On this episode of Branded, we’re recapping our recent experience on the PodFest PodTour and at the Spark Media Ignite Conference. Most importantly, we’re talking about a lesson that one of our hosts (Larry) learned the hard way: lean into ideas that resonate with your audience even if they don’t resonate with you.
During the SPARK Media Conference, we experimented with an innovative approach to connect with attendees—our very own bracelet-making station, thanks to Sara’s brilliant idea. Despite initial skepticism from Larry, the concept proved to be a massive hit, drawing crowds and fostering genuine connections. Join us as we dive deep into the lessons learned from this unique branding experiment and how you can apply these insights to your own branding efforts.
Key Takeaways:
1. Personalization Creates Impact: Sara’s bracelet-making station was a stellar example of creating a unique, personalized experience for attendees. It emphasized the importance of creating memorable, personal interactions that resonate more deeply than generic branding materials. By allowing attendees to create their own branded bracelets, they left with a tangible and meaningful reminder of the interaction.
2. Differentiation in Branding Efforts: The standard conference swag often falls short in creating lasting impressions. Sara and Larry discuss how stepping outside the norm with unique and thoughtful giveaways can significantly impact how people remember and engage with your brand. Personalized items show attendees that thought and effort went into the engagement, which stands out against the typical mass-produced items.
3. Building Genuine Connections: Spending time with attendees at the bracelet-making station allowed for deeper, more meaningful conversations. Larry and Sara illustrate how taking the time to engage on a personal level can help establish strong connections and build trust, which is invaluable for any brand.
4. Think Beyond Immediate ROI: The bracelet-making activity wasn’t just about immediate gains but about long-term relationship-building. Attendees weren’t just passing through; they spent time, shared stories, and forged genuine relationships with Larry and Sara. These interactions are likely to translate into future opportunities and brand loyalty.
5. Creativity in Brand Representation: Sara highlights the importance of aligning brand activities with your brand promise. Branded is all about building other brands, so creating an activity where attendees could personalize their experience was a perfect fit. This experience serves as a reminder that any branding effort should reflect your brand’s core values and mission authentically.
Transcript
Larry Roberts [00:00:09]:
What is happening, everybody? I'm Larry Roberts.
Sara Lohse [00:00:11]:
And I'm Sara Lohse, and this is Branded, the comprehensive guide to creative branding.
Larry Roberts [00:00:16]:
And on this episode of the podcast, we're gonna be talking about, our adventures this past week, well, at a variety of different stops. We, we're on the pod tour with the Podfest crew. Made several stops throughout, the Texas tour. Made a stop in every major Texas city there, And then we rounded out, our adventures in Houston, Texas at the SPARK Media Conference. So we're gonna be Kinda sharing with you some of the lessons that we learned and some of the things that we saw in action there at the conference.
Sara Lohse [00:00:50]:
Larry learned a lot at this conference.
Larry Roberts [00:00:53]:
Man, we get right to it, don't we? We just jump right in. We just
Sara Lohse [00:00:56]:
He learned a lot.
Larry Roberts [00:00:57]:
Into my nightmare.
Sara Lohse [00:00:58]:
He learned so much. Well, what'd you learn, Larry? Tell tell tell everybody. Tell the class what you learned.
Larry Roberts [00:01:06]:
Well, I I think one of the biggest things that I learned was that, while you as an individual may not necessarily think that an idea resonates because it doesn't necessarily resonate with you. There's still an opportunity for it to resonate with others, And I know that's a very vague statement, so let me clarify. Sarah had come to me weeks prior to this and, proposed the idea Having a bracelet station at our booth because we were sponsors of the Spark Ignite 2023 conference, and we had a booth there Talking about branded and some of the things we do for our clients, and, you know, our idea was to maybe land a client or two ourselves. And, when she proposed this bracelet making station idea, I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. So, just because it's it's not gonna resonate with me. You know? I didn't necessarily, have much of an interest, well, really any interest at all and stringing little beads onto monofilament line to create a bracelet, but, apparently, it's all the rage.
