Magazine: Let them play – part 2

Last time we were focusing on games, this time we try to analyse their social aspects. Let’s start with introducing a few playful programmes and sales increasing ideas. Traditional food-wine dinners seem to be losing their popularity but they can be substituted with a great programme: guests’ task is to recognise different scents from small bottles, delivered in boxes containing 12-72 scents.

This game is competitive and educative at the same time and the motivation could be a prize – for instance a glass of fine wine. Murder Mystery Dinners became popular in German cities in the last few years. The programme consists of a pleasant dinner where suddenly a ‘murder’ is committed and many detectives are eager to find out who did it. In Hungary Joint Events Kft. offers the same service, actors go to the restaurant that orders such a programme. A bar in Virginia, USA organises rock-paper-scissors competitions, which have been popular for quite a while. In another bar in Illinois, USA they invented a game called ‘show me one’, in which there is a game master who offers presents to those who show up a named object the fastest. The trick is that participants often have to present special objects which they surely don not have on them, e.g. a thermometer, a hole in a shoe or a love letter. In a Connecticut cocktail bar drinks are served at happy hour prices when the snow is falling! Well, it very much seems that the best promotion ideas are connected to games and playfulness. (To be continued)