Big Event Idea :: No One Can Resist a Monkey

The Audio Podcast of this post is available here (1:38).

All over the country, companies exhibit at trade shows and other events with hopes of coming face-to-face with their ideal buyers and the gatekeepers to the most lucrative channels. The reality of it is, you stand shoulder-to-shoulder with your competition and everybody ends up shouting their value to anyone who will listen. The problem is, if you do what everybody else is doing, you're lost in the noise of the show.

The Big Idea for a successful event showing is all about standing out by thinking creatively rather than just increasing your event budget so you can shout a little louder. Consider the following:

Almost no one can resist the random, the novel, or the just plain weird at an exhibition. After all, a majority of the attendees are expecting more than just information; they are expecting "info-tainment." Promote your booth at the show by offering registrants a free photo opportunity with a monkey. The headline could read: "Get the monkey off your back with company X." It almost writes itself. Pass out T-shirts that say, "I got my picture taken with a monkey at booth 1308" and watch viral marketing at its best.

Perhaps the logistics of this example are out of whack, but water down your creativity when it comes to promoting and driving traffic to your booth, and you’re watering down your return on investment. The key is to not to just think big, that is, increase your event budget, the key is to think of something novel, unexpected, or just too weird to ignore.

There's no need to have the biggest booth, or the best position, if you have the best promotion. Just remember "no one can resist a monkey" and your creativity, rather than your budget, will win you business at the show.

Justin Downey Marketing has a comprehensive service offering including event promotion. For more information visit our Marketing Services page at: www.justindowneymarketing.com/marketing_services.html.

Big Idea :: Small Business Sticks Together

Small business owners know what it’s like to feel dwarfed by their competition. It comes with the territory. However, feeling dwarfed by your vendors is quite another thing.

All small businesses have needs. They need vendors to provide them distribution, phone service, banking, internet access, marketing, the list goes on. The problem arises when your small business has a problem and your Goliath-sized vendors are too busy worrying about their own Goliaths to pay any attention to your desperate, small business needs.

Here's the Big Idea, small businesses should do business with small businesses. Redundant? Perhaps. Valid? Absolutely.

At Justin Downey Marketing, we are a small business that specializes in high-impact, low-cost marketing activities for small businesses because we know what it's like to be the David facing the Goliath. We work with vendors who are small businesses themselves, because they understand our small business needs.

I'd like to recognize the following small businesses for their continuing commitment to helping ours and other small businesses succeed.

• TransWorldNews
• Finditt
• iBroadband
• Logix Communications
• CustomInk
• Boxer Properties

If you're ready to work with a small business who understands your needs, I encourage you to contact one of our preferred vendors. Small businesses need to stick together.

Big Idea :: The Crumpled-up Sales Pamphlet

In our last Big Idea, Over-Sized Sales Brochures, we discussed setting your sales collateral apart from the ordinary by developing enormously over-sized sales brochures. I have another, slightly more portable, Big Idea that's sure to leave a lasting impression with sales prospects.

After you hand your prospective buyer your sales pamphlets and have left the room, most people just crumple it up and throw it away.

Fact is, no one likes to be sold, but what can marketing do to support your sales efforts without making people feel like they are being sold. What if I told you that you should crumple up your sales pamphlets for them?

The Big Idea here is for your sales pamphlets to be printed, crumpled by hand, and have a special business card printed and rubber banded to the crumpled up mess. The special business card will quickly and clearly explain that your company wanted to save them time and effort by taking the liberty to crumple up the sales pamphlet for them. It will also provide them an incentive to un-crumple the pamphlet with a cleaver sub-headline like: "If you would prefer not to through away any more money, flatten me out and receive $50 off your first purchase."

The crumpled-up sales brochure has a few advantages over the traditional folding sales pamphlet.

• It's creative, different and memorable.
• It's interactive.
• It's more portable than the "Over-Sized Brochure"
• It's easy and cheap to produce with little more than a desktop printer and a helping hand.

The Crumpled-up Pamphlet and the Over-Sized Brochure are both just creative ways to let your marketing set your sales collateral apart from the ordinary and you will invariably set your company apart from the ordinary as well.

For more information or to engage Justin Downey Marketing to set your sales collateral apart from the ordinary, visit our website.