Most of your customers were born in the 90’s, so bring them back to their childhood with a fun flashback event! 90’s Night is the perfect opportunity to bring students into the store and show them that you’re here for much more than just textbooks and school supplies; you’re a destination for interactive events, too! We’ve come up with tons of activities you can host throughout the week or on a designated date – the choice is yours! Take a look:
Choose Your In-Store Activities
Trivia Contests
Challenge students to see who knows the 90’s best with our two fun options! Gnarly 90’s Trivia consists of 25 questions that cover everything from pop culture phrases to the totally rad television shows of the decade. Name That Tune, however, features favorite hit songs by prompting students to guess the name of each one based on just a small sound bite.
Best of all, we’ve taken care of everything for you! Click the image below to download the questions and play list, as well as response forms you can give to attendees. Don’t forget to distribute some dope prizes, too. Think gift bags filled with 90’s compilation CD’s, Jelly Roll pens, slap bracelets or sweet treats like Warheads, Gushers, Bubble Tape and Push Pops!
Macarena Dance Off
Remember the Macarena? As far as dance crazes go, it verged on phenomenon status, with people of all ages blaring it from their boom box and jumping at 180 degree angles for months on end. Everyone’s still-favorite party dance can be a major highlight of the night’s activities. Set up an area where people can compete to see who has the best Macarena moves, by speeding the song up and slowing it down at random intervals until some players just can’t keep up anymore! Or, allow attendees to throw in other 90’s style moves like break dancing and the tootsie roll, then have the crowd judge based on applause.
90’s Karaoke
A 90’s Night wouldn’t be complete without some serious jams. Invite students to sing their favorites during an all-90’s Karaoke session in your store! We’ve come up with a list of songs you can offer, and it’s basically the bomb. No diggity!
Costume Contest
One thing is for sure – the 90’s were full of characters. Encourage students to come dressed up as their favorite to add to the ambiance. Here’s a list of suggestions you can provide, in case they’re going ballistic trying to decide.
Futuristic Fun
Paper Fortune Tellers were all the rage in elementary schools across the country during the 90’s. And for good reason; is there any better feeling than hearing that your future held a marriage between you and Leonardo DiCaprio? As if! Set up an area where students can take a trip down memory lane by creating these nostalgic items, or even settle down for a good ol’ round of MASH. All you have to do is supply some sheets of paper, markers and some directions, which can be downloaded here.
Show the Classics
TV programming has never been sweeter than in the 90’s. For an easy activity that will draw a lot of attention, just set up an old school TV and play the classics. If you don’t actually own any of them on DVD (or VHS), then you’ll probably find them on Netflix. We’ve compiled a list of must-sees to make your job easy.
Get Gamin’
Before the days of smart phones and tablets, kids played board games. And the 90’s stretched the definition of a board to the limit with hippos eating marbles and talking mall managers. Round up some favorites and set up a table or two for students to play. Some awesome options include Gator Golf, Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego, Mall Madness, Bop It, Skip It, Dream Phone, Crossfire, Pretty, Pretty Princess, Thin Ice, Don’t Wake Daddy, Hungry, Hungry Hippos, Jumanji and more!
Decide on Online Activity Options
Don’t forget to get your fans involved in the fun, too!
#TBT
Every 90’s kid has some mega embarrassing outfits captured on film. Ask students to post their best “Throwback Thursday” pic on your store’s Facebook page, or on Instagram and Twitter using a specific hashtag.
Raise the Roof
Have students vote for the songs that will make up the 90’s Night playlist. You could post options or leave it open-ended.
Talk to the Hand
Get students talking with some fun Facebook and Twitter prompts. We’ve come up with a whole list so all you have to do is copy and paste!
Consider a Station Strategy
If you don’t want to narrow down the activities available, but are worried some might get more traffic than others, consider using this strategy to spread out the crowd. To start, use our customizable station signs to designate different areas for each activity. We’ve made a few that correspond to the activities above, plus a blank template for you to create your own.
Then, hand students a sheet that lists each station as they walk in the door. For each completed activity, have staff members place a Lisa Frank sticker on their paper. At the end of the night, you can collect the papers and choose to enter only those who earned all of their stickers into a drawing for a large prize, or provide a raffle ticket for each sticker earned, which can then be used to enter smaller drawings for designated 90’s prizes.
Create a Menu
Let students chow down on nostalgic 90’s era food like bagel bites, Jello pudding pops, stuffed crust pizza, Dunkaroos, and Gushers! Don’t forget the Snapple and Squeeze Its, too. Oh, and orange soda! Because Kel’s famous line from All That is forever engrained in every 90s kid’s memory. “Who loves orange soda? Kel loves orange soda! Mmm-hmm! I do, I do, I do-ooo!”
Plan the Décor
Print out pictures of toys and trinkets from the decade to spruce up your walls. Think Beanie Babies, Tamagotchis, Walkmans, Troll Dolls; you name it. That’s the good thing about the 90s: there’s a ton to choose from. Don’t forget about popular movies and boy bands, either.
On top of those basic décor suggestions, we’ve created an entire Pinterest board packed with ideas just for this event! Take a look for some awesome inspiration!
Advertise
You have all the makings of a totally phat event – now all you have to do is spread the word! Use our customizable materials to get the job done in a snap. We have two poster options, a web image and a Facebook Cover Photo!
Download the complete marketing kit here. After you've done it, please let us know what you thought of 90's Night! Share your opinion of our Marketing Plan in the comments section below, so we can offer even better plans in the future!
