With the increase of postal rates over the past several years and dwindling advertising and promotional budgets, many companies are tempted to reduce or eliminate investments into pre-show mailings with promotional products in tradeshow settings. Is this a wise choice? The results of a 2004 study by Georgia Southern University indicates the answer is NO.

This study was an experiment conducted using the pre-registration list of attendees for a trade show with 379 booths in the pharmaceutical and medical products supply business in Baltimore, Maryland. Exhibitors at the show were all ingredient suppliers of functional, healthy and botanical ingredients. A sample of 797 pre-registered attendees was drawn from a total registration of approximately 2000. The sampling was divided into three groups. Each group was given a different treatment as described below:

• Group A received a postcard inviting the recipient to stop by the respective exhibitor’s booth at a trade show.
• Group B received an inexpensive promotional magnet custom imprinted with the respective exhibitor’s company logo and an invitation to visit their booth at the same trade show.
• Group C received a postcard offering a t-shirt for redeeming the postcard at the exhibitor’s booth at the trade show.

The control group for the experiment included the on-site registrants. After the show, each exhibitor provided a list of attendees who stopped by its booth. Each list was used to determine which incentive type generated more traffic to a given exhibit and a potentially greater number of sales leads for the companies.

Findings:

• 47.9 % of the attendees who stopped by the three booths had received a pre-show mailing.
• Of the recipients who stopped by the booths, the largest number (41%) received an offer for a free t-shirt. The next largest number (36%) received a postcard with the magnet imprinted with the exhibitor’s name. The group with the lowest response (23%) was the one that only received an invitation to stop by the booth. In short, 78.2% more people responded with the t-shirt offer than the postcard alone, and 56.5% more people responded to the magnet than the postcard alone.

In A Nutshell:

• Including a promotional product with a pre-show mailing or an offer for a promotional product increases the likelihood of the attendee stopping by the booth to see the exhibitor’s product offerings.
• As a general rule, promotional products of greater value generate more sales leads than products of lower value.

Using promotional products in conjunction with pre-show mailings make effective tools to inform, remind and persuade attendees to at least stop by a booth, which increases traffic  to these booths. Greater traffic  to a booth generates greater potential for more sales leads.