Cheers is dedicated to delivering hospitality professionals the information, insights and data necessary to drive their beverage business by covering trends and innovations in operations, merchandising, service and training.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/504798
www.cheersonline.com 44 • May 2015 QUIZ SHOW: BOOSTING BUSINESS WITH TRIVIA NIGHTS Few bars or pubs can afford for business to slow down during the week, but it can be hard to entice guests to come out on a work or school night. Many businesses have found that trivia nights are a reliable way to draw in patrons. Pub quizzes involve customers facing off in teams. A host emcee asks questions over a series of rounds, normally numbered two to seven, on subjects ranging from current events to pop culture to sports to science to the more arcane. Most emcees play music between rounds or in the background. Some present the questions with visual, audio or video cues. The teams write down their an- swers, which are collected by pub or quiz employees who keep track of scores. Teams that win or place highly receive prizes such as gift certificates to the bar—a source of repeat business—or branded materials. Rivalries form, as teams and players return each week for the fun competition. "The people who come are from all walks of life," says Alley Meeker of Big Boy Entertainment, a Connecticut company whose services include trivia nights. Meeker emcees Wednesday pub quizzes at Wood-n-Tap in Wallingford, CT. "Some people come every week and always lose, but they don't care, because they're hav- ing drinks and meeting new people." And that's good for business. The Harp in Amherst, MA, sometimes sees 10 times the normal number of patrons show up for its Tuesday pub quiz. O'Neill's Pub & Restaurant in South Norwalk, CT, achieves at least twice its ordinary busi- ness during trivia nights. PUTTING ON A SHOW Liam McAtasney was among the first trivia night vendors when he founded San Francisco-based Brainstormer in the mid 1990s. What was then a cottage industry has become more common. Pub-quiz vendors tend to employ numerous part-time "quiz masters" to host their services throughout the country. These people, who tend to be trivia buffs, By Kyle Swartz MARKETING MATTERS will emcee the event, taking charge of the technical and organizational aspects; advertising and prizes are usually left to the bars. "What people don't realize is that doing good trivia is a ton of work," says John Dicker, owner of the Denver-based trivia company Geeks Who Drink. "People think that anyone can get questions from the internet. But that's doing a me- diocre job." The pub-quiz industry standard is 20 to 25 questions, with a song played between each question, ac- cording to Dicker. "Our quiz has 70 questions, with pictures handed out that are professionally produced, and several audio rounds, and sometimes a video round." Oliver O'Neill, owner of O'Neill's, initially attempted to come up with questions himself when starting triv- ia nights five years ago. "I was working on the first batch and realized that I was only asking questions relevant to me," he says. "That's not fair and balanced, so I went out and found a vendor for a source of questions. It's been work- ing out really well ever since." DIY TRIVIA EVENTS But at The Harp, owner Harpo Power has written all the trivia ques- tions himself for the past 14 years. He also stills emcees his own quiz each Tuesday. Power comes up with 50 ques- tions each week. Only in the past year has his 20-year-old son started chipping in, providing questions on the subjects of math and technology. "The first year we used a vendor," Power says. "But I decided his ques- tions were either too generic or too esoteric. It's really important for our questions to be tailored toward the college crowd from [the University of Massachusetts]. We're very at- tuned to that crowd." On avera ge , Power spends si x hou rs per week w r it i ng que s- t ions. A nd he doe s t h is w it hout t he i nter net—he consu lt s h is