The honest read
The Crawl
Join one. Don't build one.
We can run a crawl. The question is whether we should. Our brands are never going to be the bars that throw up Christmas — a JW lobby and a Marriott bar are not going to out-tinsel Miracle on Maryland, and they shouldn't try. Meanwhile the winter multi-venue slot in this city is already spoken for.
The reality
- Devour Indy Winterfest already owns the multi-venue winter slot — 175+ restaurants, late January, and a name the whole city knows.
- The December crawl format belongs to national operators. The Official Christmas Bar Crawl and the Ugly Sweater Bar Crawl both run Indianapolis every year.
- The decorated-bar lane is full: Miracle on Maryland, Sippin' Santa, Tinseltown at Nevermore, Yuletide Tiki. All built to be photographed. All things we are not.
- Launching our own crawl means entering a crowded field with the least decorated product in it.
What we'd do instead
- Join the crawls that already exist. Sign on to Devour Indy Winterfest, put a featured cocktail on the route, take the traffic. Cheap, credible, nothing to build.
- Being the elegant stop on someone else's crawl is a far better position than being the undecorated one on our own.
- Then run a parallel play that moves people between our bars without anyone thinking of it as a crawl.
- Same behaviour, none of the baggage, and no head-to-head fight we'd be starting from behind.
The parallel play
Give people a reason to visit four bars in December that has nothing to do with a punch card and everything to do with a competition they want to vote in. It produces the crawl behaviour without ever using the word.
See the Cocktail BracketJoining an existing crawl costs a featured cocktail and a listing — that's the whole lift. Building our own would be a three or four on every meter and a fight we'd be starting from behind.
The bars that win December are the ones built to be photographed. We should be the ones built to be returned to.
Proven — and the safer market-wide collaboration
Scratch-Offs
No card to carry. You win at the table.
Margarita May's scratch card, moved to December — and the easiest, safest way to run one thing across every White Lodging property at once. Nobody carries a punch card from bar to bar for six weeks. Order the featured cocktail, scratch, win on the spot, come back inside the window to redeem it.
How it works
- Order the featured holiday cocktail at any participating property and it arrives with a scratch-off. One card per check.
- The win is immediate — revealed at the table, not after five stamps and a month of effort.
- Redemption runs on a set window — 30 to 60 days — and that window is what actually drives the return visit.
- Prizes are food, keepsakes and stays, never a comped pour. Winnings redeem at any participating property, so a card won at one bar pulls the guest to another.
Why it works
- It doesn't compete with Indy's existing winter crawls. There's no route, no rival event, nothing to opt into — it just makes our featured cocktail the one worth ordering.
- No participation burden. No card to keep, no five-stop commitment, no way to fall out halfway through.
- Instant gratification at the table — the one thing a punch card structurally cannot give.
- Every card is a small moment guests film themselves.
The easiest thing to run across every property at once — no shared route, no shared card, no cross-venue choreography. You set the odds, so you set the cost before a single card is printed.
The cheapest way to make a premium cocktail feel like an event without touching the price.
Low lift — built with the venues next door
After the Lights
You saw the lights. Now get warm.
Every December the Symphony, the Zoo, the Eiteljorg and the Rep spend millions pulling people downtown — and none of them own where those people go next. Show a same-day ticket or wristband and the After the Lights menu opens.
How it works
- Any same-day stub, wristband or app confirmation unlocks a short menu: one warm signature cocktail, one warm bite. Full price — built to convert, not to discount.
- Qualifying: Yuletide at Hilbert Circle Theatre (25 nights, out at 9:30), Christmas at the Zoo, Jingle Rails at the Eiteljorg, A Christmas Carol at the IRT, Circle of Lights, the downtown rink.
- Runs at Conner's, Rye Bar and any other participating White Lodging Indy property.
- One staff rule and a table tent. Live in three weeks.
Why it works
- The real prize is the partnership. The ISO, the Zoo and the Eiteljorg all need somewhere warm to send their guests — and all have engaged local audiences we don't currently reach.
- Easy to sell in: they get a guest amenity for free, we get co-marketing. Cross-posts, story takeovers, a listing in their guest emails.
- Reactive content every night — "Zoo or Yuletide tonight?" — instead of a fixed calendar.
- Geo-targeted paid at White River State Park and the theatre, 7–10 p.m. only. Tiny budget, absurd relevance.
The fastest yes on this page — live in three weeks. The real work is relationship-building with the Symphony and the Zoo, not operations.
It doesn't compete with the holiday pop-ups — it rides the traffic every one of them is fighting for.
