THERE ARE A myriad of conventions and trade shows for every industry and hobby imaginable. Whether one’s checking out the latest gadgets and innovations from Silicon Valley or taste-testing a
variety of maple syrups from New England, trade shows and conventions are fertile ground for promoters. With large crowds of both dedicated and casual attendees, conventions and trade shows offer a unique opportunity for promoters and their products.
“I love trade shows,” said Charley Johnson, vice president of sales and marketing at SnugZ USA, Salt Lake City. “A lot of people complain that there’s too many, but where else are you going to see five hundred to a thousand people face-to-face?” According to Johnson, there are more than 11,000 trade shows a year across the country, and given the size of the average trade show, businesses want to make sure the promotional products they choose allow them to take full advantage.
“The one thing I would say is that the product ought to be useful, it ought to be lightweight, because they’re traveling, and it ought to have something on it that attendees will remember where they got it and who they got it from,” noted Jim Brown, vice president of AAA Line, Niagara Falls, N.Y. Both Brown and Johnson are proponents of using commonplace items for promotions and stress the convenience and functionality of their giveaways. One key to a successful trade show giveaway is innovating from a product or material that attendees may already know. One of AAA Line’s biggest successes has been its neoprene coffee sleeves. “The coffee sleeves are just an eye opener, just mind boggling,” said Brown. Available in one size, the sleeves are reusable, adaptable to water bottles and glasses one would get at a sporting event, and draw calls after shows. “People are looking for, especially in this business, innovation using existing materials. The neoprene can cooler or beverage cooler has been around, but the coffee sleeve hasn’t. People are looking at how you take something existing … and adapt it to some other use,” added Brown.
The ability to have a product that can be used in almost any industry is also important. Johnson has found across-the-board success with his secret flavor lip balm promotion. “You hand it out to attendees that drop by the booth and say, ‘If you can tell me that flavor, you can taste it or smell it, I’ll give you five hundred bucks or a thousand bucks or a free order,’ or something. It just drives people nuts,” he said. “It will keep people at your booth for two, three hours on end. They should be checking out other people’s booths, see how the trade show is going, but it just catches them. The next thing you know, they’ll be sitting at your booth, just throwing out flavors.” Johnson has seen everyone from real estate agents to advertisers use the promotion; his own distributors have passed it on to their clients.
But what makes the promotion so successful? For one, it’s a common, convenient item. According to Johnson, people will use the item anyway, but from the time they get to the show until about three weeks later, when that flavored balm has run its course, the attendee will be wondering day and night about the flavor, and the whole time will be thinking about who supplied the product. Johnson recommended, “If you want your customer thinking day and night about you, throw your name on a lip balm and do the same thing. You’ll get people [at your booth] because, like I said, it’s an everyday product.”
Another thing to keep in mind with convention giveaways is their longevity and ability to promote long after the trade show or convention has ended. In the same way Johnson has been able to capitalize on the lip balm, Brown and those at AAA Line have experienced similar success with their line of customized air fresheners. Brown gives bagged samples of the air fresheners, a $15 retail value per bag, for free to attendees at conventions and trade shows. Although this may seem costly, “It pays,” declared Brown. “We’re never cheap; we never count the number of things they take. They can take as many as they want because it’s good for us. It’s not going to evaporate in six months. I’ve gotten calls from people who’ve taken samples years ago, saying ‘Do you still do this? I picked it up two years ago.’ Of course! So [the items] hang around, and that’s what we want to happen.”
Brown related one case where a distributor ordered air fresheners shaped as police cars because the client insured the cars. The insurance agent gave the air fresheners away to local police departments, who in turn gave them away at spot checks to drivers who passed a sobriety test. The air fresheners hung from drivers’ rear view mirrors, usually even after the scent had gone.
One danger that both vice presidents warned against was the temptation to follow trends or fads when contemplating promotional items for conventions and trade shows. “Why do people go to the trade show?” asked Brown. “Well, they go, no matter what industry, for new ideas and for new approaches.” Customers do not want potential clients to be more interested in a booth gift than in the actual booth. Johnson added when it comes to trends, “we’re not really looking to jump on the bandwagon.” Trends and fads are dangerous because, according to Brown, they eventually lead nowhere and are hard to top. For Johnson, there’s too much uncertainty investing in trends given the time and money needed for a product; by the time a supplier has a product lined up, the trend may be over and customers have moved on to the next one. Trends may grab initial attention, but to keep people coming back for more, remember the reliable trade show giveaways. They’ve become reliable for a reason.
