Best Event Plan/Promotion
Drink & Dine Every year the Minnesota Daily creates a “Drink & Dine” guide for readers about the best places to eat and drink around campus. In previous years, the Minnesota Daily has hosted a party at a local bar in order to celebrate and promote the issue. This year, the marketing staff decided to take a different and more elaborate approach to promoting the Drink & Dine issue, by planning a bar crawl on October 10, 2013, the day the issue launched. We worked with four different bars on campus to negotiate free drinks for bar crawl participants. We also partnered with Uber — a car service — in order to provide participants with a safe ride home. We sold tickets for two weeks prior to the event on Eventbrite and on the day of the event at the door. Tickets cost $12 and were available to Minnesota Daily readers over the age of 21. Each bar crawl participant received five free drink tokens to use at the four participating bars, a $20 Uber credit, an event wristband and t-shirt. We began promoting the Drink & Dine bar crawl three weeks before the event. We marketed the Drink & Dine bar crawl in a variety of formats, including print advertisements in the Minnesota Daily, online banner ads on mndaily.com, posters around campus and the individual bars, and the Minnesota Daily’s social media channels. Additionally, as a result of our partnership with Uber we received additional publicity through mentions on Uber’s social media accounts. Our intense marketing efforts were quite successful. The Drink & Dine bar crawl sold out all 200 tickets. We sold 175 tickets online through eventbrite during the presale period (Sept. 25 – Oct. 9) and sold the remaining 25 tickets within five minutes at the door the day of the bar crawl. We were also able to generate social media buzz, with bar crawl participants tweeting about the event and the Minnesota Daily. Additionally, the Drink & Dine bar crawl was listed as one of the top ten events in Minneapolis on October 10, 2013 by Huge City.
Timeline
Connect with campus bars in order to negotiate participation in the bar crawl. Sign contracts, agree on number of free drinks, receive bar logos for t-shirts and posters. Develop partnership with Uber.
Work with advertising production unit to design a logo for the Drink & Dine Bar Crawl. Design posters, social media artwork, print advertisements, online advertisements and t-shirt.
Order t-shirts, wristbands and tokens. Confirm bar participation.
Promoted the Drink & Dine Bar Crawl to Minnesota Daily readers and University of Minnesota students through social media, posters and advertisements.
Bar crawl tickets were available for presale purchase on eventbrite.com
Distributed wristbands, tokens and t-shirts to presale participants during the day. Sold the remaining 25 tickets at the door within 5 minutes. Had a successful bar crawl to promote the Drink & Dine issue!
Promotional Materials MUST BE 21+
THURS. OCT 10 10pm – 2am
Join us as we celebrate the release of our Drink & Dine issue by visiting some of the best bars and restaurants on campus!
PURCHASE TICKETS AT MNDAILY.COM Price includes 5 drinks, a t-shirt, and a $20 Uber car ride SPONSORED BY
Promotional Materials
Promotional Materials