Let’s start with the question, “What are good memorable trade show displays?” Good memorable trade show displays are those displays that get people saying things like, “Did you see the trade show display for the ACME Fake Vomit Company?” Specifically, if people remember a particular trade show display AND they remember what company it was for AND also they can tell you what the company does and why they would be interested in the company or may choose to use the company, then said company has a good memorable trade show display. The key is that people need to remember the company, what it does, and why they would chose to do business with the company.

On the other hand, if someone says, “Wow, did you see the trade show display booth with the ten-layer velvet chocolate cake with pink champagne shooting out the top?”, and then you ask them what company had that trade show display and they say, “I don’t know, but the cake was delicious…” then that, my friend, is the definition of a bad memorable trade show display. Put another way, you need your trade show display to be remembered for the right reasons!

I think I can make my point the best (at least to myself) by bringing in the sock-puppet monkey. During the last Superbowl, a car company ran what I call the “sock-puppet monkey car commercial”.

Sock Monkey SuperBowl TV Commercial

The funny thing was that after the game when we were talking about which commercials we thought were the best (and most memorable), everyone remembered the sock monkey commercial (the music rocks). But when we tried to come up with the name of the company that it was for… no one could. Most of us assumed it was for a car company, but that’s about as far as we got. The current hip term that comes to mind to me is… epic fail.

Now you may be thinking that people will see the TV commercial over and over and over again, and eventually the name of the car company will stick (which I am told is a common TV commercial tactic). But people won’t see your trade show display over and over again… they will most likely see it once. And as far as the sock-puppet monkey car commercial goes, I asked my wife yesterday (who has probably seen the TV commercial at least a dozen times) which car company it was for. She said she really wasn’t sure, but then guessed the right company, but then changed her mind and went with a different car company… which makes me wonder, does the commercial really work for the car company that isn’t even in it?

But enough about retro toys and thumping music… it’s great to have a memorable trade show display, but only if it is the right kind of memorable trade show display… otherwise you might end up helping your competitor more than yourself! Make sure trade show attendees remember who you are, what you do, and how you can help them!

In my humble opinion, for a trade show giveaway to qualify as the “best trade show giveaway idea ever”, it has to be unique, and “best” probably varies from person to person (just like the question “what is the best flavor of ice cream” or “which of the Rocky movies was the best one”).

One of the best trade show giveaway items I ever got was at WESTEC, a huge machinery show in LA that I’ve gone to many a time (and not because of the Makita Tools calendar girls and other booth babes there… not that there’s anything wrong with them though). WestTec is the place to see huge mills, lathes, and machining centers. The HAAS trade show booth had a brand-spankin-new, super-expensive, state-of-the-art multi-axis, computer-controlled, does-everything-including-making-a-kitchen-sink HAAS machining center on demonstration. They were feeding in a 4 inch diameter bar of steel on one end, and 8 inch long parts that had been lathed, machined, and engraved were being spit out the other end. I had no ideas what one could do with these part (it was simply to demonstrate all the machining things that could be done with this machine), but the parts looked cool so I asked it I could have one – and they gave me one. I quickly realized that the part weighed several pounds, but nonetheless lugged it around the show, and in the end, the part ended up being a one-of-a-kind door jamb in my office for many years (until it disappeared in a move).

The door jamb was a great conversation starter – countless people asked me what it was or what it was for, and I’d tell them the story behind it and how it was made by this super-amazing HAAS machining center. No, I never did purchase that HAAS machine – because I had no need for it and wasn’t a trade show prospect. But I spread the word. I’m not sure if it was really the best trade show giveway idea ever, but it certainly was unique. I personally think that the best trade show giveaway items are those that are unique, and that say something about your company.

What do you think? What’s the most amazing, think-outside-of-the-box, best trade show giveaway idea that you have ever seen, gotten, or handed out at a trade show? Leave me a comment and let me know!

~ ~ ~

The Trade Show Guru’s Insight of the Day
Stuck in a trade show conundrum? Check out these trade show conundrum resources. Whatever you do, don’t let a  trade show conundrum derail your trade show marketing plans or weaken your trade show zen, even if you’re not sure what a trade show conundrum is. Face your trade show conundrum and deal with it. Show your trade show conundrum who’s the boss! If you’re searching for trade show enlightenment, or simply the best trade show giveaway idea ever, may you find it and your trade show mojo, and have your best trade show ever!

