Why You Should Consider Bringing Challenge Coins to Your SHOT Show Booth
What industry professional hasn’t had the experience of walking around a trade show floor and being handed some piece of swag from every booth they spend more than five seconds at? For that matter, how often have you found yourself planning your company’s trip to a trade show as an exhibitor, wondering what items you’ll use to capture the attention and spark the loyalty of attendees? What items do you generally bring with you, and, more importantly, how effective would you say they are?
While pens, stress balls, mouse pads and drawstring bags might be the standard fare at typical trade shows, SHOT Show at least tends to be more unique with its booth freebies. An annual show for the shooting, hunting and firearms industry, SHOT (Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade) Show is the leading industry insider show of its kind. In spite of not being open to the public, SHOT Show averages over 60,000 attendees each year. Each of them leave the show loaded with pamphlets, catalogues, samples of gun oil and assorted pieces of apparel, and while they surely appreciate the gifts, after a while all of it kind of blurs together. The question for anyone exhibiting at this show is how do you best stand out from the competition?
Custom challenge coins are an item that most people attending SHOT Show should be familiar with. From their origins in the U.S. Military to their popularity amongst law enforcement agencies and government branches across the country. When you give out challenge coins at your booth, there’s no question that the attendees will understand the gravity of such a gift. But challenge coins are more than just a novelty for SHOT Show exhibitors, they can be functional as well.
The Old Catalogue Problem
SHOT Show attendees are likely to leave the event overloaded with company catalogues from various vendors across the show floor. In recent years, there has been a push towards companies putting their catalogues exclusively online, or giving out thumb drives with the needed information on them. Thumb drives are a small and quick solution to this particular problem, but they aren’t unique, and can be prone to getting lost or damaged in all the hustle and bustle of the event.
Luckily, with custom challenge coins, there’s a way to give attendees something memorable and avoid printing up a bunch of catalogues for the event. If you create a challenge coin that features an active QR code on one side, all attendees have to do is snap that QR code and their phones will take them directly to your online catalogue.
Because of the increased perceived value of the coins, they aren’t nearly as likely to be lost or misplaced as a thumb drive. And because they’re made of top materials, they also aren’t going to lose any functionality if they get dropped or something spills on them. Taking custom challenge coins to the SHOT Show with you is an easy and memorable way to address the catalogue problem.
Custom Coins Start Conversations
While everyone loves free swag, branded items need to spark conversation and draw genuine interest to be successful, and there are few items that can spark a conversation more than a custom coin with a stellar design.
To those ends, Signature Coins offers a number of unique customizations that will be sure to help your coin stand out among the crowd. One of the new coin finishing options we’ve recently unveiled is actually perfect for the attendees at SHOT Show. Cerakote is a Polymer-Ceramic coating that can be applied to metals, plastics, polymers and wood. Used primarily for coating firearms, this finish is something that will be immediately recognizable to the industry insiders walking the trade show floor.
The intrinsic value of a coin transforms how your branded item is perceived by booth visitors, and the coin goes from just another trade show gift to a unique curio that visitors will want to show off to others. When coupled with a finish that speaks directly to their interests, the thought and attention to detail you put into creating something special will be seen and appreciated by everyone who leaves with one. And it’s sure to keep recipients talking about you and your brand for weeks after the show is over.
Stand Out, Be Remembered, Reach Your Audience on Their Level
Products ranging from pens to calendars are offered at any promotional item vendor, they’re ubiquitous because they’re useful and they’ve proven popular in the past. However, with popularity comes unoriginality. Any set of company calendars, pens or cups are likely to be palette swaps of each other: churned out on a production line and stamped with a logo before being delivered. Besides, how many cups or hats can any one person need? While it’s true there’s both convenience and cost efficiency with these mass-produced offerings, when your giveaways are the same as nearly every booth lining the convention hall, then you’ve failed to do what every trade booth needs to do: stand out.
Equal parts functional, memorable and customized for the specific audience at SHOT Show, custom challenge coins from Signature Coins have the potential to help you stand out like no other piece of trade show swag can. Before you get set to exhibit, ask yourself this: Are you more likely to be remembered by giving away yet another can koozie and printed catalogue, or by handing out custom challenge coins?
