Is anyone reading your pub TVs? A two-week test

You've put an offer on the TVs. It looks good. But has a single person read it?

Most landlords have no idea. The screens go up, the offer runs for months, and nobody ever checks. Here's the test we use. It takes two weeks, costs next to nothing and gives you a real number instead of a guess.

The idea

Put an offer on the screens that people can only get by mentioning it. If nobody mentions it, nobody read it, or nobody cared. Either way, you've learned something.

The trick is making it easy for your staff to count, so you get an honest number at the end.

Week one: the code word

Pick one offer and put it on your TVs only. Not on the menu, not on the chalkboard, not on social media. The TVs are the only place anyone can see it.

Give it a code word. Something short and easy to say at a busy bar. For example: "Say GOLDEN at the bar for a free portion of chips with any main."

Keep the offer small and simple. You want people to bother asking, but you don't want to give the shop away. Food sides, a free mixer or money off a hot drink all work.

If the offer involves alcohol, keep it sensible. The mandatory licensing conditions ban irresponsible promotions, such as drinking games or prizes that reward buying or drinking alcohol over 24 hours or less where that risks the licensing objectives. Money off a meal is the easy route.

The till button

This is the bit that makes it work. Ask whoever sets up your till to add a button called something like "TV code". Every time a customer says the code word, staff press it when they ring up the order. At the end of the week, the till tells you exactly how many people used it.

If you can't add a button, put a sheet of paper and a pen by the till with the code word at the top. Staff add a tally mark each time. It's less accurate, because people forget on a busy night, but it's better than nothing.

Brief the team before you start. Tell them the code word, what it gets the customer and where to press. If staff don't know about it, customers who ask get a blank look and you'll get a false zero.

Week two: change one thing

After a week, look at the number. Then change one thing and run it again.

If the number was low, move the offer to the screen people face most, or make the text bigger.
If the number was good, try taking it off one screen and see if it drops.
Or keep the screens the same and change the time of day it shows.

Change one thing only. If you change three things at once, you won't know which one made the difference.

What the numbers tell you

Nobody used it. Don't panic. Stand at the furthest seat from each screen and look. Can you read it? Is it on long enough to read? Is it hidden among ten other slides? Usually the problem is size or clutter, not the offer.

A handful used it. People are reading the screens. Now you can test what kind of offer works best, and at what time.

Loads used it. Brilliant. Your screens are worth more than you thought. Keep running offers, keep counting, and think about what else they could be doing for you.

Make the screens easy to read

Whatever the result, these habits help:

One message per slide.
No more than about a dozen words.
Big, plain text with strong contrast. Light text on a dark background usually reads best on a TV.
Each slide on screen long enough to read twice.
Fewer slides in the loop, so each one comes round more often.

Write the rules down

Even for a free portion of chips, write down the basics where staff can see them: what the offer is, when it ends and any limits, such as one per table. The advertising rules for promotions expect a clear closing date and clear limits where they apply. It also stops arguments at the bar.

Make it a habit

Once you've done it once, you'll want to do it again. Every offer you put on a screen should have a way to count it. That might be a code word, a till button or a QR code with a scan counter. If you can't count it, you can't tell if it's working.

Sources

legislation.gov.uk: The Licensing Act 2003 (Mandatory Licensing Conditions) (Amendment) Order 2014, Schedule
ASA and CAP: The CAP Code, section 8: Promotional marketing

We checked every source on 23 October 2026. Rules change, so check the latest version before you act. Nothing here is legal advice.