My son is coming to visit next month. His visits are always a good time for me. He lives in California, you see, and I'm out here on a little dot in the middle of the Pacific called Oahu, Hawaii. Neither of us can hop in the car and dash over for a visit on four-day weekends. It takes advanced planning and more than a few bucks for us to get together. It's been about a year since I've seen him, so I'm really anticipating his visit. When I pick him up at the airport and bring him home, he'll see something like this stretched across the driveway:




Don't recognize it? It's a Trade Show Display, and I've handled plenty of them in my time. In a past life I was employed by a large, national corporation that did trade shows almost monthly. I didn't go to all of them, but I usually did three or four a year. Our Trade Show Booth would start off looking like much like the one above. Then we'd install panels that pictured our services.




Part of my job was to arrange our displays and set up samples and brochures on a table . Then I'd spend two or three days meeting and greeting the public. It was a fun and very effect way to get our message out to a widespread audience. I don't work for that employer anymore, but my son's impending visit got me to thinking about how an attractive display can be a very effective way to catch someone's attention and have a big impact on their thought process. They see the display and realize that they just have to have whatever is being offered, even though they had never before given it a thought.

So here's my plan: I'll start with a twenty foot Trade Show Display. That will fill the entire driveway from gatepost to gatepost. In the middle I will have a much-enlarged photo of sonny boy and his girlfriend. I have just the right picture, but I'll have to doctor it a little. I'll fix it up so they can see how wonderful they'd look as a bride and groom. All around them I'll put pictures of the wonderful future they'll share: a lovely home, romantic dinners and such. My primary goal with this campaign will be featured also, of course. Lot's of pictures of kids. Chubby little babies, beautiful miniature beauty queens, kids in baseball and soccer uniforms, maybe a few pictures of moms and dads beaming in great joy at their newborns. The piece de resistance will be features right over the heads of the bride and groom: A collection of condom and oyher birth control packages with that universally recognized "NO" emblem placed over it.

I'm so sure it's going to work that I've already got the rocking chair, and a room full of children's books, toys and videos. I even have a great nursery design in mind. I'm so glad that Smash Hit Designs sponsored this post and ispired my daydream. Mahalo nui loa (thank you very much!) for supporting my campaign.

Labels: payperpost, trade show equipment