Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Don't go the logo route...do something different.

How about Dr. Scholl's padded shoe inserts for all the tired feet

Or have a masseuse in the booth to give quick backrubs

Or offer to ship each person's reams of handouts back home to them. I like this one in particular because you get names and addresses and can drop in your own info as you process them.

At this type of event I suggest something that gets them back multiple times...
A photo with a celbrity or look alike... taken day one and two.. picked up on day 3

A laser etched nic-nac with their name on it... submit one day pick up another time

skip the little stuff and offer something big as a drawing item..

Skip the little stuff and offer something major for the person who spends 30 minutes going through your demo.

It's nice to tie it into the theme of the conference or your product.
Quickbooks - you could give away those blank journals, bookmarks or reading lights.
Otherwise, squeezeballs were really popular at the last show I attended.
If you have a local promo item show, they are good at making recommendations.

Question is..what's this item supposed to do? Is it to get people to stop at your booth or to have something enduring to remember you company by after its over?

Generally, it's hard to do both on the tight budget you have.

Based on what your plan is..."giving demos our software to QuickBooks Consultants who may recommend or resell our products. " I don't think you should be focusing on enduring items. After all, you're not connecting with the end user, you want the folks to RECOMMEND you to someone else. You want them to understand your product, have a good reaction to it, AND be so motivated to want to tell others. Your goal at this show should be trying to empower these folks to make them brand advocates.

You're trying to get some work of mouth going. Three key components to word of mouth. You have to ensure your message is clear and understood by the person who you want to spread it, that it is simple enough to sell, AND (this is the part where most companies fail) you need there to be some incentive for the person to tell others. This last part is critical. It doesn't need to be dollar rewards, some people tell others about different brands because it makes them look good, like they are in the know (great book on this subject...Spreading the Ideavirus by Seth Godin). This is what you need to create at your booth.

Give a simple story for people to pass on and one that will make them look good to others. So, you have to empower them with a story that will allow those who will refer you (we'll call them "sneezers" like Seth does) to look like heroes to those who they will pass the message onto. AND, you need to give them a good motivator.

So, all that being said...this is pretty simple. Give your potential sneezers, after they receive your message and understand your story something that they can pass onto others. This should be some sort of discount or special offer that only this exclusive group of sneezers can pass out. Don't offer this to just anyone in the market. Make sure you only allow your customers to get it from your sneezers. Along with these, give them a simple web address (acutally simple, you know the difference) or a small glossy with key points about the story you want them to telll (i.e., what's so great about your product) Point one and two done...they understand what's great about your product and they have a simple way to pass on your story.

So, your sneezers have an incentive...they look good to their customers. So, how do you get them into the booth? Since these are computer folks and your budget is limited the answer is simple, but very tough on your budget. My first idea is (modestly he said) a great one. iTunes. Give out 3 songs ($3) per person. Your promotion at your booth. Listen to our pitch, we'll give you 1 song for each minute we talk. Get you presentation down to 3 minutes and your in business. Here's the flaw. To the general public, Apple only sells gift certificates in $10 denominations. You might be able to contact them directly and work something out. Obviously, they've done promotions with companies where they give out one song as a prize, but that was on a giant scale. You never know what they might be willing to do depending on your budget.

I still think the iTunes thing is a winner, so you could do one entry per minute and have a drawing every 15 minutes for a $10 card. That would work out to your budget and get people interested. Final option, have a computer there and let people buy 3 songs, burn them to a CD and take them with them. They can then rip them onto their computer when they get home. (check the legality of this first). Anyway, you can make this work.

JMR

hey Jo:

Why do you want to give a giveaway? What are trying to promote? Brand Awareness? Participant Draw? Post show interaction?

If I never get another pen again or a ball or conference bag with a whack of logo's on it.. I would be perfectly happy.

What gets my attention at a booth? A: needs to be relevant to me. B: The people in the booth need to be REALLY approachable and on the ball. C: Yeah creativity draws me in. And preshow planning where I am invited to someones booth specifically.

Are you planning on a give away to every person? What if you did something that was intereactive? I did a hockey shootout at a booth once. We had a terrible location but the buzz grew. We then had a draw for a bigger prize.

I also had a colleague that decided to hang a bike above ther booth and took business cards. At the end of the show they fedexed it to the "winner" (let's face it.. NOT a random draw) right from the show.

Something else to consider is to get a high value giveaway to your high prospects. Like a WiFi detector.

I am a little jaded because I am not a fan of tradeshows as I believe peoples expectations of them are not realistic. And they are rarely done correctly. A lot of money for what return?

Clearly define your objectives and then decide if a giveaway is imperative to that objective and what type would best suit your business needs.

Good luck.

T.

Consider a 'here-and-now' giveaway. Provide something that holds items previously placed in carry-on baggage. Or, give away a branded flash memory stick or an iTunes giftcard (an iPod nano is a great giveaway, as is a music/video enabled clamshell phone, such as a RAZR).

If you want to get their email address, consider a postcard. Set up a small area where you take a digital photo and let them select one of several digital backgrounds (branded with your logo, of course). Email the file to them (probably in the evening), and/or post it to an online photo-sharing service (that may require signatures on release form, and other practical legal guidance). The key thing with this is to design the experience and the output to appeal to your targets on both the personal and professional fronts. Done properly, this will drive WOM throughout the conference.