Logan Pearce
Awesome Sauce Smith (A.S.S)
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2012
- Messages
- 374
Thank you so much! I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to share this event with. Let me know what you think! Good, bad, or indifferent. Anything that I can possibly change to make it better, you know that I will do my best to do so.
I can’t express how grateful I am to have each of you be a part of this every year. At the banquet, I usually start off by saying that, but I’m not sure if you understand how greatly I truly appreciate the support.
You are what make it great.
So much is brought to this show. The caliber of makers, phenomenal knives, and kind people are what make it what it is.
Like every show. Some makers sold out, some did okay, and some didn’t sell a thing.
The door sales/foot traffic was greater this year than last year, but only by a hundred people or so.
The crowd was an interesting one, compared to last year.
Last year, we had a bulk of people at the beginning who stayed around for a long duration of the show. It’s what my registration staff have been calling our burst crowd. Where it is dead for a little while, then 100 people show up at the same time, then it’s dead for a bit in the front. They are huge fans of that. That way they get a break without having to call on one of the inside the show staff members.
This year, it was a constant flow. I was surprised by that we did have more people. See last year I geared my advertising to anyone and everyone. This time I narrowed it to custom makers. So, we didn’t have the guys looking for a $30 folder from Wal-Mart.
So here was my promotion for the show:
Radio Stations: I set up 36 different radio stations around Arkansas and the surrounding states, running ads and doing interviews with maker and collectors that wanted to go on air. Circling Little Rock with half a dozen of those interviews and making it's way out to the largest populated cities within as reasonable of a driving distance as I could imagine. As my budget allows, I ran them for 3-4 days before the event rather than the week like I did last year.
Knife Magazines: Blade/Blade Show and Knife magazine. Knife Magazine itself has been running ads for the last few months for us, in different sections, but around the show calendar to boost awareness. Blade has a full page ad for the show at their show, plus they run us amazing coverage of winners of the show every year.
Magazines: nationals magazines, regional magazines, and then local magazine. At the show, there were magazines being given out by just a few of the ones that either did articles before hand of the show or are doing articles about the makers that attend/the show for in the future. One of them being a state wide magazine 'About You Magazine' that goes by AY Magazine, did a great article on various makers in Arkansas and promoted the show. Which many of the attendees who came to the show, commented on seeing the show in there before coming to it. Also, I hit Arkansas Living and Arkansas Life, but one of them didn't really care too much for us, so they just let us have a small online thing. However, I'll take whatever I can get, even if it is them just putting us in the event calendar.
Newspapers: From there I hit 3 national newspapers, and 7 regional newspapers. Who ran an ad for me before the show, then will be running a small insert about makers or the show afterward. I prefer them to run it about a specific maker after, since I think it's wasted space to promote the show a year and a month before the next one. I think it would be better right after to promote the people who support the show.
Billboards: I picked the 4 highest traveled roads and put up billboards for the show, about 20 miles out from the show. From there, I came close to the show and had small billboard/signage, being ran on and inside of metro buses. Simply because I wanted to see my knife on the side of a bus.
But also, because they go a different route everyday. In the end hitting hundreds of thousands of people. The minimum order for those signs is 26 signs, in which I order 52 small across a fleet of buses to be inside and outside of them
TV: I hit the Channel 4, Channel 5, and Channel 7 before the show. For those of you that came to the show and some guys going around with large cameras that was Channel 4 and THC11. They did come in the middle of the show, rather than at the beginning of the cutting competition, which was an annoyance. But! I'm just happy that they are willing to support the makers and the show. My continued relationship with them will help the show and hopefully timing much better in the future. However, we were taken care of very well by all networks.
Social Media: For the entire year, I have had someone posting up content from makers that are either coming or have come to the show. Since Facebook and Instagram continuously get harder and harder for promotion for knives, I had to do paid ads through other influencers rather than just a normal ad for the show. For that, I choose people with no less than 200k people to 2 million people. Ranging from people from the state of Arkansas to just nationwide. I had to resort to Google Ads and everything from that point, since the policy of Facebook and Instagram state that I cannot advertise for a place of sale of a weapon. Instead of trying to fight that and potentially lose what public appearance of the show it has on those two social platforms, I just continuously post work and other events of the show on it throughout the year.
Forums: BladeForums: Most of the makers posted on their own instagram, rather than participating on there as well. Guys. People on there care about knives. It’s in the name. I think it's bad marketing for your business if you put all your eggs into one basket. It is your business though. If you don't want to help their sales as much as possible, then that's your decision. I posted about the show and a good number of knives that I photoed for other people before the show on hunting, fishing, archery, outdoor, and art forums. One per category really. Varying from state to national on that as well.
