A year or so ago we reported the overwhelming response that the Reading Eagle’s Bingo drawing received which was held at the sponsoring mall. Bingo Event Receives Overwhelming Response.
And overwhelming is not hyperbole. 3000 people descending on a mall can be a little scary when you think about the possibilities of stampeding crowds. The mall vendors loved the huge boost in sales, but the mall management had second thoughts about chancing again the possible security problems that can arise with such a huge crowd.
The Reading Eagle was afraid they might lose the mall’s sponsorship so Luis Fernandez, the paper’s Circulation Specialist, tweaked the Bingo game once again to fit his circumstances. His challenge was to tame the beast enough to keep the mall’s management happy, but maintain the excitement that made the bingo promotion such an outstanding success the previous year.
The drawing at the mall for prizes was the element that made the promotion so successful for his sponsor so he wanted to keep that part, but instead of inviting everybody who submitted a card with all the numbers covered, they narrowed the field by having a preliminary drawing for 75 semi-finalists. The Reading Eagle published the names of the semi-finalists in the paper and invited just those people to the final drawing at the mall.
The rules stated that a semi-finalist had to be present to win the $1000 Grand Prize or the 5 – $100 prizes and Fernandez reported that all but 1 or 2 of the semi-finalists were present. Of course the drawing was publicized and treated as a real event which maintained the sense of community excitement and engagement.
This scaled-down event was successful in all the goals Luis Fernandez had set – it was effective in engaging readers, generating community excitement, and it was a successful sales tool for his sponsor – without alarming the mall security team!
The Reading Eagle is proof that there is never a need to say “A Bingo promotion is a great idea BUT…” We encourage thinking outside the box a little to make BestBingoPromo work for you.