Choosing appropriate giveaways

Choosing giveaways for used at trade shows is an art. Or, at the least, a well-developed skill.

At the recent MRO trade show in Grapevine, Texas, Aviall chose a couple of items that fit both the industry and the tone of the times.

Aviall is good at using branded items. With airlines cutting back on services, including offering pillows and blankets on most flights, the aviation parts supplier fashioned a branded airline pillow as a giveaway (in an ironic twist, most are Aviall customers). Packaged with the printed tag bearing the phrase, "The Aviall difference," the pillows are held back and offered only to selected guests.

Secondarily, a more mass giveaway was a hard-case luggage tag. Branded with the logo and phrase, the tag is a sliding unit that protects the ID included, making it a bit more high end.

The moral of this story is to know your audience and tailor a memorable giveaway for them to take home and use regularly (and see your name regularly). If they like it well enough, the may even send you a thank you, copy the idea or re-gift it.

Talk about giving a pillow legs.

TTSG

Squeezing a memory out of a show

Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails....chances are somebody has made them into a foam stress item at one point in the trade show world. In an effort to reach out to trade show and event attendees, many exhibiting companies are resorting to the old squeeze play. OK, so I've overdone the analogies. The truth is the world of foam stress balls has grown beyond stress balls. And some of the participants are using the little foam guys in an integrated fashion and to great advantage.

At the recent NACS show I saw a variety of things in this category: foam giraffes, cars, sumo wrestlers, gasoline storage tanks (really), footballs and wrist bands. Anything that you could want in a foam shape, you could have to take home. In fact, one of my colleagues said he's been collecting these things are several years and has hundreds of them.

The best example of an integrated use of a foam figure was Quantum Services. While most exhibitors come up with a foam thingee at the last minute or as a gag, Rachel Bernhardt and the crew at Quantum build their exhibit marketing image around the giraffe icon.

Quantum (www.quantum-services.com) provides audit services to the convenience store industry. Their booth graphics rely on the giraffe icon and they've tied advance show mailings to an offer of a free giraffe when they arrive at the show. They've also used the spotted long-neck fellow in other media to attract attention. It's more than just a squeeze toy: it's a memory and a conversation starter.

Lesson Learned: use foam squeezers in an integrated way to attract attention, start conversations and be a reminder later.

TTSG

*thanks to Rachell Bernhardt and Quantum Services

Show evaluation: walking a show

The best way to evaluate a potential addition to your show schedule is to actually visit the show. Whether you have to buy an airline ticket and plan a trip or park near your local exhibit hall when the show comes to your town, it will payment immense dividends for you to walk teh floor of a show.

To help you judge the show, you will ahve already done your homework on it:

1. Is it in your market?
2. Do your customers or prospects attend and visit the show floor?
3. Do your competitors or partners attend?

You can make up a simple scorecard to judge the show. And always make notes for later evaluation. Once you have these data and done the other research you require (we'll cover the whole judging process in another entry), you're ready to hit the floor. Get a badge and a good pair of walking shows and a stack of cards--we're going to a show!

1. Where does the traffic go when you enter the hall?
2. Where and who are the big players on the floor?
3. What is working to engage visitors on the show floor and who is doing it?

Traffic. Most North Americans enter a hall and go right. There any number of hall traffic patterns, but this seems to be common. However, you may have those who come in, go left and circle the hall, aisle by aisle, like a grocery store shopper. Pay attention to who is going where. Do the corner booths get attention? How well are the islands attracting traffic? What's going on in the back of the hall? Where are visitors "pooling" or congregating?

Big players and prominent booths. When you first walk in the front door, who is there? How big is their booth? Do they use a hanging sign? Which way do their demos face? How is there staff deployed? Are there some big players at the back or sides of the hall?

Engagement. What are exhibitors doing to engage visitors? Is it staff deployment, booth demos on the aisle or a specific giveaway? Are there any live presentations? Which exhibitors used direct mail to get you to their booth (you'll know this if you're preregistered for the show)?

Lesson learned: keep your eyes and ears open as you walk; seeing is believing.

TTSG