It’s always useful to know what challenges you might face when trying to sell out your New Year’s Eve event, so we thought we’d find out for you.

We recently surveyed 1064 people across the UK,  and we found that when it comes to celebrating News Year’s Eve in 2015, what’s most important to people is not drinking, dancing and fireworks, but being with friends and family (73%) and having good food (63%).

We also found that:

• 67% of people prefer to celebrate at home
• 54% of younger generation (ages 18-24) are happy to skip the booze
• Partying with friends and family is most important

As over two thirds of people plan to celebrate New Year’s Eve at home this year, pubs, clubs and other venues may need to have a more creative approach in order to attract a crowd.

What might be even more alarming to party planners around the country, though, is a dwindling enthusiasm towards alcohol among youngsters: Following on the trend towards mindfulness, and hot on the heels of Morning Gloryville, an alcohol-free early morning rave, every second person aged 18-24 years could imagine celebrating the New Year without alcohol altogether (compared to 22% across all age groups).

So what’s a NYE party planner to do? Here are 6 tips to still have a sell-out New Year’s Eve event

1. Offer group/VIP bookings

Given the overriding importance of celebrating with friends and family, party planners should market to groups rather than individuals, by offering group discounts, private VIP spaces within the venue, and making social sharing of their event as easy as possible.

2. Create Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)

Show those people at home what they might be missing: post videos and images of past parties and the great time that was had. Motivate them to think beyond their own four walls to get them off the couch and into the venue.

3. Create multiple ticket types

Of those surveyed, 38% were happy to spend up to £20 on just a ticket whereas only 5% were willing to pay between £20 and £50. An organiser should try to have one ticket type in that price range, plus a limited supply of discounted early bird tickets as well as premium and higher-priced tickets to incentivise advance ticket sales.

4. Incentivise staying after midnight

Asked what would make party goers stay at a pub/club after midnight, live music came in first at 48%, and most venues tend to offer that already. Every third person (30%), however, said that the availability of food or even snacks would also make them stay longer. Venue owners without kitchens or catering facilities might consider partnering with mobile food stalls or commissioning catering services to offer at least some midnight snacks to encourage their crowd to stay longer.

5. Expand the range of non-alcoholic drinks

As more youngsters lose their thirst for alcohol, organisers should think further than coke and tap water and consider offering fresh juices, green teas, Kombucha and the like for those who like to start their New Year’s Detox early.   

6. Know the high and low times for ticket sales

There are two spikes when people buy tickets to New Year’s Eve events:

First when tickets immediately go on sale, and then again the week the event takes place. Start your sales as early as possible and continue to drive audiences to your ticketing page to maintain momentum.

Conclusion

You may be facing a more challenging climate to get people out of the house and to your event, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Just follow these 6 tips and you’ll have another successful party to celebrate in 2016!