The next morning we woke up at 5 a.m. to accompany John Reider, Tekno Bubbles Owner, to a live shot at the Halloween Show. FOX2’s Tim Ezell reported from the booth that we shared with Tekno Bubbles. Ezell talked about the unique Tekno Bubbles solution and blew some giant bubbles during the interview. It was a lot of fun and great exposure for us.
The show was underway later that morning, and our CodeBaby reusable bags arrived just as the show was beginning. We wanted to give customers and exhibitors something that that they could reuse after the show, and a bag seemed perfect since participants could fill with brochures and items. Our bags featured CeeBee, our CodeBaby character, along with our website and inside the bag we put a Dr. Funk trading card. (Dr. Funk is the CodeBaby character for Tekno Bubbles.) The card had a similar appearance to a baseball card and included Dr. Funk’s stats along with our booth location, Tekno Bubbles information, and CodeBaby information. We received a lot of positive feedback from the bags and the card and you can see how useful the bags turned out to be.
Throughout the show we met many of the major players in the Haunted House business as well as representatives from theme parks. It was interesting to see the range of products from lighting and sound, to animatronics and attractions that make up the $6 billion dollar Halloween business. We were able to walk through smaller, portable Haunted Houses as well as a Vortex Tunnel. (If the tunnel had been another ten feet, I think Joe, one of our salesmen, would have lost his lunch.)
On Saturday, I was fortunate to go through the Darkness, known as one of the best haunted houses in America. The Darkness features 30,000 square feet of blood splatter scenes straight out of a horror movie. It also included 3D “Terror Vision,” which meant everywhere I turned there was day-glow paint on the floors, walls, and ceiling and clowns dressed in fluorescent costumes. (Um, needless to say, I have no desire to go to the circus any time soon.) The Darkness concludes with the Monster Museum with memorabilia and props from famous horror movie sets.
Overall, I think our people will remember CodeBaby, even though a few people passed up a CodeBaby bag–one man saying, “No thanks! I already have a wife.” We could see these bags are making an impact from the show and beyond. The show was a great experience–one that will probably “haunt” us the rest of our lives.
