Trade Shows Contests, Drawings, and Prize Giveaways

One of the best ways to attract trade show attendees to your booth is by hosting contests, games, drawings, or prize giveaways. Remember to add colours, lights, and music to attract extra attention. Once your fun promotional ideas get visitors to your booth, then it is up to you to have a great sales pitch and adequate materials to convert the sale from there. If the prizes that can be won do not already have your company name and logo on them, then add in promotional products to your prize package so that the booth visitors will remember your company.

What types of contests, games, or giveaways should you run? It depends on what type goes best with your company culture, products or services, and your budget. Here are some fun ideas:

Spin the Prize Wheel: Prize wheels are great because they are big and colourful and immediately attract attention because people know that it means they can win something. Make sure that each spinner wins something and you can add in an inexpensive promotional product as a bonus prize. You can customize the prizes and some ideas for prize wheel giveaways are:

  • Promotional Merchandise: You can fill in a few spaces on the wheel with these and have different levels of prizes, for example, a lower level prize could be a promotional travel cup, while a higher end promotional gift prize could be clothing, or electronic accessories. (Use whatever fits your company best.)
  • Free consultation for your services: If your company offers services, you can give away a period of time consultation such as 15 or 30 minutes. It might encourage the winner to purchase more services and lets everyone who spins the wheel know what you do.
  • Free Products or Services: Stir up buzz about your products by using some for giveaways.
  • Percentage off Their Order: Encourage them to purchase by offering a discount. It can be a dollar amount off or a percentage off. This can also be given out to everyone who plays rather than a winning spin.
  • Free lunch at the trade show: Who doesn’t love a free lunch? This is an easy way to entice players.
  • Snacks or Drinks: Candy, granola bars, colas, or water bottles make easy giveaways that are appreciated during trade shows when most attendees are tired and hungry.
  • Local Business Gift Certificates: Trade out with local businesses in exchange for advertising; you can give away gift certificates.

Fish Bowl Drawing: This is a great way to collect business cards of attendees; and it is also an easy way to hold a contest. They will gladly give you their contact information for a chance to win a great prize. Make sure to adhere to local rules and regulations regarding contests and random drawings vs. sweepstakes.

Interactive Games or Applications: If you are in a tech industry or tech savvy, having tablets with a game or interactive application on it can be a big draw and also get people talking about your booth. Having a trivia game that people can enter is a great way to get them to give you their contact information.


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