I suppose this is a question I intend for any experienced quiz masters but any suggestions at all would be useful.
Basically, a friend of mine who is a quizmaster in a few pubs in the region, decided to take on a new quiz. Despite good advertising in a popular local paper and posters in the window only one team showed up, mine! The pub made the decision to cut the quiz back a few weeks, get some interest and try again. My friend has decided he no longer wants to do this quiz on a Monday Night so I may have the option of stepping in.
However, how can I avoid the situation of what happened the first time? The pub has a reputation of being a “dead pub” somewhat but is picking up massively. It has a sports theme and offers etc on matchdays so the trade is there. However, the Monday Night Quiz has attracted little interest so far. How can I change this? What is the best ways? Any tips from people who have taken a new quiz from the ground up to be a success would be much appreciated.
I have a few ideas such as advertising it as a one off quiz at first with a decent prize or even a charity event, get a date about 3 weeks in advance, at the start of a month when people have been paid and get a poster up in the bar to catch the regulars attention.
Any suggestions would be great? Obviously making the quiz fun to help with word of mouth is a given but its initially getting those first people through the door I need advice.
I suppose this is a question I intend for any experienced quiz masters but any suggestions at all would be useful.
Basically, a friend of mine who is a quizmaster in a few pubs in the region, decided to take on a new quiz. Despite good advertising in a popualr local paper and posters in the window only one team showed up, mine! The pub made the decision to cut the quiz back a few weeks, get some interest and try again. My friend has decided he no longer wants to do this quiz on na Monday Night
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ReplyDeleteI took over a quiz in December. The first week we had just two teams. Last Wednesday we had nineteen. This quiz is a rarity in that it offers a good cash prize for the winners: £30. 2nd prize is a meal for two. 3rd prize is drinks. And there is a spot prize for a team drawn out of the hat who didn't come in the top three of £5. We charge a £1 to enter. But they get free food at half time. Most places you're not going to get that.
ReplyDeleteThe quiz itself is easy - anybody with half a brain could win it without batting an eyelid - but most of our clientele are young (18-29), they're not serious quizzers, and they like to think they have a chance of winning. I always do a theme to help focus them a bit: so this week's picture round is all famous George's (in honour of St. George's Day), last week was Disney Princesses, the week before Guess The Sitcom. I always put one toughie in there, but most still only get 9 or 10 out of 12. The questions are a mix of current affairs (major headlines only) entertainment (nothing pre-1999 for cinema questions, and it has to be a blockbuster) music (recent-ish unless it's a bona-fide classic) and sport (usually just football, but we're having fun with Olympic Questions you can guess at: first country competing this year in an alphabetical list? Which event doe the winner never cross the finishing line in? Name every city that's hosted it whose name begins with the letter M?).
The key is they can guess if they don't know. A serious quizzers quiz doesn't fill a pub anymore unless the quiz is already well established (like Dave Clarke's Rugby Club quiz that he blogs about - and sounds really good fun!). So if you're going to set a quiz up - especially in a sports themed bar - it needs to be not that challenging, fun - always fun - and filled with the kind of questions your audience are going to love.
Case in point, I host a second quiz where the audience are older, and they appreciate more classic type questions and little entertainment, so I ask them history, geography and literature questions and they love it. If I did the same quiz in my main venue, they'd not turn up again the following week.
If you're going to do it, test the waters with a quiz of relative ease, look at how they score and what they get wrong, and begin to tailor it. And be prepared to rewrite a quiz off the top of your head if the audience is not what you expected. THat second quiz, I turned up with my usual kind of quiz the first week, and I asked a question about Dizzee Rascal and got blank stares from everyone. I wrote a whole new quiz while hosting it.