November 2011

ammunition

Tokin' Tops wasn't too high on passing out run- of-the-mill fliers to attendees at Hempcon 2010, a trade show catering to the medical-marijuana industry. Instead, the San Diego supplier of T-shirts, hoodies, pipes, and other pot paraphernalia hashed out an innovative twist: It took 4,000 cigarette-rolling papers and, using green food coloring, handstamped them with its web address, the words "Marijuana Apparel" (meaning its T-shirts), their price, and the offer of a free pipe with any order. Stuffing the papers into a mason jar - the receptacle medical-marijuana users typically favor to stash their stash - Tokin' Tops passed out all 4,000 before the show's first day was over. The giveaway/business cards with the ganja-colored printing proved popular not just because they were whimsical, but because they were an item universally used by attendees. In fact, the unexpected but apropos giveaway item ultimately drove booth traffic 25-percent above the company's initial pre-show goals. Tokin' Tops took a chronic problem - finding an inexpensive giveaway relevant to your product that attendees will not only use but remember you by - and hit on a potent solution its competitors will no doubt want to bogart. Now that's a highly successful promotion. When the product or service a company provides isn't something most attendees understand right away, nothing turns on light bulbs over their heads quite like a demonstration. At the 2011 ConExpo-Con/Agg show in Las Vegas, Chehalis, WA-based Ramsey Co. Inc. developed a unique way to help attendees comprehend how its long-line excavation services can help with a troublesome digging project. The company set up a pair of scale models of its long-line excavator featuring a shovel-like scoop hanging from one wire with a second wire that pulled the scoop back and forth. Each demo mock-up, which ran the length of Ramsey's 10-by-20-foot exhibit, excavated small rocks from the bottom of a 3-foot-long pool of water, simulating how Ramsey can dig through lakes, ponds, or other underwater hazards on a construction site. With TNT Rescue System Inc.'s new Nexus coupler, firefighters can "hot swap" their hydraulic tools - e.g., rams, spreaders, and cutters - up to 100 feet from their motor without ever turning it off. So to relay this key message at the Fire-Rescue International show in Dallas, TNT attached a 100-foot graphic to the aisle carpet leading up to its booth. Pre-approved by show management, the 2-foot-wide graphic featured an image of a hydraulic motor at one end, with two blue cables running the length of the 100-foot-long strip. At the 25-, 50-, and 100-foot points, attendees found additional product messages, such as "50' - Connect and disconnect under pressure." At the 100-foot mark immediately in front of TNT's booth, attendees discovered a picture of the coupler and the text "100' - Hot swap any TNT tool at this length." Simple and inexpensive, this in-aisle attention getter clearly communicated the product's main benefit - and literally drew attendees' eyes and feet to the TNT booth. Part aisle-side eye-catcher, part product display, this clever little exhibit element at the Surfaces show in Las Vegas was also a 3-D representation of All American Hardwood Floors Inc.'s corporate logo. Comprising little more than green laminate and some of the company's wood flooring samples, it's an utterly All American idea.		Inserting copies of media mentions inside press kits is nothing new for exhibitors. But Tokyomilk took that practice to the next level at the 2011 National Stationery Show. The company plastered the exterior of its exhibit with 6-foot-tall graphics of pages from an issue of InStyle magazine in which Tokyomilk lip balms were featured. The mega-sized magazine pages effectively turned Tokyomilk's exterior into a brand-building endorsement by one of America's most-read fashion magazines. To demonstrate to attendees at the American Institute of Architects Minnesota show the sturdy, attractive qualities of its Richlite product, EDK Ltd. literally built its booth out of the material. The company's 10-by-10-foot exhibit featured walls, a table, stools, and even handrails made from a variety of different colors of Richlite, which is typically used for countertops in retail stores and restaurants. EDK also handed out 2-inch sample pieces of the product, which is manufactured by super compressing paper to create a stronger alternative to plywood. The swatches resembled the finished product on one side, but the flip side was left uncompressed, making it easy for attendees to see the product's paper origins and further analyze its durability. With robots running their manufacturing paces in nearly every booth at the Medical Design & Manufacturing Minneapolis expo, Schmidt Technology Corp. took a different approach. The company brought a hand press and invited attendees to make their own giveaway: a top built out of a branded white rubber disk and a metal pin pushed through by the press. A booth staffer helped attendees build the top and talked about how Schmidt had the solution - low-tech like the hand press or high-tech like the automated machines in other exhibits - to meet an array of drilling and pressing needs. The hands-on experience did double duty as a product demo and conversation starter, and provided quality time with attendees to boot.
		What's The Big Idea? Do you have a clever exhibit-related tip? Did your last exhibit have an über-cool traffic builder? Contact Travis Stanton at tstanton@exhibitormagazine.com.