Sara Lohse [00:02:15]:
Everybody else wanted it. It was insane how popular this idea was. We I had brought 2 chairs from home, and we still were stealing chairs from other booths so enough people could sit down because everyone wanted to make their bracelet. I don't know if there's a limit to how many times I can say I told you so.
Larry Roberts [00:02:37]:
Well, I'm hoping we reach that soon because it's been a long week.
Sara Lohse [00:02:40]:
I you know, I the I'm not seeing the horizon yet. Oh, awesome. I'm I'm still feeling right.
Larry Roberts [00:02:49]:
Okay. So going beyond you the the fact that you were right in in everybody enjoying this, what's the real value with that? I mean, what was your thought process in not just, hey. We have an opportunity to, make these bracelets and everybody's going to to to wanna participate in that. But from a deeper perspective, where were you going with this?
Sara Lohse [00:03:10]:
I had, like, several different layers to this idea. And the first was our brand is branded. So we are all about building brands, But we're not about building our brands. We're about building the brands of the people who work with us. I could give you something with our brand on it, But that doesn't support our brand promise. Our brand promise is we wanna highlight your brand, and we wanna grow your brand. So I came up with this idea to have people sit down at our table and put their own brand name on a beaded bracelet, and that makes it about them instead of about us. So that was the first part, but it's also I go to conferences all the time, And you do too because we're all usually at the same ones.
Sara Lohse [00:04:02]:
And you walk through these expo halls, and it's just the same mass produced, Just garbage. Like, I hate to say that way. Yeah. There's stress balls. There's pens. There's
Larry Roberts [00:04:16]:
Rice Krispy Treats.
Sara Lohse [00:04:17]:
Yeah. Okay. Those aren't garbage. Those are fantastic. They are delicious. But the things that people just put their brand on for marketing purposes, They're all made by the same people. They're all and they all end up in the trash. Like, you take them because it's just like, oh, look, a free thing, but you never use it.
Sara Lohse [00:04:34]:
I've gotten a few things that were actually really cool. I mean, I've gotten little speakers. I've gotten headphones. Like, things like that. But for the most part, You never look at these again, and you don't like, they don't make you think about the company that gave them to you. Right. Usually, I just kind of Awkwardly stick my arm out, say, I'm just grabbing a free thing, and then run away before they can talk to me.
Larry Roberts [00:04:57]:
Well, it's it's funny because the booth next to us, the lady said that exact same thing. You know, she had mints on her table, and granted, there were those delicious lifesaver those white lifesaver mints that everybody loves, that if you suck on them long enough, they dissolve in your mouth, and it's just A fun and refreshing experience. But she even made
Sara Lohse [00:05:14]:
by Lifesaver.
Larry Roberts [00:05:15]:
Right? Lifesaver, if you're listening, I'm a huge fan. But even she even made that comment. She's so that was part of the the funnest part of the conference was watching people kinda give her the side eye as they walked by her table and Just kinda slip their hand in the bowl and grab 2 or 3 of them and then keep on walking without making direct eye contact because they didn't wanna have a conversation. They just wanted those delicious lifesavers.
Sara Lohse [00:05:40]:
Yeah. And that was what I wanted to avoid. It's like all of these things on these tables, these people spent money on. Yeah. But they're not resonating. It's just like I have piles of this stuff around my house because I am a hoarder, and I go to these events too much. But I couldn't tell you what names are on them. I will tell you my massage gun was from Prudential because they gave out massage guns, and good on you.
Larry Roberts [00:06:04]:
I mean, that's a high dollar gift right there. That that's some high dollar swag.
Sara Lohse [00:06:07]:
Yeah. Oh, finance conferences are where it's at for swag, but I like, they just did nothing really resonates. And with this, it was you had to sit down and have a conversation with me because you had no choice. If you want a bracelet, you need to sit down and make that bracelet 1 bead at a time. And the crowd there was a little on the older side, so they weren't very fast with getting these tiny beads on a tiny string. So a lot of them, they sat there for, like, 10 minutes. Yes. So I remember
Larry Roberts [00:06:43]:
there for a while.
