Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Ideas For A Consumer Tradeshow - Get Exposure

Posted by Victor K. on 5/22/2009 at 11:27 AM ET 250 Points
I am the marketing manager for a luxury Vodka brand, retailed at most european high end retailers, top cocktail bars and restaurants. Our vodka has won several international awards for best packaging, design and spirit. Though we've gone far with the trade, it's time now to tackle consumers directly. We are doing a consumer show mid June - Taste of London - and will have a 3x3 stand so we can interact with customers and sell the whole product range.
I am trying to gather ideas on how to draw attention towards our stand, in order to increase brand awareness and generate more sales. For now, the plan is to have these roll up banners with pictures, use our branded ice buckets for display, and serve one signature cocktail. We will also be collection data through a promotion during the show. There are uptenth of ideas on paper, but the biggest challenge is to attrack visitors to visit, learn about the brand, buy cocktails and products, and leave with some sort of connection with the brand, using our increadibly small budget.... Would love to hear your ideas!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 5/22/2009 at 12:33 PM Accepted
    Dear Victor,

    I've always been fond of vodka. Which leads me to ask where your vodka is made?

    For many people, nationality plays an important part in their perception of any given brand.

    If, as I suspect is the case, your vodka is Russian, you might want to roll out the benefits of Russian culture. Clichéd? Perhaps, but if you want to draw a crowd, put on a show.

    Cossack dancing. Siberian musicians. Hire the Leningrad Cowboys (a Finnish rock and roll band). Or emulate them with some kind of cover band.

    www.leningradcowboys.fi

    Make a big, big splash by entertaining people. Go for broke and do something people will be talking about for months. Make people laugh, engage them, and show them something they'll never forget.

    And don't forget to involve the local media: press, TV, radio.

    If your budget permits, London is a great place to do bus and taxi advertising. One stunt from years ago involved a cup of Starbucks
    coffee some one had "accidentally" left on the roof of a cab as it was driven around the city (New york? London? Can't recall).

    But wherever it was, it got lots of attention. LOTS. Could you do the same with dozens of bottles of your vodka superglued to the roof of a cab? Perhaps with some witty bon mot on the side of the cab: Follow these crazy Russians to the trade show!"

    Even if this means you buying the cab.

    A simple, simple stunt like this (but for God's sake, check with local officials on the regulations first) could build a lot of visibility very quickly. And for not a lot of money.

    All I ask is that you credit me with the idea. Sound fair?

    I hope this helps. Na zdrave (Yes, know it's Bulgarian, but there you go).

    Gary Bloomer
    Wilmington, DE, USA



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  • Posted by Victor K. on 5/22/2009 at 1:34 PM Author
    Gary

    Thank you so much for the ideas. All sounds great!

    Maybe I forgot to mention a few extra bits.
    Out vodka is made in Poland, and I thinks we should spare the Pols this time. Customers will have to purchase a ticket to enter the show; but we are expecting about 9,000 people during 4 days.

    Our product is luxury, and highly acclaimed for its elegance and slick design.

    The budget is an issue, and we are trying to get ideas to attract the public already in the show.

    Please keep sending ideas everyone.
  • Posted on 5/22/2009 at 1:47 PM Accepted
    Since you will have consumers there and not stuffy procurement folks, how about a contest seeing who can do the most shots (of water) in 3 minutes. Winner gets some cool prize and all contestants get entered in a grand prize drawing.

    Doesn't vodka and water look alike? How about another contest where you have shots, or tumblers of several water and one full of vodka and people have to guess which is the vodka - might be fun seeing people bending over to smell each glass.

    I think the key would be to have something that takes a few minutes to give time for a small crowd to grow that watches the crazy people doing the challenge, then it's your job to keep it going.
  • Posted by Phx SC on 5/22/2009 at 2:30 PM Accepted
    Expand to three signature drinks with the question, which "Luxury Vodka Name" are you?

    All three would be a different type of sophisticate, based of course on the person your vodka drinker imagines himself/herself to be when enjoying your luxury brand.

    Creating three new personas allows you to extend in the show and beyond the show: In the show as identifier giveaways and tied-in teasers on site (a poster with one persona on it giving her take on the city that you are visiting). Beyond the show, you can build a social media identity for each, offering musings from that persona's perspective along with value offerings like recipes, hot spots (that are serving your vodka, of course) and specials. If you have time to build this before the show, even better.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 5/22/2009 at 9:49 PM Accepted
    You need to get people to care about your vodka. Have them drink your vodka, design a new bottle, design new packaging, design/name a new drink, etc. Everyone gets to vote. Everyone gets to enter.
  • Posted by adwrighty1 on 5/24/2009 at 7:34 PM Member
    Apologies, reposting this as I realised I was logged in through an old account...

