EVENT
Stonehenge Booth LISA 2004 Cash Swag
- During the Large Installation System Administration (LISA) conference in Atlanta in November 2004, my company Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. decided to cut through the typical marketing clutter and trade show noise with a highly pragmatic and legendary "swag" campaign.
- Normally, tech companies spend large sums of money on cheap plastic promotional gimmicks (like branded stress balls, keychains, or rubber bouncy balls) that conference attendees ultimately throw away or leave behind in their hotel rooms.
- In true Stonehenge fashion—where our core philosophy is to do what actually works and focus on high-fidelity, practical results—we decided to give the attendees exactly what those promotional trinkets cost: cold, hard, crisp cash.
- We prepared envelopes containing a brand-new, crisp $1 bill and printed a simple, powerful message on each envelope:
"Why should we spend $1 on you to get a rubber ball you'll throw away... here's the actual $1. We at Stonehenge do what works."
- This brilliant, tongue-in-cheek move was a massive hit. It perfectly captured our pragmatic, down-to-earth business philosophy, gained enormous buzz on the trade show floor, and left a lasting impression on system administrators who appreciated both the honesty and the literal dollar.
What links here
These facts are as Randal recalls them, but much time has passed for most of this. If you find a factual error, please email realmerlyn@gmail.com.