swag-a-palooza
last week’s xchange solution provider show was a veritable cornucopia of vendor giveaways.
altho yours truly didn’t win any of the big big prizes, at least not yet anyway…
it was still amazing to see how much stuff the vendors were laying on people.
to get an idea, here’s the second bed in my room at the hyatt, which performed an invaluable function as the swag repository…
highlights of the swag definitely included the label machine from brother…
a beautiful poker set from ricoh…
& the nutcracker from msppartners.com. i can testify, first-hand, that this was mastermind’s absolute favorite piece of swag, mainly because it was the one she felt she could get the most immediate & productive use out of upon returning to her secret lair.
but the absolute best giveaway, hands-down, had to be the shipping boxes from aten. basically they furnished boxes & paid the freight cost for every attendee’s swag to be sent home. talk about a brilliant idea! kudos aten!
of course, tons of us also decided to lighten our suitcases by dumping our dirty laundry into a valet bag & shoving it into the box.
in the end, all the stuff the vendors do is with the express goal of creating a favorable impression in attendee’s minds regarding their company & its products. and the vendors’ efforts range far beyond just the stuff they are giving away. it’s really what all their efforts for any show should work toward.
in that case, the funcave best in show award for overall effectiveness has to go to….
panasonic
their nothing beats the original marketing efforts regarding their toughbook line of ruggedized notebook computers was fantastic. i was already a fan of their badass notebooks, but their hospitality suite was brimming with cool stuff to do, like shooting a testimonial commercial for panasonic toughbooks, and…
getting your picture taken with a couple of celebrity look-alikes.
the vendors have to really watch their messaging tho.
for example…
since panasonic’s marketing message was that knockoffs suck…wouldn’t that, by extension, include their hired look-alikes? lucky the duke’s gun was a fake.
and ricoh’s messaging was a winning hand, replete with a dealer & a blackjack table in their hospitality suite. but i’m not sure that associating the idea of gambling with your product is a good one. dunno about you, but i never gamble when it comes to the stuff i put in for or recommend to my clients.
|| posted by chris under business, freebie, thumbs up || comments (0) || ||
