Bingo Chairperson Training Program To The Revised 07/14/2010! Module Six: Advertising and Promotion of Bingo BINGO

Filling Up Those Chairs ! Advertising and Promoting your Bingo Games

Legal Requirements Any advertisement must identify the conductor organization by name as it appears on their license. This requirement covers all print, radio, television and any other medium of advertisement. Only a licensed authorized organization, a licensed commercial lessor or the Commission may advertise bingo. If a commercial lessor is placing an ad, the names of all organizations licensed at the playing location must appear.

Public Service Announcements The Commission has been given the authority to advertise bingo, but has never been appropriated funds to do so. Public Service Announcements (PSA) promoting bingo are available at no charge on our Web site. Free !

Contact local radio and television stations and ask them to play the PSAs to promote and create interest in bingo at no charge to your organization! And now, a Public Service Announcement for our viewers…

Ways to Advertise Getting listed in the upcoming events section of the local newspaper. Placing ads in neighborhood association newsletters, the charitys newsletter or special event publications.

Place ads about your bingo operations in your organizations newsletter and all special event publications. Write a press release about the charitys bingo operations and what good the money has been used for. Send it to your local newspapers.

Ways to Advertise Prepare a general flyer for the hall and ask each organization licensed there to include the flyer in any mailers they do for their organization and to hand them out at all of their events. Place ads in small papers such as the Thrifty Nickel or other free publications as well as bingo industry newspapers. Print promotional items such as koozies, matches or ink daubers. Animal Shelter BINGO

Be creative! Dont miss an opportunity to promote your bingo games! Hmmm, that halloween costume party sure was fun…wonder if our bingo patrons might like that…

Promotions A promotion is an activity or event arranged for a particular occasion which is designed to increase attendance and bingo revenue.

Door Prizes A door prize is a prize awarded by a drawing to the holder of a ticket received at the bingo occasion. The value of a door prize cannot exceed $ Everyone should receive the opportunity to play for the door prize. Door prizes are not subject to collection of the 5% Prize Fee.

There is no limit on the number of door prizes you can offer at a bingo occasion.

GIFT CERTIFICATES Bingo Gift Certificates $5.00 VFW 6090 Expires 09/18/2011 R3044

GIFT CERTIFICATES Gift certificates should be imprinted with: – Name & address of redeeming location – Monetary value of the certificate – Name of organization(s) authorized to accept it – Expiration date or space for expiration date

GIFT CERTIFICATES Gift certificates should be: – Pre-numbered – Consecutively issued – Paid for in full at the time it is issued

Bingo Gift Certificates make great door prizes!

GIFT CERTIFICATES Gift certificates as bingo prizes: – Paid for by the licensed organization – Recorded as a bingo prize on occasion paperwork – Withhold prize fee of 5% of the value of the certificate* * See earlier discussion of prize fee collection

GIFT CERTIFICATES Gift certificate log maintained collectively by all organizations at the location should contain: – Certificate number – Value – Dates issued and redeemed – Expiration date – Date of the occasion, if awarded as a bingo or door prize

GIFT CERTIFICATES Funds from the sale of gift certificates are deposited into the bingo account for the occasion that the certificate was redeemed.

Charitable Raffles Raffles held at bingo occasions must comply with the Charitable Raffle Enabling Act. Contact the Texas Attorney Generals Office for more information on raffles. Telephone: Website: (Raffles: Are you conducting your raffles correctly?

Giveaways Giveaways are an excellent incentive to get those customers in and to make the bingo experience something they look forward to repeating. Do something creative to boost sales on a slow night. ABC Bingo I won at Bingo! Gizmos Bingo

Permissible Expenses A bingo occasion promotion is a permissible bingo expense and may be paid from the bingo checking account ONLY IF it can be shown that the promotion financially benefited the organization or unit. Did It Work? Did We Make Any Money?

A bingo occasion promotion should be periodically evaluated by the organization to determine that the promotion is financially benefiting the organization. Unprofitable bingo promotions are not a permissible bingo expense. A Word Of Caution…

How Do You Evaluate and Document? To determine the success of your promotion, compare the sales and attendance to figures within the past month. Documentation must be maintained to show that the promotional activity benefits were evaluated.