Flyers/Brochures: So, this time around, I paid to have 5,000 brochures for the show sent to addresses of Arkansas that frequent archery shops and outdoor stores. In addition to that, all of the people that signed up for the door prizes last year were sent a flyer a week before the show.
My plan for next year is to either double the amount that I can double or extend the promotions longer. As far as local advertising goes, I don’t see myself ever doing it for more than 2 weeks straight. I think more than 2 weeks on a local level is a waste of time. Plus, I doubt I will ever have the budget for that.
What I do want to do, is blanket all the roads, billboards, downtown streets, newspapers, radio station, tv networks, and magazines in the state the month of the show. That is one of my main goals. All while continuing to promote it to the knife community and nationwide as per usual.
I’m working to get there slowly, but surely.
I do think that the cutting competition at the end of the show hurt us more than it helped us. Instead of the people hanging around to see it, they left saying they would come back. Which means I created the 2-day show effect that I do NOT want. I want it to be urgent and for people to know that this is limited.
I will most likely put the cutting competition back on Friday. This will help with the TV airing to actually help the show, plus the other local publications will have time to use the material to boost up our attendance. However, that means the $30 folders thing will come into play again.
Those people are great to have! I’m not complaining about that in anyway. Honestly, I can’t complain about anything. I’m surrounded by amazing people, great makers, collectors that care, and more friends than I ever knew I had.
I thought the energy of the show was great! Makers and patrons alike. It shows so much promise for the show’s growth. Everyone is putting so much effort and positivity into this. Which is why people want to come.
Oh and the amazing looking knives.
We will be moving the show to March.
Next years date is March 21, 2020.
This will help with a whole lot of things. It makes my life easier. The weather is less hazardous. And mainly, it will be better for buyers to come. Most of the other shows are working with me to keep from us being on the same weekend or too close to it.
I hope you guys enjoyed this book. Lol.
Again: Thank you to everyone for helping. What you are doing it great for the community and each individual maker. Without events like this, less people would know about our craft. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to share this event with. I can’t tell you how much it all means to me.
I believe we will have an even brighter year next year! And let me know your thoughts. That's why I am here.
I will also be posting up pictures from the show. We had an amazing photographer, Heather McLean, cover the entire event. So I will post them as I get them!
I can’t express how grateful I am to have each of you be a part of this every year. At the banquet, I usually start off by saying that, but I’m not sure if you understand how greatly I truly appreciate the support.
You are what make it great.
So much is brought to this show. The caliber of makers, phenomenal knives, and kind people are what make it what it is.
Like every show. Some makers sold out, some did okay, and some didn’t sell a thing.
The door sales/foot traffic was greater this year than last year, but only by a hundred people or so.
The crowd was an interesting one, compared to last year.
Last year, we had a bulk of people at the beginning who stayed around for a long duration of the show. It’s what my registration staff have been calling our burst crowd. Where it is dead for a little while, then 100 people show up at the same time, then it’s dead for a bit in the front. They are huge fans of that. That way they get a break without having to call on one of the inside the show staff members.
This year, it was a constant flow. I was surprised by that we did have more people. See last year I geared my advertising to anyone and everyone. This time I narrowed it to custom makers. So, we didn’t have the guys looking for a $30 folder from Wal-Mart.
So here was my promotion for the show:
Radio Stations: I set up 36 different radio stations around Arkansas and the surrounding states, running ads and doing interviews with maker and collectors that wanted to go on air. Circling Little Rock with half a dozen of those interviews and making it's way out to the largest populated cities within as reasonable of a driving distance as I could imagine. As my budget allows, I ran them for 3-4 days before the event rather than the week like I did last year.
Knife Magazines: Blade/Blade Show and Knife magazine. Knife Magazine itself has been running ads for the last few months for us, in different sections, but around the show calendar to boost awareness. Blade has a full page ad for the show at their show, plus they run us amazing coverage of winners of the show every year.
Magazines: nationals magazines, regional magazines, and then local magazine. At the show, there were magazines being given out by just a few of the ones that either did articles before hand of the show or are doing articles about the makers that attend/the show for in the future. One of them being a state wide magazine 'About You Magazine' that goes by AY Magazine, did a great article on various makers in Arkansas and promoted the show. Which many of the attendees who came to the show, commented on seeing the show in there before coming to it. Also, I hit Arkansas Living and Arkansas Life, but one of them didn't really care too much for us, so they just let us have a small online thing. However, I'll take whatever I can get, even if it is them just putting us in the event calendar.
