The summer season is upon businesses, and that means it is time for outdoor promotions. Your business may be promoting at a fair, a sporting event, or in any other arena that attracts large crowds, and you are likely to see competitors there. Here are three creative ideas to shift the crowd’s attention towards your business.
1. Use Your Own “Street Team”
Some businesses use what are called “street teams,” or contracted workers to promote your brand just for the day. While this strategy adds to the overall number of promoters, there is an alternative route for some organizations. For example, if your business is primarily ran by reps who operate in the field you should utilize them during summer promotions. Those reps have a deep understanding of the business’s products, allowing them to answer questions and make suggestions to interested crowd members. By using your own “street team” your business can save on recruitment for the day and stand out as the most knowledgeable salespeople at the event. Additionally, an exercise like this can be a rare opportunity for field reps to reconnect with their coworkers and build up employee engagement.
2. Attract the Media
Another creative way to attract consumers at the event and afterwards is to provide entertainment. This could mean doing a number of things, such as trying to break a world record or having a competition with competitors to see who can get the most social media “likes” at the event. Anything that reinforces your brand image is positive at a promotional event, yet having an eccentric competition like those mentioned above will also generate media attention, which provides your organization with free publicity. To make the most of this strategy, make sure to spread the word on your social sites beforehand to encourage as much anticipation as possible before the event and provide a platform for the results of the competition to be seen post-event. Additionally, call up local media organizations ahead of time to let them know about the story. That way, you have a strategy that attracts consumers at the event and provides a way for consumers and the media to engage with your brand after the event.
3. Coordinate Season into Free Offers
Once your creative plans bring people to the booth and your intelligent sales people answer their questions, it is time to give them something for free. A great deal of summer promotions are attended by consumers who want to take advantage of the free items handed out. Yet, it is important to be smart about what your team is giving out for free. Flyers and brochures are things that people often throw away quickly. Instead, give out things that are useful to the crowd that day, which could be drink koozies, hand-held fans, or even water with your brand logo on them. It’s much more likely that these items will end up in consumers’ homes, reinforcing the memory of that day and the brand overall. That way, the investment put into free merchandise will not be wasted.
To stand out at this season’s promotions, remember to start with an intelligent team, a fun way to attract the crowd, and useful items that people will want to keep.