Focus on Nightlife

Sense Networks recently debuted two highly sophisticated software tools that will give businesses and their clients a new perspective on nightlife. The new technology uses mobile location data to pinpoint high traffic locations in real-time, allowing consumers to see what location is popular on any given night. Essentially, if your cell phone is turned on, you’re anonymously contributing to your location’s “traffic”.

“Just as Google indexed pages on the Internet to optimize web discovery, Sense Networks has indexed the real places in a city and characterized them by activity, versus proximity or demographics, to better understand the context of consumers’ offline behavior,” said Tony Jebara, Chief Scientist and co-founder of Sense Networks.

Described as a social navigation and nightlife discovery application, CitySense will show BlackBerry and iPhone users nightlife hotspots in real-time. Clubbers will now have the option of dropping in on the hottest party of the year or spending some quiet time at an old haunt, without the guessing.

MacroSense is the flipside of Sense Networks’ technology. Businesses can use the software to analyze, in real-time, consumer trends and adjust accordingly. Put to good use, business owners won’t have to rely on dated facts and figures. One quick look will show them where their target market is spending their money at any given moment.

For nightlife venue operators, this technology should change the way businesses adapt to a rapidly-changing industry.

Club owners must constantly adapt to stay competitive in the nightlife industry. When you focus too heavily on one aspect of the business, you can be losing out on another important area. That’s why balancing your responsibilities becomes so crucial.

One quick (and free) way of promoting your business is by creating Facebook events. By creating a company account on Facebook you can easily gather information on your customers and let them know what’s happening by creating events.

Here’s why you should consider using Facebook events to market your nightclub:

• It’s free and takes very little time. If you are hosting a certain DJ or a theme night you just plug in the details.
• Guests can become “fans” of your club. This will show up on their Facebook profile and inevitably spread to their friends.
• You can instantly send your guests updates about a specific night.
• It’s a great excuse to engage in conversation with your guests. You’ll get to know them.
• Posting flyers was never so easy. Just post them to your profile and invite your customers to do the same.
• It’s the start of a great database of information.

Once you start using these events, you’ll get a better understanding of your customers and learn when heavy online promotions are useful or when you should hold back to really drive another night.

With the advent of social-networking, blogging, and straight email marketing, the value of physical flyering as a form of advertising has certainly come into question. Is the labor, cost, and time of distributing flyers still worthwhile? Is the age-old method still effective? If you’re a club owner or a promotional manager, you should know that the answer is yes.

Many clubs have embraced technology as the new way to get the masses to their venues. Facebook events have become a staple for effective promotions. Potential customers can get online, RSVP, discuss, and even add photos related to your club’s events. Today, if you impress an influential blogger with your lavish venue, you can reach thousands of people. Just take a look at Down By The Hipster, an NYC nightlife blog run by Scott Solish. Hundreds of daily readers visit the site for info on New York’s hottest clubs and a good chunk of the content is provided by reader tips. You can’t ignore the effectiveness of the net as a promotional tool - but is it the be all and end all of advertising?

The fact is that online communications will never replace the direct method of passing out and posting flyers. Let’s get one thing straight: dedicated clubbers don’t spend their nights on Facebook, chatting (does IRC even still exist? Google thinks so), or scouring Flickr for pictures of digital flyers. They’re walking the walk amongst the nightlife crowd. This fact alone puts value in flyering. You’re target market will definitely be walking past (or hopefully right into) your club tonight.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here are some tips for managing your flyer distribution:

• You can use a generic template for flyers if you want to save money and get flyers out on a regular basis. It’s good advertising for slower nights and it gets the name of your club right out on the street.
• For large scale events you should put some money into a good graphic artist. You can’t argue that an attractive flyer won’t attract eyeballs.
• If you manage your own promotions, get your staff to distribute close to the club. It doesn’t take long and can easily be implemented as a regular task for bar opening.
• To extend your flyering radius, hire trustworthy high school or college students. Payment can be a low fee or free tickets to a club event if they’re of age.
• Track flyers. It’s easy to find out if that “trustworthy” kid lives up to his or her description by quickly passing by a random spot you had on their target list.
• Use tracking codes to find out who worked hard at passing out handbills and offer them incentives for keeping it up.
• Stay on good (or great) terms with your neighbors - offer them a free drink at your club. You can’t beat the effectiveness of a big flyer in a nearby storefront’s window.

While the cost of flyering can be a larger marketing expense than free online methods, you should never underestimate how beneficial a well-placed flyer can be.