Madden 11 Results!

Hello all!

So as you may or may not know, I had been heavily promoting the Madden Tournament hosted by CBT, Game On, and 790 the Ticket! The event was this past Friday evening, and let me tell you, it was insane. So, to fully explain the insanity, I obviously have to give you some back story on it. Here we go...

A great event usually takes anywhere between three months to two years (weddings) to plan. What are some of the essentials? Well, there is the main attraction, structure, the itinerary, the goal, the food, "what if" scenarios, guest lists, the motivation for attending, amenities, sponsors, and the marketing/promotions. So many things go into it!

How much time did I have to put together the whole event? About 5 weeks from the date the event was given the green light. Obviously, this left me with no time! Just getting sponsors alone is quite an ordeal. Most companies require that you give them between 2 and 6 months of notice to approve your event for sponsorship. This made it impossible to secure powerhouses such as Gatorade, Best Buy, Game Stop, Red Bull, or Champs Sports. SO what can you do at that point? Look for alternatives to the big companies. In the short time I was given, I secured Game On Videogames, Sports Grill, 790 the Ticket, Smoothie King, and AT&T! Quite the group of great companies! Game On and 790 the Ticket were especially wonderful companies to work with.

Even though we had 790 the Ticket on board and did some great radio and internet promotion through them, we only had their resources for a week! The reason for this is because 5 weeks was not enough time for radio spots to be secured and worked into the event. Therefore we did with what we had. Our previous event had 6 weeks of radio spots on various stations from Y100 to Mega 94.9. Instead, we threw out a few email blasts, direct mail drops, heavy street promotion, and even heavier social media promotion. It was a "grassroots" campaign. The social media marketing really did the trick for this one, yielding over 57% of the traffic for the event! This includes, Facebook, Twitter, this very blog, and some gaming forums (even some forums I was not on).

Next up: Food! With only a few weeks, I was given the green light to look for the caterer, and was rejected on several companies due the cost. So I was tasked to find an inexpensive caterer who could pull it all off. I contacted a company and was finally given confirmation to book them with 2 days remaining before the event. Not much time, right? Well, they ended up doing a decent job with the burgers and hot dogs, though they were placed in a bad location, where they were rained on. Not a very strategic placement, if you ask me. I digress, though. The point is that we booked a caterer that managed to cook all the food we needed, to the point that we had leftovers. That's the way it should be! You never want to be short on food. Always over prepare, because people always remember food at events. You should also never go cheap on your food. You can sacrifice in other areas....never food! That's event planning 101. The caterers didn't bring plates, and that was an issue for some, but I had asked them not to bring the plates because they (like ALL other caterers) charge extra for plates, cups, silver or plastic ware, and any other item they bring to the event. I simply purchased the plates at an affordable rate at a wholesaler. I guess the bottom line with catering is that if you want Texas De Brazil, you have to pay Texas De Brazil prices.

Alright, we covered sponsors, food, and radio promo. What else? The prizes were an XBOX 360 Slim and a copy of Madden 11 for the winner, a $75 gift card to Game On for the second place, and a gift card with a lap top bag for third place. Each gamer was given a "goodie bag" with coupons, marketing materials, and promotional information. We also raffled off Marlins tickets and Boomers gift cards that were donated by 790 the Ticket. For a free tournament, these were top notch prizes!!

So, the day of the event, there was a commercial being filmed in our gaming hall that didn't wrap up until about 45 minutes before the event, which left us way too pressed for time to set everything up. This is the kind of hiccup that is difficult to prepare for and just has to be worked around. I was not informed that a film crew would be using my gaming hall up until the last possible second, leaving me with no time time to set up. Therefore, we started about a half hour late, which always upsets me, considering how punctual I am. It was only a minor set back, and we adjusted and worked very quickly to set all the consoles and televisions up, as well as decorate and make sure everything was ready to go.

So, we fought the elements (rain, massively backed up traffic, and an impossible building to find) to bring in over 40 some odd gamers, and over 120 overall guests to our event! Everything went off without major issues. People had lots of fun, the event was impressive to most in attendance, and we crowned an ultimate Madden champion! So, for having less than a month and a half to put it all together, we brought in over 120 people, and impressed everyone who walked through our doors.

Lessons I learned from my first solo event:

1. Do NOT let anyone dictate where and how things will go down.
2. Be ready for bumps and hiccups.
3. Be assertive on what is needed, especially when it comes to food (lol)
4. Do NOT take "no" for an answer. Just readjust your strategy.
5. HAVE FUN!!!