My Best Promotion: Cindy Bruce

Event promotions can be big business. In this month's My Best Promotion, Cindy Bruce, owner of Proforma CSI in Sarasota, Fla., described one that resulted in a $39,000 sale and the chance to fulfill more of the promotional needs for Rosetta, a technology platform developer.

Bruce was tasked with showcasing the technology company's brand at an annual conference. She decided to play off the conference's warm location in Tampa, Florida, offering attendee's Tommy Bahama Shirts as well as a "survival" kit that included sunscreen, lip balm, mints, hand sanitizer, an energy drink and Advil. She also provided a high-quality Bluetooth speaker decorated with the Rosetta logo for the company to give away at a client dinner.

All 2,000 of Bruce's survival kits were given out in the first two days of the three-day convention. Rosetta also received twice the lead volume they were expecting, and consistently received compliments on all of the promotional products.

Promo Marketing: Why did you chose the items you did for the promotion, and why?

Cindy Bruce: The Annual IBM Smarter Commerce conference is held at a different location each year. This year, with Tampa, Florida chosen as the conference location, it provided a great opportunity to launch a tropical theme for the promotional items. The idea was to promote the Rosetta brand in a fun way that would be noticed by the attendees of this large conference.

PM: What was the promotion’s goal?

CB: Rosetta was preparing to attend their most strategic conference of the year, the Annual IBM Smarter Commerce conference. The goal was to promote the Rosetta brand through the use of promotional items and marketing materials. A secondary goal was to identify new leads for business opportunities. The target customers included some of the largest online companies in North America.

PM: What was the best decision you made with the promotion?

CB: To push the client to try something different from their “normal” look— suggesting the Tommy Bahama Style shirt in place of their typical conference polo shirt. The Rosetta team could not go unnoticed with their tropical apparel during this very busy conference. The tropical shirt also provided a great conversational starter to show off the Rosetta survival kit. The useful items given in the survival kit could be used by conference attendees through the show and they all displayed the Rosetta brand.

PM: Do you have any other advice you’d like to give to distributors running a similar promotion?

CB: Suggest to your client to try something a little different from what they normally do, so at a large event so they will stand out and be noticed. Also, having a fun theme makes it easy for the client to enjoy their event and be successful.

Want to be considered for a future edition of My Best Promotion? Contact Senior Editor Michael Cornnell at (215) 238-5449 or mcornnell@napco.com for a list of questions and other details.