It’s Super Bowl weekend, and a commercial this year is going to cost almost $5 Million for a 30-second commercial. The question for your coffee shop, smoothie, and juice bar owners is how can you tap into events like the Super Bowl or holidays in your marketing? #CupsToGallons #CoffeeTalkLive
Stacey: Hello everybody. Are you ready for some football? Guess what? Hashtag Super Bowl L I V. Dave, are you cheering for the red team or the red team? They’re both red this year.
Dave: That’s a tough question. You always give me the ones I can’t answer. Give me one that I can answer.
Stacey: Okay, here’s one. Well, this is actually a story, everybody. Do you know how Dave and Stacey met?
Welcome to Coffee Talk Live. The show where independent coffee smoothie, juice bar, ice cream, dessert, and snack shop owners come together to talk shop, learn the best business building and marketing ideas, and have lots of fun along the way.
Stacey: Hashtag Lost a Super Bowl Bet. Want to tell the story, Dave?
Dave: Well, okay, I’ll tell this story. So, many years ago, many, many, many years ago, I hosted a Super Bowl party, and Stacey was one of our guests. And, for some crazy reason or another, it was the Redskins against the Denver Broncos. And, you know, I’m a Redskins fan. I knew she was a Redskins fan because she was wearing a Redskins sweater. But, I went over, and I sat down next to her; and I decided I was going to make a bet with her. And, of course, you know, I have to be the gentleman — I have to give her the Redskins and I get the Broncos.
So, the bet was whoever loses has to drink a beer for every touchdown. This sounds like a pretty fun bet, right? We’re just having some fun, right? Well, it didn’t turn out well. But, it was fun. It was fun because the Redskins won. I think it was 44 to 6 or something like that. So, I don’t know how many touchdowns that is, because I lost count after about the fifth beer or so.
Stacey: He lost the bet, and he ended up marrying me. So, actually he ended up winning, and still, 29 years later…
Dave: Yeah. So, maybe I won the bet.
Stacey: So, Super Bowl is our quasi-anniversary.
Dave: Yes, it is definitely our anniversary.
Stacey: So, thanks for tuning in today. You see this word called Super Bowl. There is so much fanfare about it. This literally should be a national holiday.
Dave: I think so. I mean it’s at the point where the next day all everybody talks about at the watercooler is the Super Bowl or the commercials, one of the two, right?
Stacey: If they even show up to work on time.
Dave: If they even come to work.
Stacey: Right. Here’s the thing about Super Bowl. It’s more than just one day. There’s the whole week that leads up to the Super Bowl. Then, of course, there’s the big day itself; and then there’s the whole week after where people are talking about it. The ref calls the ads, like everything about it. There is so much hype about this one-day-football event, and you can totally leverage this in your coffee shop, and as part of catering.
We’re going to share some ideas with you here tonight, so we’d love to hear from you. Please engage with us. If you are going to be watching the game, let us know who you’re rooting for — what red team you’re rooting for, and are you doing anything to promote the Super Bowl in conjunction with your coffee smoothie, juice bar, ice cream snack, or dessert shop? We’d love to hear from you.
Okay. When it comes to Super Bowl, a lot of small business owners think, “Oh, I can’t, why would I even want to do anything with the Super Bowl? They’re advertising….” Do you know how much an ad costs this year, Dave?
Dave: Five million?
Stacey: $5 million for a 30-second spot. So, that’s a lot of cups. That’s even a lot of gallons. I envision that everybody on here tonight can’t dish out $5 million for a 30-second ad. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t leverage the power of this amazing holiday. So, let me share some ideas of how you can use this in your business.
Dave: So Stacey, how would you leverage something like the Super Bowl in your coffee shop? What are some of the things that you think would be good ideas that they could implement this week for the Super Bowl?
Stacey: Okay, well leading up to it or even on the big day, what if you had a special name of a drink for each team? So, let’s say for this Super Bowl coming up, one name could be Chief Mahomes and another drink could be 49-er Latte. I’m just making these up. So, you could come up with a creative name for two different kinds of drinks and maybe you have a chalkboard or some kind of dry erase board to keep track of how many people are ordering each of those drinks.
Dave: That’s a cool idea. That’s an awesome idea! I like that. That would work.
Stacey: What would make it work even better is if you could make it red or somehow tie it in with the color of the team. Now, this year we have two red teams. If you do smoothies, obviously you could do strawberry or some kind of berry theme; but there are actually some red coffee drinks that you could do, as well.
