Every year, Balihoo attends several franchise conventions. Our marketing and sales team hands out all sorts of branded company schwag. Stuffed dogs, hats, frisbees… and the list goes on. Typically, these giveaways end up in the hands of the sons and daughters of the convention attendees. Here is a fun story about our, almost-famous, Balihoo stuffed dogs.
This morning I received a voicemail from an executive at a very large and well known drive-in restaurant chain. Upon returning his call, he prefaced the conversation with, “This is completely non-business related and quite frankly, a very strange request so fair warning.” I’ve had some pretty interesting calls in my day but this one may be the best to date. True to his word, the call was 100% non-business related. He was calling to see if we could send him one of our almost-famous stuffed Balihoo dogs known as ‘Scout’.
This executive had attended the IFA convention and happened to receive a ‘Scout’ at our booth. He took it home and gave it to his four-year old daughter, Madison, who was elated. Five months later, Madison accidently left her beloved Scout at the Barnes & Noble in Tampa. She had become so attached to Scout that when she lost him, she was devastated. After searching high, low, near and far, her father was unable to track down his daughters favorite stuffed animal. Upon coming up empty-handed, he decided to call and see if there was any way we could send a replacement to his daughter. I told him to have Madison check the mail in a few days.
With that, the marketing team at Balihoo built a care package and had it shipped out 20 minutes later.
The package was addressed:
To: Miss Madison
From: Balihoo Lost & Found
This is just another testament to the unique culture here at Balihoo.
I just returned from the International Franchise Association annual conference, which was a tremendous show on all fronts. First off the show was run exceptionally well, which is always helpful to participating companies. However, beyond the logistics of the event and the content that was offered I was particularly struck by how upbeat the attendees were. The attendees were almost all VP level and above and most were franchis”ors” or “zors” as they refer to themselves. Some were Franchises or “zees”, but by in large the conference was focused on the “zors”.
The general sentiment was fairly consistent and can be summed up as “these are challenging times for our company, but we are confident in the platform and are focused on making our franchisees successful - that is the competitive advantage we bring over independents”. I was motivated and inspired by the confidence that these CEO’s and VP’s were bringing to every conversation. They were at the show to find ways to help their franchisees succeed despite the rough economic climate. I think that was one of the reasons that Balihoo had such a GREAT show. We are solving a real problem in the national/local marketing environment and delivering an exceptional solution to businesses that need help today. The companies we spoke with were thrilled to have finally found a single platform that would solve all (or most anyway) of their marketing challenges.
We are very excited about the relationships that we created at the show and are motivated to follow the lead of the “zors” and help the local business owners to gain market share in a down economy.
Here is a short clip from an interview that Matthew Schwartz from ScribeMedia conducted last week at OMMA Global with Shane Vaughan, our VP of Marketing.
You can access the entire podcast here in which Schwartz talks with several people from companies that are angling to help enterprises (both large and small) navigate the constant changes in terms of improving customer relations and ”building a better moustetrap to buy and sell advertising” both online and off.
Several Balihoo’ers were in New York last week for the OMMA Global New York Expo. 
Our booth, as always, was packed with schwag, smiles and product information.
While we felt great about our booth’s appearance, it’s always nice to hear someone else’s opinion - Just An Online Minute (a MediaPost blog) described the Balihoo booth as being ‘Best in Show for Schwag’ and added that “the only way [the Balihoo] booth could have been better would be the addition of sparklers and feathers.” - While we aren’t entirely sure if we will be tackling the sparklers and boas suggestion for ad:tech New York, we aren’t ruling anything out!
Check out our short OMMA 2008 video below:
Hope to see you at the next show!
In reflection of a week spent in New York City at Ad:tech, I feel excited, confident, hip to industry trends, raspy, and a bit exhausted. I speak, with my raspy-nearly-shot voice, on behalf of my company and my three colleagues who joined me in representing Balihoo at the advertising trade show attended by thousands from all over the country and the world. (We were the only representatives from Boise, Idaho…ok, likely all of Idaho.) This show proved a great success for Balihoo.
Our Web-based tools designed to create efficiency for media buyers made major headway at Ad:tech. Thank you to all show attendees who visited the Balihoo booth. Among the media buyers who tested Balihoo’s online directory, my favorite keyword search has to be “polymer.” This keyword pertained to actual campaigns run by a media buyer. Our search engine brought back the following top-four results:
- Polymer Composites (print journal)
- Journal of Vinyl and Additive Technology (print journal)
- ANTEC (events conference)
- AZoM - Metals, Ceramics, Polymers and Composites (website)
Pleased with the results, this particular media buyer signed up for our Beta on the spot. Media buyers, if you did not already do so, sign up to use our free Beta at www.balihoo.com.
We enjoyed meeting a variety of publishers, representing a plethora of ad space for sale across all mediums. We are eager to get them into Balihoo to update their media properties in our online directory. Publishers, remember – this is a free service to you! Sign up at www.balihoo.com, or email me at brichardson@balihoo.com.
For those of you questioning the distortion of my photos, I share these thoughts: manual dexterity and digital camera savvy came second to delivering an exceptional message about Balihoo. Let’s just say I had some flash and focus trouble. Perhaps the blurred images actually capture the intensity of the trade show, their movement representing not only the show, but also New York City’s energized vibe. Hmmm…worth a try, anyway!