★ Top pick
Proven — Austin's 100° frozen promo, inverted
Freeze Warning
When the day doesn't break freezing, the hot list drops.
Austin drops frozen prices every day over 100°. Indianapolis has the same weather story running the other direction. When the forecast high doesn't clear 32°, a short list of hot cocktails moves to the Freeze Warning price — called by 10 a.m., that day only.
How it works
- One trigger, one number: the forecast high fails to reach 32°F. Called by 10 a.m. off the National Weather Service and honored regardless of what the thermometer actually does.
- A fixed list of three hot cocktails moves to a set price — say $16 to $12. Never free, never below a floor you set in advance.
- The rest of the menu doesn't move. Neither does the wine list.
- Black out the dates that don't need help: Big Ten weekend, PRI week, Dec 24, 25 and 31.
Why it works
- It's counter-cyclical. It moves price on the nights nobody was coming, and holds full price on the nights the room fills itself.
- Fully budgetable — Indianapolis averages about 29 days a year that never break freezing, so the exposure is known before December starts.
- The creative is a mock weather alert: a format people already recognize and screenshot. The three-day forecast builds the anticipation for free.
- It gives the account a reason to post during a cold snap with news instead of filler.
The safest strong option on the page. One trigger, one template, reused all winter — and it markets itself on exactly the nights the room would otherwise be empty.
A cold snap stops being the reason the bar is empty and becomes the reason it isn't.
★ Top pick
New for Indy
The Nice List
You can't enter. You can only be caught.
Every night, one guest at Conner's or Rye Bar is quietly put on the Nice List. They didn't enter. They don't know it's happening. They find out when the check arrives.
How it works
- Staff nominate — the kind table, the couple celebrating, the guy who drove four hours for the game.
- The gift is never a drink: dinner at Conner's, a night upstairs, a car home, an engraved keepsake.
- It comes with the check, sealed, with a card that reads only: You've been put on the Nice List.
- A running count all month; the full list published Dec 24, first names only.
Why it works
- It makes a guest feel chosen, not marketed to.
- The reaction is the content — and guests film it themselves, every time.
- Zero participation risk. They're simply having a drink.
- Staff do the nominating, so it lifts morale in the hardest month to keep a bar staffed.
Visual direction
The Nice List only works if the object feels real. Not a voucher in a folder — stationery. Heavy stock, foil, a wax seal, and a hand you can tell was a hand.
Low cost, high emotional return. The only genuine work is deciding who can authorise a gift and how it gets tracked — settle that and the rest runs itself.
A discount says we need you to come in. A gift says we noticed you.
New for Indy
The Golden Brick
One brick. In plain sight since December 1st.
A gold-leafed brick — a nod to the Yard of Bricks — sits somewhere in the Marriott's public spaces all month. Visible, untouched, and nobody is told where.
How it works
- It's in plain sight. Nobody searches, moves or touches anything — which is what makes it safe in a hotel.
- One clue a week, Dec 1–24. The final clues are unmissable so it's claimed before New Year's.
- One prize, and it's large: a suite night with dinner at Conner's, or a barstool with their name on it for 2027.
- Afterwards it goes on permanent display with the winner's name beside it.
Why it works
- One big prize is cheaper than many small ones — and reads as luxury, not as a voucher.
- Weekly clues sustain six weeks of content that gets more interesting, not less.
- No hotel in another city could run it.
The lift is almost entirely creative: writing four weeks of clues that actually land. One object, one prize, one story — no moving parts.
A six-week serialized story where the ending is genuinely unwritten — and it costs one brick.
New for Indy
Ask for Conner
There is no Conner. That's the point.
A password dressed up as a person. Ask the bartender for Conner. Nobody by that name works here. What you get is a card, a drink printed nowhere, and one rule: tell exactly one person.
How it works
- The off-menu drink is the most expensive thing the bar makes. Full price, every time.
- Never announced. Seeded through clues and comments only.
- Cards are numbered. The hundredth gets something worth having.
- Rye Bar runs its own name, on its own card.
Why it works
- Luxury sells access, not price. This makes access out of nothing.
- "Tell one person" is a growth mechanic disguised as a rule.
- It costs a print run — and it belongs to Conner's alone.
Near-zero operational cost, but it lives or dies on the seeding. This one needs a light touch and patience rather than a budget.
The strongest thing a brand account can do is act like it knows something you don't.
New for Indy
Twelve Nights
Twelve bartenders. One drink stays for a year.
