The food trucks are taking over LA and we love it! Especially since we’ve partnered with many of them to bring traffic, prospects and PR to our client’s TLofts development in WestLA. The trucks stop by TLofts Monday-Friday, so come out and sample some of this gourmet street food. This link will take you to the weekly schedule.
For a primer on all the great truck food, check out this video from the folks at WunderBlog covering their recent truck tasting tour. Their first stop is at TLofts.
Trade shows are a great way to build business, network, and experiment with new cocktails. But they do require your time and money, so it makes sense to try to get the most out of your investment. In a recent post on Skyline Tradeshow Tips, Michael Flavin highlights five key strategies for increasing the effectiveness of your trade show participation.
Choose a trade show that offers the possiblility of success. This means rolling up your sleaves and doing some research. You’ll want to find out what shows will appeal most to your target, how many people have attended the show in the past, how well the show is promoted, related costs, etc.
Set your goals. What do you want to get out of the show you’ve selected? Are you there to make sales, build a database or just network? Decide on this prior to attending so you can determine afterward if the show was a success.
Put the proper people in place. All that money you spend on fancy booth graphics, the slick DVD and stylish brochure won’t matter if the people you have behind your table don’t know how to work the show. Make sure your people know how to qualify leads so they’re spending their time with viable prospects versus someone who just after a free key chain. Which brings up the next point…
Make your promos memorable. Really, how many key chains do you need? Consider doing something more conceptual that ties in to your product or service. And don’t rely solely on a giveaway to promote yourself. Prior to the show you should be contacting attendees/exhibitors via email or direct mail to let them know you’ll be at the show and why they should care. Many shows allow you to purchase a list of attendees for just this purpose.
Follow up. If you put in the effort, you’ll likely capture some great leads during the show. But if you don’t follow up with them, it’s all a waste. This is where discipline really comes into play. Have a clear system in place for following up so after the show you’re ready to strike while the iron is still hot. Wait too long, and they may forget about you.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch intends to block Google’s search spiders from indexing his News Corporation’s sites. As has been widely reported, Murdoch believes the time is right for people to begin paying for online content. He also feels that content aggregators have been getting a free ride by “stealing” content and it’s time for this practice to stop.
In this interview with Sky News’ David Spears, Murdoch explains the thinking behind his position.
Several months ago we posted about a new Pizza Hut iPhone app that let people order their pizza and play a pizza delivery inspired game right on their phone. According to a recent article in Mashable, the pizza maker has generated incremental sales of more than $1 million dollars since the app’s introduction. The app’s success has surprised many, including Pizza Hut’s own senior director of digital marketing, Bernard Acoca.
“We always saw a steady level of growth with our mobile business via our WAP site, but to be candid it wasn’t the explosive level of growth we’ve seen with the iPhone app. iPhone applications capture consumers’ imagination in a way that WAP sites simply can’t do, so the decision to expand to the iPhone was as good one for us.”
In addition to bringing in added revenue, the app has also earned one of the highest distinctions available; it’s been featured in an iPhone TV ad. Click here for the full story.
Trade shows are a great way to build business, network, and experiment with new cocktails. But they do require your time and money, so it makes sense to try to get the most out of your investment. In a recent post on Skyline Tradeshow Tips, Michael Flavin highlights five key strategies for increasing the effectiveness of your trade show participation.
Several months ago we 