So if you’re going to spend your hard earned marketing budget dollars at a trade show, you want to make sure you pick up enough trade show leads and/or make enough trade show sales to recoup your expenses and actually make money. But if you make the mistake of using a cheap trade show display, and your trade show image is unprofessional (and cheap) there is a good chance that your potential trade show traffic will be turned off and will just pass your trade show booth by. My advice is to you is that you spend the money necessary to have a professional trade show display with a smart trade show design that draws a crowd. Don’t skimp on your trade show image… first impressions are often the only impression, especially if the first impression is that you are cheap.

Now the above said, sometimes “cheap” trade show displays can actually end up being the hit of the show.

The trade show display above obviously didn’t cost a lot of money, yet makes a very clear point, and is effective. So sometimes if you are clever enough, you can actually make “cheap” work to your advantage. But for most of us, it is better to spend the money to get the job done right. You don’t have to spend a fortune, and you don’t need to overpay or spend money on useless features, but make sure you get a professional trade show display that will get you enough trade show traffic and trade show business to justify your exhibiting efforts and make your company a trade show success.

~

Trade Show Guru random thought of the day:
Avoid trade show bananas and achieve trade show nirvana.

I, your friendly neighborhood trade show guru, thought I knew everything there was to know about trade shows… well, at least I thought I was familiar with everything about trade shows. After all, I even know about trade show zombies! But last week I came across a trade show term I’d never heard of before, trade show outboarding.

Trade show outboarding does not mean strapping an outboard motor to your trade show boat, er… booth, nor does the phrase have anything at all to do with outboard motors or engines. Rather, trade show outboarding is done by trade show outboarders (also referred to as trade show parasites and not to be confused with the previously mentioned trade show zombies) and refers to companies that don’t pay for a trade show exhibit booth space, but instead rent a room in a nearby hotel and set up their “offsite” or “outboard” trade show booth in their hotel room or suite. I’m not sure how they manage to get traffic to their hotel room (do they wander around the trade show and hand out trade show giveaway pens with their hotel room number on the pens?), but apparently the “problem” (at least it is a problem to the trade show promoters that aren’t collecting the trade show exhibit space fees) is growing, and trade show organizers are asking the hotels to crack down on these trade show outboards.

As I said, I just don’t understand how the trade show outboarders would get much traffic to their hotel rooms, but apparently they do, or I don’t see why this would be an issue. I’m not sure where I stand on whether or not this tactic is “legitimate”… I support “guerilla marketing” but I also believe in “playing by the rules”. I’ve included a portion of the New York Times article below in which I first read about the practice of trade show outboarding. So what do you think? Would it work? Is it legitimate?

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Convention industry insiders disdainfully call them “outboarders” — those vendors who set up shop in a hotel suite near a trade show site to promote their products. Unsanctioned exhibitors were an issue last month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a large trade show.

The industry sees the vendors as parasites who latch onto the host convention and reap the advantages of the often-considerable resources spent on organizing the show and drawing a crowd — without paying their share of the costs.

The vendors, on the other hand, argue that they are suffering in the weak economy and that the rock-bottom rates offered by some hotels help them stretch their marketing budgets.

Caught in the middle of this tug of war are the hotels, which are increasingly being asked to keep out the interlopers.

While unsanctioned exhibits are not new, they appear to be on the rise. They became an issue at the annual Consumer Electronics Show last month in Las Vegas, one of the largest trade shows in the United States. According to technology bloggers and others attending the show, hotel security people forced some vendors to vacate suites in which they were demonstrating products.

“Outboarding is wrong,” said Jason Oxman, the senior vice president of industry affairs for the Consumer Electronics Association, which produces the Consumer Electronics Show each January. “An outboarder takes advantage of the significant investment a trade show makes.”

