Booth Babes of CES: What Do You Want To Be Remembered For?

January 11, 2010 in General, Marketing, Rants with 6 Comments

What goes through a marketer’s mind that makes them hire a booth babe? I can just imagine.Â “Our product is a bit boring so let’s throw some sex at them.”Â In the long run it does not pay off.Â It is a leftover from traditional advertising.Â It cracks me up to see men talking to scantily clad beauties as if the girl was an expert on the product.Â Yeah, the customer will remember you but probably not what you were selling.

Here is an idea. Instead tell me a story, engage me in conversation, build a relationship with me.Â Most of all let me use your product.Â That is how you will make a lasting impression.Â Your goal is to gain and hold the attention of your followers, not for two seconds via human billboards.

*Image in gallery above used under creative commons license : flickr user nDevilTV

About Johnflurry: Director of Communications for Soma Games & Code-Monkeys. Huffington Post blogger. I'm also an expert advisor for the George Fox Seminary Semiotics & Future Studies program.

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http://deliverbliss.com Tim Sanchez

I share your view 100% on this topic, especially after what I witnessed at a trade show a few months ago.
I traveled to Tampa in October to exhibit at Metalcon, a trade show for the metal construction industry. When our team arrived at our booth to set up, we immediately recognized the RV across from us. It was from Hydroswing, a hydraulic door and wall company that was known to us for two things: seriously cool doors and seriously hot booth babes.
We set up the booth and returned the next day for the start of the show. To our dismay, there was but one lonely man at the Hydroswing exhibit. Our hopes and dreams of three eye candy filled days were quickly dashed. The rest of the show brought about the same reaction from nearly every person that visited them. “Where are the women?” “No babes this year?” “What happened to those chicks you always have here?”
That guy answered 100x more questions about the missing babes than he did about the doors they sell. The funny thing is their doors and walls are really cool; they never needed those women to attract attention. Yet, once they went down that path it seemed as though there was no turning back.

http://www.flurrycreations.com/theblog John Bergquist

Tim, What a great story. It perfectly illustrates the point. Here they had a remarkable product to showcase and it was probably first upstaged by the women then upstaged again by their absence. Thanks for sharing that!

http://somethingcreativemarketing.com/ Jen Cohen

John-

I have attended and worked booth at trade shows so I am definitely familiar with this concept.

First thought–when I worked the booth and men came up to talk to me, they were surprised I actually knew about my product. I think they expected me to open my mouth and not have much come out. Fortunately, I knew what I was talking about and engaged with them in an informal, yet informational tone and it seemed to work from a brand/company standpoint. Once I had a chance to engage and turned the conversation toward the product, our conversion/lead generation was pretty effective.

Second thought–I cannot believe a company just wants to put a pretty face out there and appeal using sex, although I've seen it plenty of times–but what is that we learned on the first day of any advertising class–sex sells. In this case though, not so sure it does because if the initial appeal does not follow through with actual product or brand knowledge the opportunity is lost.

So… my opinion purely from experience is that presentation matters. Your trade show booth should be the first thing people notice, and then your decent-looking, professional, and clean booth representatives should take over in a tone set forth and aligned with the brand. Then the reps should know what they are talking about and engage
http://sandacom.wordpress.com/ Jerry

Hey John,

While I agree with your premise in general, it is naive not to recognize that sex still sells. Even at a high tech event like CES, when used appropriately booth babes can be effective storytellers. Over the years, most of the models I've worked with at shows were very professional, they are not all bimbos. They learned the product well enough to provide intro info and knew when to handoff serious customers to the company booth staff.

Don't discount them because they're pretty. Even women often prefer to talk to an attentive booth babe instead of a grizzled, cell phone toting sales pro, who's too busy for general inquiries.

Then there's the case of the Girls Gone Wild presentation I shot at CES 2007. The girls made perfect sense for pitching the new camcorder. I love the blonde's initial reaction, she's not one of the pros I'm defending, but appropriate for the gig.
See: http://www.youtube.com/user/yogiTV

http://somethingcreativemarketing.com/ Jen Cohen

I am sorry that I wasted my time watching the YouTube video.

The reason those girls are appropriate is because their product is for Girls Gone Wild–that is what you expect from them.

John mentions that taking a boring product and associating it with good looking booth babes (most likely the concept is unrelated) is not merely as effective. Anyone going to see the Girls Gone Wild licensed camcorder, is surely not there for the camcorder.

If I am going through the show and see I product I like, I am going to find out more about the product and it should be the product and booth presentation that brings me over–not the blond in booty shorts. If I want to learn more about a Sirius radio, I want to hear it from someone who knows what they are talking about.