People just go wild for the color purple,” says Michael Phelan, executive director of marketing for PlumChoice, a provider of remote tech support. “There’s something about the color.” Whatever the attraction, PlumChoice has taken full advantage of it in their marketing efforts, using plum-colored promotional products, decking out their trade show booth in the same shade and even laying out a “purple-brick road” from their booth to a post-show Plumtini (cocktail) reception.
For the huge Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas earlier this year, PlumChoice decided to take a different approach from previous years. In the past, they had felt their booth was too far away from the action, and they didn’t have the budget for a prime booth. This time they didn’t even get a booth. “We had an executive-level suite where we had partner meetings off the main show floor,” Phelan says. “Then we created experiential marketing programs on the streets in Las Vegas.”
Using a medical theme, brand ambassadors portrayed doctors and nurses who offered to “cure” the crowds of their computer ills. The team handed out syringe-shaped pens holding purple liquid and prescription bottles of plum-colored M&Ms.
The show was a huge success for them. “We got tremendous buzz,” Phelan says. “Even some of the media photographed our experiential marketing crew.”
BIZ TIP
3 Ways to get the most from trade shows
- Brand with a striking color. “People seem to gravitate toward purple,” says Michael Phelan, executive director of marketing for PlumChoice.
- Get prospects engaged. Conduct games at your booth, or stage an act that illustrates how your product or service works.
- Send out a street team. If your booth is off the beaten trail, brand ambassadors can direct traffic your way.