Trade Show Giveaways – Create a Buzz and Draws Attention

Selecting the right giveaway can create a buzz.

All around the trade show floor, you hear, "Excuse me, where did you get that?" The craze for the giveaway is creating a buzz on the floor.  I can be a light flashing pen, ball, balloon animal, or a puzzle.  Vendors from the trade show floor seek out a new gimmick and promotional item to keep them occupied while working the trade show floor.  Attendees collect anything that looks interesting, but vendors who do many trade shows a year have seen it all, and when something new appears, everyone must have one.

Now, the purpose of a giveaway is to draw attention to a booth, and having a unique giveaway will create a buzz.  You will quickly learn that if you have an exciting giveaway, vendors will start showing up at your booth. Other vendors will direct people over to your booth.  Personally, I have seen vendors holding or playing with another vendors giveaway and have somebody asked, "Where did you get that?"  The vendor directs them to your booth.  That is one reason why I instruct booth staff never to play with another vendor's giveaway while in the company booth.

Customized balloon giveaways are like magnets to vendors – they quickly seek out the entertainer making the creations and want one for themselves or their booth.  Which is a great marketing tool for your booth have another exhibitor advertise your giveaway?

Whatever the giveaway you chose to look for uniqueness and creativity that will cause a buzz on the trade show floors.  Skip the pens and pencils and look for something that will give you the bang for your buck and create a buzz.  If it is not going to create a buzz, why give it away?

Unique Giveaways Draws Attention

Travel up and down a trade show floor, and you will find an endless supply of pens, paper clips, and candy.  Everything you don't need or want will be given away. The purpose of a giveaway is the gimmick to draw somebody into your booth space.

Words spread quickly among vendors when a cool giveaway is on the floor.  Some vendors opt to hide the really cools stuff and only present it when a "potential" customer enters a booth.  Many times on the last day of the show vendors, handout everything just to avoid the cost of shipping the material back.

Some companies give away the same thing every show.  Does not matter what the show is, how long of an event, or how much money they are spending to participate, the giveaway will be the same. Others work very hard to associate the giveaway with a theme of the show.  Quite often, these wacky giveaways go to the kids or brought back and given away to office staff. 

Successful vendors customize the giveaways, so there is a broader meaning to the gift than just a pen.  Manufacturing companies will engrave names, cut out sports logos, or hire entertainers to create a unique giveaway that are cherished, not simply discard back at the hotel.

Water, food, gift cards are all part of the trade show giveaways that attract attention to a booth.  Many times, you have no idea what the giveaway is because it hidden behind a display, tossed on a table or booth staff is playing with it.

Do not rely on a giveaway to draw attention to a booth. Look at a giveaway as a thank you for stopping into my booth and talking with me about my product and service. Present it as a thank you and not as a snatch and grab object like some many companies do.

Double Trade Show Leads

A trade show presenter has one specific goal, and that is to help with your booth advertising. Yes, a booth presentation is advertising. The revenue it generates determines if the show was a success or not. If your presenter fails to help generate leads, i.e., revenue, then it is a flop.

Professional presenters will take time to learn about your product and help develop a routine that shows product benefit to the attendees. The scripted routine allows the presentation to be creative and informative. Sales staffs as good as they may be at speaking, are not entertainers and lack the charisma of a professional presenter.

An employer would never ask a new employee to write the companies training manual but will ask them to work a critical trade show booth.  Just their inexperience can reduce productivity, and the finesse needed to lour prospecting attendees into a trade booth is nonexistence. Eliminating inexperienced and ill-prepared sales staff and replacing it with one professional presenter will double leads.  After all, this is what they do for a living.

Engaging the Audience

Knowing the right questions to ask in a trade show booth will assist in lead generations.  Too often, the new staff asks the wrong questions, and before you know it, the potential customer is walking out the booth. 

The secret is in the phrasing of the questions.  We all know to avoid one-word answer of yes and no. However, the trick is to ask an open-ended question that relates to your product or service. Think of it as your elevator speech for your trade show booth. You only have 30 seconds to catch the attention, so use it wisely.

The question needs to be inquisitive but also asked in an interesting manner. Look at sentences that start with; we've made it possible to… or imagine the possibilities if you could… The key is to pique their curiosity and draw them into a conversation.  Once they engage you, follow through and ask them if they have a specific problem they are seeking to solve at the show.  Now you know the real reason why they are attending or entering your booth, and you can fully assist them with their needs.  If they tell you, they do not have a problem and are just fact-finding, that's great – these are future clients.

Be creative when you engage your audience, and the audience will hang around to talk.  Once an attendee starts talking, find out why they are there, and capitalize on it.

Crowds attract Crowds

Converting a crowd of observers into customers is what a presentation should accomplish.

People are curious in nature.  It can be a car crash on a highway, a free sample, or even a pitchman working a trade show booth stops people just long enough for them to see what is going on.  So drawing a crowd is not difficult, making them stay and listen to a sales pitch is the difficult task.

Cleaver pitchmen learn that they need a hook to keep the crowd from walking away. They will use comedy, magic, quick-witted dialog to hold the audience's attention and in that period deliver a well-constructed message.  Moreover, at the end of the presentation, you need to register for something before they give away information promised in the beginning.

Drawing the crowd is the easy party, work on developing a well-crafted sales pitch that talks to the prospective client and transforms them from observers to customers.  That is what you must achieve when drawing a crowd around a booth.

The Rationale of Why You Hired Trade Show Presenter

The main job of your trade show presenter is to grab the attention of a visitor and bring them into your booth to learn more. Wild, crazy rock climbing stunts, girls in cheerleader uniforms and video games are just some of the crazy stunts that sales manager thinks of when trying to draw attention to their booth. 

Transforming your booth into a sideshow or arcade loses focus of what you are trying to sell. Nobody on the show floor knows what you are selling.  All they know is… Did you see that booth over there?  Ever see a big name celebrity signing autographs in a booth, they drew a crowd, but no leads are being generated. 

The goal is to generate leads, qualified leads. Placing a pretty girl in a tight skirt in front of your booth and she can gather all the business card you want.  Try turning them into a sale, and you will quickly learn these "leads" are garbage.  Select a presenter that will help you generate leads and be entertaining at the same time.

Selecting the Perfect Trade Show Booth Presenter

Presenters have strength and weakness when it comes to a booth presentation. Some presenters are comfortable standing in front of a group of people regurgitating a speech from an ear prompter, while others like to interact with the audience.  Booth size and location will determine the presentation style.  Large booths encourage people to come in and sit, while corner booths try to gather people in two isles. Typically, they have a podium in the corner of the booth to exploit booth location. Booths in the middle want to engage in conservation and stop you dead in your tracks.

Others think gadgets can replace human interaction. Just because it is the newest game craze, does not mean it going to be a hot attraction in your booth.  People like to interact with people, its part of our social and society makeup to gather in groups. Besides, sales staff find it easier to disseminate information to an attendee when watching a presentation when they are engrossed in a game.

Select the right presenter, and you will increase your booth traffic and improve the quality of your leads.