IDEAS THAT WORK
No matter how hip your invitation or direct-mail piece, it’s usually square — because it comes in a plain, square or rectangular envelope. But with ShipShapes (www.shipshapes.com) of Park Forest, IL, you can choose what kind of mailer shape you have in mind — from frogs to Harleys — and the company will custom-cut it for you. The mailers can also be folded to fit neatly in any mailbox, and have been approved by the United States Postal Service. Visitors to Ecolab’s booth at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago last June couldn’t wait to wash their hands of the exhibit. The St. Paul, MN, company dunked attendees’ hands in orange gunk that made germs and bacteria glow when hands were placed under a fluorescent lamp. After the visitors scrubbed with Ecolab’s antibacterial foams, they checked their hands again under the special light. By making the invisible visible, Ecolab proved the value of its product. Allsteel Inc. found an a-Paul-ing way to generate publicity for its new Sum chair at the NeoCon show at Chicago’s Merchandise Mart last June by sending out a posse of roving “Pauls.” The Muscatine, IA,-based workplace-furniture designer hired 20 actors to represent a typical office worker, “Paul.” Actors were stationed on street corners, in hotel coffee shops, on pedestrian bridges, and throughout the Merchandise Mart handing out product flyers. In their bright-green shirts, the Pauls became an instantly recognizable walking advertisement and significantly increased traffic to the Allsteel booth.		HB Stubbs used psychic powers to lure visitors to its booth at the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association show in Austin, TX, last June. The Warren, MI, event and marketing firm sent out a pre-show mailer encouraging attendees to bring a picture of their home or exhibit space to the HB Stubbs booth for a Feng Shui consultation, and as a bonus — a psychic reading. The company then door-dropped crystals in red-velvet bags at attendees’s hotel rooms during the show with a reminder to visit the booth and its resident psychic. Guests left the exhibit with a Feng Shui bell that cleared negative energy when they rang it. And Stubbs reached 12-percent more of its target audience than expected. Susan Friedmann, owner of The Tradeshow Coach, based in Lake Placid, NY, has a tip to make sure you’re safe while in your hotel room. Pack two small rubber doorstops. Use one for inside the main door, and one for any adjoining door. Even if an intruder slips past your door’s lock, the stops will prevent him or her from forcing the door open. The doorstops are easy to remove from inside in case of an emergency, such as a fire. To keep company information in attendees’ pockets and out of trashcans at the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association show in Austin, TX, last June, Skyline Exhibits used a unique literature design — a flipbook. The book showed how the Eagan, MN,-based Skyline designs, builds, and reconfigures a booth, and kept attendees entertained.