Door prizes rock. They create anticipation, excitement, and also increase the amout of guests. It is not unheard of for office parties these days to charge a little bit more for their party admission so that door prizes can be given away, in raffle form, and people are willing to pay it.
My partner in crime, Maria DJ (of MariaDJ.com), she just did a great one for ITT where they gave away a laptop and iPods, and all kinds of cool gadgets! There isn’t always that much left over revenue for super high-end prizes, but with a little planning, door prizes can still happen and they can still be fun.
Last weekend, I was the disc jockey for a real fun party with gift certificates to places like Dunkin Donuts, Home Depot, and Target. People ate them up, on the edge of their seats, waiting for me to read the winning numbers. We also did a Twist, Macarena, Electric slide and Limbo contest with prizes for the best dancers.
There is a fine line, however, between giving out LOTS of door prizes so that everyone gets something, and also watering down the prizes too much so that they are not appreciated.
At a recent office holiday party that I DJ’ed and MC’ed for, they tried something new this year. Rather than giving away 4 or 5 gift certificates at about 20-25 a piece for various locations, they gave away a load of 5 dollar ones.
In the end, people didn’t seem to care as much and weren’t excited, as the give-away was kind of drawn out and with not much pay off.
This past weekend I had a couple of Christmas parties. Yes, it is that time of year again. No weddings this weekend for a change. It was pretty fun.
The first one that I DJ’ed for The NYS Parole Christmas / Holiday Party. This fun little group of great people met up at the Appletini’s Banquet Room in Albany, NY, off of Central Avenue.
We started off with a mixture of lounge music and Christmas music while the guests ate, then gave away a number of door prizes.
Office Parties are Better With Door Prizes
DOOR PRIZES – Giving away door prizes is one of my most favorite activities as a DeeJay. I love to interact with the guests and this is a great way for me to hit people with some ridiculous jokes – which is one of my specialties. Seeing how this party was full of state workers, it was an easy topic for me to hit upon, with jokes about unions and taking too many breaks – etc… People love to laugh at themselves.
The party organizer, Maria, did a great job and had a lot of cool prizes. Like some of the union parties I do, she had taken extra collected money and bought up a bunch of small gift certificates (like $5 – $20) from Target, Home Depot, Panera and Dunkin’ Donuts.
NAME THAT TUNE WITH THE DJ – At one point we turned it into a Name That Tune – Music Trivia contest, where I played TV Theme songs and the first person to stand and give our judge the correct answer would win. This was super fun. Some of the songs included St. Elsewhere, Wonderwoman, Dynasty, The Greatest American Hero, and The A-Team.