Twelve nights in December, twelve bartenders each get one night to put one original cocktail in front of guests. Guests vote. The winner goes on Conner's 2027 menu with their name under it.
How it works
- One bartender, one drink, that night only. Priced at a premium.
- Ratings by card or QR; the leaderboard updates nightly.
- Night twelve: the top three go head to head, winner announced in the room.
Why it works
- Scarcity justifies a higher price, not a lower one.
- Twelve faces, twelve stories — and each bartender shares it to their own network.
- A staff retention program wearing a marketing costume.
More a scheduling and staffing exercise than a marketing one. The retention upside may matter more than the revenue — twelve bartenders with a reason to stay through December.
The strongest content a hospitality brand can post is the people who work there.
New for Indy
The Stranger's Tree
By Christmas it belongs to people who'll never meet.
A tree in the Marriott lobby, professionally dressed on day one. Beside it, blank ornaments and a pen. Hang one, take one.
How it works
- Write where you came from, or a wish. Then take one a stranger left before you.
- December fills this hotel with strangers — PRI, band families, Big Ten weekend, a convention most weeks.
- Weekly count posted: ornaments hung, states, countries.
- Dec 26, what's left goes to a children's hospital with the messages intact.
Why it works
- It can't fail — the tree is beautiful before a single guest touches it.
- The same frame shot daily becomes a time-lapse finale, filmed free from day one.
- It costs blank ornaments and a pen.
Nearly free, and it cannot fail — the tree is beautiful before a single guest touches it. Everything a guest adds is upside.
A convention hotel in December is the most transient place in the city. This turns that into the point.
Details, not campaigns
Small Touches
The things guests repeat to other people.
The Coat Drive
Bring a winter coat in December; it goes to an Indianapolis shelter. You get a brass pin and a line on the tree. Costs a collection bin.
The 9:45
Yuletide lets out at 9:30, twenty-five nights running, four blocks away. Hold one table until 9:45 for anyone with a ticket stub.
The Numbered Bottle
The milk punch arrives in a numbered miniature bottle you keep. Full price, always. A keepsake, not a discount — and the numbers make people want the next one.
First Snow
A text list and no schedule. The first December snowfall triggers something for one hour — putting people in the bar during the weather that normally empties it.
The Traveling Trophy
One gloriously oversized trophy that moves between venues weekly. "Where is it tonight?" is a question people follow an account to answer.
One Seal
Every Nice List card, Golden Brick clue and Conner card uses the same stock, seal and wax. One system makes separate promotions read as a single season.
Individually trivial. Collectively they're what makes a season feel designed rather than assembled. Pick three and do them properly.
★ Top pick
Collaborative — the whole city, not just our bars
Christmas Cocktail Bracket
Sixteen bars. One drink each. The city decides.
Indianapolis is arguably the most bracket-literate city in America — the NCAA is headquartered here and the Big Ten tournament fills Gainbridge every March. So don't run a bar crawl. Run a tournament. Sixteen bars, one original Christmas cocktail each, single elimination through December, decided by public vote.
How it works
- Sixteen entries, one original Christmas cocktail per bar. Four rounds: round of sixteen, quarterfinals, semifinals, and the final the week before Christmas.
- Vote by QR — on the coaster, at the table. Scanning inside the bar is what counts, so a vote requires a visit. One vote per phone, per round.
- The field can be White Lodging's Indy properties alone, or opened to independents across the city. Opening it is the stronger play.
- Still to solve: vote integrity, who administers the bracket, and whether a local media partner co-hosts to keep it credible.
Why it works
- Being the convener beats being a competitor. White Lodging gets the credit for running the city's competition — and the goodwill for inviting the independents in.
- It's a bar crawl without having to call it one. Voting is the reason to visit four bars in December.
- Sixteen venues posting their own matchups is reach nobody paid for.
- Brackets are natively postable: matchup cards, upsets, a live vote count, a reveal.
The trophy — the part that works in July
Commission something deliberately, gloriously oversized. Take the cue from the Borg-Warner, which adds the winner's face every single year: each champion gets a new engraved plate permanently fixed to it, so the object slowly accumulates the city's history rather than resetting.
It lives on the winning bar's back bar for twelve months as reigning champion. Somebody sees it in July, asks what it is, and finds out there's a competition every December. That is marketing running in the months when nothing else is.
By far the biggest lift here, and the only one that keeps working in July. Treat it as a year-one build, not a December promotion — the trophy and the voting platform outlive the season.
A trophy on a back bar in July is an advertisement for a competition five months away.