But Mr. Oxman denied that the association had stepped up enforcement against the vendors, suggesting that the crackdown was instituted by the hotels themselves. “Our antennas are raised for people that try and circumvent the show process,” said Ron Reese, vice president of communications for Las Vegas Sands, the parent company of two official show hotels, the Palazzo Las Vegas and the Venetian Las Vegas. He said the association spent tens of millions each year promoting and producing the show, which draws 120,000 participants. Professional exhibit managers who play by the rules and pay to exhibit also resent vendors who come to town but do not exhibit on the trade show floor, he said.

Nor is the electronics association alone in its sentiments about the outside vendors. “This instance with the C.E.S. is going to raise some awareness,” said John Foster, a convention industry lawyer. Although the show took place only last month, Mr. Foster said he had already been approached by several organizers of smaller events eager to learn how they could thwart the outside exhibitors. “Whenever you get a big show that goes through an incident like this, that publicity generates a lot of interest in how to stop the problem,” he added.

The electronics association pointed to a long-standing policy prohibiting any type of consumer electronics-related events taking place in Las Vegas over the show dates. Mr. Oxman acknowledged, though, that this rule was almost impossible to enforce if vendors choose from among the many hotels in Las Vegas that do not have a contract with the association.

“Everybody does it,” said one hardware vendor who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid speaking out publicly against the electronics association, which retaliates against vendors who run unsanctioned events by stripping them of the points a vendor can earn by exhibiting legitimately. More points translate to a better selection of show floor space for future shows. Those with no points to forfeit can be kicked out of the association.

The vendor said her company chose the Palazzo because it was inexpensive, and received a verbal assurance that its exhibit would be permitted.

What happened instead, she said, was that hotel security forced the company to dismantle its demonstrations and remove all product-marketing materials. The vendor referred to the eviction as the result of a “miscommunication.” Mr. Reese of the Sands said all guests were presented with criteria for their stay upon check-in; a prohibition on in-room exhibiting is among the rules.

Bob Buskirk, who attended the electronics show and owns a Web site, ThinkComputers, that reviews hardware and software products, said he had “never been kicked out of a hotel room or even heard of companies being kicked out.” But this January, he said, two of his meetings were disrupted when the vendors were ejected by hotel security. “From what I’ve heard anecdotally, the amount of unlicensed vendors was certainly the most it’s been in recent memory,” said Mr. Reese of the Sands.

Mr. Buskirk, who has been attending the show for five years, said that the show’s exhibits seemed to take up much less space this year. A spokeswoman for the association confirmed that the show’s size dropped to 1.4 million square feet of exhibit space.

Steven Rudner, a hospitality industry lawyer who represents hotels, countered that stipulations like those from the electronics association restrict a hotel’s ability to do business. “To switch the burden of enforcing this on a hotel seems to be completely unreasonable,” Mr. Rudner said. Some groups, he said, go so far as to try and make the hotel responsible for screening all guests to insure that no competitors book suites or meeting space that could be used for private events.

Lawyers who represent trade show producers said this kind of strong language is necessary to protect the investments made by hosts and exhibitors, especially in an economy where hotels might be tempted to turn a blind eye to unsanctioned exhibits to book needed business. “They want to play both sides of it,” said Barbara Dunn, a partner at the convention industry law firm, Howe & Hutton Ltd. “There’s no question that the hotel industry is hurting.”

In some cases, she said, vendors who want to skirt a trade show’s policies will deliberately obscure their affiliation or their plans to run an exhibit in a suite, making enforcement even harder.

Some other trade shows have used less confrontational methods, which they say are just as effective. Megan Tanel, vice president of exhibitions and events for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, said violations of exhibitor rules at her shows go to a committee made up of other industry members.

“It comes down to your peers, customers and competitors to decide your fate,” she said. This usually works, but when it does not, she says she tries to convince vendors it is in their best interests to be an official part of the show.

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/business/16shows.html

I know some readers will click through to this post just to see the pictures… and you’re expecting to see barely dressed, sexy women. Well, I don’t want to disappoint, so here is one…

tradeshow booth babe

And I don’t want to descriminate against my female readers, so here’s a male “booth babe”…

alternate tradeshow booth babe

OK, now that the obligatory eye-candy “tradeshow booth babe” pictures are out of the way, let me get to the point.

Tradeshow booth babes are a bad idea.

