About the Sponsor Booth
This time, we advertised by piggybacking on the sponsor booth put out by mgn Co., Ltd.
Since the booth was a great success, I would like to share some knowledge about it.
Piggyback booth?
Piggyback
Strange. It’s not normal. Originally, mgn Co., Ltd., led by Mr. Ogushi, who also participated in the panel discussion at WordCamp Asia, sponsored WordCamp Asia as “Themes Park”.
The booth was intended to “introduce Japanese themes and plug-ins to the world,” so mgn approached Vektor,Inc. I am so thankful. By the way, Vektor,Inc. does not pay a single penny to mgn Co., Ltd.!
If I don’t say anything, some people might misunderstand that “Vektor,Inc. is also contributing to WordPress with the sponsorship fee,” so I dare to write it, but it’s all thanks to the contribution of mgm. Such a proposal is not normal. For me, it’s nothing but profit. Thank you.
However, although the Lightning theme is registered in the WordPress official directory, there is no document for overseas, and it is difficult to maintain and support the document for overseas deployment of multi-functional themes. Therefore, this time, rather than appealing for Lightning, I decided to participate by promoting the plugin “VK Filter Search”, which allows you to easily set up a filter search in the block editor.
Objective
Our Goal
mgn does not directly develop products for overseas markets, so in reality, it would be nice to have an opportunity to interact with people who are considering creating sites for Japan. It was a rather fluffy stance like.
As a Vektor,Inc., our goal this time was to increase the recognition of VK Filter Search overseas.
Strategy at The Booth
Measures taken at the booth
We planned various strategies to get visitors to stop by this time, but in reality, they all worked better than we imagined. For this memorandum and for those who will exhibit at the booth in the future, I will write about what we did and what kind of reaction we had.
01
Voting
Installation of voting board
Have participants vote with stickers
The first day is a voting board asking “How often do you use the block editor or the classic editor?”. Everyone actively participated in the sense of supporting their favorites.
In addition, participants only need to attach a sticker, so it is easy. The staff at the booth can casually hand over stickers and talk to people who look interested from afar. It was a great way to start a conversation.
As a result, the proportion of block editors was very large. However, I think the result would be different if it was a local WordCamp, as it was only the result of people who came all the way from overseas to the Flagship WordCamp.
02
OMIKUJI
Fortune telling
People who voted with stickers can get an omikuji.
As a bonus for those who voted, we prepared an “Omikuji”, something Japanese. All the participants had a lot of fun and tried it. Although the location was right in front of the main hall, it was so popular that people had to line up, and all the novelty items that could be obtained with the Omikuji were sold out by noon on the first day.
03
Wapuu Hat
Handmade Wapuu hat
Wearable, noticeable, outstanding performance
The Wapuu hats worn by the mgn staff really stand out. When three staff members wearing yellow Wapuu hats were standing over there in a crowd of people, even from a distance, the participants’ mentality becomes like, “Wow, what is that doing?”.
Commemorative photo for visitors upon request. It was very hit as a story.
04
FLYER
Tourist Guide
As much as possible to get it in your hand…
Vektor,Inc. took the lead in bringing in the old-fashioned A4 flyer. However, since it is difficult to get people to pick up a leaflet advertising a product, I made one side a tourist guide for Japan. Depending on the person, the conversation might be lively. This design was already made in 2020 when the event was cancelled, so I used it as is.
However, the 2023 edition had a special discount coupon, and the response from the visitors was very good, so there are suspicions that it was good to go head-to-head.
Reflection point
AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT
I have to study English more…
I’m probably the only person who writes this kind of thing because it’s too obvious… but if you can’t speak English, you literally can’t talk about it.
Yeah, that’s right. About four years ago, I started studying English little by little every day (on average, it was only about 20-30 minutes a day). Even so, I was able to feel that my English skills had improved, and I was able to provide simple guidance using dubious fixed phrases in English. However, when the conversation progresses to technical questions, I can generally understand what the visitor wants to ask me, but it is also possible that I have misunderstood. In the end, I asked Asuka-san from mgn to interpret for me because I didn’t want to give an irrelevant answer. It was like that, so I think I’ll try to be able to have a proper conversation by next year.
Number of swags (novelties) and leaflets
The number of participants this time was about 1,300 people, but mgn’s Swag disappeared a little past noon on the first day. Based on that, it’s a rough feeling, but I thought it would be better to prepare something for nearly half of the participants. It is difficult to balance quality and quantity….
I prepared 300 flyers, but I was able to distribute roughly 160.
In the case of regular advertising flyers, in my past experience, I could not distribute even 1/10 of the number of visitors, so I think I did a much better job than usual by adding tourist information and coupons… However, if I could speak English and advertise well, I could have given out more…
Gratitude
Thanks
Anyway, Mr. Ohgushi who invited me, the staff of THEMES PARK (mgn) who made various arrangements and took care of me, and everyone who came to visit our booth! I’m really thankful to you! See you next year in Taipei!
