Nightclub Pocket Promotions

It’s 11:00 p.m. and it’s time to hit the town in your best outfit and heels, you feel a sudden vibration of your cell phone. The expectation of this situation is it’s probably your boyfriend to tell you to be careful and to call him when you get in. But instead, it is the pleasant surprise of the local club across town offering you free admission when you show the bouncer at the door this special mobile message. Time to change plans and see what this new club is all about. Effective marketing? Nightclubs seem to think so.

Nightclubs all over the United States have turned to SMS, or text messaging as it is more frequently called, as a convenient and effective tool to lure customers from one location to another with their unique promotions and specials.

Bob Bentz, co-owner of Advanced Telecom Services, a mobile marketing service bureau, believes this is an extraordinary new way to market to potential customers for those looking for a lively nightlife. “People always want to be at the hot club. When there is a celebrity sighting or a club has a down night and wants to offer a drink special, a text message blast can lure customers from one club to another. We’ve actually seen people get our text messages, look at their cell phones, then head out the door to go to competing clubs. When the average nightclub customer spends $60 in a club, you can see that a few pennies for a text message makes a nightclub’s break even very low.”

Because of the need to break through the same old billboards and flyers, club owners compete to get the attention of potential customers. The mobile marketing aspect of owning a nightclub could be the difference between hitting maximum capacity on a Friday night, and being completely emptied out due to the club offering special events and prices down the street.
The competition between nightclubs especially in a city like Philadelphia where nightclubs can be found within blocks of each other will only heighten due to mobile marketing. “Some clubs are trumping others now with text messaging. It won’t be long until they all get involved.” said Bentz.