In March 2021 I began hosting my first weekly general knowledge trivia at the Sporting Globe Knox.
We had 3 teams and 10 legends in the room. Not exactly packed to the rafters!
Fast forward to 6 December 2023 and we cracked the tonne with 112 legends and an average attendance of 80 players per night this summer.
It’s a competitive beast the trivia landscape, which comes with a lot of challenges to put bums on seats.
We have one of the major trivia companies right next door to us the night before, cost of living is putting pressure on entertainment spending, not to mention for 15 bucks a month you can pretty much watch whatever you want at home.
So how do we go from 0 to 100?
Taking pub trivia to the next level.
To stand out in a competitive market you need to find something that is unique that you can’t get anywhere else. My take on this has been to think of pub trivia more like a musical. Weaving in theatrical performances, acoustic covers, costumes and lightsaber tricks to give players more than just an IQ test but a stage production show.
Tailoring the Q&A and nailing the difficulty setting.
There’s nothing worse than rolling up to a trivia night getting 1 or 2 of every 5 questions right and none of them are on things you care about. When I sit down to write the 40 questions for the week I’m actively thinking about the unique individuals in our room and what subjects will resonate best with them.
I know Heather is great at recognising celebs so will write a nepo baby question.
Always Late, one of our Legendary Regular teams for attending 52 weeks, love emo music, gaming and the F1s.
One of our Regulars Taman works at the bike store and loves mountain biking, in a question goes.
I like a high-scoring deck, most teams should be getting around 70% of the answer right with the final 30% challenging the teams to rise above for the W.
Engaging your audience.
Above all else, the most important thing is engaging the players. I do this in a number of layers: learning names, getting to know who the players are, staying connected through social media, including group chats with our regulars, providing booking assistance, the Yarnberg loyalty club which rewards Regular teams with special merch, arriving early for the ‘show before the show’ where I’ll spend time catching up with everyone. I genuinely am so appreciative of the people who show up and express my gratitude in return.
Bringing the staff on the journey.
The staff are a key stakeholder and can have a significant influence on the vibe of a night. Spending time and getting them involved goes a long way to building a mutual care for our nights and great customer service.
Great things take time
It’s always a tough conversation for venues when numbers aren’t shooting the lights out. Ultimately the nights need to be a financial success as well as a great experience.
It takes time to build up a room, a lot of players come and go through the leaky bucket, but with a lot of hard work, perseverance, and a genuine care for the audience, the bucket will be overflowing!
If you’re looking to take your space from 0 – 100 then…
Much love,
Jacob
