Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Team up with a local car lot and give away a free sports/luxury car. Offer to pay for the "Free Car Drawing" in the local press, and they provide the car along with a big banner of their car lot at the show.

Offer the car lot some Free IT service as well if they are resistant. You should be able to justify the cost by showing them how much it would cost to advertise to XXXXX number of people at a local event.

The car can be parked inside the expo, or outside with a big banner that has whose name on it....YOURS! "WIN ME Courtesy of IT Pros and Dubai Mercedes!!" People will flock!!!

It can be done for little or no money. You just have to show the mutual benefit to the car lot. Get some attendance stats for the show, demographics, etc. and pick a car that falls within the age and gender bracket. You may be able to get a radio station to come out to your booth and broadcast....ESPECIALLY if you tell them you are giving away a car!!

One of my previous partners did something similar for a sports apparel store here in Oklahoma. He wanted Barry Switzer to come to the store, so he called up Big Brothers/Big Sisters and said if Barry comes out for a few hours, we will donate XX% of the profit to your organization. They agreed, Barry agreed, then he called the local "Sports Animal" radio station with an invite to broadcast live from the store..they asked "why would we want to do that?" Once he mentioned Barry Switzer, they couldn't wait! It didn't cost him a dime. Of course, this ties into the celebrity thing, but if you agree to donate X% of your company's profits in exchange for having a celebrity attend the event, you can get the Radio and TV people VERY interested.

We negotiated a similar deal for a car. One of our clients sold toys from kiosks in shopping malls. WE wanted to draw attention to the kiosk...soooo....we called up car dealers until we found one who was willing to give us 2 New Corvettes in exchange for tons of exposure of course. It worked out better than we could have expected. Talk about a swarm!!!!

Creative negotiating with other businesses who have something of high value that people want is a good way to "piggyback" or "ride the wave" into the spotlight. People will think "Wow, these guys MUST be HOT if they can give away a Mercedes!!!" .

Good Luck!