Sara Lohse [00:06:44]:
Yeah. We got to have whole conversations about what is your show about, what's your brand about, what's your mission, like, what is it that you're trying to get out of this conference? All of these different, like, questions that I could ask or that they were asking me and, like, taking time to get to know each other, That by the time they're done with their bracelet, they're like, so do you have a card? Can I like, how can I stay in touch with you? Yeah. Because Yeah. We took the time to get to know them.
Larry Roberts [00:07:10]:
Well and that allowed us to have difference. Yeah. 100%. And that's what allowed us to have some deeper conversations and make all of the connections that we made. And it was really surprising because a lot of times, when you do just have the generic stuff on the table and you you are just having these generic conversations, There's really not an opportunity to carry the conversation beyond that. As we sat there, and and I didn't do a whole lot of bead making or or bracelet making. I make
Sara Lohse [00:07:35]:
You made 1.
Larry Roberts [00:07:35]:
I I'm not saying I didn't make any. I'm I made 1. Actually, I made, I think, 2, but, it took me 3 tries to make my first one because I kept dropping the beads. I was done. I was finished. I had all my beads on, and then I would drop it, and the beads would fall off. So
Sara Lohse [00:07:50]:
Larry was one of the old people I
Larry Roberts [00:07:52]:
was referring to. My my was not, was not at the forefront of my bracelet making prowess, but, the the conversations that came from taking that much time, I mean, we got to know their their their children's name, their grandchildren's names. We got to know their backstory. We got to learn about their podcasts. We got to learn about their businesses. Got to learn about their goals. It was a Christian conference, so we got to learn learn about their struggles and and overcoming, certain challenges in life. I mean, they just shared their entire testimony with us.
Larry Roberts [00:08:23]:
It was we got to know these people on a very, very in-depth level. And, I mean, I've got a couple of appointments coming up this week because of some of the conversations that took place. And, Sarah, I'm I'm confident you made a couple as well, and I think even branded as as a whole as our brand. I think we've got some appointments on the calendar for branded as well. So The the overall success of us being there and leveraging something like this that allows people to create together Opens up a a a level of connectivity that I haven't seen, at any other any other booth before.
Sara Lohse [00:09:00]:
There were a few things that were said from it that really, like, stuck with me. 1 woman, like, she worked so hard on this bracelet, And she was there for a while. She just really put so much thought into each bead that she put on this bracelet. And she's done, and she looks up at me. She's like, this is the 1st time I've ever made
Larry Roberts [00:09:19]:
something. Oh,
Sara Lohse [00:09:19]:
wow. Yeah. She's this is her 1st, like, handmade by her Bracelet or anything. She's like, I never thought I was creative. I never thought I could really make something. And she was just looking down at this bracelet that she made with So much pride. I'm like, I didn't think it would go that deep, but she was so proud of herself. It was so Cute.
Sara Lohse [00:09:42]:
It was so sweet. I didn't tell her that some of the beads she chose were actually, like, hardware. It was like clamps to keep knots from loosening and stuff. Like, they weren't actually beads. I didn't tell her that.
Larry Roberts [00:09:53]:
No. No riding on her parade, man.
Sara Lohse [00:09:54]:
She's not in a nice I I I did I didn't. I I I let her I let her go. I even I mean, I wasn't going to the sessions. I wanted to stay by the booth, so I had a lot of downtime. So I just started making bracelets for the different, vendors there with their names and their colors. And there's a woman at the table next to us, the opposite side of the Mints table, And I had put, a movie that she starred in and her husband directed. I put the name of it on a bracelet. And when she comes out from whatever she was doing, I was I sounded like a 12 year old.
Sara Lohse [00:10:29]:
I was like, hey. I made you a friendship bracelet.
Larry Roberts [00:10:32]:
Basically thing you kept saying that was just I it had me rolling. I I can't figure out I can't figure out how to walk up to a
Sara Lohse [00:10:38]:
different grown adult And say I made you a friendship bracelet without sounding like a fetus.
