Blog World Expo – Why?
written by John Chow on September 24th, 2008
One of the strangest booth at the 2008 Blog World Expo was the one from a company call Cart Away Concrete. Yes, they sell concrete trailers. Now, you might be wondering why a company that sells concrete trailers would be at Blog World. I got the feeling Cart Away may not know themselves because their booth had a big sign that asked, Why?
It turns out that Cart Away is trying their hands at getting some viral marketing by exhibiting at Blog World in the hopes that Blog World bloggers will blog about them. Well, it worked! I’m not sure how many readers need a cart away concrete mixer but if you do, give Cart Away a call! 
I wonder what the odds are of Cart Away exhibiting at the 2009 Blog World Expo?
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Trackbacks
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That was THE worse begging I have ever seen in my life. I wonder if those guys visited your blog after that encounter…
How could that guy not possibly know who John Chow is… even my mom knows who he is and she hardly knows how to use a computer. Crazy.
Goodness, you’ve obviously not seen much begging.
Please sir, can I have some money so I can buy beer for my daughter?
Yea…It’s a true story.
I’m lost… Are they smart or dumb…
smart and risk takers. Take a chance whern there is an opportunity to be different and stand out. They just did that. So much so that Chow took notice and put them in a place that more people will know them as, “those concrete guys”
im kinda shocked but it was a smart move i think
Brilliant!! Give the guys credit for having the guts to throw themselves out there like that.
JAmi, i think that you are absolutely right. Go to a place that you wont get any business but people will write about you and put some links. The market generally rewards such risk taking. Well, just as long as it is not so out of the way. For example, I wonder how they would do and the Adult Film Convention. You have to give it up for companies that are willing to do something different. Good going guys. Also, I will have to say that that was a sad attempt to beg.
We need to give them credit for trying out an innovative marketing mix for their product line
Genius… I need to kidnap a network of bloggers and threaten them.
“Post a review of my site or give me a free banner ad… or I will bomb Feedburner’s headquarters! That is right… 0 subscribers!”
Ha.
- Jack Rugile
Simple Sapien
You might not want to say that too loud. Feedburner is part of a secret sector of the government, and they could come after you.
Does that mean that Google is part of the conspiracy as well?
I think that was an awesome idea, do you have the contact info i will do a blog post for them.
Bruce Christensen is at bc@cart-away.com
Tom Vail at tom@cart-away.com
They could have just bought a sponsored post and probably got better results and saved a lot of money.
But then it will only be on one blog. I’m sure a bunch of other bloggers will be posting about their booth.
It couldn’t have been that much to be a vendor there. How much would it have been anyway. PLUS. They have the chance to meet face-to-face with people. Remember what TIm ferriss said about meeting face to face. They can take people out to eat and are major influencers. In fact since Guy has a lot of homes they could have spoken to him and seen about getting a contract for his needs. Remember people it is giving value to people first and then asking for what you want. I’m sure there is a blog for the construction worker niche.
Not to mention, they saved $500 bucks using that idea. They could have just bought a post from someone they met at the blog expo, but then they would be paying to have a booth AND to get blogged about.
Smart move.
They might just have too much ad dollar to spend somewhere, yet another signal of a coming blog bubble.
Well, at least they will get a few visitors today from John. Don’t know how many people will be interested in a concrete mixer that read this blog though.
John,
I blogged about our Market Leverage Dinner conversataion about Michael Kwan here:
http://donotreadthisblogunless.blogspot.com/
Your video was excellent, and reveals the secret to success in on-line marketing!
Be unique, be out there and be concrete!
Nice work with this video interview, you told the story of Why?
Now with the cash from the ‘ML Cashinator’ you can buy one of those cool concrete trailers for Michael Kwan to hook up to his scooter and tow it around Vancouver until he crashes it….!!
Respectfully, Nicholas
I figured that those two things were their reasons. It’s not the best idea in the world, but I think it was a smart move. Now people will be blogging about them like “Why would Cart Away Concrete come to Blog World Expo?” Just like John did.
Whether the blog posts are positive or negative, they’re still getting promotion AND linkage.
Do you believe that one day bloggers will have to pay for social networking and viral marketing? That is what is being said because coporate america wants a peice of the pie. They don’t like bloggers were smart enough to sit on their tale and make a good living talking about every day life. Who said people don’t read anymore? I think reading has turned digital is all.
Funny, when I was at Blogworld and I turned the corner I seen that booth and thought it was very odd of them. I thought to myself “maybe they didn’t have an experienced marketing department and didn’t know what trade show would be a good fit for them?”.
Being a marketing person myself, I was afraid to go to their booth and ask because I kind of felt sorry for them – I was embarrased for them. So they never got any attention from myself nor was I thinking of blogging about them?
By looking at everyone elses comments, it’s kind of interesting to see the conversation and attention they have received so far.
So I now conclude myself–that anything goes. I guess it is good that people mix things up – gets me thinking though – I sometimes try to conform too much (based on my traditional marketing education)!
I’d give them even more credit if they do monitor the web with the tools like Blogpulse or Google alerts and comment on this string though!
When I first saw the cart-away concrete mixer I actually thought that they were supposed to be in the North Hall exhibiting at MINExpo International 2008 and they set up in the wrong spot! Well, we just had to find out so we talked to Bruce Christianson and he told us his story. I thought it was a great idea. Different but great. I’d expect to see a lot more of this in the future.
-J
sounds like it worked brilliantly for him. I so want one…lol…I wonder how many other manufacturers will attempt this next year. Some standards may need to be implemented to keep it from becoming spammed by companies looking for PR.
When you think of it, it’s actually an extremely rare sign of ingenuity from this company. Not many companies would have thought of viral marketing as an answer to their problems.
Blog Word Expo should be adding bloggers from different niches..
Well I think they had the right idea. Talking with a person or persons who have lots of money, right? John Chow? Right? Other Bloggers at BlogExpo, right?
BTY, why is there spam here. . . . . .Com’on John…..are you doing the same thing as the concrete people but with porn sites?