MARKETING - How to throw a Fizz@five Boatshed party

To organise a party it takes a lot of organisation and preparation, plus needs lots of people! Read our guidelines below on helpful tips to creating a successful Boatshed party.

Parties need people!

We often use this equation - if you want 100 people top turn up you have to invite 2000 people, because over the years we have done numerous fizz@five parties only about 5% of people invited will turn up, so to get a good turn out invite at least 2000 people.

When we were just a small brokerage office in Milford Haven, we decided to hold a Christmas party for all our customers, bearing in mind we'd only started a couple of months before. We prepared lots of food and drink and only a handful of customers turned up. The second Christmas after over 100 boat sales, we sent the invites out and chatted to lots of people and our small office was almost packed full of people having a great time. By year three, our office was packed full, the foyer was full and were spilling out onto the car park. Our parties became legendary and are still talked about today.

We have done parties and events in most countries with a great success rate.

Invitations

We all like to get that extra special quality invite. We start by getting 2000 quality invites printed, a heavy weight card gives people a VIP quality exclusive feel to the invite customers making them feel special that they have been invited.

Types of invitation include:
2000 printed onto 400gsm card invites handed out to person rather than post. One invite per person.
Mail shot to boat owners and customer base

Time frame

5 weeks before - Sort venue & glasses and fizz
4 weeks before - Print invites, Print stickers for bottle, do a blog
3-2 Weeks - announce the party, hand invites out, send mail shot out.
1 week before - remind re party, more invites
2 days - have fizz ready and buy small plastic glasses (fun and easy to clear up)
Party day - starts at 5 o'clock, be ready at 16.45 - Fill a whole tray full of glasses and start handing out. Have someone dedicated just to opening and pouring.

At Boatshed fizz@five parties we have 3 servers, 2-3 people pouring and prepping trays.
Party runs from 17.00 to typically 19.30

Equipment

Fizz - You may need to pay corkage at venue or you can use your own fizz. We usually work on £5.00 per bottle, dry that tastes good even when not cold.
Glasses - we use these plastic glasses because they're fun and get customers to have a new glass stacked on top instead of a refill, that way we can also monitor consumption. Approx 60cm high
Invites - Contact our design team and they will design something bespoke for you.
Invitation line
Reason for party
When
Time
Venue
RSVP - email address
Stickers for bottles - see on bottles below, contact our design team
Wheel barrow - to put ice and fizz in. This again can be branded
Ice - To cool the fizz
Mail shot
Table - if one's not supplied
Trays with vinyl Boatshed logos
Bin for rubbish or use boxes from fizz.

Who to invite

Marina staff and management
Local marine companies
Marina residents. Berth Holders and Live-aboards
Local newspapers - Press for photos and local news story
Local Radio
Local businesses (non marine), Pubs, Restaurants, Realtor, cafes
Trade magazines
Local Tourist information Centre
Surveyors
Charter Companies
New Boat Manufacturers
Boat Owners
Customer base

What's the benefit?

Launch parties are a great way for marketing, getting your business name out there without a hard sell. Everyone loves an invite and its not all about the people that turn up, all the 1950 other invites that have been given out, if its cool enough will be left on their notice board, they'll remember your brand.

Don't stop at one party per year, we sponsor many pre-drinks parties at yacht clubs, regattas etc all for the reason of getting our name out and giving something back to local community and meeting people.