Hey guys, we are about to participate in a few bridal shows and I was just wondering if any of you would like to share some ideas from past experiences that you've had from shows that were successful and those that weren't successful. I would really like to get the most out of these shows as we are trying to book as many jobs as we can this summer. Thanks in advance!

Eric Hansen
www.ehansenproductions.com

Eric...out of curiosity....what's the space rent at your bridal show?? I have been planning on going to one....as a visitor and not a vendor, just to check it out and see how things are. If it seems ok...we may rent a booth sometime. In california.....there are bridal expos all the time and all over the place.

Hi Eric,
Bridal shows can be tricky. One of the most common complaints that we heard from previous brides were that the vendors had little interest in the brides. When we do them my wife and I will get excited and ask questions about date, planning, etc. Your first impression on them means more than your demo video, keep in mind that they will only see about 20-30 seconds of video before they are herded to the next booth. We did a show in November and booked ten weddings within the next month, and most never saw the whole demo but remebered how interested we were in them. If you can remember names you have them hooked. Your video is amazing stuff so wow them with yoiur personality. Aslo make the booth look nice too, use a woman's touch. We are put next to a decorator on purpose so that we can offer our table for their decorations as well, saves me the hassle and gives them two booths for the price of one.

Just my two cents

Hey Jason.....YOU "get it", and I like that! Everything you mentioned was EXCELLENT......take note to his input Eric, and everyone else.



Hi Eric,
Bridal shows can be tricky. One of the most common complaints that we heard from previous brides were that the vendors had little interest in the brides. When we do them my wife and I will get excited and ask questions about date, planning, etc. Your first impression on them means more than your demo video, keep in mind that they will only see about 20-30 seconds of video before they are herded to the next booth. We did a show in November and booked ten weddings within the next month, and most never saw the whole demo but remebered how interested we were in them. If you can remember names you have them hooked. Your video is amazing stuff so wow them with yoiur personality. Aslo make the booth look nice too, use a woman's touch. We are put next to a decorator on purpose so that we can offer our table for their decorations as well, saves me the hassle and gives them two booths for the price of one.

Just my two cents

Ya jason, thanks for that, i think that will help a lot. And Joe they tend to run here anywhere from $600 to about $800 depending on size and location of the booth etc.

Eric

Eric,

I'll try to make it down to the show as I think it would be an honor to meet you and I'd also like to see how these shows go. Any idea when you'll be there and where you'll be? Good luck with the show. Wish I had some advice to give. I think getting a woman's touch on your booth is a great idea. My wife has much better ideas than I have, so I try to listen to her. She has yet to steer me wrong. =)

Mike,
I don't know if you've ever been to the show at Thanksgiving Point, but once you go inside the event center you'll head left and well be at the very end on the right side. Hopefully things will go well as we are opening up our photography side as well, the website will be updated soon. I should be there during the whole show, kinda have to with a small crew.

Eric

Thanks for the info Eric. I'll try to make it, probably on Saturday. Best of luck with the show and with the opening of your photography section. I think that would bring more jobs in for you. I'll let you know if I'm going to be able to make it or not.

I completely forgot about the show. :( How'd you make out Eric? Good turn out, even with the less than perfect weather? This definitely has me curious as I might try to go for the one in the fall.

Hey Mike,
It went well, I think the weather did make a difference in the number of brides. There was a noticeable difference from the show in January, but overall it went great! We put a little more money into our display and handouts/Demos so we looked a little more how I would like it to eventually look. We signed up one wedding at the show and since have had two more sign up and 2 more have contacted us and are interested so it was a definite success! more than paid for itself. This has just proven my point that if you do a show, it's all about the DEMO!!! if you don't take the time to make a solid Demo and pay to produce a few hundred ... Goodluck!!!

We are still going to participate in two more shows, the provo one, April 8th and the one at the south town expo center, April 21-22, so hopefully we'll be able to sign up some more for this summer.

Thanks for the advise guys, I tried to focus more on the couple and let the demo do the work and so far it's done well.

Eric Hansen
www.ehansenproductions.com

That's encouraging to hear Eric. I'm glad to hear it went well. If it's all about the demo then you should be a millionaire in no time. =) Seriously, you do good work. I think I'll probably wait until next year to do a show (or maybe hit the Thanksgiving Point one in the fall) but it seems like they can be fruitful. Best of luck to you with the future shows. And I'll echo Rob's question. How many demos did you hand out? Did you have one playing there?

We made around 300 copies and ended up passing out a little over 200. I've learned that for me, so far, 300 has been the lucky number. In the January show we passed out a little over 250 and so 300 puts us right in the safe range.
And yes we did have one playing at the show.

Eric

What format are your demos? DVD? CD-ROM? Do they have an interactive menu, or does it simply play a short video?

I'm considering creating an interactive demo on a business-card size CD-ROM. The problem is they hold only 50 mb.

Eric - You keep handing out demos in that kind of quantity, and you'll get business, no doubt. Getting your material viewed will get you bookings (it's that good).

Mike - I still think that footage from the shoot you did, that you posted a sample from a few weeks ago, has all the potential in the world for creating a dynamite demo. You had some fantastic shots in there.

Thank you Robert. I appreciate it. I really need to get myself out there in order to book shows, but I just haven't really gone for it. I should. I've thought about creating a demo on those small DVD's (the mini sized ones) just to pass out to anyone I talk to about wedding videos. I think it might make me seem desperate though. One thing I've done is load up a demo on my video iPod and if anyone starts to me about videos I show them a short demo (under 3 minutes). I should cut something together with the new material though.

On a side note (not trying to derail the thread), I finally revived that hard drive Rob and I've got that song. I'll try to cut to it this week and see how it turns out. I'll let you know.

One more question for Eric. Did you create the 300 discs? Or did you have a company burn them for you? If so, did you stay local with that? Any suggestions on good pricing/quality?

Well Mike, I actually did em all by hand ... lol... let me tell you.... it blows!!! I would just use every burner I had, which was actually two and my trustee little epson DVD printer and busted em all out one by one. I've just been trying to minimize costs and what not but let me tell you, if you ever want a way to get a headache or to never get anything done in one week... that's the way to do it! Next year I am highly considering a DVD duplicator/printer that does 100 at a time and all you gotta do is push the go button. But next year I will either do that or pay for it, because these last 3 shows are brutal! some will say to space it out, but my personality doesn't allow for that. I looked up pricing to have them stamped and it just wasn't worth it to me for the cost, but if you got the cash that's the way I would go.

In total it cost me around $120 including shipping for 500 DVDs, (kinda cheapos, but the get the job done), around $105 including shipping for 500 Cases and then I get 500 inserts for around $110. Other than that it's the just ink from the epson 200 and the HP 2550 so I'm able to produce the 300 for around $300. It would cost me at least $600-$1000 to get them done from a duplication store. So it just all comes down to what the costs are to you, if time isn't a big problem, you can save a little money. Anyway, sorry it's so long, hope this helps other than to prove that I'm crazy!

Eric Hansen
www.ehansenproductions.com

Way to go man! Yeah, I probably would have done them myself. I couldn't afford $600-$1000 just for the DVDs. I've got the time to do something like that. My wife stays home with the kids too, so I'm sure she could keep popping in a disc here and there. Not sure how keen she would be on such an idea, but it's a possibility. Thanks for all of the information. You've been one of the most helpful videographers (locally speaking) I've met. Thanks again for the help.