I saw Anton speak a couple years back, and he definitely knows his stuff. And I'll echo Eric Paul... Joel's very much the real deal when it comes to everything associated with working Trade Shows. If you're interested in what he has to say on the topic, contact me directly.

Trade show magic is a sub set of corporate magic. However, if you get to a graduate school of business library, read what you can find about "Business to Business" marketing. It will give you a broader view of how trade shows fit into the marketing mix for vendors.

Don't over look the same under "Services Marketing". Today it is about the only growing area of American business. When I wrote my dissertation on Professional Services Marketing about twenty-five years ago, it was essentially virgin territory for professional marketers. It turned very green for many of us.

Good Luck!

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

Anyone know UK specific sources for this type of info?

Hey Anton,
How do I get hold of a copy of "Trade Show Secrets Report"? It sounds really interesting.

Thanking you in advance,

Andy

I am NOT Anton, but you should get a copy... You can get it here:
http://www.ZellmannUniversity.com/products.htm

Too, he has a FREE Report just for receiving his e-newsletter...get that too. (I mean, the newsletter.)

Hope that helps,
Dean
<><

Sadly, that link is not working.
I can't find Anton's "Trade Show Secrets Report" anywhere.

The first person in this thread who mentioned it said it's the best $7 he had spent.

Haha, you're too slow, that was ten years ago. Anton has long since retired.

Everything and more in the free report was covered in his Mindvention lecture recorded just around the time he retired. It was released on DVD that you may find available from time to time in the marketplace here.

I just completed a five-day run here in Vegas at the MGM and was just talking with another trade show artist about Anton, so it's coincidental you bring him up. He's a great guy!

I did a little Google search, and found an Anton Zellmann that currently has a number of systems he is selling. One on Trade Shows. Let me day it not any $7 DVD but a complete course, selling for $3,497.00.

That is usually what a Trade show magician pitchman makes for one day at a 5 day trade show. So it is not a lot of money, if you are serious.

There is not direct contact information, only a form to fill out on which course you are interested in purchasing.

Let's see how serious everyone is, here is the link to Zellmann System:

http://www.zellman.com/zellmannsystem.htm

I guess he wised up and stopped giving this information for free.

I would appreciate a thank you payment from your first trade show gig, for informing you, a simple search would set you on your road to being a millionaire. Yes, I have known some professional Trade Show magicians, and all of them are actually Millionaires. Not just one million, but several million.

I receive Exhibitor Magazine every month even though I have never subscribed to it. It just comes to me unsolicited. I suppose I must be on some mailing list somewhere since I have had ties with the trade show industry in the past. Usually I just gloss over the magazine and then throw it out. However, not my last issue though! I did discard the magazine as usual but tore out a page which had a superb article by the editor of said magazine. His name was Travis Stanton. He pointed out something which was quite an eye opener for me and something I never realised before.

I had always wondered what the real objective of a trade show magician was. I had a vague idea that it was to sell and promote the product. What Travis pointed out is that sales and marketing are not only two different things they are often in conflict with each other. Marketing departments plan the trade show but salespeople are generally the ones who staff the show. And athough both departments try to compromise it doesn't always work. It is too long an article for me to try and sum up and explain fully what it is all about. But how does it relate to trade show magicians? Well, two paragraphs stood out to me. Despite what has been stated somewhere on this thread the show objective is NOT to sell! That is because the marketing department runs things! It is probably why sales people often get fed up at trade shows come to think of it! They want to be out in the field selling rather than gathering leads and marketing. Anyway I underlined two sentences in the article. Here is one:
"most exhibit managers would tell you that closing a deal in the booth is neither a likely outcome nor a primary exhibiting objective"

And here is the other:

"promotions ought to focus more on benefit statements than product specs, and success should be tethered to marketing related goals such as message retention, lead generation, and brand recognition"

That crystalised to me what the real objectives of a trade show magician should be. You don't try to sell the product or pre-qualify prospects. All you are there to do is to focus on gathering a crowd and brand recognition by the words you use. Then direct them on to the booth and let the sales people figure things out. Realising that they aren't going to sell anything at the show let alone the magician helped me considerably. I have watched videos of Eddie Tullock and that was all he did. He branded the product and then just said "talk to our people" about it and that was it. No prequalifing or asking questions to ascertain who was interested in the products. All you have to do is brand the product and invite people on the booth to talk to the sales people and let them figure it all out.

