Polish Your Way to Trade Show Booth Success

There are several companies who can set-up a shoe shine stand in your booth, but is it a good idea?

You bet! PPB magazine, a magazine for the promotional products industry, published a case study that illustrated a successful use of this unique promotional idea. A medical imaging company, whose customers are primarily male, set up two shoeshine stands in their trade show booth. Their booth staff wore aprons to highlight the theme and they invited customers to climb up for a complimentary shoeshine. Don't worry, the shoe shine was done by a professional shiner.  You don't need to have expert shoe shiners on staff to make this work for you.

While this is a unique, traffic-building idea, you may be thinking, how does this help my brand? It does! The great twist to this promotion was that the prospects were given a custom-printed newspaper to read while their shoes were being shined. Of course the newspaper content contained the exhibitor's marketing and product messages. Then, upon completion of the shoe shine, the prospects were also given a tote bag with the company's logo to store their newspaper plus a company-branded tin of shoe polish.

This promotion was beneficial for all parties--the weary trade show attendees had a chance to slow down and rest while their shoes were being shined and the exhibitor had a captive audience with an opportunity to tell its story. In this example, the company was able to generate 69 leads, which resulted in $100,000 in new sales the following year.

Could your prospects use a little pampering? If so, this could be a good way to attract people to your trade show booth. For additional promotional products to use to promote your brand, try shoe shine cloths, shoe polish, shoe horns, travel shoe bags, or full Dopp Kits. All of these items can be printed or embroidered with your logo.

Interested in implementing this idea or want to brainstorm some other unique traffic building trade show promotions? Give me a call at 847-398-5500 or email me at dona.blunt@newportpros.com to get started.

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