NCRS Orlando

Our New Year kicked off (as always) at the NCRS Southern Regional in Kissimmee, Florida, outside Orlando. It's always nice to escape the Pittsburgh winter and 'snowbird' south for a few days in January! This show would not only give us a chance to brush the snow off our shoulders, but we also looked forward to trying out some new ideas we had for our display.

The first thing we wanted to try was inspired by our last show in November. At Chicago's Chevy VetteFest, we held a silent auction to raise funds and awareness for Inflammatory Breast Cancer research. One of the new wrinkles we added that weekend was to have several hundred red carnations at our display, thinking it would attract attention, one way or the other.
Did it ever!

This being a Florida show, we decided to do the same thing, but with a tropical mix from a local florist. To say it was 'well received' would be an understatement! (It occurred to me that I couldn't attract more attention with a FLARE GUN!) And once people stopped, they were surprised to find something else that they weren't used to seeing at a Vette meet: Free food!

We thought an assortment of fresh tropical fruits, a cheese platter and a few sandwich wheels would get people's attention. Turns out we were right! (Who knew?) All we asked was that the folks fill out a quick survey about their favorite topic: their cars. The purpose was three-fold:

We got to meet Vette owners we normally might not have met, THEY got to meet US, and we garnered valuable insight into our customer base and their cars, with well over one hundred survey responses returned.

This is what I call a successful promotional activity!

Essentially, a phone call to a florist and a trip to the Publix deli completely BLEW AWAY the show attendees, and provided us with a great deal of exposure. Sure, there were a few detractors, especially when we were first setting up ("Hey 'ladies', nice flowers!") My response back: "Hey, nice tarp!" Our idea was borne out later in the day, when some particularly burly fellows complimented us on adding a 'touch of class' to the proceedings. Indeed.

The pictures of all this can be seen in our pics section, and we think our overall 'look' has improved greatly since the Carlisle ("Auntie Em, it's a twister!") show in August. Feel free to compare the two.

For now, it's back to the frigind northland, and back to work until the spring shows hit. Keep an eye out for us this year, and if you pay us a visit, bring your appetite.