Hi There!

I have a 20% interest in a business that sells internet and mail
subscriptions to financial newsletters.  The price points are $59 to
$299 per year, depending upon the level of service.

So here is my bright (or not-so-bright!) idea:  I want to set up a
booth at trade shows in Las Vegas, most of which have no relation to
financial services.
The goal is to sell subscriptions to people who are obviously there
for other purposes (e.g., car show, shoe show, sports equipment
exposition, concrete contractor show, exotic dancers show, etc.).  You
get the idea.

So here are some questions:

1.  Will my idea work?  Can you sell a product at trade show, where
people are there for a completely different business purpose?   (As a
starving student, I once sold encyclopedias at a boat show in
Nashville.  But I don't know if that success was a fluke or not.)

2.  Las Vegas typically has 4-10 conventions going on most days of the
year.  The number of attendees range from 40 (specialized medical
conferences) to 100,000+ (electronics show).  How can I find a show
with the lowest cost-per-person?  How might one measure this?  Cost
per passer-by-the-booth?

3.  Are there any shows which would actually let someone display free?

4.  Do trade shows have published demographics as do magazines?  In
other words, is the car show crowd wealthier than the electronics show
crowd?


I realize this is a vague question, so a 5-star answer would be 3-7
paragraphs.  You can answer any or all of the questions above----I'm
not picky.

All comments greatly appreciated!

Thanks.
ron

Hi Ron,

Of course it will work! Maybe almost as good as an auction with
dancing girls hey?  :)

Could you sell a contra-deal idea to the organisers? Instead of you
paying a toll fee based on a people counter, what's another way of
creating "something in it" for the promoter? I'm sure they would pay
quite a bit for paper based advertising plus paying people to hand out
event programmes. Contracts may be in place with printers, but how
about doing that yourself? As you are selling mail subscription
newsletters, part of your cost might be funded by the financiers
advertising and also rebated by the printer/publisher of the same
newsletter you are selling. Point is, instead of paying someone the
privelage of attending their event, you take control of it by being
part of it. Your costs are then more effective, rather than passive.

Idea is that you man (or person) the stands at each entry point to the
venue; provide free or heavily discounted programmes/posters etc. to
the promoter; you control the print run with heavy exposure of your
newsletter, plus a separate and more detailed pamphlet handed out with
each programme. You would also be entitled to use the phrase
"sponsored by".

The promoter gets free or discounted paper advertising, plus free
staffing for the event.

Your financiers gain immediate focused exposure.

The printer/publisher gets a volume run on a one-off event. (Gotta
work on this bloke to do a good deal now. As your system proves
itself, he/she will be first in line for future print runs.)

YOU .. make every dollar count, control part of the show and establish
yourself as the guy with whom to do business. Each event is a one-off,
for now. If they don't work, you have no long term commitment. When
it's proven, you can then be the regular guy doing the circuit.

Also give people a reason to give you their business cards without
actually asking for them. Make the prize substantial, also procured
from another source at no cost to you of course. The sponsor of the
prize will also have advertising in your pamphlet as their contra
deal. No cost to you, but you get to keep the data base of business
cards.

Just ideas without indepth thought Ron. I'm sure you will find hurdles
to overcome. Whatever you do, make sure that everyone wins.

All the best, Phil

ps Other promoters will also attend these events. Take a rope with you
to lassoo them also.

Wow, silver777!

Your brain is sparking!  Thanks for these fantastic ideas.  I really appreciate it.

ron


P.S.  You need to write a business book!