The latest edition of the NACS show, the 50th meeting, was a great example of how companies who have a character, person or icon use that thing to best reach their audience.
From a cardboard cutout of Samuel Adams touting his Boston Lager to The Sun posing for photos with passerby to promote Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches, a whole army of characters were on hand at the event. Whether they were walking around in costume or taking the form of a cutout or graphic, the symbolism and brand screamed for these companies and helped drive traffic to their booth staff.
Mostly deployed on the aisles around the booth, live characters either handed out samples or were available to pose for photos. In the case of Bordon’s Elsie the Cow, visitors were invited into the booth to stand next to the corralled bovine for a quick digital print and customized frame.
Still others, like the M&M candies, were mostly displayed as 3D gondolas holding the product. M&M/Mars used one other approach, which was toned down this year: the personal appearance. Kurt Busch, the NASCAR driver who’s car has M&Ms as his primary sponsor, put in a 3-hour stint one day authographing photos and shaking hands.
Still others resorted to desktop and static icons in their spaces. Dutch Masters Cigars had a desktop model of a caricature of the half-century-old ad campaign. One candy company wrapped a Smart Car with its logos and parked it into their small booth. A sandwich company hired a Snookie (“Jersey Shore”) look-a-like (or she could have been the real thing) to pose for photos and shill the sandwich.
Whatever, or whoever, the character, they were hard at work at NACS 2011 driving traffic to the booth of their owners. Hopefully, the owners knew what to do with the leads from these encounters. Apparently, Sam Adams made an impression one attendee: I saw him leaving under the arm of a pretty blond at the end of the show….
TTSG
