Logos on signs and banners: If you do the same boring event sponsorship at each of your events year after year, don’t expect better results!
Instead, think about developing creative sponsorships that drive attendance, give max exposure to the sponsor, and allow you to increase sponsor pricing. We consulted event genius Eric Udler, Producer of All Show Services, for top ways to give advertisers and exhibitors the unique opportunities they want while generating more revenue for you.
Can you give us your top 3 most creative ways to drive attendance pre-conference? What’s the most off-the-wall super successful idea you’ve seen?
- Have your features (speakers, entertainment) record a short video to promote your show. Be sure they include a discount offer: Tommy McFly is coming to Super Pet Expo
- Retargeting pulls very well for our shows. For B2C shows, it is best to start 30 days out. For B2B shows, 90 days out. Increase your spend the closer it gets to the show.
- Encourage your exhibitors to email their customers and let them know they will be there with a special offer. We have a program called the No Fuss Fundraiser where we give exhibitors (and anyone else) a royalty. Check out: No Fuss Fundraiser
Can you share some real-world success stories about creative (and lucrative) sponsorships?
One of our sponsors at Super Pet Expo is a pet food company. They give us five (5) “free pet food for a year” give-aways. We give four (4) of them away via radio station promotions and one (1) via our FB page. It’s great exposure for our sponsor, us and the radio stations. Most radio station give-away’s are boring –just selling tickets, etc. This is a really fun promotion that radio stations compete to get.
For our New Jersey Home Show, we have a storage company that was looking for additional exposure. We always have HGTV celebrities at our shows and offered them the ability to be our stage sponsor. They have a beautiful wrapped truck that they park behind the stage. Everyone who takes pictures with the celeb has the sponsor’s name/logo in the background. After they speak, they park themselves in the sponsor’s booth for 30 minutes of autographs, meet and greets, etc.
What are the cool new opportunities for revenue out there that you think niche publishers might be overlooking?
Publishers need to partner with event producers. It’s a no-brainer. We trade with various publishers and expect them to promote us in return. Not just ads – think inserts, articles, etc. One publisher for our home show publishes a four-page insert promoting our show. It’s our program guide and they sell ads in their publication and promote added exposure at our show.
Another example is a publisher that came to us and wanted to “own” our Super Pet Expo. We created the “largest doggie kiss.” It gave them a ton of added exposure and they were able to bring in several of their advertisers. Over 100 people and their dogs came out one hour prior to the show on Saturday morning on a cold, windy and dreary day. We had a local MC help us get folks involved, offered free coffee and donuts. Unfortunately the weather hurt us but the publisher and their advertisers were thrilled with the exposure – pre-show, at-show, etc.
Editor’s note: Eric will be speaking about Creative Strategies to Increase Your Event Revenue at the Niche CEO Summit, June 22nd in Washington D.C., 2017.
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More about Eric: Eric Udler loves producing public events. He founded and produces Super Pet Expo, a consumer pet shopping extravaganza that takes place in the New York and Washington DC metropolitan areas. He also produces the New Jersey Home Show and the Nashville Home Show. See All Show Services.
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