As one of the most popular sporting events this season, it comes as no surprise that over 1 billion people will be watching England’s women’s football team compete for the top spot this summer.
With the weather getting warmer, and beer gardens being frequented, now is the perfect time to order your promotional football print to prepare for the upcoming match celebrations.
In this blog, we’ll be covering things to consider when planning a football watch party, from pre-event promotion to what to include on the day, and how you can use print to really maximise the success of hosting this major sporting event.
Kicking It Off
Whether you’re a sports bar planning on showing the game or a bustling family pub, making sure you advertise your women's football watch party is a super important step in the planning process. This is typically done in poster or flyer form, usually around your local area or up on display at your venue around a few week’s before the game is shown. Information you may typically want to include in your promotional materials is
• Venue name and location
• Event date and time
• What's going on
• Any deals or offers you may have on food and drink
• Contact details to book (if applicable)
• How to book (if applicable)
If you’re wanting to add the wow factor to your advertising you can even look at displaying your event on a banner, which you can place outside your venue in the time before the game, to help drumup interest.
Get your Game on
With women’s football receiving more and more interest, an array of venues will be providing entertainment for the upcoming match. To stand out from the crowd, you can look at ticketing your event to ensure exclusivity. If you do provide tickets for your event, you can include this in your promotional information, and you may also want to advertise your ticket availability in your venue a few weeks before the match to tempt existing customers.
What to include?
You can offer additional entertainment value by hosting fun activities to participate in just before the game, on breaks and after the match. By making the environment more interactive you may encourage your customers to spend more time at your venue. You can do this through lots of different game ideas. See below for some inspiration!
• A football-themed quiz with questionnaire sheets
• Fun games such as sweepstakes. You can make this player specific with stickers to tag your chosen player to say how many goals you think they will score, whether they will receive a penalty or be red-carded.
• Children's colouring sheets which can be designed from tearaway notepads
Something you can also consider is adding props to your event to really ramp up the energy levels at your watch party. You can use selfie frames which you can fully customise to be football-themed or flags in or outdoors displaying the match countries. You can even look at printing t-shirts supporting your favourite team.
You may want to look at printing some merchandise-type prizes such as tote bags and water bottles with football branding or your business logo. You can even consider giving out prizes for the losing participants.
Providing a fun and entertaining experience is a great way to harness engagement as well as encourage your customers to return to your venue in the future, since you provided a memorable experience.
Fueling the Football Fever
A game of women’s football lasts around 90 minutes as standard, and that’s not including any possible extra time or penalty time. As well as refreshments you may want to include food items too. If you’re a venue that serves food as well as tasty beverages you could either offer your usual menu or you may want to look at creating a match-day-themed menu.
You can get really creative with this by renaming some of your pre-existing items after some of the football players or even creating brand-new ones! You can also do this with your drinks menu and create some fun football-themed cocktails. We would suggest taking advantage of table talkers, multi-page folded menus and tent cards to ensure your offering is in front of customers at all times. Something you could consider would be including drinks tokens for multi-drinks deals or 2-4-1 deals on speciality beers and craft ales.
Something you can also take advantage of is your outdoor area. The game will be taking place during the UK’s hottest months, and we Brits love a beer garden. Take a look at hiring or buying a BBQ or pizza oven and serving street style foods in place of a normal menu. You may want to display this information on a large board, such as an A-Frame, making sure customers are able to easily see what you have to offer and your prices.
The Final Goal
So, you’ve thought about what you want to do, now you just need to plan how to do it. It may be a good idea to create a visual plan for your staff members and have this displayed during the day of the match. You can write up section plans, staffing schedules and any important information. We’d suggest whiteboards as they can be easily edited if needed in real time. You can even write your stock checks on there, and internal messages for streamlined communication throughout the day.
Budget
If you have a set budget, you may want to track the costs of stock, staff, decorations, and other miscellaneous costs that may crop up. If you would like to track your spending, it may be a good idea to calculate your costs, set a budget and then get everything you need in advance. This will help you to ensure you stay within your targeted spending and maximise profits if that is one of your goals for showing the match.
Screen Coverage
As the match may is the main driver for customers attending your watch party you may also want to consider the screen coverage in your venue. Do you have the right number of screens and the correct screen sizes so every area is visible without difficulty?
Seating
Just as importantly, you may want to consider seating arrangements, to ensure everyone attending is able to comfortably sit and watch the match. As well as the number of seats, you may also want to ensure that your seating is arranged to health and safety guideline standards to ensure your guests are safely accommodated inside your venue. This is also where ticketing could benefit you as you will know prior to the event how many people are attending and therefore how many seats may be required.
Staying Stocked Up
You may want to consider that the event, across multiple games, will continue on for 4 weeks. If you plan on hosting every game you may want to make sure that you have all of the stock and print advertising that you require in advance to prevent running out.
In Conclusion
The sporting event of the season is creeping upon us and presents a golden opportunity for you to host an unforgettable watch party. By leveraging print you can effectively advertise your event and attract a massive audience.
Offering exclusive elements like ticketing, interactive activities, and football-themed props will set your venue apart and create an immersive and engaging atmosphere. Don't forget to tantalise taste buds with a match-day-themed menu and take advantage of outdoor spaces for a delightful dining experience. With careful planning, efficient coordination, and attention to customer satisfaction, your watch party is poised to score big with football fans this summer.
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