How a Bunch of Has-been’s Took Over Sundance

This is a guest post by “Nominated” director/writer Dan Pavlik.

If I could only offer one piece of advice to a trade show exhibitor, it would be: Figure out a way to get people leaving your booth to tell other people on the floor about you. You only have a finite amount of floor space. If you’re depending on foot traffic into your booth alone, it’s not going to work. You need to figure out how to get that one person who leaves and walks to the complete other side of the trade show to talk to a friend and say, “You’ve got to go over there!”

That’s what we did at Sundance.

Let me back up and start from the beginning. When our film, Nominated, didn’t get into Sundance, we decided we’d go anyway and just act like we were in. We came armed with swag, but we agreed from the outset that if we “pushed” our movie, we’d be viewed as irritating outsiders. So, we decided instead to push a concept: “Has-Been.” Our film is about a former childhood TV star who has become a has-been. So, we decided we’d create commotion, attract people to us and give them “Has-Been” buttons and t-shirts before they left. If it worked, the Sundance attendees would become our sales force.

It did work, because it was something fun that flew in the face of what was expected. We were literally handing “Has-Been” buttons to amazing actors like Paul Rudd. And what could be more mortifying for an actor at Sundance than to consider the moment when he crosses into the category of “has-been”? It’s the last thing they want to be. But it was playful, and people got a kick out of wearing them. And it created an opportunity to give our 30-second pitch about our movie as we created context for the “Has-Been” button or shirt. We never led with the movie; we led with humor … and it caught on. Soon people started recognizing the logo and began conversations with us, which inevitably led to discussion of the film the swag was for.

Location, Location, Location

We also took our concept to the locations everyone hung out at. We realized:  Why try to hand out this stuff to one person at a time? It was much more efficient to give buttons and shirts to the bartenders of the local hotspots, to the doormen of the popular clubs, to the shuttle drivers and coffee house baristas. Soon, they were all playfully declaring themselves as “Has-Been’s” and in doing so, promoting us. It was the equivalent of going up to support staff at a major trade show and having them put on our buttons and shirts. All over Sundance, people were seeing our stuff and our logo and then would come up to us and ask us about it. And in each of those locations, we just made sure our group was the life of the party. After about three days, I looked at Ken and Brian and said, “You know what? This is catching on!”

Note from ‘Newman’: Dan had so much good stuff that we had to break it up into two parts. Part II will go live Tuesday morning.

Dan Pavlik is the director/writer of Nominated, which also co-stars Ken Newman of “Hey Newman” fame. For more information about the film and director, click here.

Tags: booth traffic, humor, Nominated, Sundance Film Festival, swag
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Humor Always Has Its Place at Trade Shows

Hey Newman, all you have to do is pick up a newspaper to see that we’re in a VERY serious climate right now.  I know as a trade show presenter, your approach is to balance content and comedy. Are you still finding it appropriate to be funny, or are companies so sensitive about everything that they want strictly informational presentations? —Karen from P.A.

Karen, you’re right. A lot of companies are in a serious mood right now and are concerned whether laughter in presentations is appropriate. Generally speaking, companies have the tendency to hide behind, “We have a serious message.” The fact is, every organization has a serious message. Business is serious stuff. But there are a million ways to communicate that message.

Haven’t we all gone to the movies where we’ve seen a “serious” film, and found ourselves laughing?  You might be laughing through your tears.  Or crying through the laughter.  But the power of the film, its message still comes through.

If you’re going to impart information — especially if it’s difficult-to-grasp, complicated information — people are more likely to remember it if they’re laughing about it.

I had a Chemistry teacher in high school who made the dullest material come to life through story-telling, crazy props and even costumes.  His classes were like 45 minutes of stand-up punctuated by the occasional explosion.  I’m sure you have your own version of that science teacher, and I’m sure you remember a lot of what they taught you.

To appreciate the lasting power of humor, all you have to do is walk up to someone on the street (preferably 30 and up) and say, “Remember ‘The Puffy Shirt’ episode of Seinfeld?” Instantly, that person’s face will brighten and they’ll start quoting lines from it … despite how many years it has been since that person saw it on TV. For my generation, you can do the same experiment reminiscing about the campfire scene in “Blazing Saddles,” or your favorite Monty Python sketch.

There’s plenty of evidence to support laughter as a highly effective memory device. When you have a booth of people laughing about something, you can ask them two hours later “what was so funny?” and they’ll be able to tell you not only what was funny, but the substance behind the joke. They remember. And in the same way, they will remember your company and your featured product or service.

I have watched scores of trade show presentations over the past few months, and the vast majority of them are horrible. About as riveting as watching paint dry.*  No laughter. No smiles.  Just a lot of vacant stares.  The presentations are little more than a staged reading of a product white paper, followed by, “Thank you very much” and “Here’s your free shirt.”

Ask someone what they remember two hours after a presentation like THAT, and they’ll say,  “Um … well I did get the free shirt.”

(By the way, I actually did find a video of paint drying on YouTube. Watch it and judge for yourself.)

Have an industry-related question? Send “Newman” an e-mail and get your inquiry answered on the blog.

Tags: humor, live presentations, storytelling, trade show trends
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