Dave: Sure.
Stacey: So if you’re looking for some drink recipes, where can they go to get some, Dave?
Dave: They can go to Cups to Gallons .com forward slash recipes. We had said on one of our previous episodes that we have over 300 of these things, and we are slowly but surely getting them out there. These are really good. We haven’t made all of them, but the ones we have, have been absolutely delicious.
Stacey: That’s right. So we are adding more. We’re adding about two to five new recipes every single week. So, go on there, search for something red. And, if you guys have an amazing recipe that you want to share, go ahead and add it — and you’ll get a link. You’ll get the recognition and the accolades. So, we’d love for you to make this a recipe or a repository, not just of our recipes but yours as well.
Dave: Right. So, Stacey, what are some other cool things you can do stuff around? It doesn’t have to be just the Super Bowl, but we’re talking about the Super Bowl mostly today. What are some other things that they can do around the Super Bowl that could drive some traffic or some interest?
Stacey: What if they were to do a trivia contest? Ask trivia questions about each team as they come up to order something. Ask them a question, and if they get it right, maybe they get their drink for free or maybe they get something with the drink for free, like a muffin or a pastry. Or, maybe they get a coupon, so next time they come back they get a free drink.
Dave: Great ideas! So, you had mentioned donations, you know like donating money on behalf of a cause. Talk a little bit about what you were thinking about there.
Stacey: All of your promotions around Super Bowl, or any holiday, don’t always have to involve giving food or drink out for free. You could tie it in with supporting a local cause, organization, or something in your community that you are passionate about — that’s important to you or your organization. So, let’s say you love animals, and you sponsor the local shelter or the local Humane Society. What you could do, is say, for every touchdown that is scored, you’re going to donate $7. You might want to put a cap, though. Say, if they score over 50 points, we’ll donate $500 or whatever it’s going to be. You can leverage the power of tapping into the organizations and causes within your community. And, post on social media, and tag them that you’re doing this.
Dave: You should be putting all this stuff on social media. You know, like the first one; if you’re doing the drinks and you’re keeping score on a board, take a picture of the board when it’s done. Put that out on social media. You will get some engagement from that. I guarantee you, this week, I promise you, you’ll get some engagement. You had another really good one that I thought was a very interesting idea. I had not even thought about this from before — but, tying this in with bingo.
Stacey: Okay, so imagine this. We’ve all played bingo and you have this board, and you fill in the slots ahead of time. So, maybe one slot is a touchdown, like a Kansas City touchdown, and one is a Kansas City field goal. One could be a Super Bowl commercial about Snickers, you know, and you fill in each box. You give these out to your customers the week before Super Bowl, and on Super Bowl day, they fill them out. And, if they get bingo — boom, bing, bang — they’re going to come back to your store to redeem a prize.
Dave: That’s a cool idea! I like that one. That’s a very, very cool idea. How come we never do that? I like that one!
Stacey: Well, we’re good at the marketing. Hey, we have a lot of people checked in here, so I want to give shout outs. We’ve got Heidi, Amy, Chris White. Hey Chris, good to see you! Roger from California. Roger’s going to be joining us. He’s actually going to be on Coffee Talk Live. I think it’s March 2nd. And, Roger has a really cool mobile catering unit that you guys are going to want to tap into. So FYI, we are going live with you guys every Monday at 7:00 PM Eastern. So, put it on your calendar as a regular activity, and each Tuesday you’ll know what the next week’s theme is. All right, who else is on with us? Yep, that’s it.
Dave: All right, thanks for joining us. So, you know we’ve been talking about the Super Bowl, and you know, obviously it’s over in a week. But, this really can be transformed into a lot of different holidays that exist during the year. And, one of the things that we put together, which is very cool, is a holiday calendar — which is kind of hard for you guys to see here because it’s on white paper. But, it doesn’t matter. We’re going to give you a link to be able to download and get a copy of this. But, what I want to do is talk about how you can actually use some of these same types of things we’re talking about. Not necessarily the games and stuff, but you can tap into these different holidays, just like you can tap into the Super Bowl.
So, what I want to do today is read a couple of these, and then we’re going to put Stacey on the spot, today. We’re going to give her a couple, and off the cuff, she will give you some ideas of how you can tap into that holiday for your coffee, juice bar, or smoothie shop. So, let’s have some fun here, and we’ll talk about some of these holidays. So, some of these have already passed, but I just have to mention them because they’re pretty cool. All right, so January 2nd was Hashtag Science Fiction Day. All right. Here’s one you could definitely tie this into bingo or something: the 4th is Hashtag National Trivia Day. The 8th was Hashtag National Bubble Bath Day.
