Organiser Joe Carruthers shares the strategies that have fuelled the growth of his award-winning October event.
It’s summer time and for most of us in the northern hemisphere, evenings are all about picnics in the park and sipping cocktails at rooftop bars. But not for Joe Carruthers, who is busy planning an altogether different kind of outdoor event. One that involves axe-wielding clowns and haunted Victorian houses.
Speaking to us from a section of woodland just south of the New Forest National Park, the founder of Scream Aloud says preparations for this year’s Scream Park are well underway. “We rent the site all year round and spend at least six months building it up and making it bigger. We repair any damage from winter, maintain the buildings already in place and look at adding more attractions.”
Scream Aloud, Cabin in the Woods
But if being chased through the Scare Maze by a prison escapee brandishing a chainsaw sounds like a scary prospect, imagine pinning all your event-planning hopes on 10 dates in October…
Navigating a seasonal events cycle
“It can be nerve-rattling because you’re paying all these high deposits not knowing if anyone’s even going to turn up,” says Joe, “but it’s a bit easier for an established event like ours as we’ve got the spreadsheets and records of the previous year’s sales and that helps us know what to expect.”
And with most ticket sales taking place in September and October (around 75% of all ticket sales in 2022), Joe knows an ability to set realistic budgets and accurately predict when revenue will come in is an essential skill for any seasonal event organiser.
“We do release early bird tickets in February, which does generate some sales that give us some cash upfront, but the main reason we do that is to create a sense of FOMO and give us a reason to post on social media – to remind people who we are and keep the content current.”
Thankfully, Scream Aloud’s suppliers don’t need any reminding, as October can be a quiet time of year, especially for outdoor events. “Festival season has finished and Christmas is still a while away, so we can pick up the slack when other events aren’t happening. We’re flooded with emails and messages from companies asking to attend.”
As a result, Joe relies on a mix of old and new faces to keep everyone entertained – the team that caters to Glastonbury has been on-site the past eight years, while a new bar operating out of an Airstream joined the line-up in 2021. “It’s nice to work with a newer company that can grow with you, but it’s also great having the more experienced guys. We started small and initially didn’t charge as the footfall was enough to encourage attractions to come. Now everyone happily pays and, as the event has grown, there’s even more incentive for them.”
Growth of monster proportions
On the subject of growth, it’s been seismic – and part of that is down to Joe’s ability to tap into what attendees want. “When the event was established in 2016, we had around 200 attendees. It was more of a local fair with fancy dress competitions and pumpkin carving. We had a little marquee, one catering truck, a tarot reader, and a 15-minute walkthrough that was mainly designed for kids. But we found it wasn’t the kids but the parents who wanted to be scared – to have a few drinks and be chased around the forest!” What followed was a shift of focus that involved changing not only the event itself but also the event’s online presence and marketing tactics.
Tasked with capturing the attention of a local Halloween-loving audience, Joe started working with a local marketing company in 2019, after they attended an event with their families. “We now set the budget for how many tickets we want to sell, mainly via Facebook and Instagram, and they handle it from there,” says Joe. “We geo-target an audience aged between 18-40 who live in Bournemouth, Salisbury and Southampton, as well as parts of London and Reading that are well-connected to the site by train.”
Having achieved ambitious growth goals in terms of footfall last year – from 5,000 to just under 12,000 – this year’s focus is on where marketing spend is most effective. As Joe says: “Having created a huge fan base and grown our Facebook followers from 2,000 to 6,000, we’re happy with the number of people we’re reaching. Now we need to fine-tune and bring down the average cost per ticket sale, not only to increase profit for the company but also to have more revenue to spend on the event.”
A commitment to constantly improving the event has seen the team combine six previously separate mazes, meaning the jump-scares keep coming as attendees immerse themselves in a one-hour-15-minute journey from a spell-casting witches’ coven to the wards of an abandoned military hospital. And when Joe tells us the original group of 10 actors has since grown to a cast of almost 80, you can really appreciate the scale of this blood-curdling immersive experience.
In fact, Scream Aloud’s rapid growth was recently recognised by ScareTour, an independent body that reviews the scare attraction industry.
“My right-hand man, Robert Clayton, who we employed full-time last year and previously worked at Thorpe Park, really drove our entry and we were thrilled to win the Rising Star trophy having been nominated last year. Now we have our sights set on Best Scream Park in the country.”
Keeping the horror harmonious
With more and more attendees coming to the site each evening, Eventbrite’s time-slot tickets reduce the risk of terrifying queues. “We have enough gates and staff members for everyone to arrive at the same time, but access to the maze is split into nine 30-minute time slots for around 200 people each.” Wristbands are a different colour depending on the time slot and are printed with a QR code, which is scanned as attendees leave, and also invites them to give feedback.
Aside from the staggered entry, Joe’s best practice advice for managing large crowds is to always book a bigger site than you think you’ll need, even if you’re worried it will look empty. “It’ll be safer and you’ll have space to adjust in the moment if you need to put out more barriers. Also, make sure people don’t have the opportunity to clump together. If there’s only one bar, attendees will all go to that bar, so try to have multiple bars. Rather than one fairground ride, try to offer at least four or five. In addition, your local council will want to see that you have multiple entrances and exits, so consider that throughout the planning stage.”
Finally, communicating what people can expect is key. That’s why a short trailer posted to YouTube and Facebook is so creepy, says Joe: “We want it to be impactful so people can understand what the event is about and, having seen the messaging across our socials and on the ticket purchase page, they should feel prepared.”
An increased appetite for American-style Halloween celebrations contributes in part to Scream Aloud’s success, but as an early player in the UK and Ireland’s emerging horror event industry, Joe’s had time to evolve and improve his approach – achieving levels of growth that make them the ones to watch. He tells us:
“Two days before we opened last year, we realised we sold more tickets in an hour than we did in our first and second years of operation in total.”
…and there’s nothing scary about those statistics!
Planning a Halloween event doesn’t have to be a horror story. Click here to start creating something creepy.
