Faulkner's Ranch

How to Generate Buzz and Increase Attendance at Your Company Picnic

So you’ve booked your picnic!

You’ve selected your menu, we’ve hired the DJ and the entertainment, and now you’re ready to throw an awesome party.  Just one thing is left…now you’ve just got to get your employees there. 

So how do you get them to bring their families on their weekend off?  Easy! Just follow the tips below for generating buzz for your picnic!

1. Teaser E-mails
   • As soon as you have a date set, be sure to send out a Save The Date e-mail or postcard.  You don’t have to have any details planned.  You just want to make sure that they mark that date on their calendar ASAP.  Fun Idea: We recently had a client who sent out fun clues and pictures about where the picnic would be until their employees had guessed the location.
2. Posters and Flyers E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E
   • Plaster the breakrooms, cubicles, bathrooms, and any other place you can think of with colorful posters.  Make them easy to read and make sure the date is clearly displayed.  This is also a good place to include the next tip…
3. Promote Your Prizes
   • One of the best ways to increase and ensure attendance is to give away some awesome door prizes, raffle prizes, and game prizes.  If you are able to, be sure to include a few big ticket items such as a flatscreen TV, paid vacation, etc. 
4. Reward RSVP’s
   • Recently we had a company give away prizes to the first 35 people that RSVP’d to their company picnic.  When they arrived at the picnic they received their “early bird” prize.  This is a simple way to make sure that those rsvp’s don’t get put off til the end and start rolling in right away.
5. Include the Families
   • If you will have lots of families and children at your picnic, make sure that you talk a lot about the activities that they will enjoy (i.e.  jumphouses, hayrides, petting farm, face painting, etc.)
6. Get Your Guest Involved In Big Decisions
   • The more involved your employees are in the picnic planning process, the greater a connection that they will have towards it.  There are several easy ways that you can do this:
     • Have employees vote on a picnic name or theme.
     • Create a picnic t-shirt by having employees submit ideas and designs, and then voting on a winner.  Shick Company always does a wonderful job with this.
     • Have contests that employees can prepare for ahead of time.  For example, are you having a Wild Western Theme?  Then have a contest for the best dressed!  This gets the fun going before they even walk in the door.
     • Nominate people for certain activities at your event.  For example, if you’re having a dunk tank have employees vote on who they want to be the dunkee.
     • Take requests for music ahead of time.  An easy way to do this is to ask guests to include a song request with their RSVP.

If you do these simple things things leading up to your event, you’ll be sure to have a huge turnout!

SaveSave