Make the most of football fever

Related tags World cup Association football

Only a few days to go. You can almost smell the horse linament and the dodgy burgers on the Frankfurt wind and hear the faint clicking of toe bones...

Only a few days to go. You can almost smell the horse linament and the dodgy burgers on the Frankfurt wind and hear the faint clicking of toe bones knitting. You can certainly see the flags of St George this side of the English border and sense the air of expectation as a month-long festival of football break onto our TV screens.

It's been a disappointing spring for many pubs, what with the miserable weather. But everyone's banking on the World Cup to turn things around. The England group games guarantee three nights of packed bars with the hope of more and bigger matches to come. Even if the home side crashes out early, people would have got the bug by then and some shrewd marketing can keep the good times rolling into July.

Not every pub will be screening the footie of course, especially those that are genuinely food led. But they will find their own niche among those customers who continue to resist the lure of 22 grown men kicking a ball about in a field in Germany. But most will find that they'll lose customers if they don't show the key matches.

One measure of the already heightened atmosphere around the event is the activity on pub search websites. London-based sites such as Citypublife.com, fancyapint.com and sportspubs.co.uk have been building their campaign for months, aiming to help football fans choose the venue for their game of choice.

Citypublife has been offering its subscriber licensees advice on how to make the most of the World Cup and encouraging them to keep their entries on the site updated to attract the casual customer. It is also listing football-free pubs.

"Everyone wants to know one key question - are you showing the World Cup on TV?" says Steve Watson of Fancyapint, which is charging pubs £25 plus VAT for promoting their coverage on the site.

"If the answer's yes, the next two questions are what games will you show and are you doing something special."

Steve says 10,000 people a day are visiting Fancyapint and the internet marketing of other major events has been proved to boost traffic to pubs.

You've still got to get your whole act right to pull in and keep an increasingly demanding football fan, though. So here's a last minute World Cup 10-point checklist to help you make sure you're on your game.

  • Have you advertised the matches you're screening, inside and out?
  • Is your pub decorated to create atmosphere?
  • Have you talked to staff about what you're doing and got them enthused about it?
  • Are your screens positioned so that the maximum number of people can have a good view?
  • Don't forget to turn the sound up!
  • Are you sufficiently stocked to cope with the demand - especially for beer?
  • Do you know what promotions you'll be running to tie in to the tournament?
  • Have you considered table service and other ways to speed service during the games?
  • Are you ready with the finger food, hot dogs and burgers?
  • Have you considered promoting screenings of non-England games?

Good luck!

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