Stewart, the main objective of the Trade Show Magician is to gather a crowd at his clients booth. Second, he has a bowl or box, and gets other company buyers, engineers, etc. to drop their business cards in, or fill out a contact card. Third, the gives features of the products in a broad way to simply give points how the company he represents will increase the potential clients goals.

This is done by the Trade Show Magician meeting with the company to find out what areas they want him to hit on during his magic presentation. This means creating a script for each magic effect, and coming up with "tag line" or comment that tells what this company and product will do for them to meet their goals in business.

In the last 20 or 30 years, these scripts have not become mandatory to be submitted to the company, so they can review them and if they meet their standards, and the right points are being given to potential customers. Upon approval, you can use your patter script in the booth while showing magic effects. It is still required you mystify and entertain the stroller's by and be friendly. Most get all the important points the company wants to get across to their customers, and work them into their presentations.

A lot of time you are so busy, you cannot refer Sales people, and I heard that most the sales people don't really care for the Trade Show magician, but you still have to work with them. And many times they go out to dinner after a long day on the floor.

You will meet high CEO's and Presidents of companies. Do one thing wrong, and you are out. You may even be invited to dine with them, so watch your manners, and watch what you say. No personal opinions among these people.

It is your job to stop passers by dead in their tracks, because they want to the exhibit that the company sent him there to contact. How will you do that, and keep him there to get his business card.

So you magic has to surprising and magical, and make them say, how did he do that, he found my card in his wallet with my signature on it.

In most cases you will have the company build a special table for you to work on, and that table will be on a platform some 12 inches in the air. Some companies will not build them, so it is up to you to find a table that will work for you. You will have to ship it beforehand at your expense. Trade show facilities are Union, so you have to obey the rule, and that means paying for someone to simply open your close-up case, move it to the table, and set it down.

Tips are big as well, so you have to have a lot of cash on hand to give away for services. Not all, but the really big conventions you will.

How you work is kind of up to you, many of todays magicians "work the crowd" meaning as long as people are walking the isles, you are their stopping them, no lunch, not breaks, no going to the bathroom. Some magicians, have show time clocks and show when they will be back. Which do you think the client would rehire, the guy that gone all the time, or the guy that is there on the floor assisting them grow their company.

That is real purpose of the Trade Show Magician. Building the customer base.

I agree with this article and it is something that is grossly understood by many magicians, as well as trade show exhibit managers (Planners), the Sales Department, and booth staff. RARELY are they ever on the same page as to objectives, and predetermined strategy.

In reality, there are 12 different specific actions that can be done at a both by a performer, and even longtime 40-year veterans often don't understand these.

When I am booked at a trade show, convention, conference or expo event (all also different) one of the things I do is to be sure to have a pre-production meeting with all department heads, and then on the last day of setup I have a mandatory meeting with everyone working the booth - corporate executives, managers, staffers, BA's, crowd gatherers, and the entire Sales team. Most have no idea how to properly and effectively utilize myself or any of our trade show talent - entertainers, attractions, narrators, demonstrators, samplers, models, etc.

I charge handsomely for this but the results are almost always beyond their initial expectations presented in the first pre-production meeting. This leads to overdelivering on their expectations and often exceeding their numbers and projections. It also leads to longer booth visits by attendees and greater investment in our activities and message retention and the expected desired actions. Once everyone is on the same age working for the same objective, everything becomes elevated to a better level of efficiency. It also increases my value greatly to the client.

Now with that said you must have a complete and deep understanding of everything involved and often be comfortable educating the educators (from their team). You must clearly know and understand the desired final outcome and the related benefits to its process and outcome.

I agree with some of the sentiments offered above to the Sales team and their typical perspective, however, once on the right page with this, they to become more onboard and committed and easily discover the many great benefits for them specifically.

Magican's roles have changed in rrecent years. Just having a performers doin tricks to attract attention is pretty much over and the priority has been changes to must mor econtent-based and exeriential applications. Good thoughts on a nice article.