    I would recommend that the key to success will be your marketing before the show. You need to create anticipation and desire beforehand, which of course you'll need to deliver on once inside.

    I'm assuming that the event will have a database of attendees beforehand and that you may have your own loyal followers with whom you can grow your relationship.

    This will all need to centre around some theatre at your 3 x 3 stand though.

    Ideally, the idea will be strongly connected to your brand essence, heritage or story. From the information you've provided, the premium, luxury cues of your brand are obviously important. But how can you deliver on this in a small 3 x 3 space? A few ideas below that even if not quite right, may help spark a few others...

    - Put something on your stand that is the true definition of premium, luxury and exclusive. Make a big deal of it. I.e. a one of a kind watch, piece of jewellery, or something that's topical / current. Hire some extra security...PR the fact that it can only be seen at your xxxx vodka stand at the show. The partner brand may well be happy to get involved for free given additional exposure / PR.

    - Try to keep buzz around the stand. Perhaps just invest in an extremely engaging, entertaining and magnetic host who can hold a crowd. If you can get them queueing up, you can create anticipation and a desire to know what's going on.

    - Create a limited edition vodka bottle. Enhance the one-off bottle with some rare stones perhaps. Make the stand completely minimal except for a clear glass case over the bottle, sometimes lack of theatre may add to the intrigue.

    I'm not sure how your brand is consumed most often, but if it really is at the premium, luxury end of the market I'd be tempted to steer clear of cocktails as you can concentrate on the quality of the product, but then if this is part of its brand story or recognition then maybe not.

    Good luck, sounds like a challenging, but exciting project.
  • Posted by Victor K. on 5/25/2009 at 5:16 AM Author
    Esbdmb, PhxSc, Jay Hamilton and Adwrighty

    Thank you all so much for the ideas. This is indeed a challenging projetc, although this is normally where we get that million dollar idea that changes everything.

    I do like the idea about having different vodka personas. Product placement with a partnering brand was the initial thought, but unfortunatelly I think it's a little too late to get somebody to work with us.

    The reason for serving cocktails is that we've always tried to show consumers that yet our vodka is Luxury and tastes great on its own, they can make amazing cocktails too. Hence we've designed our signature drinks. Also, selling the cocktails will help pay the bill.

    We are going to be 4/5 people at any given time doing the talks and selling the vodka, and from previous years sales have always been great.

    The challenge here is to have a Beautiful stand. Something clever, catchy, funky that people will talk about and remember about our product long after the show.

    Please keep sending ideas!
  • Posted on 5/26/2009 at 10:52 AM Accepted
    You could set up your booth as a VIP room at a club. You can mail out VIP Passes or invitations to all of the attendees prior to the event and ask them to bring it with it to the show for admittance. A less expensive way could be to email everyone the invite with a way to sign up for your "exclusive" guest list online.

    At the show you could have someone at the door acting as a bouncer either collecting cards or checking names off a guest list. I wouldn't deny people entrance if they didn't sign up but it could generate excitement about visiting your booth and be a way for them to get involved.

    You can also advertise a cool giveaway item on the invitations as an incentive for people to sign up. This should be something unique, useful, specific to your vodka and branded with your logo. Maybe a cocktail shaker with recipes for a couple of your signature drinks on it. Shakers come at a large variety of price points which gives you flexibility to fit your budget. Here's a really inexpensive one:
    https://teamworld.logomall.com/ProductDetail/ProductDetail.aspx?id=7433889&...
    Of course there are stainless steel ones that might fit your luxury brand better if you have the money left in your budget. If you do have different vodka personas, you could have a different giveaway item for each one. (Feel free to contact me through my profile if you want more ideas for giveaways.)

    You can also advertise the different games or contests you may be running on your invitations - ones that your VIP attendees can participate in while visiting your booth.

    Hope this helps!
    Rebecca
  • Posted by Victor K. on 5/28/2009 at 7:11 PM Author
    Thanks Rebecca.

    What I'm trying to get are ideas to attrack people already in the show, to stop, interact, possibly buy the products and leave with the brand in their minds.

    And just to mention again, our budget is very limited near to nill, so the clever 'entertaining ideas are always welcome.

    Keep posting everyone!

    Cheers!
  • Posted by Victor K. on 6/2/2009 at 2:34 PM Author
    ' To the Marketing Profs Team '

    I would like to leave this question open until the 10th of June to allow for more answers.

    Thanks!
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