My client was dumbfounded. The answer wasn’t complicated, costly or hard to do. The question was, “How do I effectively engage people at the tradeshow?”

“All you gotta do,” I said, “is invite people to take a sheet of your letterhead, make a paper airplane and see if they can fly it into the open window of one of your units.”

My client was a Recreational Vehicle (RV) dealer selling motor homes, travel trailers and 5th wheels to the upscale camping crowd. She was spending a wad on tradeshows but wasn’t getting the results she wanted. So I went to an RV show and had a look around.

Talk about BORING! Every booth was staffed with polite people standing outside their RV’s smiling and saying, “Hi. Howyado’in” to everyone that passed by. RVing is supposed to be exciting and fun. But not one dealer at that show had a mechanism by which to break the boredom, arrest and engage attendees.

I went back and told my client, “You gotta give these people something fun to do. Something that captures the spirit of RVing.”
That’s when I shared the paper airplane concept with her. “If they get the airplane through the window,” I explained, “then they have to go inside to retrieve it and receive their prize. You’ve got ‘em where you want ‘em — INSIDE THE UNIT!”
Too often, tradeshow exhibitors believe that handing some cheap do-dad to everyone who walks by their booth is effectively promoting their business. Key words in that sentence are, “everyone who walks by.” The whole point of a tradeshow is to find qualified prospects. That means you have to find out who is interested in your product or service AND can afford it. You can’t do that if everyone is walking by.

Here’s how I engage people at tradeshows. I use a water globe game where you attempt to get a golf ball to sit on a tee. I stand at my booth with the thing in my hand with 2 or 3 more sitting on the table.

I play with it and invite passers-by to try it. I tell them, “If you can get the ball to rest on the tee, I’ll give you a free flashlight.” You can offer anything you want, I just happened to get a great deal on flashlights.

While they’re trying to accomplish the task, I ask them what they do and ask appropriate follow ups from there. Most people can’t get the ball on the tee. So after a couple minutes I say, “Would you like an easier way to get the flashlight?” I then hand them my “Needs Assessment Profile”.

I say, “This sheet pretty much mirrors our approach to promotional marketing.

1) What do you want to accomplish with your marketing?

2) Who do you want to impact?

3) And most importantly, what do you want the target to do? Because after all, what’s the point if you don’t get your target to do something.”

Each section has check offs to make it easy. If they fill out the form, I give them the flashlight. If they take it with them and fax me the form, I mail them their gift.

A number of important things happen here:

1) If they fill out the form, it’s likely on some level they are interested in what I have to offer.

2) I only give away something IF, and ONLY if, I get actionable data first.

3) I and my company are associated with a happy/fun moment in their life.

This tactic stops people and engages them. While they’re playing with the game, their guard is down — they’re likely to open up a bit more. The focus gently transitions into my creative problem-solving approach and how they can benefit from it.

There are hundreds of ways to arrest tradeshow attendees. A paper cup, a golf ball and a putter. A magnetic dartboard. Ring toss. Throw a ball in a basket. Firing rubber bands with your finger to knock over a cup. Drop a coin into a shot glass that’s inside a large jar filled with water. Some of the best activities are the ones that elicit the comment, “I haven’t done this since I was a kid,” such as hula hoops, paper airplanes, silly putty … playing tic-tac-toe.

With a little creative thought, you can come up with a simple, fun activity that will arrest tradeshow attendees and increase your ability to achieve your tradeshow goals. Remember, you don’t have to be in law enforcement to arrest someone. Sometimes, all it takes is a little “fun enforcement”.

©2006 Michael Crooks

Michael Crooks - Crooks owns Crooks Advertising Alliance, a creative strike-force specializing in creative problem-solving. Born & raised in the "cereal city", Battle Creek, MI (USA), he's an assistant Scoutmaster and enjoys thinking, writing, camping, cooking, shooting and family getaways. Crooks writes a monthly marketing column for Brilliant Results magazine and is internationally recognized as a speaker, author (ReThinking Trade Show Giveaways) and business coach in the field of promotional marketing. Learn more at www.CrooksAdvertising.com and www.PromoReThink.com
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