The enduring appeal of pub quizzes can give trade a healthy boost — as long as you follow a few key rules, says Tony Halstead.
They first arrived on the local pub scene 30 years ago as a chance idea to help boost trade on quiet nights of the week. But today pub quizzes are big business and thousands of licensees admit they would have a big hole in their finances without them.
Nobody knows exactly how many quizzes are held across the country each week, but estimates point to about 22,000 — about half the nation's pubs — and the number appears to be growing. In fact only pool and darts can claim to be more popular, yet in terms of "people-draw" events, pub quizzes are king when it comes to customer participation.
Organising a quiz
Organising a pub quiz has also developed. When quizzes started taking off at the turn of the 1980s it was the licensee or a well-meaning pub regular who normally researched and set the questions.
Today pubs are increasingly turning to specialist companies who provide a professional package, normally downloaded from the internet.
One of the country's biggest quiz operators, Redtooth, supplies more than 3,500 pubs with one of its quiz packages every week. Director Steve Saul founded the company with business partner Martin Green in 2001, after spotting a gap in the pub quiz market.
"We realised there was a big opportunity to provide pubs with a ready-made quiz package," Saul recalls. "The growth in the popularity of the internet around this time meant pubs could simply download the package as it suited them, and off they went."
Combating hard times
Redtooth traces the rise of the pub quiz from the early 1980s when a hard economic recession was hitting the trade.
"Licensees needed to devise ways of attracting more people into their pubs, particularly on traditionally slow mid-week trading nights.
"Social habits were also changing and through the '80s and '90s fewer people tended to visit the pub simply to have a drink.
"They were demanding entertainment and wanted different reasons for spending the evening at the local," he adds.
"Evidence quickly grew that a good pub quiz provided licensees with valuable extra bar trade and also food business, in many cases. Licensees told us customers often arrived early for a meal, played in the quiz and regularly stayed on for a few drinks afterwards."
Nine years later, Redtooth provides 25 different quiz products and produces five sets of new questions each week. And apart from a standard quiz package Redtooth also offers pubs a season ticket offer, with questions based on major calendar events such as Valentine's Day, St George's Day and Halloween. This summer's World Cup will also see Redtooth launch two football quiz packages to give an extra boost to live matches screened in pubs.
Case study two Nigel & Sue Anstead, the White Horse, Bedford
The award-winning White Horse offers its customers a wealth of different events and attractions.
But few have proved more successful than the pub's two weekly quiz nights which are run on Sundays and Tuesdays.
Tuesday is the big one for licensees Nigel and Sue Anstead. This sees an average of 90 quiz-goers visiting the Charles Wells pub. Some Tuesdays can see as many as 140 people crammed into the building, demonstrating the popularity and wide appeal of the quiz, which is one of the best established in the area.
And the Ansteads have seen a major spin-off in food and drinks sales thanks to the event.
"When you get an additional 90 people coming through the door we find we can sell a lot of extra meals besides the bar trade," says Nigel. "We sell an average of 50 extra meals before, during and after the quiz and, on top of that, probably sell about £7 or £8 of drinks per head. It costs us about £20 a week for our Tuesday quiz package from Redtooth, but that is a small investment for what is a great return — it amounts to a very good night for us.
"We get a real mix of people attending but the real secret is to keep things simple. You always get the teams of anoraks who want to win every week — but essentially it's a fun, community event, which has proved a great success."
Case study one Roy Potter, the Wilbraham Arms, Nantwich, Cheshire
There's been a weekly Tuesday night pub quiz at the Wilbraham Arms ever since licensee Roy Potter took over 14 years ago.
An average of 12 teams, comprising five or six people each, take part. Each person pays 50 pence to enter, with prize money split between the top three teams.
Licensee Potter subscribes to Redtooth for his weekly questions and estimates his total outlay for one quiz nights costs him only £8.
Average uplift on takings is about £200 per night, which Potter says represents handy extra income.
"You're talking about an extra £10,000 or so over a year — that's good business in anyone's language," he says.
The Wilbraham, a Robinsons brewery owned tenancy, is a food-led business, so the quiz starts about 9.15pm when most people have finished eating.
"Conveniently, the pub is split into two areas so there is no clash between our meals and quiz," Potter explains.
"We have always run the quiz on the same night and ensure it is held every week, so people get into the habit of coming here. Simplicity is key for us. We found out very quickly that people do this for fun and don't want highbrow questions thrown at them."
Golden rules
• Pick your quiet nights - the idea is to encourage more people in through the doors.
• Promote the quiz beforehand. You need posters and chalk boards to advertise the quiz; you can't rely on word of mouth.
• Run your quiz night regularly; weekly is preferable. When customers know it's a regular event around which they can plan their week, you really begin to build a following.
• Use a microphone to speak to the pub and keep spare batteries. Everyone needs to be able to hear the quizmaster.
• Start the quiz with a warm-up round. It encourages everyone to settle down with their drinks and get into teams before the main event.
• Add another quick game to finish the night — sell tickets during the evening, so that everyone stays on right to the end. A game-show format always works well.
• Encourage participants to work in teams and then deliver the quiz in rounds. You need to build time into the quiz to buy drinks and go for comfort-breaks. Consider table service if you have the staff.
• Make rounds in your quiz topical or newsworthy.
• Add a "leveller" — a device that ensures the same people don't always win every week. Always have a tie-break question ready and make it a "nearest to the post" answer.
• The quizmaster's answer is final.
Pitfalls
• Don't make the questions too hard or too long
• Help the quizmaster with pronunciation. For example, the pop group NSync is pronounced En-sink
• Try to have an answer with more than three words
• Avoid very tightly themed rounds such as "sport" or "history" as it immediately puts people off who don't like those subjects
• Don't offer multiple choice answers; people go to quizzes because they want to show off their knowledge
J20 pub quizzes
Britvic is running a quiz-related campaign for its J20 brand this year, aimed, says on-trade business unit director Paul Linthwaite, at hosts who are new to running a quiz night.
"The J2O Pub Quiz initiative is a kit that will help licensees, who have perhaps never run a quiz before or who want to run one with a difference, to put on an event that everyone will enjoy," he explains.
The quirky quizzes are based on the "It's metter to bix things up" advertising campaign and feature questions with a twist, such as cryptic clues, mixed-up faces and word searches.
Some 9,000 kits will be distributed to licensees and consumer advertising will also support the promotion.