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NewMedia.com - February 21, 2001
Bob Woods
© Copyright 2001 Internet.com Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Trade Shows Exposed

As the trade show and exposition circuit heats up for another year (check the Internet Trade Show List if you don't believe it), many companies are facing the matter--and problem--of promoting themselves at these events.

e-tractions and Traffic Builders are getting together to produce what they call attention-grabbing marketing promotions for trade-show marketing campaigns. Their new brainchild, though, uses one of the older ideas in the history of marketing: the game show.

e-tractions, an Internet marketing firm, and Traffic Builders, which provides marketing ideas for both online and on-site events, have produced their first joint endeavor--a live trivia competition called "Knockout." In the game, which is conducted at trade-show booths, players are asked a total of 10 questions, including two permission-marketing questions for which they receive bonus points. Scanners are used to collect contact information from players.

At a recent trade show, e-tractions said almost 1,450 attendees participated in the Knockout Trivia Challenge. In response to the two permission-marketing questions, 85 percent of participants said the promotion attracted them to that specific area of the trade show. And 91 percent said they'd play the game again if it were offered online.

e-tractions is the same company that last year created the highly popular Whack-a-Flack online game that let frazzled journalists (and anyone else) "whack" their "favorite" PR person.