Trade shows: A good venue to promote your city magazine, sell subs

Hosting a booth at trade shows and other events can provide a valuable venue to promote your city and regional magazine, increase brand awareness and get subscriptions. Members share how they drive traffic to their booth and then create excitement there.

Throughout the year, Prism Publications focuses on several community events to promote their primary publications, Traverse, Northern Michigan's Magazine, and Northern Home, for the Way you Live up North.

In the first quarter, they participate in three major home shows in the region, and man booths at each show. The primary focus of each home show is to promote Northern Home, their shelter publication. This year, they will feature a special contest featuring a giveaway from their Photo and Art gallery, linking the contest to their website (www.traversemagazine.com). The Photo and Art gallery features photos from Traverse and artwork from renowned local artists.

In the second quarter, they sponsor the "Festival of Tables," a fundraiser for a local non-profit agency. This will be the second year of the event, which was very successful last year. They will sponsor a decorated table at the event and feature a contest at: www.traversemagazine.com as well.

In the summer, Traverse will be a sponsor of the National Cherry Festival. The magazine also plans to be a sponsor of an athletic event (a 5K and 15K run/walk for families).

In the fall, Traverse will be a major sponsor of a Log & Timber Show, an event designed for consumers. The magazine will have a booth at the entrance of the show. They will publish a special section for this show that is bound into Northern Home.

For all of the above events, they use radio sponsorships, ads in the publications and www.traversemagazine.com to promote the magazine's involvement and drive traffic to their booth, reports Promotion Director Rosie Kern.

ADDITIONAL EVENT OPPORTUNITIES

417 magazine participates in a number of local trade shows, primarily ones that they sponsor. For instance, in November, they sponsored the Junior League holiday event titled, Celebrate the Season. The magazine had a booth, invited a client who sells and installs expensive music systems to share the space and provided holiday music, and handed out the magazine's annual Menu Dining Guide. Visibility was great, reports General Manager Joan Whitaker.

417 also sponsored the Wine & Food Celebration fundraiser for Ozark's Public Television. They handed out the Menu Guide, printed the voting ballots for the event and covered the event for their "people" section.

In January, 417 will have a booth at the largest local bridal show, which coincides with their January feature story on weddings. Typically, they use these shows to increase visibility for the Springfield, MO magazine. Depending on the event, they offer subscriptions where half or the entire amount is donated back to the charity.

Evansville Living has not participated in many trade shows, but is really active at various events throughout the community. These range from museum antique shows to community bike tours to Race for the Cure. "Nothing sells us like our magazine, so typically we give away back issues at these events," noted Publisher/Editor Kristen K. Tucker.

TRYING DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES

D magazine manned a booth at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure event. They printed overruns of their special Race for the Cure section and gave copies to the 30,000-plus men and women who participated. That provided a souvenir for participants and product branding for the magazine.

Additionally, D hosts a lot of events and sends e-mail notices. The sales rep who does their travel sections recently went to a few trade shows for travel and tourism. They have a huge D flag and magazines for the events. The magazine also has increased online promotion with their new website (www.dmagazine.com).

Our State: Down Home in North Carolina has participated in events such as Holiday Arts & Craft Shows, and the Southern Spring Show, in which they traded advertising space in the magazine for a booth. The magazine also has attended festivals where they had their readers, known as Our State Ambassadors, man the booths. Despite their being advertised in the magazine, these events only generated limited success with new subscriptions.

Mpls/St. Paul does a variety of booth-like activities. At the Spring Home & Garden Show, they partner with a major landscaping and gardening entity and gives away live plants. They sponsor the gardens and receive excellent signage, etc., but don't have to man the booth. The magazine also is sponsoring the "concrete" house, for which they have organized the decorating and design. They again will have great presence there.

Mpls/St. Paul does man a booth at the wedding show, where they give out copies of their January wedding guide - and also offer a show subscription opportunity. Additionally, they have a booth at state tourism meetings, where subscriptions are again sold. They have a sign-up for raffle prizes at all of the shows, reports Associate Publisher Pat Mathews.

GIVEAWAY INCENTIVES

At shows, San Francisco gives away items obtained on trade (i.e., canvas bags, Frisbees, etc.) as subscription premiums. Likewise, Buffalo Spree participates in shows in which the magazine is able to sell subscriptions or issues. Main Line Today mans a booth at chamber of commerce shows and business expos where the magazine gives away dinner for two at an upscale restaurant in the area and also passes out free issues.

Each year, Philadelphia has a booth at the Manayunk Arts Festival, where they sell subscriptions with a Best of Philly T-shirt as a gift with the subscription. They hang a banner announcing the publication and give Philadelphia magazine balloons to the children. They have determined that to be the most effective booth display and the most-attended event. The magazine doesn't participate in trade shows.

Sacramento participates in 20-25 trade shows/events a year, ranging from bridal fairs to home and garden expos to non-profit fundraisers to dental conventions. They bring back issues (from the past six months) to give away, and the major push is for new subscribers. Anyone signing up for a subscription is given the current issue as well as any past issues they would like.

Another premium that Sacramento gives away at trade shows is a 15-page (8 1/2?x 5 1/2?) 4/c, glossy guide listing the current year's Readers' Choice Dining Award Winners, including phone numbers and addresses. The magazine also hosts many events throughout the year, such as the Grape & Gourmet, Women in Business and Best of Sacramento. Additionally, they are adding two events to the line-up for 2003: Singles event and Food & Wine Expo.

Delaware Today sponsors more than 50 events per year for marketing and promotion. Marketing staff generally mans these events; if it's a mixer or a sales-related event, then they have account executives participate. Often, it's a three-day event over a weekend, and they staff the booth to help build subscriptions. They'll raffle a free gift certificate as an incentive and hand out supplements and issues of the magazine for promotion. Other promotional items they've given away include bookmarks, T-shirts, pens and water bottles.

MOTIVATING WITH FOOD

New Jersey Monthly recently manned a booth for circulation at a PTA trade show. A custom-made banner emphasized subscription benefits, under which staff passed out candy.

LOW-KEY APPROACH

Harrisburg magazine mans booths at trade shows and other events, but does not do much in the way of pre-event publicity.

Rhode Island Monthly actively participates in only a few events during the year. Usually, they prefer to put up cover displays and banners rather than staffing a booth. At those events where their booths are staffed, they usually promote circulation offers and prize giveaways.

RIM does participate in a bridal show, where they promote a prize sweepstakes donated by advertisers. Also, they hand out canvas Bride bags stuffed with promotional material from advertisers.

Door County has only done one small event last year but is planning to do several events in 2003. They will be conducting a drawing at most events, which will be publicized in advance.

Baltimore is manning fewer booths than before because they were not able to attribute much response to them. However, they do have a booth at trade shows related to the tourism industry, a restaurant association trade show, college internship fairs and some local festivals. They offer gift certificates to one of Baltimore's best restaurants as a prize pulled from names of people who stop by the booth.