GlassBuild America Roundup

I’m back in the office after a week in Las Vegas at GlassBuild America. There seemed to be a great attendee turnout, even with the economy slump.

GTS did well with a booth, plus the big Microsoft Travel Across America Truck, and feedback from other vendors was good as well. As for Vegas, well what can I say – I’ve been there three times this year already, and will be there again for NACE, SEMA, NWRA, IGA, and AAPEX in November, plus another week for PubCon (www.pubcon.org) the following week.

If you plan to be at NACE, don’t be surprised to find me hiding in a corner somewhere; I can only take so much of Vegas, and I’m already past my limit.

A highlight at GlassBuild for me was speaking on the Retail Glass Seminar panel for “Marketing the Works”. The panel was designed to give real examples of marketing campaigns that have worked for retail and full service glass shops.

Bill Evans from www.evansglasscompany.com was there and showed us a handful of his television commercials that run in his market. I think he has around 20 different commercials. Bill does a lot to create an image in his market, and he has a great website to back up his marketing efforts.

Also on the panel was Mark Pritikin from www.creativemirror.com. He also brought along some television commercials that he runs in his area, and he talked briefly about the importance on focusing on new media and on the Internet specifically.

And finally, Cynthia Crosby from Brandner Communications was there to talk about their marketing campaigns for TGP (www.tgpamerica.com). If you recall, this was one of my personal favorites from the US Glass Best of the Web contest (http://onlineobservations.blogspot.com/2008/08/best-of-web-contest.html). Cynthia displayed some of the great print materials they’ve put out, as well as some sophisticated packaged marketing materials and product samples.

All in all, there seemed to be a consistent message that marketing works, but you need to invest in it – even with risk. You should monitor your marketing endeavors closely to know what’s working and what’s not, and you should look to the Internet to get the best bang for your marketing buck.