I’m familiar with the saying “sex sells” and maybe if you’re selling Miami-Vice-style cigarette jet boats to middle aged men or cheap beer to college kids, then having a skimpily clad blonde bimbo isn’t an entirely bad idea. But for most tradeshow exhibitors, booth babes are a bad idea. There are much better ways to attract qualified prospects to your tradeshow booth (even handing out trade show giveaways pens is a better idea than having a booth babe).

Having booth babes at your tradeshow booth will probably draw a crowd… but it will be a crowd of people clogging up your tradeshow booth wanting to see the pretty girl and probably having absolutely no interest in your product, service, or company. And for those people who are interested in your company, they will probably wonder if your product is any good at all if you have to resort to booth babes to try to sell it.

So let your competitors employ the booth babes at their tradeshow booths. Trust me and make your tradeshow booth a “booth-babe-free-zone”. If you are thinking about hiring a booth babe, look at this picture…

This is what a tradeshow booth babe will most likely do for your tradeshow marketing efforts, and is the mental image you should get if you seriously a booth babe for your own trade show booth… To repeat, tradeshow booth babes are a bad idea!

But just in case you didn’t get my point, let me show you another mental image to store away in the back of your head in the event you are ever, ever tempted to go the route of hiring a tradeshow booth babe to hawk your tradeshow wares…

Don’t do it. While “tradeshow booth babes” may be ok for a blog post, they are not ok for your tradeshow booth.

Care to disagree?

One might also think with the recession and economic hard times, that companies have been cutting back on their trade show marketing expenditures. That is probably also true.

And finally, because of these things, one might think that trade shows are becoming a thing of the past, a proverbial marketing dinosaur, a modern day Pony Express. One might ask, “Are trade shows obsolete?”

The answer to the question, “Are trade shows obsolete?” is a resounding no. Trade shows are not obsolete, rather, trade shows are still very much alive, and are still an important and effective marketing method.

Marketing, like most things, changes, improves, evolves, goes through fads, and also “rediscovers” old truisms. One of those truisms is that there is no substitute for face-to-face (human interaction) marketing. There is also no substitute for the economics of a target-rich environment. And people will always want free stuff, and will always be interested in filling their bags with trade show giveaways. There will always be trade shows. Trade shows are here to stay, and will remain a powerful marketing tool.

The Power of Trade Shows Today – Running the Numbers

An estimated 110 million people attend more than 4,000 trade shows in the United States and Canada every year.  That’s a lot of people, and a lot of trade shows.

And according to the marketing experts who crunch the numbers, trade shows remain the more cost-effective way of face-to-face marketing when compared to doing office or field sales calls. Although exhibiting at a trade show is not inexpensive, the opportunity to meet and talk to so many high-value prospects can pay off. It is a big investment… but it can have a big payoff.

To compare the costs acquiring leads and sales via trade show exhibiting versus field sales calls, consider the following numbers, provided by CEIR.org:

For the past 10 years, an average of 81%-83% of trade show attendees have some kind of buying power.
The average attendee spends 9.2 hours at a 2-3 day trade show.
86% of visitors to your booth will be new contacts.
77% of visitors to your booth will remember your company for up to 10 weeks.

Cost per lead from show averages $212.
Cost per lead from field (sales call) averages $308.
Cost per sale from a show averages $705.
Cost per sale from the field (sales call) averages $1140.
That’s 38% less to close a sale from a trade show lead!

Comparing meeting prospects at a trade show versus doing field sales calls, trade shows have the advantage. Of course to be fair, the numbers are a little different when you compare the costs of trade show marketing to internet marketing, but sometimes you just need face-to-face marketing and a focused prospect environment to find prospects and make sales.

Like any tool, trade shows are only effective if you know what you’re doing. You need to pick the right trade show to exhibit at. And you need to do proper trade show planning (don’t be a trade show kinsella) and you need to do proper trade show promotion. You need to make sure you design the perfect trade show display (or at least avoid bonehead trade show display design mistakes), and that you have a well-trained trade show booth staff. You should be aware of the common trade show exhibiting pitfalls, such as having your trade show booth swarmed by trade show zombies. And in the end, you need to know when to “panic” and make sure things happen, and when stop, take a deep breath, relax, and let trade show zen take over.

