Booth Babes Are a Mistake -- Here's Why

At ad:tech San Francisco many of the exhibitors hired "Booth Babes" to promote their products and services to attendees. In most cases these "booth babes" not only worked the booth but also walked the exhibit hall and outside of the hall to promote the company. And to watch the crowds to an extent this form of promotion did work on the largely - but not no means at all only - male crowd.

However I think in all cases the use of booth babes hurt the companies who used them more than it helped. Certainly in one high profile case at ad:tech I found the company's use of booth babes (who were wearing very skimpy and quite tight fitting white dresses) to lower, considerably, my opinion of the company. A company, I should note, who launched their product and company at ad:tech and are taking on some very large, established companies with a product that could add value to the marketplace (but how well they can compete remains to be seen).

Now I am a straight, single, mid-30's man. Certainly an attractive woman is not unpleasing to the eyes. But in a business context while "sex" does draw people it, it doesn't add value, if anything it lowers it (unless you are, in fact, a company selling sex but that's a different show than ad:tech - at least the public facing sides of the companies at ad:tech). I'm sure there are more than a few of the companies exhibiting at ad:tech who have portions (I've heard in a few cases the primarily profitable portions) of their business focused on "adult" products.

Here are my objections to the use of Booth Babes and related tactics on trade show floors. And more broadly to another all too common trend especially with any company with a larger booth.

1. The need for booth babes or for that matter cash giveaways, expensive raffle prizes or high value tzotchkes demonstrates a lack in confidence about the interest in the product and company. Using sex combined with greed to attract people to your booth does very little to focus who views your product or takes the time to meet with your staff at the booth (see related points below) and if the takeaway is "was that woman wearing a bra?" many people are not likely to retain much about your company or product.
2. At ad:tech San Francisco this year I counted multiple companies giving away a MacBook Air (2 or 3 on the floor, at least one at an afterparty), countless companies giving away some form of an iPod, one company giving away skateboard decks, another giving away $5 Starbucks cards for a survey, and at least one company literally giving away cash. I should note that even people who got the skateboard deck which was indeed really, really cool with an image of the San Francisco skyline, couldn't tell me the name of the company giving the decks away - and I asked someone just hours after having won the deck. All of these draw people but rarely real prospects.
3. In many cases to handle larger crowds non-employees are hired to man the booth. From people in latex gloves making cotton candy, to bartenders, to raffle entry takers, filling your booth with non-employees decreases the chance of identifying a real prospect when one walks past and stops. In my engagements with various companies I saw a very deep difference when I talked with a long time employee (or in a few great cases a founder) versus when I was talking with a hired temporary staffer simply manning the booth, or food giveaways.
4. It is hard, perhaps nearly impossible, but to maximize the value of a trade show booth you should have staff who are as engaged and outgoing in the last hour as they were in the first. On Tuesday, the first day of ad:tech as I walked the trade show floor I was greeted by people at most booths, PR representatives and company employees in fact sought me out away from their booth and asked me to stop by their booth (noting that I was press and in many cases knowing about CenterNetworks). In contrast on Wednesday as I walked the exhibit hall in the late afternoon, a few hours before it was closing I was rarely, if ever, engaged with. Even when, in many cases, I stopped to take a further look at a given booth. My press badge was still easily visible, but in many cases it was very clear the people manning the booths were exhausted (and I think overwhelmed from various promotions/giveaways they had been running).

Stop back tomorrow for advice on what to consider with regards to purchasing a booth slot at a trade show.

Shannon Clark is a founding partner at Nearness Function, a new ad network for the publishers of dynamic content which will launch in a few months. He is the organizer of MeshForum - an annual conference on the study of networks and the one day MeshWalk series of walking conferences. He has been blogging for many years at Searching for the Moon where he covers technology, economics, food, and the life of an entrepreneur.