No One can Resist a Monkey

All over the country, companies exhibit at trade shows and events with hopes of being face-to-face with 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.  However, if you do what everybody else is doing (try to shout a little louder), you’re lost in the noise of the show.

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.”   Be sure to give it to them.

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.”  Whatever. 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 at this point and you’re watering down your return on investment. The key is to think big and come up with of something truly novel, unexpected, or just WAY too weird to ignore.

There’s no need to have the biggest booth, or the best looking booth staff, if you have the best promotional idea.  Remember “No One Can Resist a Monkey” and let your creativity win you business at your next trade show.