Page 52 - Fall 2017 english

3rd
Graveyard Golf
Place Winner
After a few years of discussing the idea of a haunted mini putt, we finally decided to implement it for the 2016 Halloween season.
Our first step was posting the event on Facebook, 40 days in advance. Although we only had a total marketing budget of $40, we had almost 55,000 hits on Facebook (29,000 paid, the rest organic)!
Even better, was the engagement of 5,300 Facebook followers - just under 10%! Our Facebook page exploded with comments and the shares were incredible. This was a great response but now we really had to pull it off!
We went into full production mode with a Monsters, Inc. mentality but no Hollywood stars and even less of a budget. Despite the weather being our scariest competition, we hit it out of the park!
It snowed heavily on the first day and then rained incessantly, intermingled with a few “ok” days, but the golfers came anyway ... in busloads!
Our golfers arrived from various locations including, hockey teams from the States, work teams from Montreal, families from Ottawa and everything in between.
Our tee sheet was packed! As we do not have an automated system, (we have never booked mini putt tee times before) all bookings were done through social media. As a result, we captured thousands of new contacts and attracted a brand new customer base, as a mere 4% of those who participated had been to Archie’s before.
We discovered that people love to be scared - and scare seekers are tough critics with high expectations. We also discovered that scaring people is a lot of fun!
We have already had hundreds of inquiries about this year’s event which will be bigger and better, and extend more into daylight hours.
Halloween and golf... who knew?
52 Golf Business Canada
Mark Jefferis, Regional Sales manager BC NWT
& Yukon at Kubota Canada Ltd (left) presents the 3rd place prize from Kubota to Carol Ann Campbell
Carol Ann Campbell Archie’s Family Golf Centre, Cornwall, ON carolann1719@gmail.com
Delegates of the 2016 Golf Business Canada Conference & Trade Show exchanged proven revenue boosting or expense management ideas from their facility at the 2.0 Great Canadian Idea Fair.
Presented by Kubota Canada, the Great Canadian Idea Fair is one of the most highly regarded and beneficial components of the annual Golf Business Canada Conference & Trade Show.
The 1st place winner was given an opportunity to choose the Kubota tractor, mower, or utility vehicle of their choice. The selected Kubota vehicle will be delivered to the winning club, and will be theirs for one full season. Kubota also provided the top four winners with generous gift baskets.
The top four ideas will be presented in upcoming issues of Golf Business Canada magazine.
• 1st place “Hit the Green on 16”: Nevin
Dunfield, The Links of GlenEagles
Golf Course, Cochrane, AB
•2nd place “Banff’s Best Putter”:
Steve Young, Fairmont Banff Springs
Golf Course, Banff, AB
•3rd place “Graveyard Golf”: Carol
Ann Campbell, Archie’s Family Golf
Centre, Cornwall, ON
• 4th place “Golf in a Box for Women”:
Greig Burnie, Hinton Golf Club, Hinton, AB