BushiTales Awsome Marketing Blitz

[notic]

Hi Guys, I had a few quick questions if you don't mind.

After the whole Anizona 4 debacle, the whole con leadership changed hands and I know the people who are now in charge of it. I've been helping them with ideas and we were brainstorming con swag ideas. Well when it comes to swag stuff, you guys are always the first people I think of.

I know you guys were getting your postcards from Clubflyers.com for free (except shipping) but I didn't know if you were still doing that or not. I wanted to know if you knew about any restrictions clubflyers.com had about number of orders etc.

The example idea I proposed was to have about 12 different postcard designs, only give them out at panels, and turn the con into this sort of collectible card game where everyone is trying to complete the set of 12 (and even offer prizes to the first 5 people who could complete the set)

I was also curious where you guys got your buttons and mini cards printed. Lastly, and cool swag you have gotten from a con in the past that might have been a little unusual that you think would be a good idea, I'd be happy to pass it along.

Thanks for you time, I appreciate it.

[neenjah]

Club Flyers restricts their free offer to one order a month, which reminds me I need to do some new ones!

You can order/pay for the 2-sided ones all day. They run about $150 + shipping for 5000 I believe. One of my friends emailed me another alternative, but I can't find that email. If you do a search on-line you may find more. If the con was going to do the pay ones maybe they could find sponsors for the other sides.

The buttons we get out of Phoenix-
www.everyonelovesbuttons.com/

DC Comics did a button promotion at their panels last year. I think it was 5-6 different buttons at different panels. Snoopy.com were giving away different Peanuts buttons each morning at thier booth at SDCC this last year. That could be a fun thing to collect. One guy after a panel in PHX when we were out in the hall Saturday night opened his messenger bag and I saw all of the BT buttons we've given out. People hang onto buttons.

Did you see the Steam Crow mini-buttons at PHX? They were pretty sweet.

Buttons could be used to get into certain high demand panels/presentations where seating is limited. Print up enough buttons for the room and hand those out at other panels or certain booths or sponsor tables. Can't get in without a button!

At the second Anizona we had a hard time having people take free buttons from us. They acted like we were trying to give them an STD! I moved around the table next to the door to the dealers room and as people would walk by I would hand them a button. When they would ask, "What's this for?" I'd say, "You need it to get in there." and point over my shoulder. They put those buttons on and kept them on all weekend.

If you make the buttons seem "special" or "collectible" you give them worth/value and people will want them. You could also have a prize patrol that hands out goodies to folks they see wearing all of the buttons, or certain ones if there are sponsors.

Lots you can do with buttons.

The trading cards we had made thru Morgan Prining- they print Bushi Tales. Our rep is Gary Grinde.
www.morganprinting.com/

People liked these, but we found that it worked best when we gave the girls cards with girls on them, and the guys ones with guys or monsters on them. If you did several different cards (our set was 9) you could have people collect those at panels or sponsor booths and then do prizes for folks who stop by the registration or other designated place.

You could also look into doing some sketch cards and have those as premium cards. They could be done by the guests or local artists like yourself. They could be the thing you have to collect the other cards at panels/booths to get. Have a limited # of them- first come first serve. I've used Bristol and printed them out on my printer. You just have to make sure the settings are right. You could also have them done on cardstock or Bristol at Kinkos or Office Max or Office Deopt and have them cut them out, or use a paper cutter yourself. I usually have our Pencilneck logo in the corner and website across the bottom, and do about half/half vertical and horizontal ones. They could be drawn before the cons- maybe even at events like FCBD. You could give away a few there as door prizes to promote the event.




They could be simple, detailed, pencil, marker, water color, cactus themed or whatever. You could send a few out to the guests you'd like to do them (oviously ask first if they'd mind doing one or two or more). I usually do mine while watching TV or on traveling to shows.

Does that help?

Lin

[notic]

that's a lot of good ideas. I like the idea of using buttons as a pass to get into the more popular panels. I'll definitely suggest these ideas to the staff. Thanks a lot for the info, it was really helpful.