March To Give Away $6,333 In Prizes For Coming To Their ASIS 2014 Booth

JH
John Honovich
Sep 13, 2014
IPVM

Forget $20 voucher coupons or a few iphones, March is taking giveaways to the next level.

March may be setting an industry record for total show prizes with $6,333 total, consisting of (3) $1500 American Airlines gift cards and (3) GoPro Hero 3+, Black Edition. Every show day there will be a new drawing (see official rules).

They should get ~1,000 total visitors over the course of the show, so they spending effectively about $6 per visitor on the prizes.

That might sound like a lot, but relative to the ~$100,000 spent on the booth, it's not much. March has a 30' x 30' booth, which all in, including shipping, setup and staffing probably costs ~$100,000. Yes, exhibiting is expensive (related, see: How Much For An ISC West 2014 Booth?).

Who's going to the March booth? :)

JB
Jeremiah Boughton
Sep 14, 2014

I don't have a problem with this. Marketing is about drawing people your way so you can show them (get a chance) your product or service. With a floor full of similar products or services, you need to do something if you don't have that great of market share.

In my opinion, $6,333 is not that much at all. How much do you think hiring Ponch would be? As a potential prospect, I would rather have an option at a decent prize than meeting a D-list celebrity.

I would think others would have gave a car away in a drawing? Has this not happened? (Could be tough to do... due to bribes and incentives in our market)

Side Note - As long as they are giving prizes out on site and not "Cherry Picking" a few days after show...them I have no problem.

JH
John Honovich
Sep 14, 2014
IPVM

Interesting that you brought up D-List celebrities. 2 years ago, just for fun, I called up the booker for Chumlee to see how much it would be to bring him to ISC West. It was at least $10,000 for a day and that's with him being down the block. So, yes, interesting comparison.

I don't have a problem with prizes either, outside of the fact that it underscores how crazy expensive it is do to trade shows. Manufacturers are spending $50 - $100 for each person that comes in their booth for an average of a 10, maybe 20 minute interaction. That's a lot.

Avatar
Ari Erenthal
Sep 28, 2014
Chesapeake & Midlantic

I just spent an instructive couple of hours browsing celebritytalent.net. It looks like $10,000 is a pretty good deal for a bona fide celebrity. You know who else charges that kind of money? Billy Harris, the guy you always see at the Axis booth. You can also hire various retired athletes you kind of remember from when you were a kid, cover bands, the guy who is married to the world's smartest person, and the guy who played Father Mulcahey on M*A*S*H.

JH
John Honovich
Sep 29, 2014
IPVM

Ari, I have your ISC East solution.

Two words: Anthony Mason

He's available, he's nearby and he's a NYC hero.

Avatar
Brian Rhodes
Sep 29, 2014
IPVMU Certified

How much do you think hiring Ponch would be? As a potential prospect, I would rather have an option at a decent prize than meeting a D-list celebrity.

For $7500, you can talk about hiring Erik Estrada to do balloon animals at a birthday party.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Sep 14, 2014

Will IPVM be at ASIS this year?

JH
John Honovich
Sep 14, 2014
IPVM

3 of us will be there - Derek, Ethan and Marty. I am not sure if we are going to do anything as it takes a lot of time to put together, etc. But I'll leave that to Marty...

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Sep 14, 2014

Great, maybe I'll bump into you guys.

MM
Marty Major
Sep 14, 2014

I concur with John about not doing any official IPVM programs as a sidebar to the show.

If we do something like that again in the future we want to make sure it provides real value to attendees - especially since putting that kind of thing together can be such a logistical challenge...both for IPVM and you folks who are there to attend the big show.

With that said, since big shows are one of the rare times IPVM members can all meet each other, I think we should at least do a social meetup or something one of the nights we are all there.

(1)
JH
John Honovich
Sep 14, 2014
IPVM

To elaborate, we have done events with 'real value' before. For example, in 2013, we had live demonstrations and test results of the panoramic shootout.

The bigger problem, to me, is that (1) people are busy during the show, going from thing to thing so it's hard to make it work for many people's schedules and (2) show meeting space is comically expensive. Even getting a room with water and snacks will cost $50+ per person (e.g., 8 ounce mini bottles of water go for $5 at ISC West).

The way I look at it is that we could spend that x thousands of dollars to meet with 50 or 100 people or we could invest it a report or new feature that thousands can use.

Avatar
Jonathan Lawry
Sep 15, 2014
Trecerdo, LLC

The IPVM event you held in Philly (ASIS 2012) was probably the most productive and enjoyable hour I have had at any recent show. I remember a woman, general counsel to a VMS manufacturer, speaking to everyone about how patent trolls operate: Go after a bunch of small guys who will just pay the $15K to make them go away....this establishes a pattern of payment that seems perfectly legit to the unsophisticated rubes who are selected for the jury for when the troll goes after the big fish. This, and other info shared at the restaurant event, was priceless. The food was good too.

There should be an IPVM event at ISC and ASIS every year. Even if it's just you and Brian singing kareoke.

(1)
JH
John Honovich
Sep 27, 2014
IPVM
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