Tech-Support Company Goes Plum Crazy with Promos, From "Success Stories"
By Jen Zorger
November, 2009
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 promo 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.
