Ways to Attract Trade Show Traffic – Three Creative Examples

I visited the Atlanta Home Show last Saturday with my two kids and had a great time! There are many important aspects of trade show marketing, but today I want to focus on just one part…the unique things that attracted me and my kids to certain booths.

There were over 400 booths, and we saw LOTS of great displays and creative promotions. However, many of the booths started to run together after walking down aisle after aisle.

Interestingly, some of the unique things that stood out the most were NOT expensive or elaborate; they were just very creative, highly entertaining and completely unexpected. Here are three examples:

• The ALLGOOD Pest Solutions booth featured a tarantula named Kendra that brave attendees could actually hold. (A great amatuer photo opportunity, as evidenced by my picture.) They also had hissing roaches in an aquarium, and an impressive collection of other preserved villainous pests and bugs on display.
• Party Til You Pop had a huge balloon display of yellow sunflowers in an orange pot to showcase their unique ability to make balloon sculptures. They were also giving away free balloon swords and free balloon flowers.

• The State Farm insurance booth was printing old-fashioned flip books (on the spot) featuring a brief video of the visitors posing with fun props. It was a clever way to draw traffic into the booth and engage people in a memorable way. They also had games and prizes.

Again, there are many aspects to successful trade show promotion including pre-event promotion, attracting and engaging traffic, collecting data, and especially following up to convert leads into real business. In highly competitive product and/or service categories, it is critically important to differentiate your company and stand out from the crowd to even get a shot at collecting data and qualifying your prospects!

So, next time you are planning your trade show strategy, avoid the typical pens, magnets and mints. Put your “thinking cap” on and focus on creating something entertaining, unusual and memorable to attract more potential clients and customers!

BTW, I do not receive any compensation  from the companies I mentioned. My kids and I voted and just felt these were the three most unique examples from the show.    

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