Trade Show Executive I Hil Anderson I May 2009
Looking to boost show attendance, the New Orleans Home and Garden Show leveraged a gift card marketing program launched by Dukky LLC to 100,000 prospective attendees, giving organizers and exhibitors a pretty good idea of who was going to be there. Dukky, a direct response agency founded in October 2008, offers a patented media platform which distributes personalized gift cards to attendees and then tracks their purchase intent, feedback and redemption online.
The gift cards, which can target several thousand prospective attendees, come with an activation process that acts as an RSVP and provides the organizer with an indication of how many people plan to come to the event and which booths they are likely to visit.
Dukky President Scott Couvillon told Trade Show Executive the system is a leap beyond the long-standing practice of sending direct mail offerings with no real idea if they hit the mark. “Those methods have great reach, but give you zero indication of who is coming,” he said.
Something for Nothing
The Dukky idea is a mix of old and new technologies. The concept boils down to the organizer mailing out a batch of coded gift cards to potential attendees. The cards are redeemable only at the show.
“It’s a lot harder to throw away 40 gift cards without at least looking at them than it is when you toss out pizza coupons or hit the delete button on an e-mail,” he added.
The offers can range from discounts to outright freebies. And when an attendee finds a packet of 40 or so of these cards in the mailbox, it can make the decision to attend much easier. “In the mind of the recipient, they mitigate the cost of attending the show,” Couvillon said.
Worth Their Weight in ROI
“The mailing piece puts the gift cards in the hands of the recipients, but the real value of Dukky is all the back-end services,” Couvillon said. “We are able to request and receive large amounts of valuable data and customize it.”
Reaping customer data is a feature that Couvillon contends will allow Dukky to take to the trade show environment like its namesake takes to water. The idea is best suited to consumer shows but also adaptable to trade shows. While a discount on a major piece of machinery would be impractical, trade show exhibitors can extend offers for product upgrades and trial demonstrations or for giveaway items likely to lure a prospect to the booth.
The process of activating the gift cards through a web portal opens the door to show management obtaining a profile of each recipient. Along with knowing which gift cards the holder will likely use, exhibitors can learn about the quality of the attendee and have an idea even before the show begins. An online Dukky dashboard is available that enables organizers and exhibitors to tell in real time exactly who has activated their cards.
Since the cards are mailed well in advance of the show, attendees have a much better opportunity to study them and incorporate them into their agenda than they might if the offers were being handed out during the show when things are more hectic.
Mike Zalaznik, show manager of The New Orleans Home and Garden Show, pointed out, “Dukky allowed us to bring additional value and added service to our exhibitors, while also connecting with a very targeted, local demographic to increase attendance. The offers mitigated the ticket cost so it is a win/win.”
Show organizers can also use Dukky and send out cards with discounts on registration, lodging, restaurants or local attractions that will encourage attendees to register.
“There is no limit to the creativity of the offers, or on what information we ask for on the activations, or on the secondary marketing we offer to those attendees,” Couvillon said.