Larry Roberts [00:10:43]:
There you go. The the fetus part. That's what the next
Sara Lohse [00:10:47]:
And it I mean, it didn't help that I was the youngest person
Larry Roberts [00:10:50]:
there. And the the smallest. And yeah. You you you really fit the whole the whole picture that you were painting As you approached them with this bracelet, it was just it was hilarious.
Sara Lohse [00:11:01]:
I I felt like a a fetus, and all of them were just like, you remind me of my granddaughter. And I'm like, oh, thank you. Do you give her money? Give me some. But the woman next to me, I put I put her movie title on her bracelet, And I go and I give it to her, and I was and I had actually put it on her table, but she was there for a few minutes, and I realized that she hadn't noticed it. So I just, like, pop over. I was like, hey. By the way, I made you this this friendship bracelet. I just wanted to, just make sure you got it.
Sara Lohse [00:11:29]:
And she just looks down on at it, and she takes it out of a little I put in a little baggy, and she reads it, and she just looks up at me. She's like, This is so meaningful. The I don't have anything with the name of the movie on it. This is my first piece of merchandise from this movie I starred in. And she puts it on, and she's just staring at it, and she's just so excited. And that's how so many people reacted because This wasn't self promotion. This was just kindness and generosity and just I took the time to make this for you. I even made I had bought 80 little microphone, little, like, pendants or charms.
Sara Lohse [00:12:11]:
Yeah. Charms. Yeah. Is the word. Good on you.
Larry Roberts [00:12:13]:
Good. I'm I'm getting in touch with my feminine side here. I'm gonna
Sara Lohse [00:12:16]:
You are a future jewelry maker. I had bought, like, 80 of them thinking they could go on the bracelets, But they were too big. It wouldn't have gone with the look of the bracelet. So instead, I have an Etsy store. I make earrings and stuff all the time, so I just made them into earrings. And I put them with a gift with a, business card in little, like, sealed up little baggies and put them in gift bags, and I left them on the table for people to take. And when I would say, like, oh, don't forget. There's, like, handmade earrings here, and people would just look at me like, did you say handmade?
Larry Roberts [00:12:49]:
Yeah.
Sara Lohse [00:12:50]:
Yeah. Because nothing there has personal
Larry Roberts [00:12:53]:
touches. Right. Everything is so manufactured and so just So manufactured. Hey. Come to my table. Here's my brand. Look at this. I yeah.
Larry Roberts [00:13:01]:
It's the same stuff over and over and over, and It was just so amazing to see the look on these people's face when they realized that it was handmade, that you had put some heart and soul and energy and thought And that it
Sara Lohse [00:13:15]:
was free.
Larry Roberts [00:13:15]:
Well yeah. And that was coming next. In fact, it because they would look at the earrings like, oh my gosh. These are
Sara Lohse [00:13:21]:
so cute.
Larry Roberts [00:13:21]:
How much? They were waiting for us to peg them with a 19.99 price tag.
Sara Lohse [00:13:26]:
Yeah. They're all like, how much is it, or what do I have to do to get The earrings, that's, like, thinking, like, they have to sign up for something or hire us or I mean, we did have a QR code to sign up for a giveaway we were doing, but You didn't need to do it.
Larry Roberts [00:13:38]:
It wasn't a requirement.
Sara Lohse [00:13:39]:
Yeah. So, like, someone looks at me and says, what do I have to do to get the earrings? And I just looked at I'm like, pick them up and walk away.
Larry Roberts [00:13:48]:
So what say thank you. A little thank
Sara Lohse [00:13:50]:
you. I I would I would appreciate that. Yes. Thank you. You're very welcome. But they were so shocked that it was because most of these, it's like you order a 100 of them. It cost you $20, and it's just this little thing. You know? You don't Think twice about it.
Sara Lohse [00:14:05]:
You just want them gone so you don't have to bring them home.
Larry Roberts [00:14:07]:
Yeah. Yeah. Please take these so I don't have to wrap them back up.
Sara Lohse [00:14:10]:
Yeah. Exactly. And but this is something that, like, I spent hours making by hand, and they I was hoping that it would stick with them a little bit more than something that I could have just bought, and I did not expect the level of gratitude that they show. Like, they were so excited about it.
