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Need some Christmas Parade brainstorming ideas

J

j_r0kk

New member
Okay guys, Give me a little help. I’ve got a Christmas Parade coming up in about 3 weeks. It passes right in front of my store and I’m hearing turnout should be pretty substantial. I’ve got foot traffic covered by selling pizzas at a good price in the lobby.

I need ideas on what I should do with our “float”. Should we pass out pizza slices? coupons? What will get people saying, “wow”, and try us out?

You’ve got a budget of $300. What can you do to make it BIG? -J_r0kk
 
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A good idea would be to go with the gift certificates. It’s not very feasible to pass out pizza from a moving float. The gift certificates could be printed on a colored label (to prevent copying) offering $2 off or whatever you would want to use. Stick the labels on candy canes or larger pieces of candy, such as gummi pizzas. Those gummy pizzas are real good, and they have plenty of surface area on the wrapper to place your gift certificate labels.

This will definitely draw some new customers to your store. Be sure and put an expiration date of 4-6 weeks on the labels.

Hope this helps
 
Do you have a mascot costume? If so, use it, if not, make sure you have folks in your uniforms or whatever. From the float, toss out candy like everyone else. Have a person from your store walk on either side of the float and hand out coupons for a free small pizza. I’m not talking about littering with them, but much like the entertainers do at concerts, try to “touch” as many people as you can, but obviously you’ll miss many of the folks. You don’t want a family of 4 getting 4 free small pizzas. You want them getting a coupon for a free small pizza, come in and order much more.

The other option would be free slice coupons. Same principle. Talk to your distributor about some “samples” for this little shin-dig. Perhaps they can help cut your food cost.
 
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Can you hand toss dough? You could do it on the float if you were really good.

I would throw out some shirts too, people love shirts. You can get a bunch of white ones made cheap.

I wouldn’t had out slices cuz the product isn’t going to be good by the time it gets to the crowd.
 
Good ideas. Keep 'em coming.

Yes, I can toss pizzas with the best of 'em. Well… U.S. Pizza team can kick my butt, but that’s another story. So, the pizza tossing is a good idea… I think. It might be a little cold and bumpy, but we’ll see.

As far as the pizza slice idea: I’ve got a 6 foot tall pizza warmer that holds temp at 140 degrees. I’ve got an inverter on my truck that I can plug it into, so I don’t have to worry about slices getting too cold.

Keep 'em coming guys. The more ideas the better. I’m loving this stuff!

And… thanks. -J_r0kk
 
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My best parade responce has been from handing out magnets with a coupon for a free bread sticks. Nobody gets just bread sticks and hardly anyone tosses a fridge magnet out.
 
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You know, I was thinking about something like that. I just got 5,000 coupon magnets and was trying to think of ways to distribute them. I was going to get some kids from the local Boys Club and have them help me doorhang (give them a little pizza party when they finish), but I might just hand them out at this parade.
 
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I would think your magnets would be wasted at the parade being that people come from all over to these.

Keep with the local scouts and the party for your magnets.

Are you allowed to sell to the crowed? Sell slices

You said that you can toss, buy some throw doughs and you and some of your staff get up there and toss away. Make sure you are dressed up. It always helps to have some pretty ladies also 😃
 
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If the parade is right outside your door I would still go for it.
 
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Oh, you can bet your a** I’m selling pizzas. There’s NO WAY I’m missing out on that opportunity. I’ve got guys that are going to go out with pizzas in hot bags selling smalls for $6 each. They keep $1 for each one they sell.
 
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j_r0kk:
Oh, you can bet your a** I’m selling pizzas. There’s NO WAY I’m missing out on that opportunity. I’ve got guys that are going to go out with pizzas in hot bags selling smalls for $6 each. They keep $1 for each one they sell.
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$$$$$$$$$$ for you!!!
 
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I am working on a coupon where the customer gets their name put in for a draw for an iPod when they spend $30 or more.
 
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Daddio:
I am working on a coupon where the customer gets their name put in for a draw for an iPod when they spend $30 or more.
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Let any customer submit their name for the ipod. Make sure they put their name,address and email(mandatory). Just think of you data base of customers emails. Then put together email blasts with specific discounted coupons for your email data bank customers.

Lets say Tuesdays are not that hot for you. Put together a special(these specials have to be to good for the customer to pass up), Monday night send out the email with the heading" Tuesday Only" for the email blast pack or calling it whatever you come up with. I’m telling you this, you can really work your numbers with this method and move some product on those slow days thus putting more cash in your pocket.

Just a though.
 
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I have found handing out coupons is the best way to go every time we do it at our parades I get slammed for the next 3 days!
 
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Awesome ideas! That iPod idea is a pretty good one, too. I’ve got to get right on that, though. Christmas isn’t that far off. Love the e-mail blast idea. I’ve been doing this for a while now and I’ve probably forgotten more ideas than I can remember. One thing I do know, however, is that this isn’t like the good ole days. There are so many more ways to market and pizzatime hit it right on the head with the e-mail idea.

I’m going to put up a new post so we can get more people involved because I’m really curious how to do this. The post will be entitled “e-mail blasts: How do they work?” Thanks again, J_r0kk
 
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