Last week, I headed to New York City for the International Franchise Expo (IFE), held at the Javits Center June 15-17. I usually spend a majority of my time at tradeshows saying hello to clients, attending educational sessions, and sampling all the gluten-free goodies I can find, but IFE was a little different. We only had a handful of clients attend this year and the event and its sessions were geared more toward the first-time franchise buyer. I had a fair amount of time on my hands.
So I decided to walk down every aisle of the tradeshow floor – three or four times – to see what concepts were out there. Specifically, I was looking for those that were “pitchable,” meaning that I and the rest of the Fish team could sell their story to national media. Because as PR reps, that’s what fuels us – getting the big media wins for our clients. I saw some amazing promotional products that I’ve told lots of my colleagues about. One company was giving out silicone wristbands with their brand name on. They looked amazing and I thought the wristbands were a great way to attract attention. I actually asked one of the salesmen where they got the wristbands made and they told me they were customizable at sleekwristbands.com. When we’re next going to a trade show, I’ll definitely consider ordering a couple of boxes. It was a simple yet effective way to attract attention. Much less dramatic than some other booths I saw which I’m going to talk about below!
Of course, it was nearly impossible to know which of the 400+ concepts at IFE had good stories, so I had to judge a book by its cover. I quickly realized that if you want to get people to your booth, you need to be bold. You want things that will grab the attention of the attendants like appealing IPW1 roller banners that can display attractive designs with useful business information on them. You need to do things like:
Have a live demonstration of back waxing.
Yep, I’m looking at you, Uni K Wax. And based on the 10 minutes I stood there talking to you about why this guy wasn’t freaking out having his back hair waxed, you did a superb job of getting at least me to your booth.
Offer complimentary eyebrow threading.
Because you can’t certainly buy a franchise like that without knowing what eyebrow threading is like, right? Well, thanks to Idolize, I not only have, as the 20-somethings say, eyebrows “on fleek,” but also understand how much better eyebrow threading is for you than waxing. (Which I didn’t know. It’s a story dying to be told!)
Construct a 12-foot climbing wall.
(Or maybe it was 16 feet.) Had I been aware there would have been something as awesome as this, I wouldn’t have only packed dresses. Super bummed. But there’s seriously no better way to get parents to take a few minutes to talk about franchise opportunities (or a 31-year-old woman with the soul of a 15-year-old) than by offering to let their kids climb a giant wall. Well played, ClimbZone.
Recreate a storefront – with chocolate. Like, lots of it.
Chocolate Moonshine Co. basically set up an entire pop-up shop full of deliciously creamy Moonshine Bars and gourmet fudge. It was a huge space and gave attendees a great feel for the brand. And they entertained my requests to try multiple samples.
Make it so they can’t look away.
I might just be intrigued by morbid things, but every time I walked by the Steri-Clean booth, I was trying to gather up the courage to say, “Please explain this.” Steri-Clean is, in a nutshell, a concept specializing in crime scene cleanup, hoarding and biohazard services, and decontamination. You can only image the images printed on the booth backdrop – which were what drew me in. I finally said to one of the founders, “I didn’t realize this was franchiseable. I need to know more about this.” And isn’t that the goal – to be so bold people have to ask you what you’re all about?
