests.
On the other hand i do like the Heat challenges.
The cost to buy the product is small (both on our end if they win, and the customers end if they fail the challange)
I can see a lot more people trying to consume a single burger for $5 with habanaro and ghost peppers on it because the physical amount of the product is so small.

I know i’d eat 6 blazin hotass wings rather then a 5# 10-stack cheeseburger with 2# of fries :mrgreen:
 
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Ive thought about having a eating challenge. Thought about a 18" fully loaded stromboli, eat it in 30 minutes and its free, along with your pic on the wall. Any thought on this???
 
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