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Trade shows/business fairs
Hi all,
Kind of in step with the question about joining local chambers, I’m looking for some feedback about business fairs/trade shows. We’re going to two in the next couple of weeks (both through local chambers, one with a bit of a technology bent). Our company has a couple of facets: marketing, multimedia (web, video, audio, etc.) and IT. We’re launching an “imprint” marrying the content creation and the IT end at the first show.
We’re talking about handouts/give aways. What do you find effective? What do you like to get?
Any general thoughts on what makes a good exhibit? We’ve got our design/tone laid out and the pieces are coming together; we’re trying to stay ahead there.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Joey
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7 Replies
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[Joey Groah] “We’re talking about handouts/give aways. What do you find effective? What do you like”
CD/DVD business cards make great handouts. They have your pertinent info printed on, and they play your demo too… People love ’em.
DRW
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Thanks David. We tend to hand out business cards with our DVD/CD demos, but that’s an approach we’ve always debated.
joey@GoDigico.com
https://www.GoDigico.com -
Don’t do the miniature, credit-card sized discs, or the odd-shaped novelty discs, they tend to clog or jam in slot-fed drives, then you’ve lost a customer for life, and anybody he complains about it to…
What I bring home in my bag (you should have bags to hand out, pre-loaded with your own stuff, so the atendees have something to carry everything in) are catalogs, spec sheets, CD’s/DVD’s. Swatchbooks of gels. Post-it notepads stay by my phone. Imprinted Pens are always good, sharpies are better, long as are not too cheap, so they don’t leak easily. Maybe, if you’re going into HD or HDV, you can hand out cardboard aspect viewer frames with a 16×9 window on them and some text about “seeing how our HD services give your world a whole new look”. One company was at one time handing out life-size replicas of their single-rack-unit LCD monitors, and we stuck one of these up on an empty rack space for a LONG time while waiting for a budget to buy them. We eventually did get that brand, after looking at the fake cardboard rack unit for 2 years. It’s still there too;-)
Fashion items like t-shirts or “gimme” caps are of interest only if they (A) fit and (B) truly are cool for some reason like very innovative/collectible art on them or a logo with exceptional snob appeal. Or (c) they have something very clever, funny and “inside” on them, a catch phrase common to the business like: “You can fix that in post, right?” and the reverse side would then say something like: “Yes, We can, we’re XBGLE FX company, miracles are our buisness”. Something like that, maybe hats that say “miracle worker” on them, etc., while keeping your logo tastefully small and unobtrusive, like on the sizing band in the back.
Raffle prizes or other giveaways of pricy consumer toys like MP3Players, we generally can’t accept due to ethics rules, and I imagine that’s pretty common at lots of businesses and agencies these days.
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[Mark Suszko] “Don’t do the miniature, credit-card sized discs, or the odd-shaped novelty discs, they tend to clog or jam in slot-fed drives, then you’ve lost a customer for life, and anybody he complains about it to…”
Every time I go to NAB, I get handed some of these credit card CDs and have yet to ever play even one of them. I asked Kathlyn the other day if she’d ever bothered with one of them and she said that she hasn’t either.
Ron Lindeboom
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Ron,
You and Kathlyn don’t look at them because neither of needs a production company to create media for you. Client-type people really like them.
DRW
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At best, our financial results from the three C of C shows we participated were a wash. It did, perhaps, make our presence in the community better known. Most of our time there was listening to other booth owners who were at our booth pitching us on their product. We did not participate this year. Time, money and energy better spent in other directions.
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Thanks for your thoughts everyone.
We do a lot of business outside of the area, so a big part of us showing up to the next couple of shows is saying “Hey, we’re right around the corner.”
I’ll try to remember to give a note about any benefits.
Thanks,
Joey
joey@GoDigico.com
https://www.GoDigico.com
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