It's SHOWTIME! Trade Show Contest and Games Make Your Booth a “Winner"

The name of the “game” at trade shows is to attract visitors and potential buyers to your booth. Contests and games can really do the trick and attract interested trade show attendees to come over to your booth. Once there for contests or games where they can win a prize, you have the chance to win them over too.

Make sure that your quick elevator pitch is polished and ready to go. Also, if the display and support materials in your booth are descriptive enough, the potential buyers can learn about your company, what you do, and what you are selling just by standing there and looking around.

Here are some trade show booth contest and game ideas:

• Prize Wheel: These can be big and colourful; some are even glitzy or have lights to attract even more attention. They spin the wheel and see where it lands. Make sure that you connect your company’s contact information, business card, or maybe a promotional pen.
  
  You can customize the prizes and some ideas for giveaways are:
  
  
• Promotional Merchandise: You can have different levels of prizes, for example, a lower level prize could be a promotional mug, while a higher end promotional gift prize could be clothing, or electronics accessories.
  
• Free consultation for your services: Giveaway a 15 minute, 30 minute, or 1 hour consultation of your services.
  
• Free Products or Services: If you have something to giveaway and then that is a great way to stir up buzz about your products.
  
• Percentage off Their Order: Encourage them to purchase by offering a discount. It can be a dollar amount off or a percentage off.
  
• Free lunch at the trade show: Who doesn’t love a free lunch?
  
• Snacks or Drinks: Candy, granola bars, colas, or water bottles make easy giveaways that are appreciated.
  
• Local Business Gift Certificates: Hit up a few businesses that are local to your trade show and see if they would be willing to offer a gift certificate in exchange for the exposure they will get being featured as a prize on your prize wheel. You could also organise gift certificates with other trade show exhibitors that do not have competing products.
  
• Fish Bowl Drawing: This is a great way to collect business cards of attendees; and it is also an easy way to hold a contest. They will gladly give you their contact information for a chance to win a great prize.
  
• Trivia Games: To attract more attention and create buzz, you can hold trivia contests daily where attendees can win prizes based on their knowledge of your products or your industry.
  
• Interactive Games or Applications: If you are in a tech industry or tech savvy, having tablets with a game or interactive application on it can be a big draw and also get people talking about your booth.
  
  
  Don't choose just anything for your the event you want to be remembered by! We've been around since 1979 and will take the time to find the perfect product for your next event and save you money while doing it.

Promo Products Are Perfect Partners For IT Firm

Back Bay Networks, an IT consulting firm, regularly employs promotional products in its marketing efforts. “We have been sending fun toys or funny products – along with an info sheet – to companies just to have them pick it up, see our logo and remember us in the future if they have computer problems,” says Jake Lang, business development and marketing coordinator. The giveaways serve as a conversation starter. “They have definitely received interest and helped us build our potential client list,” says Lang. The price point varies depending on the type of client. Since Back Bay is an IT service company, it has a lower volume of clients but a high- and long-term profit margin, as the majority of its customers purchase yearly service contracts. “In our case, we believe the extra expense for customized marketing is worth the money to obtain a multi-year customer,” he says. The company’s biggest success to date came from a local soccer club. “We had worked with them in the past, but when they realized our increased marketing initiatives, they reached out to us and offered us an incredible deal – to become their official IT partner,” Lang says. Back Bay got advertising rights throughout all of the soccer club’s facilities and events, including promotional ceiling banners, indoor soccer wall boards and an entire indoor soccer goal wrap in return for a discounted IT service rate. “This new partnership put us in contact with a number of new clients and thousands of potential clients,” he says. “This one partnership will easily cover the expenses of running the promotional campaign.” Some of Back Bay’s giveaways that have been particularly well received include a Rubix Cube with the company’s logo replacing the white squares, and a note that reads, “If your computer issues are tougher than this Rubix Cube, give us a call.” Back Bay also has sent out “Boogie Bots,” logoed dancing robots. “This usually gets some laughs and a phone call or email saying ‘thanks,’” Lang says. Another popular giveaway was a Magic 8 Ball with the company logo and a note, “Ask the magic IT ball about your IT issues. And if that doesn’t work, give us a call because we have the answer.” The company attends a lot of trade shows and local town events, and brings along promotional materials like pens, key chains, bottle openers, flash drives, water bottles and T-shirts to hand out to potential clients. Make sure to partner with AdVantages Advertising for help procuring promotional items and great ideas for your next event or marketing campaign. Thanks to the Advertising Specialty Institute for the submission.

How does the Canadian slumping dollar effect us?

Content from CBC News. (See link below)


From Acuras to iPhone apps, suits to sweet potatoes, Canadians are going to be paying more for imported goods, thanks to the loonie's fall against the U.S. dollar.

"It's down roughly 10 per cent from a year ago. That's a very deep decline in a relatively short period of time." says Douglas Porter, chief economist and managing director of BMO Financial Group.

"We've seen deeper drops, but historically that would rank right up there with one of the biggest declines in a 12-month period."

And consumers, Porter says, will pay the price.

"The losers, pretty clear cut: It's consumers. Basically, we have to pay more for anything that's imported or priced in U.S. dollars," says Porter.
It's already happening

Food prices have been increasing for months. Clothing, while often made overseas, tends to be priced in U.S. dollars and has also been getting more expensive.

So too a big-ticket item that Canadians are buying in record numbers. Automakers have started to raise sticker prices on Canadian vehicles.

The Automobile Protection Association says Toyota and Honda, among others, raised prices in the first week of January. Several luxury brands, including Lexus, Acura, and BMW have also made changes to their pricing, with Audi reportedly set to follow in mid-January, the association says.

The APA says most of the increases are modest, an extra few hundred dollars per vehicle.

But it says Honda has raised the suggested retail price on its 2015 CRV Touring, all-wheel-drive model by $750.

"Car companies will take every opportunity that they can to maximize transaction prices or minimize their exposure to the exchange rate," says Jason Stein, publisher and editor of Automotive News.

"We do see prices increasing. We've seen prices increasing across North America. Will they increase a little bit more rapidly north of the border, due to the exchange rate? I think that's probably the case."
It doesn't cut both ways

Stein, a Canadian who lives in Windsor, Ont., and works in Detroit, echoes some of the frustration of some Canadians, who feel automakers were much slower to drop prices in this country when the Canadian dollar was high.

"Interestingly, when the Canadian dollar was above the U.S. dollar, a year, year and a half ago, you didn't see prices dropping."

Last week, Apple raised prices in its Canadian App Store. The 99-cent apps will now cost $1.19 Canadian, a 20 per cent increase. Other apps under $10 went up by about 15 per cent. Apple says the increase is linked to the exchange rate.

Other countries feel it too

But it's not all bad news. The loonie isn't the only currency falling against the greenback.

"This is not entirely a weak Canadian dollar story. Some of it is a strong U.S. dollar story," says BMO's Porter.

"The U.S. dollar is rising against a lot of currencies. So some items we might not be paying a lot more for. For instance, some items from Europe or from Japan, might not be going up that much in price because their currencies are also weakening."

But with the U.S. accounting for about half of all Canadian merchandise imports, the dollar's doldrums will hit most Canadian consumers in the pocketbook.







SOURCE: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canadian-dollar-slump-hikes-cost-of-u-s-imported-goods-1.2898150