Stacey: Here’s the thing, guys. There is a holiday for everything, and you can make up your own holiday. We love tapping into the power of holiday marketing
Dave: And, it works.
Stacey: It does work. It does work because whatever holiday it is, you can find a reason to tie a promotion in.
Dave: I’ve got a good one for you for the coffee shops, smoothie shop, juice bar. You should tap into this: National Spouses’ Day. Yeah, I better tap into that one, too.
Stacey: You better.
Dave: Or, I’ll be in big trouble. So, I’m going to put Stacey on the spot. I’m going to give her a couple off this list, and we’re going to let her give you some ideas right off the top of her head of what you might be able to do to promote your shop. Let’s start with the 19th.We passed the 19th, but that’s all right. She’ll give you the ideas anyway, it’d be for next year. Okay, January 19th is Hashtag National Popcorn Day.
Stacey: Ooh, National Popcorn Day. And, Dave picked that because he loves popcorn. So, actually this is a holiday that we’ve used in our coffee-smoothie catering business. So, we’ve leveraged this holiday. We made it like a week-long holiday, and we sent an email out to everybody on our catering list to say, “It’s National Popcorn Day, but we’re going to make that more than a day. We’re going to make a deal with you for the week where we will give all of your guests a free bag of popcorn with their coffee or smoothie.” And, it just got our audience so interested because not only were they getting yummy coffees and smoothies, but, one, tied into a holiday. And, two, it was something free for them — yet so inexpensive for us to offer as a business.
Dave: And, I got to make the popcorn,
Stacey: Which smells really good, too.
Dave: Smell brings people, that’s for sure. You know, one of the main ways to sell anything is through smell. All right, let’s see. What was another one that I really liked here? All right, let’s do the 23rd again. This one’s already passed, so you’ll have to keep this for next year. Oh, I like this one better. So, the 14th, right? This is the 14th of January again for next year. That is Hashtag Dress Up Your Pet Day. So how can they use that in their promotions for catering or to promote their shops and juice bars and stuff?
Stacey: Because all of the coffee, smoothie, juice bar, ice cream, dessert shop owners, all you guys out there who have a brick and mortar location, I’m guessing that you are pet friendly. And, even if you don’t let the pets necessarily inside your shop, I’m betting that you probably can let them outside. Maybe you have outdoor seating and/or put bowls of water and bowls of little snacks for the pets. So, imagine having a day at your shop where all the pets come dressed up. Now, I actually have a marketing client who lives in St. Paul, and she dresses her dog up all the time, and takes him to the local coffee shop. People are taking pictures. So, imagine this where you have this special day at your shop and people of course are going to take their picture at your place, tag you on social media. It gives you such additional visibility and exposure for free, just for having this day. And, it really builds a sense of community.
Dave: And, it’s fun.
Stacey: It is fun.
Dave: You’re going to have a blast, I’m sure. So, there you go, right off the top of her head. She’s given you great ideas on how to promote National Dress Up Your Pet Day.
Stacey: There is a holiday for everything, guys. So, here’s what we have been working on putting together: a year-long calendar for you where every day is filled in with a hashtag. There are actually month-hashtags, but we didn’t get this done in time. So, if you want it, type in the comments, “Yes I want it,” and we will message you and make sure that you get a free copy of the year-long social media calendar that you can leverage for your holiday marketing.
Dave: It’s on our website, too. If you’re not here today, and you’re watching this later, we’ll we’ll definitely have this available on our website, easy to find where you can download it because I think it’s such a great opportunity for marketing any type of business. We’ve used it very, very, very significantly in the past in our coffee and smoothie business.
Stacey: Well, we want to hear from you. What are you doing for the Super Bowl? Who are you cheering for? What questions do you have about how to tap into either Super Bowl and/or holiday marketing? We’re here for another few minutes, so type your questions into the comments, and we’re happy to answer them.
What else do you want to share, Dave?
Dave: That’s all I’ve got for you today.
Stacey: Are you all holiday-ed out? Ah, Chris wants the social calendar. Who else wants the social calendar?
