DJ’s On The Hill launched a new phone app on the iTunes store last Friday. With the release, the Marshall Street bar also announced Wet T-shirt Wednesdays, Karaoke Saturday’s and a slew of other new offers for the 2015-2016 school year.

The app, which has been available for Android devices since June 29, was in the works for nine months before its release. The bar partnered with Como App Maker, an international online app developing company that caters to small businesses to create it.

“It’s almost 2016, every kid knows how to use an app,” manager Mike Cauchon said. “Websites are for the older generation, apps are for the kids. So what better way to engage our customer base than to create an app for the bar?”

The template for the app was provided by Como, with Cauchon doing the creative portion of development: adding color, content and features. The color scheme, orange and blue, was chosen to reflect Syracuse University pride, as the bar caters to a mostly student audience.

In its first week, the free app for Apple devices has been downloaded 280 times as of Thursday evening, Cauchon said.

On the main page, the app lists the bar’s hours, address and a description for specials and daily offers. Swipe right and thirteen tabs slide on the screen with links to social media, photos and video, a page to review the app and two new features for bar frequents: a loyalty card and scratch card.

The cards are simple. For the loyalty card, buy nine fishbowls, get the cashier to enter a four-digit code on your device for each one you purchase and the tenth one is free. The scratch card is more of a lottery, Cauchon said. Hand your device to the cashier, they’ll enter a four-digit code and if the customer is lucky, they could win a free fishbowl on the spot. The cards can be used once a day, any day of the week.

“Facebook and Twitter are all great, but when you have something in the palm of your hand that says ‘Guess what, no cover at DJ’s tonight’ people are going to screenshot that, send it to their friends and everyone’s going to go there,” Cauchon said. “No other bar up here has that and this year alone we’ll see it pull our numbers up.”

Other changes have been made for the upcoming school year. The bar will now offer wet t-shirt contests for both male and female competitors on Wednesdays, karaoke contests on Saturdays and happy hour prices have been lowered from $5 to $4 a pitcher every day. A permanent DJ booth has been built in the middle of the dance floor for King of the Hill Thursdays, a weekly student DJ competition.

The DJ competition, which students can sign up for now, will run throughout the year and the winner, as voted by DJ’s customers, will be offered a permanent, paying gig with the bar.

The Elite Ten, a promotion currently running on the DJ’s Facebook page, offers students the opportunity of no cover, a permanent wristband and the ability to cut any line, any day of the year. All students have to do is share the link to the app on Facebook and then they will be entered into a name generator, with ten names selected at random. The link has been shared 483 times as of Thursday evening, Cauchon said.

“I’m really glad with what we’ve done to make the bar better for everyone coming back in the next month or so,” Cauchon said. “I bleed DJ’s and I bleed SU, so I’m very excited to be a part of this. It’s these fun little promotions and new modes of engagement that we’re using to give back to our customers and thank them for making us so successful.”

Published on July 19, 2015 at 10:48 pm

Contact: kasotelo@syr.edu