Promoting Bingo What is most important to YOUR players? Is it playing paper or card-minders? Is it playing event tickets or pull-tabs? Is it the quality of the food? Is it the service of your workers? Is your location attractive, well-lit, safe? How are your acoustics? Can players hear? How is the temperature ? Comfortable? Listen to what your players are saying

Cultivate Your New Customers Consider Offering Learn to Play Classes How do you make sure your first timers return to your bingo games?

Theme Nights Keep your bingo occasions fun with activities like theme nights. Mardi Gras !

Discounts! Discounts involve reducing the pricing for the products you sell. You must charge $$ for bingo equipment and supplies – nothing is free. NO Free Play

Special Pricing Some halls offer alternate pricing structures for their paper based on the prize payout amount.

Coupons! Coupons can be offered for a percentage off, a specific dollar amount or allow the purchase of a product for a reduced price.

Regardless of the type of discount you are offering, you must keep detailed records of all of your discounts with your Occasion Cash Report which include: – Full details of the discount policy – The number of items sold at the discount – The total monetary amount involved DETAILED RECORDS Document, document, document!

Prohibited An organization cannot discount pull-tabs or alter the pull- tabs printed prize pay-out amounts. An organization may not pay the 5% prize fee for a winner over $5.00. No Prize Fees Collected TONIGHT! HB1474

Determining Prize Amounts Three important issues to keep in mind about giving out even net prizes are: – ALWAYS report the gross amount showing prize fee withheld and net amount. Do not report the net amount as your gross prizes on your occasion report or your quarterly reports. – MAKE SURE that players are informed of actual prize amount, either post and announce the gross amount or if you prefer to post and announce the net (even) amount, indicate that it is the prize amount after prize fees. – DO NOT exceed $2,500 per session or $750 per game GROSS prize limit NET PRIZE = GROSS PRIZE LESS PRIZE FEE WITHHELD

Calculating Even Net Prizes The following calculation can be used to determine the gross prize amount from a predetermined net prize amount: Gross Prize Prize FeeNet Prize Net Prize divided by.95 = Gross Prize

Frequent Player Programs Frequent Player Programs allow your organization to collect personal information such as birthdays and mailing addresses in addition to building a loyal customer base.

Need a MILLION ideas? There are hundreds of ideas on the internetwaiting for you and free! Use a search engine such as Google, Yahoo Use a simple search terms such as cheap advertising ideas or small business advertising ideas Business cards Have a Website Flyer in with your invoices Use your vehicle to advertise with magnetic sign Cross-promotion with another business advertising Big Top Bingo

What do people say about your BINGO HALL ??? dirty restrooms; clean facilities; attractive place ? people got shssssd for cell phones going off and normal levels of conversation ? friendly or unfriendly staff ? bad food ? made to feel welcome as a first-timer? pleasant experience or a once and never again situation? caller too fast to keep up? non-smoking area inadequate; treated like second-class citizens ? You can GOOGLE or YAHOO your bingo hall and find out what the reviews say….. GOOGLE: ACME Bingo Hall reviews Waco (Example only)

Some Actual Reviews… --The first thing to know about Bingo, if you dont smoke, your are treated like the help. You have to use a side entrance, and the non-smoking room is half the size of the smoking room. --I love this place I got there with my friends every Friday, is really fun (and cheap), they have non smoking area which is so cool, and the food is not that good but lets face it, its not a place to go to eat it just as snacks… --The people are friendly and courteous.....The games are simple and to the point, no guessing. From the new to the most experienced playing, all will enjoy the experience… --This has to be the worst place I've ever gone to for a night of bingo! It was confusing and boring. First I thought the caller had fallen asleep, but then I realized he had to go by a clock of some sort. I have played bingo for years, and this almost broke me of ever wanting to go back ever again. --The staff is very friendly and helpful. The snack bar food is great, its almost like a mini-Mexican restaurant and reasonably priced. The only thing would be the cleanliness of the restrooms, I think if they where cleaned between sessions this would be the best bingo hall in town. Other than the restrooms this bingo hall is terrific. --This is the most rude non-friendly people I have ever dealt with. The have no respect for you as a patron of the hall. The announcer sits in the smoking section along with the workers (majority of the time), so when people in the non-smoking section need help or even have a bingo, they are not always heard. My experience there almost led to a riot between the workers and the non-smoking section when I called out "Bingo" as loud as I could and thought they heard me, but they were referring to a person in the Smoking Section.

Bingo Chairperson Training Program Module Six: Advertising & Promotion of Bingo Galaxy BINGO ! Bingo!