One way to pitch a company that works VERY well is to use the following position.

A sales department will sell a certain percentage of those who come through the booth. (Heck ask any timeshare company.) This number will not likely change.

What a good trade show entertainer, in this case a magician, can offer is to increase the number that percentage is taken from. If you close 20% of those who come through the both and 100 people come through obviously that is 20 sales. If 150 come through instead then this is 30 sales.

It is a formula I use because I never sell ANYTHING for them. I don't do messages and yet still do well for clients.

Many are very proud of their sales force and don't want you doing it. Often it looks contrived and silly. (Not always.) But they understand numbers and what they represent.

It also takes all the heat off of you as a sales person. There is no need. You can be what you have spent your life learning to become.

I am only saying this is one way to do this that works. Nor the ONLY way or the right way. Just A way to think about is all.

Sorry, the guys jumped in before I could make the correction. Like, scripts have NOW become mandatory. Sorry for any errors, I tried.

I am delighted we have a good discussion going anyway! I wish I could show you the entire article but alas it is a full page. However, on the very slim chance that any of you get Exhibitor Magazine the article is on page 6.

I do thank you all for your observations but I have done a few trade shows in my time. And I break all the rules! I used to feel guilty about breaking the rules but nowadays I no longer care. After all who makes the rules in the first place! Other magicians! I had an epiphane one day that I am ME and nobody else and I had to do things my own way, bad or good. If I do the right thing so much the better for me and if I do the wrong thing so much the worse for me!

With regard to Danny's point about the sales staff not being overly excited about the "script" that may well be true but it bears out what the magazine article said. The sales staff might not like it but the marketing department LOVES it in my experience. I find the sales staff are amused by it and possibly find it "corny" just as Danny stated but I really think you have to do it because the MARKETING department loves it! And it is the marketing department that runs the show. I never realised before this slight conflict between the marketing department and the sales department until I read this article but on thinking back at a few of the trade shows I have done over the years I now remember little instances of it that I didn't pick up on at the time.

Anyway I think there are no rules in trade show work. Danny has proved my point since he has never bothered with scripts and Bill says the opposite and thinks it is a strict requirement to be approved of before the show. I am in between the two viewpoints. It takes me half an hour to put the script together and a bit longer to remember it and a good deal of the time I never submit it for approval. I love to see their faces when I suddenly spring it on them at the show itself!

Rules? There aren't any!

My problem with the scripts is that it looks so contrived. Don Alan did a Steven's VHS tape where he is showing a GE script he did talking about how they are the "Ace of refrigerators". Lord it was contrived.

The main problem I have with such scripts is generally I have worked on material for decades polishing and perfecting it. The new script a few hours. I prefer to do my best and let the sales guys do their best.

Again only one opinion.

That is not the kind of script I am referring to. When presenting a magic effect, say the finale is dealing the 4 aces from a well shuffled deck. As you deal the 4 aces, the script line would be, "When you use ABC's generators, we deal with only the winning components." IF doing the 3 1/2 clubs gag card, the line would be, "no matter how complicated the answer, ABC always has the correct answer. Turn the card over.

Script lines that point out the company and things that point out why they are the best solution to a clients needs.

That Don Alan video was made for company employees and shown over their televisions throughout the company. A friend copied the video exactly for an Insurance company who has their home office in Fort Wayne, IN.

I agree. Scripting really seems like a magician's thing. I've booked all kind of trade show talent and attractions from artists/painters to mentalists, from game shows to personality analysis, from memory acts to and celebrities, from demonstrations to samplings, and the "scripting" issue typically only becomes present with magicians.

Yes, others may incorporate a branding message, promotional theme, or visibility campaign into the appearance, but rarely is it scripted to the extent of that of many magicians. The only other possible exception may be narrators, but that is about it. The best way to approach anything is for you to get their content and you adapt to your performance. I would never let them do it or they'll have you redo your entire presentation or performance to complete their vision.

As entertainers or presenters, if you are truly skilled and experienced, you would likely know better than them how their message can be best utilized and incorporated into your presentation for optimal results and effectiveness.

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http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/11620