Newspapers: From there I hit 3 national newspapers, and 7 regional newspapers. Who ran an ad for me before the show, then will be running a small insert about makers or the show afterward. I prefer them to run it about a specific maker after, since I think it's wasted space to promote the show a year and a month before the next one. I think it would be better right after to promote the people who support the show.
Billboards: I picked the 4 highest traveled roads and put up billboards for the show, about 20 miles out from the show. From there, I came close to the show and had small billboard/signage, being ran on and inside of metro buses. Simply because I wanted to see my knife on the side of a bus.
TV: I hit the Channel 4, Channel 5, and Channel 7 before the show. For those of you that came to the show and some guys going around with large cameras that was Channel 4 and THC11. They did come in the middle of the show, rather than at the beginning of the cutting competition, which was an annoyance. But! I'm just happy that they are willing to support the makers and the show. My continued relationship with them will help the show and hopefully timing much better in the future. However, we were taken care of very well by all networks.
Social Media: For the entire year, I have had someone posting up content from makers that are either coming or have come to the show. Since Facebook and Instagram continuously get harder and harder for promotion for knives, I had to do paid ads through other influencers rather than just a normal ad for the show. For that, I choose people with no less than 200k people to 2 million people. Ranging from people from the state of Arkansas to just nationwide. I had to resort to Google Ads and everything from that point, since the policy of Facebook and Instagram state that I cannot advertise for a place of sale of a weapon. Instead of trying to fight that and potentially lose what public appearance of the show it has on those two social platforms, I just continuously post work and other events of the show on it throughout the year.
Forums: BladeForums: Most of the makers posted on their own instagram, rather than participating on there as well. Guys. People on there care about knives. It’s in the name. I think it's bad marketing for your business if you put all your eggs into one basket. It is your business though. If you don't want to help their sales as much as possible, then that's your decision. I posted about the show and a good number of knives that I photoed for other people before the show on hunting, fishing, archery, outdoor, and art forums. One per category really. Varying from state to national on that as well.
Flyers/Brochures: So, this time around, I paid to have 5,000 brochures for the show sent to addresses of Arkansas that frequent archery shops and outdoor stores. In addition to that, all of the people that signed up for the door prizes last year were sent a flyer a week before the show.
My plan for next year is to either double the amount that I can double or extend the promotions longer. As far as local advertising goes, I don’t see myself ever doing it for more than 2 weeks straight. I think more than 2 weeks on a local level is a waste of time. Plus, I doubt I will ever have the budget for that.
What I do want to do, is blanket all the roads, billboards, downtown streets, newspapers, radio station, tv networks, and magazines in the state the month of the show. That is one of my main goals. All while continuing to promote it to the knife community and nationwide as per usual.
I’m working to get there slowly, but surely.
I do think that the cutting competition at the end of the show hurt us more than it helped us. Instead of the people hanging around to see it, they left saying they would come back. Which means I created the 2-day show effect that I do NOT want. I want it to be urgent and for people to know that this is limited.
I will most likely put the cutting competition back on Friday. This will help with the TV airing to actually help the show, plus the other local publications will have time to use the material to boost up our attendance. However, that means the $30 folders thing will come into play again.
Those people are great to have! I’m not complaining about that in anyway. Honestly, I can’t complain about anything. I’m surrounded by amazing people, great makers, collectors that care, and more friends than I ever knew I had.
I thought the energy of the show was great! Makers and patrons alike. It shows so much promise for the show’s growth. Everyone is putting so much effort and positivity into this. Which is why people want to come.
Oh and the amazing looking knives.
We will be moving the show to March.
Next years date is March 21, 2020.
This will help with a whole lot of things. It makes my life easier. The weather is less hazardous. And mainly, it will be better for buyers to come. Most of the other shows are working with me to keep from us being on the same weekend or too close to it.
I hope you guys enjoyed this book. Lol.
Again: Thank you to everyone for helping. What you are doing it great for the community and each individual maker. Without events like this, less people would know about our craft. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to share this event with. I can’t tell you how much it all means to me.
I believe we will have an even brighter year next year! And let me know your thoughts. That's why I am here.
I will also be posting up pictures from the show. We had an amazing photographer, Heather McLean, cover the entire event. So I will post them as I get them!
