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Seth Godin’s secret for getting a ton of visitors to your trade show booth…
By Joyce McKee | December 27, 2007
These days I am all over the internet doing research for Let’s Talk Trade Shows and some upcoming reports for 2008.
I found an interesting blog entry by Seth Godin on trade shows. First let me pay my respects to one of the great marketers of our time. He has written many wonderful books on marketing and his blog has a #1 ranking for marketing blogs. This man KNOWS marketing and especially the viral aspect of marketing. One can learn much from an authority like him.
In his June 20, 2007 blog (http://sethgodin.typepad.com) he talks about coming back from a trade show. It was a consumer show, EBay Live and the attendance was around 10,000 people. So he was there and he wanted to get the word out about Squidoo – so what does this genius do to spread the word?
Well he had orange T-shirts made with the Squidoo information on it and well, let’s hear from him what happened:
“Here’s what we did: we printed 600 t-shirts with a long, hand-written letter on the front, explaining how Squidoo helps eBayers. And we gave the shirt away to anyone willing to wear it. The incentive? Each day, Megan picked someone who was wearing the shirt and gave that person $9,000 worth of ads on.
Within an hour, you saw orange t-shirts on the show floor. By the second day, every single t-shirt was taken and more than 5% o
f all the people there were wearing the shirts.
Total cost: $3,000. (plus the ads).”
He consider his venture to be quite a success, since every shirt was taken, including the one on the mannequin. He goes on and provides some sage counsel on viral marketing:
“A gimmick? Of course. But a relevant one. The spreading of the idea was not just our tactic, it was the entire point. Too often, trade show exhibits seem focused on either getting rid of the people who stop by or getting their badge scanned. What a waste. The real win is to generate true buzz… people talking about you and what you do, not about your tactics. So, a magician in your booth might be fun, but if all I talk about is the magician, you’ve wasted your money.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Until next time…
Joyce McKee
Topics: Trade Show Tips |