Larry Roberts [00:14:30]:
Well and the connection too, and and and that's that's what's so I wanna drive that point home here
Sara Lohse [00:14:35]:
for the
Larry Roberts [00:14:35]:
listeners is, you know, we're not just sitting here bragging about how great Sarah is
Sara Lohse [00:14:38]:
and how this was a great
Larry Roberts [00:14:39]:
idea and Larry was wrong and remember, we're we're talking about this because well, I I that from that side of the aisle, that's where we're going. But from this side of the aisle, I wanna drive home the fact that this generated so much relationship credibility and relationship value, with everybody there, because even after they they made their bracelets, they remembered making the bracelet, And we couldn't pass them in the hallway without them smiling and raising their wrist and showing. And, you know, I should have been wearing my bracelets for this episode for the video, but, Hi, Em. Good job. Good job. I left mine in, the other room. So but
Sara Lohse [00:15:16]:
anyway the trash.
Larry Roberts [00:15:18]:
It's not the I can go get it
Sara Lohse [00:15:19]:
right now.
Larry Roberts [00:15:19]:
I promise. I love them. But my point there is everybody loved them, and we could not walk by these people after they made their bracelets without getting a massive smile And just a a massive return on that emotional investment there. And I can assure you that going forward, when they're thinking about Starting a podcast or growing their podcast or establishing their brand and growing their brand, what are they gonna think of? Are they gonna Think of that squishy ball they got at the table 3 doors down, or are they gonna think about spending 10, 15 minutes with Sarah and sometimes myself as well and having those conversations and establishing that real
Sara Lohse [00:15:58]:
relationship. Yeah. I've already had people, like, comment on things on Facebook with, I'm wearing my bracelet. I love it so much. It was great to spend time with you. And that was the thing. It was it was great to spend time with you.
Larry Roberts [00:16:09]:
Right.
Sara Lohse [00:16:10]:
It wasn't, like, great to see you at the conference or, Like, it was great to meet you. It was like, I they spent time with us, and that was what was so important. So, I mean, going back to, like, the value of this conversation. When if you're doing something like this, you're doing an event and you're you have a table, Take those extra few minutes to really think about what impact you wanna have. What is the promise of your brand and how can you communicate that through something, whether it's a giveaway or a conversation or a sign, whatever it is and this doesn't have to be expensive. I spent $100 on beads and string, and I overbought. I have plenty It's leftover. I'm a be making bracelets for months, and I'm not complaining.
Sara Lohse [00:17:00]:
But it doesn't have to be expensive. I probably spent less than some of the people that Had a table full of, like, grand pens and
Larry Roberts [00:17:06]:
stuff.
Sara Lohse [00:17:08]:
Yes. But when people were asking, like, Oh, wow. Like, what made you think to do this? Or, like, what what are we doing here? What do I put on my bracelet? I got to say, like, well, our brand is all about building other brands, So take this time to make something for yourself. Put your own brand on it. Put your own podcast name on it. And they just looked at me confused because they're like, wait. This is about me? Because everything is you get to the table, and it's about the person that paid for the table. Right.
Sara Lohse [00:17:40]:
Right. So how can you go a step further? How can you put in a little bit more thought to make it an experience and make it something meaningful because there aren't any rules. This isn't they don't tell you like, okay. Make sure you get your squish balls if you're gonna sponsor our event. Like, they don't tell you anything. It's just the norm, so that's people just kinda gravitate towards. They just Google cheap marketing stuff Yeah. And put their logo on it.
Sara Lohse [00:18:07]:
They order a box of it, have it shipped to the conference. You don't have to do it that way.
