Posts Tagged ‘promotions’

The Hottest Toys Of The Year Could Be Found At Your Next Trade Show!!!

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

You don’t have to be a little kid to know the terms Kinect, Playstation Move, or Sing-a-ma-jig. These are just a few of the hottest video game consoles and toys on the market this holiday season. Long gone are the days when it was only children that kept up with the latest in toys. These days everyone from teenagers to retirees are addicted to such gaming systems  as the Nintendo Wii. While every mom, pop, aunt, and uncle, are scrambling for this year’s must have gifts, it may not be a bad idea to think about picking up one or two yourself to use as a little extra incentive for consumers to visit you at that next trade show event.

 Must have gifts make the perfect attention getters at any event. Imagine the following: a custom built trade show exhibit featuring full color overhead banners, fabric walls, enough shelving to hold tons of inventory, all of it covered in your company’s name and logo. An electronic information center sits near the entrance flashing a picture of this year’s got to have gaming system the Xbox Kinect the only system that does away with hand held controls and translates your movements into action on the screen and in large print “WIN YOUR VERY OWN XBOX KINECT!!!” A audio/video booth is set up to allow visitors to experience the thrill of the games first hand and in the back past all your merchandise is a small pedestal where guests can sign up to win by simply dropping their name and contact info into a fish bowl.

Promotions offering a chance for visitors to your exhibit a way to win big are great ways to get your company’s name out to the public and meet tons of people that might otherwise skip your booth. Essentially allowing that all important foot to get in the door, a prize such as this year’s hottest toy is a gateway to thousands of potential sales and in the long run may be the cheapest most profitable alternative to large marketing campaigns. Before you get ready to go to your next trade show event think about giving something back to the customer and thank about how Godfrey can turn help you turn any trade show into one for the record books!

How Much Are You Getting For Your Investment?

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

In terms of trade shows there are basically two types of events. The first being a situation where you bring a specific amount of inventory, setup at a location previously selected to get the most attention from visitors, take out a calculator, and sell sell sell. The second involves bringing very little in terms of inventory (except for promotional items such as pens, key-chains, business cards, etc…), requires a much greater knowledge of what is being promoted, and relies heavily on product demonstration whether it be through actually showing how something works or how an investment can make life easier (an exhibit featuring an insurance company would be an example of this). It’s the later that I want to focus on today mainly because the determination as to whether the event was a success or not often can’t be made till weeks or even months down the road simply because you’re there to take orders and build relationships not unload merchandise.

This idea of delayed income is called Return On Investment or ROI and is really quite easy to figure out once you know the steps.

1)While at your next event offer those you come into contact with an incentive for ordering. This incentive could be a gift or a discount, something that will make them feel they are getting a good deal by following your instructions. Make sure they understand that in order to take advantage of the promotion they must reference a specific code. This way you can track how the sale was generated.

2)Once you know sales generated, total up all your expenses associated with the trade show. Include the cost of labor, food, travel, etc…

3)Now take the amount you made (the value in dollars of sales that referenced the promotional code you asked customers to use) and divide that number by the total expenses.

4) Finally take this last number and multiply it by 100 to get the percentage returned to you from your investment (ROI)

It’s very common that the full impact of a trade show is not felt for months or maybe even a year after the event has taken place. Regardless of whether or not you are selling tons of inventory at one time or get your sales through the use of connections made at the event, finding out how much profit you made is a huge tool to have at your disposal. Not only will this help you calculate how successful an event was, but it can also be used to forecast similar events to come.