Should you run the numbers and decide to exhibit at a trade show, may karma smile upon you, and may you have much trade show success!

The Trade Show Guru turned a year old last week… it was a quiet celebration. When I set up this blog a year ago, I installed the version of WordPress that was available through my web host (2.6.something). Immediately after installing it, I found out that there was a never version of 2.6! Like heck I was going to immediately go through the potential headache of upgrading. And so to continue, for the last year I have lived quite comfortably with my WordPress 2.6.something. But then a few weeks ago I got a notice from my webhost that I needed to upgrade WordPress to 2.8.4 to avoid getting hacked. There was an evil worm spreading by the hour, if not the minute. I remembered that Rudy had upgraded, Mitch had upgraded (Mitch upgrades all the time I think), and so had several other bloggers I follow. I also remembered that JD got Hacked last year, and so I read the warnings this time and took them seriously.

My version of WordPress didn’t have the “auto upgrade” button, so I had to manually delete all my files (except the database of course) and then install the 2.8.4 files. It took a little while, and involved more than a bit of anxiety. But I did it, and more importantly it worked. I also made a few other security improvements while I was at it. Now I have the “auto upgrade” button as well, so maybe next time I’ll upgrade a little sooner. Or then again, maybe I’ll wait until the Trade Show Guru turns two.

From what I read, the threat out there to older versions of WordPress (2.8.2 and earlier) is both real and serious. If you aren’t running Wordpress 2.8.4, upgrade now. If I can do it, anyone can do it. If you don’t, it’s probably not a question of if your blog will get hacked, but when it will get hacked. So upgrade today!

I was working on the zip line out back that I built for my kids and needed a tool out of my tool box. Every good tool box has the basic tools: a hammer, a big screw driver, an adjustable wrench, vice grips, etc, plus enough other tools to make the tool box extremely heavy and difficult to move. But as I was rummaging through my tool box I realized that in addition to the many tools in it, there was also a blog post in it as well, figuratively speaking of course… Looking at the contents of my toolbox, I realized, as any Mr. Fix-It will know, a good toolbox will also have some very important “non-tools”. Here’s my list of the Top Ten Non-Tools for a Tool Box.

The Trade Show Guru’s
Top Ten “Non-Tools” for a Tool Box

1. A roll of duct tape. Duct tape is the ultimate McGyver tool, or non-tool. Very few things can not be fixed if you have a big enough roll of duct tape.

2. Bailing wire. If there is a runner-up for the ultimate McGyver tool, it would have to be a roll of bailing wire. Of course you want to make sure your tool box has a pair of wire cutters also.

3. A can of WD-40 (that isn’t empty).

4. A pocket knife. Preferably an old folding buck knife, passed down thorough at least two generations, with a story behind it. Of course, you also need to carry a pocket knife in your pants, and have one in your junk drawer in the kitchen. You can basically never have too many pocket knives.

5. Superglue. There is a reason it has the word “super” in it. Just be careful not to glue your fingers together.

6. Bandaids. In the event you do glue your fingers together, and then have to cut them apart with your pocket knife (see #4). In the event you run out of bandaids, you can always use a little bit of duct tape (see #1).

7. Cable ties. Nylon cable ties, not the cheap plastic ones.

8. A small bottle of Tri-Flow Superior Lubricant with Teflon. Amazing for fixing squeaky hinges, as well as oiling bicycle chains.

9. A pencil. Preferably the style that can be sharpened with a knife, such as the buck knife (see #5).

10. Several pieces of scrap paper (see #9). Useful for jotting down notes and measurements, as well as that brilliant widget idea that is destined to make you a millionaire.

Four additional bonus “runner up” non-tools:

11. Four or more random keys on a keychain (such as a house key, car key, or bike lock key). It is critical that you have no memory of what any of the keys are for. One day, one of the keys may prove to be critical! Never throw away anything!

12. A combination bottle opener/cork screw… in anticipation of a job well done, or to help you think about how to do a job, it’s important to have the means to open a bottle.