Larry Roberts [00:18:12]:
No. And, I mean, I I think it would be wrong of us not to give a shout out to Joe from Mopod. He's one of our previous episodes. So you haven't listened to that episode yet, go back and check that episode out because, I mean, Joe and and and, what what's it? Mike? Joe and Mike from Mopod. I mean, they are super creative with their boots at every conference that they're at and at getting their brand name out there and getting people to recognize and appreciate and really build some relationship investment there with their brand. And I think we learned a little bit of something personally, at least I know I did, from having them on the show as well. And it was so cool because, I mean, if you recall, Joe was talking about at 1 conference, he bought a toilet To have people come in and sit on and have conversation.
Sara Lohse [00:18:53]:
Oh, not only did they sit on the toilet, they he served the drinks out of the tank.
Larry Roberts [00:18:58]:
Yeah. They filled with ice
Sara Lohse [00:18:59]:
and Into a cooler. It was genius.
Larry Roberts [00:19:03]:
It was genius, and then you acted on that after that conversation. And, I mean, you brought Personal chairs from your home. You've you've got a little nook there that has 2 chairs and a table, and you brought those 2 chairs, which just happened to be pink and match all of our branding colors, and sat them there at the table, and that gave people a a place to sit comfortably and make these bracelets. Now did it feel a little dorky pushing those chairs the hallway of the hotel? Sure. It did. Felt a little odd, but guess what? The payoff was something that you can't really get back with it's just it's it's worth every minute of it.
Sara Lohse [00:19:37]:
It's funny because I also bought an area rug, but it the color was a little off. It didn't match as well as I thought it would, so I I put it under the table. I didn't use it, but there There would have been an area rug. And I love that you brought up the Joe episode because that's the 1st episode that I announced this idea, And I'm pretty sure you edited it out because you were so embarrassed of it. I don't think I made the episode because I had said on the episode, like, I'm. We're gonna do this, and I'm so excited. We're making bracelets. And I just see your face, and I don't think it made the final cut.
Larry Roberts [00:20:10]:
I don't recall, but I'm gonna have to relisten to it. That is hilarious. So anybody that's listening to this episode, if I did cut it out and you know it's not in there, Drop us a comment below and let us know.
Sara Lohse [00:20:21]:
Know. Let us know. I know we also we made a real announcing because we had given a ticket away. Yeah. We we gave a ticket to this. We had an extra one, and we wanted to bring someone from our community with us to this event and give them that opportunity. So we did a giveaway, and the ticket was won by, a friend of ours named Maquanda. Yeah.
Sara Lohse [00:20:42]:
And We made a reel to announce it, and it took us, like, 16 takes to make this reel because I kept saying, and there's gonna be bracelets, and your your face would drop. And you just said, yeah. Yeah. Just talk about your bracelets.
Larry Roberts [00:20:56]:
And Blah blah.
Sara Lohse [00:20:57]:
You were
Larry Roberts [00:20:58]:
I hated the idea. I hated
Sara Lohse [00:21:00]:
passionately. Go I can tell you for a sec. If you go back to that reel, we don't mention bracelets. Because you had me so sad about, like, just almost Giving up on my idea, and I'm like, maybe this is dumb. But I knew it wasn't because I'm always right.
Larry Roberts [00:21:15]:
Okay. And on that note, Sarah is right. And, hopefully, you got some value out of this. I know I got value out of this experiment, out of this experience, and, it's something that I'll leverage moving forward, I hope you can too. So if you did find some value in this episode, do us a favor. Smash that subscribe button on your favorite podcast player. Or if you're over here on the YouTube, smash that one and hit that bell button so you'll get alerted each time we release a brand new episode of brand it.
Sara Lohse [00:21:41]:
And if you want a bracelet, let me know, and I'll send Do one.
Larry Roberts [00:21:44]:
We got you. Yes. Do that. Let us
Sara Lohse [00:21:46]:
know in the comments
Larry Roberts [00:21:47]:
below the many deep left. There are hundreds of deep. Every letter. We've got plenty of every letter that's
Sara Lohse [00:21:53]:
left on. Tell me your colors. I got you.
Larry Roberts [00:21:58]:
So we got you on that one. With that, I'm Larry Roberts.
Sara Lohse [00:22:01]:
I'm Sara Lohse, and I was right.
Larry Roberts [00:22:04]:
And this is Branded. We'll see you next week.
