It's all about the look!

With the upcoming Fort Smith Annual Trade Show happening this April, I have been busy trying to figure out what I could do differently. You know, how to stand out, be noticed.

At last year's show, I was lucky enough to get a corner booth. Well, I thought I was lucky at the time. It turns out that having a corner booth allows people to converge on two sides of your tables and not just one. This would have been awesome if it was people that were interested in my faerie nursery but unfortunately, it was more like a gathering place to visit and catch up. I found that those that wanted to see what I had couldn't even get to my tables. I wasn't too happy in the end and knew that I would have to do something different.

So....I came up with an idea. Not sure if it will work or not but I'm going to give it a shot anyways.

When I came up with (okay, I had lots of help on this part) the background for my company. The stump, the grasses and flowers, the purple and pink sky and the little stepping stones that you had to take to come see the faeries...this allowed you to leave your world and enter mine. So...here is my world. Everyone is welcome.

I now have a tent. It is a white indoor trade show tent that measures 10'x10' in size.

photo curtesy of Costco.ca

I have banners. These ones stand outside of the tent.

I purchased 3 8' long banners that I will put up on the outside walls of my tent.

I have 4 wall panels (well actually not yet, I am still working with a few manufactures but the design is ready. These panels will be hanging on the inside of the tent.

I have indoor/outdoor artificial grass carpet that will fit the full floor size of the tent.

photo curtsey of gardenartificialgrass.com

I have my tablecloth (thinking about ordering another one but not right now) that matches the full theme.

I have hanging pink silk flowers/vines that will be attached to the rafters of my tent.

photo curtesy of eBay tiny heaven

I have twinkle lights (well, they are on order). I opted to go with just plain white ones so as not to take away from the feel.

I have carpeted cut out 'stones' that will be placed just outside of the tent for people to follow their way in.

photo curtesy of Lowes.ca

I have table accessories including vases with flowers, more risers for my faeries to stand on and other goodies.

I am still looking for the following: music, candy and a defuser that I like.

So what do this all add up to?? I want everyone to feel like they have actually entered my faerie nursery. You will walk in and be with the faeries. No distractions.

I read that you should allow your visitors to experience the whole thing by using all of their senses. So that is my goal. I think that I have done pretty good so far.

What else could I do, for visitors to feel like they have stepped out of reality and come to my faerie nursery.

Any thoughts, suggestions or ideas?

New Magazine Ad

I decided to keep my second ad with the Faerie Magazine (issue #25) quite simple and similar to my first one (issue #24).

I love the new idea of having a space to feature my current favourite style of Faerie.

What do you think? Do you like the simple look?

The Ad, The Look, The Feel...The New

So....this is the ad that I submitted to Kim at the Faerie Magazine. She is the one that I originally wanted to advertise with but everything went haywire last year with her company after the sad passing of her mother. I have decided to spend my remaining advertising budget dollars with her in the hopes that she can get out a quality product. As this IS my target audience in the end I decided it is where I needed to be. I did look into advertising on-line with various newspapers across Alberta and BC but nothing just seemed to be working right. As well, I did look into advertising with a Canadian garden magazine but unfortunately they were all way out of my league as far as budgets go (1/8 b&w page ran over $5000.00!!!). 

I guess, I am asking everyone for their thoughts and opinions on the new look but in the end...the ad is already sent and the deadline has come and gone so I will be unable to make any further changes. I did make an arrangement with Kim for my second ad to be 50% off so if through suggestions, I can certainly change the look or feel come the next time around. The previous ad that Alyssa made for me was fantastic and showed everything that I made at the time which is how I needed people to know that I my company was out there. This new ad is more sleek, clean and hopefully mysterious enough that people will either scan the QR code or look up the website address due to the vagueness of the whole thing. 

Under the suggestions of all of us, Larry, Matthew and Brandi the stump island photo was developed (well, Matthew disagreed with the whole stump idea as he noted that I am not in the business of selling stumps...I commented back with...well not yet!!). The look we were hoping to achieve was one that showed a faerie door and perhaps if you looked you might be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a faerie in amongst the flowers and grasses. I think Schonee did an amazing job of capturing a mystical playground for the faeries. 

With the company ever evolving and changing, this ad will allow me to add and subtract products without changing the look and feel of the new backgrounds. The stump island photo is now on every banner for all 6 of my e-commerce sites as well as the website, Facebook and my blog page. All printed material is in the process of being changed over as well. We stayed with the original company colours of eggplant purple and green which means none of my packaging products will need to be changed which helped with expenses. 

Thanks for reading and please respond if you have any suggestions...

Faerie Amma (Emmanuelle)   :)