Last Friday I saw one of the most innovative marketing techniques I’ve seen in a long time. Network Solutions was attending the Inc. 500 Conference along with a group of sponsors put together by ECMTA. The event itself was a mixed bag of results, but the Administaff booth was right next to ours…and I got to play some golf.

Huh?

Yep – I got to practice my swing a bit and have a great time doing it. It was all part of a quite creative marketing effort by Administaff. What in the world am I talking about?

Administaff teamed up with The Targeted Group to help them attract trade show booth visitors. So they set up the booth with golf swing simulator. As event participants circulated through the various booths, many could not resist stopping at the Administaff booth to see what exactly the golf swing simulator was all about. Here’s how it worked… You step up on a practice mat, take a swing with a wedge and watch the large screen in front of you as it simulates your golf ball in flight – right down to landing (hopefully) on the green. The PGA pro manning the booth captures your name and contact info and explains that within a week or two, he’s going to send you a five minute video clip of your golf swing with a voice over from a PGA pro, explaining what you should do to improve. Great!

What does this have to do with Administaff? Well, I can tell you that it sure did attract a TON of people to their trade show booth. Not only that, but they did a great job at capturing contact information. Now, when Administaff calls on those who stopped by, they not only have accurate contact info, but they actually have something to talk about…

“So how did you like your golf lesson? Did you have time to review the entire video clip? So many business people play the sport - it seemed natural that we use it to make our booth better. By the way, how is your business doing? What are your growth plans?�

And they’re off to the races.

This was a refreshing change of pace compared to some other booth attraction tactics I’ve seen. I’ve seen some crazy hired guns working the booths over the years. Many have been, uh…well, let’s just say they are not all for children.

Network Solutions will be in Charlotte on October 9th for a SEO Seminar – I’ve invited the guys from the Targeted Golf Club to come as my guests. These guys are all about golf and their endeavor is of particular interest to me because of a new project I’m working on – a content site about golf clothing, clubs and gadgets. (Sorry for the shameless link plug, but I digress.) I’ll be posting my golf lesson to the new site and tracking the results here - from a handicap perspective and a marketing perspective!

This was a creative and fun way to market to trade show participants. I’m still not convinced that the targeting is the best, but it was so much fun…who cares? I’ll look forward to seeing the guys from the Targeted Golf again soon. Thanks for a fun afternoon.