Dave: Come on guys. You all want to get a full calendar. This is such a great thing to have, and you know, if nothing else, you’ll laugh. You’ll laugh just by reading it.
Stacey: When I was looking at it, there’s a really good one on here, which is National Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day. Now, a lot of ideas are going up in my head.
Dave: Here’s the thing, it’s today.
Stacey: It is today. Where is my bubble wrap?!
Dave: All right, so we’re here for you guys who want to hear your questions. Come on, give us some questions that you think you want to learn more about regarding how to promote your coffee juice bar, coffee shop, you know, whether it’s with catering or it’s your store or if it’s events or if it’s food trucks. You know, we really want to share all of the information that we can with you from what we’ve been able to do and make successful in our operations here. So, give us some questions,
Stacey: Yup, give it for sure. And, especially if we’re coming on live with you every Monday, we don’t want to bore you to tears. We’re here to answer your questions. So let’s see, Chris says, “What is a good idea for Nurse Appreciation Day?
Dave: I see you putting her on the spot. Very good, thank you. Not just me.
Stacey: Well, actually, there’s a Hospital Appreciation Week, and we actually get completely booked up this week. So, what you want to do is reach out to the hospitals, and there’s, I think there might be two separate holidays — Hospital Appreciation Week and Nurse Appreciation Week. And, the hospitals want to do something really special for their staff. Coffee is always the big one, right? Because these people work long, hard hours on their feet.
Dave: We have done smoothies, too.
Stacey: We have done smoothies. So, what we found sometimes that can help you get these jobs, is to offer it two times a day because a lot of them work in shifts, and they don’t want to be like, “Oh well the morning shift gets it. But, then the night shift doesn’t get it.” So, when you’re reaching out to them, let them know that you will “cater” to their needs. They may need a really early morning one. We’ve done them at five in the morning and sometimes they need them late at night, like 10 or 11 at night. And, that has worked.
Dave: Exactly. And, you show you understand their needs. I mean, that’s something that’s unique to a hospital or to nurses that probably your competitors may or may not be saying to them. So, that’s where you want to really stand out — try to be unique and give them information that is only specific to their needs. So, that’s why it works.
Stacey: I would also say when you do these types of events, you need to be really prepared. Because what happens, is they swarm. In hospitals is everybody gets off at once, and they’re going to come to your booth to get their coffee or their smoothie, or whatever it is that you’re catering for. And, actually they’ll show up with trays because a lot of times they can’t leave the stations, like the people in the ER department or radiology or surgery, whatever. So, they’ll come with trays, and they’ll need like 20 drinks to take back to their department.
Dave: So another good idea is to have the trays there and available, because this is something that’s going to be unique to them to cater to their needs that are very specific.
Stacey: Yeah, and what we do, we actually have a lot of repeat clients now, and we get preorders. So, like the ER department will preorder their drinks and what time they will need them. So, boom, we’re ready to go. Okay. So, we’ve got some more comments in here. Roger wants the calendar, we’ll make sure you get that. (Stacey reads): I found that local schools have me for Staff Appreciation Days, so I think Roger, you are right on, I think it’s the first week of May. Every year is Teacher Appreciation Week. Boy do we get slammed.
Dave: That’s by far one of the most busy times of the year for us. We used to do that for years, and this isn’t even relating to the actual catering. We did for fundraisers for schools. That’s how we got in all these schools and these schools still, even though we don’t necessarily do the fundraisers that often anymore, the same schools still invite us back for Teacher Appreciation Week. This is years and years later. So, absolutely a great, great, great, great opportunity there.
Stacey: And maybe we’ll do a topic just on that because our clients know that if they don’t book us months in advance, they won’t get their day in time because we literally get so overbooked for Teacher Appreciation, we have them schedule. So, we do two in the morning, two at lunchtime, and two for after school; and we are completely booked the entire week.
Dave: Absolutely.
Stacey: So, maybe we’ll do one of our Coffee Talk Lives talking about how to set up a Teacher Appreciation Week or Hospital Week. Thank you guys for those questions.
Dave: Great questions!
Stacey: All right, so thank you for tuning in. You can totally see how the power of holidays can really take you from Cups to Gallons. So, whether it’s Hashtag Super Bowl L I V or Hashtag National Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day, you can absolutely tap into the power of holidays. So, we’re going to be signing off. Happy Anniversary, Dave, and here’s to going from Cups…
Dave: …to Gallons.
Stacey: Bye everybody.
Dave: Have a good week. Everybody take care.
