Nearly 5 million people watch the Daytona 500 in the United States. For many, the race is as much a social event as it is a sporting one.
That’s why when it comes to fun bar event ideas, Nascar-based promotional ideas could be the perfect way to bring more revenue into your business. However, for your bar promotional ideas to be successful, you’re going to need to promote them in a way that will bring as many people as possible into your business in 2024.
We put together this article to help you do that. Keep reading to find the best ideas for bar events revolving around NASCAR and the Daytona 500.
Why use Nascar ideas for bar events?
The purpose of bar event ideas is to first bring in more customers and then get them to spend more. Big events like the Daytona 500 provide an excellent opportunity to offer unique bar entertainment, activities, and specials, bringing more traffic into your bar. If you can get people to watch the race at your business, then they’re also almost definitely going to spend money there on food and drinks.
That means you could turn the Daytona 500 into one of the biggest revenue-generating days of the year for your bar if you throw a well-planned event.
We’ll cover how to advertise and organize an event that people want to attend in the next section.
Some awesome Daytona 500 party ideas to create fun bar events
Step 1. Give fans the feeling of a live event with this NASCAR-themed party
If you’re looking for fun bar ideas, then the one thing you need most is to make your offerings creative and immersive. If a NASCAR fan can’t make it to the race themselves, then they’ll likely be looking for a way to experience an atmosphere that’s as close to being at the track as possible.
If your bar can offer this, you’ll be likely to get a ton of business.
So what does that look like? Here are a few ideas to try:
- Make sure you have big screen TVs available for viewing at every angle
- Turn the volume up loud so people can hear the cars well
- Host events before and after the race that mimic what race weekend is like
- Serve common racetrack or Daytona 500 foods
The more of the real event that you can incorporate in your bar, the more that it’s going to feel like the real thing. And that should make your business a much more attractive place to watch the race.
Digital signage helps take your bar theme nights to the next level
Investing in digital signage is an easy way to give your customers a better race-day experience.
It gives you complete control over both how you broadcast the race itself and what you do with your screens in-between the action.
If you’d like to get started with digital, here’s what you need:
- Screens (the TV screens that you already have in your bar should work)
- Digital signage software
- Media players (only necessary if your screens aren’t connected to the internet)
You can get in touch with UPshow if you’d like to learn more about how digital signage can help enhance events like the Daytona 500.
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Step 2. Tie your Nascar bar event ideas to in-race events
Another cool way to bring your NASCAR event to life is to offer special promotions based on what happens during the race.
For example, if a certain driver is leading after lap 1, you could offer a discount on a drink that represents them.
There are lots of different ways to go with this. You could base your promotions on everything from the first driver to crash to the person who’s in the back of the field after a certain number of laps.
Step 3. Set up special decorations and bar theme nights
A Daytona 500 celebration wouldn’t be complete without decorations that get people into the racing spirit. You can bring that festivity to your bar with:
- Checkered flag tablecloths
- Model race cars
- Jerseys from fan-favorites
- Posters of cars and drivers
- And whatever other NASCAR-themed memorabilia you can get your hands on
When you put some thought into your decorations for an event like this, it helps to make it feel like something special rather than another normal day at your bar. And that should make people more likely to watch the race with you, especially if you offer special theme nights in your bar.
Step 4. Make racing arcade games a part of your NASCAR-themed parties
There are companies out there that will let you rent arcade machines for special events. Bringing some racing arcade machines to your bar could be a fantastic way to build up hype for the big race.
You could bring the games to your bar a few days, or even a week before Daytona 500. That way, when people come to visit you, they see the special machines and learn that you’re throwing a big event for the race.
In that way, using this strategy could not only help to make your race day event more fun, it could also be a great way to market that event to your customers in the lead-up to the Daytona 500.
Step 5. Offer Daytona 500-inspired food and drinks
Another great way to get people into the spirit of your event is coming up with a special Daytona 500 menu. Daytona 500 food can be either the food they serve at the live event or food that resembles the event.
Pinterest is a great resource for this. You can use it to figure out which race-themed appetizers, drinks and entrees your customers will like best.
Step 6. Host games in the lead-up to the race
Daytona 500 is an experience that goes beyond the race itself. You could turn the event into a whole weekend of fun by hosting various NASCAR-themed games in the lead-up to the race.
For example, you could run a special trivia night that tests your guests’ NASCAR knowledge. Using a strategy like this can help you extend the amount of value that your bar gets out of the Daytona 500.
Step 7. Offer catering on the day of the race
Even if you throw the best Daytona 500 event in your area, there will still always be a group of people who prefer to watch the race at home. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get any value out of this customer group.
You can broaden your pool of potential customers during the Daytona 500 by offering a special catering menu for the race weekend. This will let people enjoy the great food that you’re offering for the race while still being able to watch it in their preferred setting.
Step 8. Highlight betting on races in your NASCAR-themed parties
Sportsbetting is a huge up-and-coming industry. For example, Americans wagered a whopping $2.1 billion in August of 2021, and that number is only going to go up as more and more states legalize sports betting.
If you live in a state where this type of gambling is legal, great. You can partner with a local or national sportsbook to offer Daytona 500 gambling opportunities for those who wish to partake.
But you can even get in on this type of action if you’re not in a state where gambling is legal. You would just allow people to bet on different parts of the race for prizes instead of money.
For example, you could let people pick a race winner when they enter your bar. If they choose correctly, they could win a free meal the next time they come in.
Step 9. Advertise bar theme nights on multiple channels
When it comes to advertising your Daytona 500 event, it’s important to reach out to your audience on multiple channels. Ideally, you should advertise the festivities:
- On your social media accounts
- Through your email lists
- On local radio and television stations
- With PPC advertising
- And any other channel that you know your target audience uses
The key to being effective with advertising for events like the Daytona 500 is understanding your audience.
Your ads should highlight the special offerings that you know will mean the most to your customers. You can also allocate a larger portion of your advertising budget to a specific channel if you know that the channel has been the most effective way to reach your customers in the past.
Step 10. Don’t neglect in-venue advertising opportunities
Though online advertising can be extremely effective for attracting new customers to your bar, it’s not the most efficient to reach your current customers.
That’s why in-venue advertising should definitely be a part of your strategy for getting people interested in your Daytona 500 event.
There are lots of ways to advertise the event to customers in your bar. But few are as impactful as digital signage can be.
Digital signage is effective because it gives you the ability to design customized ads that feature high-resolution images, animations, videos and more.
With software from UPshow, you can also choose from a series of pre-made templates if you don’t want to have to worry about designing an ad from scratch.
You can then play these ads in between the content that you usually show on your screens. That way, you’re advertising your upcoming events instead of giving free promotion to another company during commercial slots.
Advertising your Nascar promotion in bar is easier with digital signage
Digital signage can directly enhance your bar promotional ideas and take them to the next level. For example, it can help you get more people interested in big events like Daytona 500 parties by giving you a simple way to create and share compelling in-venue advertisements. It could be just what your business needs to get as much out of the race weekend as possible. For more info about how digital signage software can help make your Daytona 500 event a reality, check out UPshow today.
