'Booth babes' damage foot traffic, leads at events, study finds
sublime tool
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-01-20-booth-babes-damage-foot-traffic-leads-at-events-study-finds?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=european-daily
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.
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.
Replies
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