13. Chuck Norris – for those jobs that nothing else can take care of…

14. Condoms -Before you start thinking the condoms are for that, click the link. You learn something new every day.

A big thanks to the good people at the MultiTool Forum that provided suggestions and inspiration for this post, and especially to the Duct Tape Hero there for enlightening me on alternative uses for condoms.

So is there a non-tool that you think should have made my Top Ten Non-Tools for a Tool Box list but didn’t? Leave me comment and let me know.

X X X ~ Zombie Boot Camp (video below) ~ X X X

X X X ~ Zombie Boot Camp (video above) ~ X X X

By the way, my last post was on my Top 20 Chuck Norris sayings. Since then, I’ve found a few more, though I haven’t found any Chuck Norris sayings about zombies, at least not yet. Something tells me the zombies give ol’ Chuck a wide berth…

More Chuck Norris sayings

21. If it looks like chicken, tastes like chicken, and smells like chicken but Chuck Norris says its beef, then it’s beef.

22. If you have $5 and Chuck Norris has $5, he has more money than you!

23. Chuck Norris counted to infinity – twice.

24. If you spell Chuck Norris in Scrabble, you win. Forever.

~

Well, that’s it for now. Stay Frosty, keep your eyes open, keep a necrosledge handy, and keep Chuck Norris’s phone number on speed dial. You never know when you may find a zombie under your bed.

After his movies, Chuck moved onto TV, and made the TV series Walker, Texas Ranger. I’ve just seen snippets of it when I’ve been flipping through the channels, but i have never watched a full episode. If you’d asked me about Chuck Norris, I guess I would have said he’s a two-dimensional tough-guy actor with a beard that should be shaved off… (how many successful actors have beards?)  Little did I know about the real Chuck Norris, the true Chuck Norris, the man, the myth, the legend… the comedian?

I recently come across a quote by Chuck Norris on a forum signature. I thought the quote was hilarious, and I asked the person about. I found out that Chuck Norris has a lot of quotes, and he does a very good and funny job of poking fun at his “tough guy” image. I’ve got to say, I like Chuck Norris now, and maybe I’ll even have to watch an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger… or maybe not. If Chuck ever reads this, I hope he won’t beat me up (for poking fun at his beard – I’ve never had success with beards either). In fact, Chuck, if you’re reading this, I’ve got a beer for you with your name on it, and I’d love to get an autograph for my son.

Here are my Top 20 Chuck Norris quotes (aka Chuck Norris Jokes):

1.  Chuck Norris counted to infinity – twice.

2.  Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

3.  Chuck Norris doesn’t read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

4.  When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.

5.   Chuck Norris is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head.

6.   There is no chin behind Chuck Norris’ beard. There is only another fist.

7.  Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch, HE decides what time it is.

8.  Chuck Norris does not get frostbite. Chuck Norris bites frost.

9.  Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.

10.  When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

11.  Chuck Norris doesn’t go hunting…. CHUCK NORRIS GOES KILLING.

12.  The leading causes of death in the United States are: 1. Heart Disease 2. Chuck Norris 3. Cancer.

13.  Chuck Norris has two speeds. Walk, and Kill.

14.  The chief export of Chuck Norris is Pain.

15.  Guns don’t kill people. Chuck Norris kills people.

16.  The Great Wall of China was originally created to keep Chuck Norris out. It failed miserably.

17.  There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.

18.  There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of animals Chuck Norris allows to live.

19.  Chuck Norris can lead a horse to water AND make it drink.

20.  When Chuck Norris wants popcorn, he breathes on Nebraska.

~

If I ever need someone to cover my back in a bar brawl (or fend off the trade show zombies), I know who I’ll call… CHUCK NORRIS!

This gives me an idea. Maybe this is new way to promote your trade show exhibit booths… you can send out a pre-show mailer saying, “Show up at my trade show booth, or Chuck Norris will show up at your house.” Or maybe that wouldn’t be such a good idea.

I hope you enjoyed a bit of Chuck Norris humor / Chuck Norris Jokes. Thanks Chuck! I’m keeping that beer for you in the back of the fridge. Stop by any time.

~

chuck norris sayings, wit, wisdom, insights, knowledge, humor, jokes, and quotes by chuck norris, kungfu guru, karate master, the bearded man of steel with fists of dynamite