Maybe you guys can spread this to people that make decisions about your companies representation at conventions. So aside from the ethics or morally of booth babes, there's a business reason not to use them.
i've only ever been to games related shows on trade visitor days and yes, booth babes seemed more of a deterrent than anything on those days. this is also i believe what the original article is about - selling a specific product to interested parties who likely already know more about the product or at least it's application than the scantily clad sales team.
i could imagine on a public day a competent ensemble of T&A will pull the crowds in however. more so if you are already aiming at a predominantly young male audience. entertainment industry, eye candy and all.
One of the most difficult tasks in marketing is getting source material from your client, especially when technology is involved. More often than not you have to just improvise a good portion of your ad campaign because your client hasn't given you enough information. (Assuming the marketer is savvy enough to ask for it to begin with.) That's why you hear about things like fish AI. The marketer needed a talking point, saw it in the demo and thought it was cool.
Unfortunately sex is the most reliable fallback in marketing. In some cases, like E3, it works beautifully. But as Thomasp said, it doesn't really apply to trade shows among professionals. No one wants to be seen as the guy drooling over the bikini-clad model when you're trying to network.
I have a friend who's worked as a booth babe a few times and it sounds like a miserable job. The pay is decent for a few days, but you're almost guaranteed to get groped, sick, blisters, and "shoulder stink" from people putting their arm over you for photos.
The best marketing strategy I've seen at a conference was by Nvidia. Where everyone else is handing out free stuff, they handed out big plastic bags for which to carry your free stuff. Their logo could be seen every five feet and their booth was packed the whole time.
The best marketing strategy I've seen at a conference was by Nvidia. Where everyone else is handing out free stuff, they handed out big plastic bags for which to carry your free stuff. Their logo could be seen every five feet and their booth was packed the whole time.
That is awesome and I bet it barely cost them anything. If only all marketing was this helpful and smart. Then again, if it was all that way it might not have any effect.
I wonder how many of these companies actually need to have booth presence, it feels like having a booth is just as antiquated as having booth babes - a throw back to 1950's car shows that never disappeared.
edit: With expos it's usually to build hype, you see far more booth babes there. With conferences and trade shows it's more about networking and recruiting.
The one I referenced with the Nvidia bags was SIGGRAPH which is definitely geared toward industry professionals. There weren't any booth babes, but one company found some attractive women to demo some mocap tech.
I think I remember talking to the brunette randomly whilst remarking that the Crysis 3 gameplay demo was pretty damned ugly compared to it's predecessors singleplayer game.
She actually seemed to know what she was talking about (technical stuff and post processing ahoy!), so I'm not totally sure she qualified as a 'booth babe'.
Don't think I saw the other two there at all. I went during the week, rather than on the weekend though.
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i could imagine on a public day a competent ensemble of T&A will pull the crowds in however. more so if you are already aiming at a predominantly young male audience. entertainment industry, eye candy and all.
Unfortunately sex is the most reliable fallback in marketing. In some cases, like E3, it works beautifully. But as Thomasp said, it doesn't really apply to trade shows among professionals. No one wants to be seen as the guy drooling over the bikini-clad model when you're trying to network.
I have a friend who's worked as a booth babe a few times and it sounds like a miserable job. The pay is decent for a few days, but you're almost guaranteed to get groped, sick, blisters, and "shoulder stink" from people putting their arm over you for photos.
The best marketing strategy I've seen at a conference was by Nvidia. Where everyone else is handing out free stuff, they handed out big plastic bags for which to carry your free stuff. Their logo could be seen every five feet and their booth was packed the whole time.
That is awesome and I bet it barely cost them anything. If only all marketing was this helpful and smart. Then again, if it was all that way it might not have any effect.
pic i took at Eurogamer Expo two years ago, Mayaman features.
edit: With expos it's usually to build hype, you see far more booth babes there. With conferences and trade shows it's more about networking and recruiting.
The one I referenced with the Nvidia bags was SIGGRAPH which is definitely geared toward industry professionals. There weren't any booth babes, but one company found some attractive women to demo some mocap tech.
I fancy the bearded one :poly121:
She actually seemed to know what she was talking about (technical stuff and post processing ahoy!), so I'm not totally sure she qualified as a 'booth babe'.
Don't think I saw the other two there at all. I went during the week, rather than on the weekend though.
I was too scared that someone'd tell me that was her normal face :O