Marketing and advertising PRO's - how would you market my company?

August 30, 2015 9:13 AM

Help! How would you market a company to corporate groups, bachelor, bachelorette and birthday parties?

Basically, I am trying to market my company, which is a fun and unusual sports type game, to people for a private event instead of focusing on selling individual tickets.

Primarily, we would love to focus on corporations that do team building events, but I am wondering if I need to just identify a bunch of companies and pitch them (if so, who would I pitch to - like what job title / department would handle such things? And should I go in person with brochures, on the phone or via email?)

I also want to focus on universities, bachelor / bachelorette / birthday / reunions... where do people looking for something to do for such events turn to? Do i need to buy ad space on google? try to use social media websites? are there lists that promote these types of things.

Please lend me your marketing ideas. Thanks!

posted by soooo to Work & Money (8 answers total)

I also want to focus on universities, bachelor / bachelorette / birthday / reunions... where do people looking for something to do for such events turn to?

For bachelorette parties, you should rent booth space at bridal fairs.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:21 AM on August 30, 2015

Not a complete answer, just a (hopefully helpful) aside. Before you meet, call, or even send a flyer to a company, do some diligence on the company and understand what their corporate culture's like. Even just 5 mins googling will make a diff. Decisionmakers accustomed to being pitched by multitudes can very easily grok who's just chucking pamphlets randomly at them, and who's taken time to tailor their pitch - even if you've just custom-slanted it only slightly. Name-drop company buzzwords or initiatives. Make it personal (Don't get it wrong, though; don't blindly make references. That's worst of all, it's like misusing a fancy word when you're trying to bluff as an intellectual.)
posted by Quisp Lover at 10:24 AM on August 30, 2015

Make sure you get yourself in every "things to do in city/state" type directory.
posted by pyro979 at 11:10 AM on August 30, 2015

Also Groupon/Living Social and its ilk.
posted by pyro979 at 11:11 AM on August 30, 2015

Facebook ads targeting recent life events such as newly engaged in your area.
posted by teststrip at 11:45 AM on August 30, 2015

That seems like the kind of thing people will search for when needed, so Google ad words is worth exploring. You could also consider ads on Yelp or some of the online yellow page sites, but I'd start with Google. For the birthday party stuff you may also have luck with craigslist. Also look for people with complementary service lines, and contact them with some kind of referal bonus.
posted by willnot at 4:59 PM on August 30, 2015

I don't know a ton about it but our office manager went to an event put on by Office Ninjas and got a bunch of business cards/flyers/promos from companies like yours.
posted by radioamy at 9:44 PM on August 30, 2015

If you're going to go the university route, definitely, DEFINITELY contact the university's HR department or if they have an employee wellness person, contact them directly. If it's a state university, it wouldn't hurt to have be a woman- or minority-owned business. (Usually they have vendor fairs, but sometimes they're hard to get into without knowing someone who works there.)

As to market it, take out space in a weekly small business journal or buy some web banners. And it's the same with the university, contact HR.
posted by singmespanishtechno at 4:05 PM on August 31, 2015