LC E-Commerce Blog

Okay, so we brought the E-ComBanner to a relatively small trade show in Orlando and made a big splash. It was time to get out of the wading pool and into the ocean by exhibiting at AdTech in San Francisco.

Here’s a show where every time we turned around, we were finding another great partnering opportunity. Turns out, there are hundreds of people trying to find their niche in this marketplace – and no one is selling from WITHIN a banner ad like us.

It was fun to watch people approach our booth with that look of boredom shadowing their faces, until they caught a piece of our video. People understood immediately that the E-ComBanner is truly something new. We heard comments like “provocative” and “this changes the game”.

The best part of working these shows is always meeting and chatting with people. We are constantly amazed at the niche businesses that are managed by people passionate about their missions. One guy summed up meeting us this way: “I’m glad I got to you now, ‘cause in a few months you won’t have time for guys like me.” As much as we’d like his prophecy to come true, we are dedicated to always having time for his kind of business passion.

So, there’s our challenge. We’re back at the office reviewing everything we learned and culling through the hundreds of business cards from people asking us to “call us right away – let’s get this going.” It’s time for us to manage our outreach effort, and that’s a pretty good place for us to be!

Bringing our E-ComBanner to market has been a lot like having a baby: we were pretty sure we knew what we were doing, but turns out, every day is a new learning experience. So when we signed up for the 2010 NAA (Newspaper Association of America) mediaXchange, it was like we had decided to take our baby to a public place for the first time. We planned and packed and gave each other pep talks about the inevitable welcome our baby would receive. But, like parents everywhere, we had no real clue how that baby would act out in public.

Turns out, our “baby”, the E-ComBanner, was the hit of the show. Amongst many attendees and exhibitors grumbling about the relative small size of this year’s show, we newbies found it the perfect forum to introduce our new technology. Attendees were looking for something new and fresh, and they found it in the E-ComBanner’s ability to sell from WITHIN a banner ad. We were the answer to that age-old elevator question, “see anything good today?” – the E-ComBanner was the consistent answer. Alisa Cromer of MediaInsider.com even gave us a spot in her top ten technology finds.

By the last day of the show, people were literally scrambling to get to us before we packed up. The E-ComBanner was the brilliant light of possibility for new ad revenue for this industry under attack. Kudos to the hundreds of attendees who recognize that print can survive through a good marriage with technology. These attendees immediately understood the beauty of the E-ComBanner: the “sticky” technology is a great asset to a news website.

Now, it’s up to us to handle the newfound popularity of our E-ComBanner. It’s a great feeling to have people oohing and aahing over our baby!