GET CREDIT LIVE – 1 points It pays to be innovative because today’s buyers are more knowledgeable and discerning with their dollars than ever before. In the high-impact session, “Say Good-Bye to Traditional Selling – and Watch Revenues Soar,” presented by George Ludwig of GLU Consulting, you’ll learn the conversational and other top-performing sales tactics that work with today’s more challenging buyers. Attend this session at the ASI Show Dallas from 11 a.m.-noon on February 1, and you’ll leave knowing strategies for speeding up sales cycles and winning more business. For more information, click here.     GET CREDIT ONLINE – 1 point When you’re in the promotional industry, promoting yourself the right way is of the utmost importance. Take our advanced webinar, “Savvy Self-Promotion” to learn proven tips and strategies from industry expert Rosalie Marcus to increase prospects’ and clients’ awareness of your business. Click here to watch the webinar.

After brainstorming with her team, McNamee decided to make The Exchange a red carpet event. “I am personally addicted to following the Kardashians, so it was my attempt to pretend to be famous. We had our red carpet, backdrop and stanchions. My coworker agreed to act as the photographer to take pictures in front of our backdrop,” she says.

The next step was finding a promotional item that would really draw in visitors. McNamee came across the “bling” mug and thought it was a great fit. “My male colleagues thought I was absolutely insane. Furthermore, the factory producing them was not someone we worked with before. I ordered a sample and when the sample came in with KK’s logo (Kim Kardashian), it sealed the deal and the promo was on,” she says.

The mugs were not cheap, and McNamee was still skeptical about the item’s success. “I ordered less than half of what I would normally order. For example, 2,500 people were expected to attend. I usually advise clients to order enough for half of the planned attendees. We went to the show with 500 bling mugs, and 1,500 pens for backup. We also had 2,000 rack cards with quick bullet points and a magnet,” she says.

The rack cards came in handy when the line got long and people weren’t able to listen to the presentation. The trade show lasted six hours. Within the first 30 minutes, there was a line to get to the booth. “People were cutting into the booth next to us to steal mugs by the handfuls. The elliptical salesmen in the booth next to us did not stand a chance,” she says.

On the fly, POP had to devise some ground rules. “You must listen to our presentation in order to receive a mug. We also limited the mugs to one per person, except when the dads said they had two 16-year-old daughters in their hotel room. We couldn’t do that to the poor dad,” she says.

McNamee and her colleague were giving the presentation to 10 people at a time, standing tall and yelling so people in the back could hear them. Because they couldn’t show products, they had iPads handy and ran people through their store. Four hours into the conference, POP was running insanely low on the bling mugs. The rack cards had a QR code and quick facts about the site and said, “Ask about our bling mug.” They decided not to give out any more mugs unless someone read the card and asked the key question.

“There were a few men that were happy enough to get what we dubbed the “bling pen” (just an aluminum pen from Leed’s). The line stayed long thanks to people who were waiting on the mug, and interest prevailed. We managed to hang on and draw business in for five hours. Then we ran out of mugs,” she says.

After the mugs were gone, people were not as interested in the booth anymore. “It was back to the ho-hum of trying to get people to come into our booth. I pitied the people who had this problem the entire show,” says McNamee.

The show was the most successful promotion that McNamee had ever experienced. “The brand team members and conference staff were stopping by and telling me things like, ‘You rocked this trade show,’ and ‘We see now why you are so good at this,’ ” she says.

GET CREDIT LIVE – 1 point Today’s marketing climate presents many hurdles and opportunities for promotional product distributors. The good news is that the marketing tools you need to differentiate yourself and appeal to the modern buyer have never been more accessible and economical. Attend “20 Budget-Friendly Ideas to Build Business Now” at the ASI Show Dallas to discover 20 innovative marketing ideas that can be implemented with relative ease at minimal to no cost. Presented by Mark Graham of RIGHTSLEEVE.COM, from 1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m. on February 1, you’ll leave the session knowing how to use affordable, up-to-the-minute techniques to reach your clients.  For more information, click here.     GET CREDIT ONLINE – 1 point Boost your sales by taking the webinar, “Sales Tips from the Best,” moderated by Advantages Editor Kathy Huston. You’ll hear successful distributors weigh in on prospecting and cold-calling, creative self-promos, hot markets and products, social media and follow-up tips. To watch the webinar, click here.

Case Study:
It's a Monster Mash
Each quarter, the Oklahoma City chapter of the American Marketing Association hosts an after-hours event called the MofO Mashup (MofO is an acronym for Marketer of Oklahoma). It invites the other organizations to join, and it typically features free appetizers, drink specials, door prizes and raffle items to benefit a local charity. For October, the event was dubbed the “MofO Monster Mashup.” ROBYN Promotions (asi/309656) was asked to sponsor the event and offered to send out invitations to the 600-plus members of the different associations. ROBYN Promotions is active in all the marketing and communication professional organizations in Oklahoma City.

“We wanted to send something that was not only a ‘cool’ invitation to the bash, but also showcased our creativity as well as some of our core capabilities: campaign development, sourcing amazing products, warehousing, assembly (or ‘kitting’) and shipping,” says Brian Blake, director of marketing for ROBYN Promotions.

The sourcing department found corrugated cardboard coffins that were built to be mailed. “We designed a custom die-cut insert with a scary vampire face printed on it that fits perfectly into the box. There are two slots cut into the insert for glow-in-the-dark vampire teeth. We added some candy corn and black crinkle paper to dress it up and sent the coffins via USPS,” says Blake. ROBYN Promotions spent $3,500 to produce 700 of the coffins.

The primary goal of the project was to raise awareness for the event, which ROBYN Promotions certainly achieved. There was a great deal of chatter on Twitter and Facebook when the coffins started arriving. “People were posting pictures, sharing stories of how their kids argued over who got which part of the piece. There were even a couple of blog posts about the coffin mailers. We received many e-mails thanking us for the great direct-mail piece and fielded several calls asking if we could do something similar for their company,” says Blake.

The event was held in early October, but ROBYN is still feeling the impact of that campaign. “People approach me at events and tell me how much they liked the coffins. It’s been a big win for us,” says Blake.

The promotion was so successful that ROBYN asked to sponsor the annual December event, The Freezin’ Season Jingle Mingle (aka – the Ho-Ho-Mofo). “For this one, we sent 12” tall candy-cane tubes filled with assorted jingle bells and peppermint candies to the same mailing lists, plus a slew of people who asked to be on our list,” says Blake. Again, ROBYN is seeing tweets and Facebook posts about how cool the invitations are. “A couple of companies have contacted us to see if it’s too late to get candy-cane tubes for them, too,” he says.