Diamonds are a pub's best friend

Luke Dallow's ideas are attracting patrons. Photo / The Listener

From quiz nights to giving away diamonds, bars are coming up with creative ways to attract punters as the recession drags on.

Last Thursday, the promise of $10,000 worth of free Moet at central Auckland bar Sale St's "Black & Bling" party enticed 1200 people to RSVP for the event.

It's not the first stunt owner Luke Dallow has pulled to boost business.

At his other establishment, Chapel Bar and Bistro in Ponsonby, everyone who bought a glass of champagne got the chance to win a $4500 diamond.

The champagne drinkers were given a pair of tweezers and told to choose a stone out of a martini glass filled with 1000 fake diamonds - and three real ones. An onsite diamond tester confirmed whether they'd plucked out the real deal.

Also at Chapel everyone who bought a cocktail received a "message in a bottle" that gave them a chance of a trip for four to Hawaii.

And in perhaps his most creative move Dallow has launched a weekend designer market at Sale St. Around 25 stallholders selling fashion, jewellery and artwork set up in the 1000sq m bar on Saturdays.

"We wanted to improve the brunch trade," he said.

It was all about giving people a reason to come in to your place.

"The pool of money for going out has shrunk, and you've still got just as many bars and restaurants out there if not more."

Dallow said the promotions were working - turnover was up and he was attracting more affluent customers.

The Dominion bar in Mt Eden has a loyalty scheme offering regulars around a dollar credit for every $8 they spend. Double points on Wednesdays had increased patronage by 50 per cent, owner Tony Woodcock said.

The bar does two for one meals if you buy a bottle of wine on a Monday, and has monthly wine tastings.

It also has a Tasting Monday, when it gets liquor company reps to come in and run whisky or rum tastings. It hasn't got a huge following so far - "being a Monday night it is quite difficult to get people in to drink hard liquor", Woodcock says - but it offers a talking point.

Woodcock said while offering added extras was the way the bar industry was going anyway, a lot of it had been recession-driven. "A year or so ago people weren't looking for that point of difference."

Darren Kearns, manager of The Hangar in West Auckland, said the bar had worked hard over the last two years to build up an email database of regulars and used social networking sites such as Facebook.

However, he said that could be "overdone" and to avoid patrons hitting the delete button, the bar only contacted them when it had something particular to say.

It had developed a loyal student-age following on Thursday nights, and ran regular themed parties to maintain the interest. It would do things such as put video of the last party on its Facebook page.

Kearns said he had been in the industry 16 years. "Even three years ago, five years ago, we would never think about doing what we're doing now."

The bar had a popular quiz night on a Wednesday run by comedian Ewan Gilmour, and ran promotions such as free bar tabs for local businesses.

"It doesn't matter what age group that you go for ... they're going to switch and change constantly, so it's a matter of keeping things fresh and alive."

Keppel Brown, owner of six-week-old Goode Brothers in the Botany Town Centre, said he saw an opportunity in the market, despite the economy.

The bar had good foot traffic, and a ready-made customer base of the retail centre's 2500 workers.

Some sort of discounting was now expected in the trade but rather than offer a straight discount such as a happy hour Goode Brothers ran a loyalty scheme to encourage people to come back.

It also appeased the liquor licensing authorities, who were "starting to come down a bit harder on people who are seen to be promoting excessive consumption of alcohol," Brown said.