87 Ways to Get More Out of Home Shows, Part 4

This is the forth of nine articles written by Matt Michel. This article can be read in its entirety on the Service Roundtable website (www.serviceroundtable.com/freebies). The article gives advice of what to do and what not to do at home shows.

31. Make the Booth Homey. You can make your booth more inviting by bringing some simple touches from home. Add a table lamp to contrast with the overhead glare of fluorescent lighting (at least, add one while you can still buy incandescent lights). Bring a few house plants.

32. Don’t Forget Storage Space. You will need places for your booth workers to store personal belongings during the show and for you to store ad premiums and literature. This is even more important if the show takes place during colder weather. Coats are bulky.

33.Use a Trailer. Ben Stark, a Dallas/Fort Worth air conditioning contractor built a trailer for home shows and other events. The trailer interior is the room of a house with a duct traversing the room. The trailer is designed to allow Stark Air employees to demonstrate the various products the company sells. Ben pulls up, opens up, and is set up in minutes. Even better, the trailer was practically free. By featuring a manufacturer on the outside of the trailer, Ben was able to get most of the trailer’s cost paid for by the manufacturer.

34. Get Creative. Design something that makes people ooh and ah. An example is a plumber’s magical faucet. Attach a faucet to a piece of clear PVC that is mounted on a base in a small tank of water. Use a fountain pump to pipe water up through the PVC. At the top, it spills down back down the outside of the PVC. It takes a little adjusting to get it right, but when you’re done it appears as though water is pouring out of a faucet suspended in air. People will look at it, marvel about it, and poke it.

If you own a thermographic camera, this can be a simple, creative attention getter. Point the camera at consumers walking down the aisle see their heat image on a large video screen.

35. Use a Fog Machine. Party City and other retailers offer low cost fog machines that you can use to create some movement and life to some aspect of your booth. Have fog drifting out of a refrigerator or an air conditioner. Strategically use floodlights or Christmas lights for dramatic effect.

36. Display a Mechanic. Well, not a real mechanic. Rent or buy a mannequin. Put a company uniform on it and set it on a revolving pedestal. Again, the idea is to create
movement and action.

37. Build a Money Cage. A money cage is one of the most powerful contest and promotional tools ever created. The money cage is a cage with a slot to drop a big pile of cash and one or two powerful blowers attached to blow the bills around. The money cage can be constructed using chicken wire or clear Plexiglas.

When a money cage contest winner enters the cage, the fan is flipped on, the money is dropped in, a race timer counts down the seconds, and the contest winner grabs as much cash as possible before time expires. What he grabs, he gets to keep.

A money cage is an event. It draws a crowd. People shout and cheer like it’s a game show. It’s exciting. It’s fun. It’s memorable.

Money cages can be used at home shows and neighborhood fairs. They can be used in your parking lot or a retailer’s parking lot. When a consumer wins time in the money cage, he should be encouraged to invite friends and neighbors to cheer. The length of time in the money cage ranges from 10 seconds to 20 seconds. Ten seconds may not sound like a long time, but it’s plenty.

Money cages are effective employee promotions as well. When an employee wins a contest and earns a trip to the money cage, do not announce the winner beforehand. Set a time after hours on a Friday or on a Saturday so that all employees can show up and bring their families with them. If a chance in the money cage isn’t enough to motivate the employee, the employee’s family will supply whatever motivation is lacking once they see a money cage in action.

After a home show, give the employee who collected the most leads a shot in the money cage.

Building a money cage is simple. Build a sheet metal frame with Plexiglas sides. Frame a small slot at the top to drop the cash. Connect one or two blowers to the bottom and/or top and let ‘er rip. Of course, it’s wise to test it a few times before you use it. Make sure your configuration and blower speed results in enough air circulation with the cage that the money dances in the air, but not so much that the cash simply sticks to the sides (that’s no fun). Inevitably some will stick, but the bulk should swirl around.