Toro Time

As we hinted on Twitter earlier this week, SUM Booth was going to be making a special appearance at the Austin Toros playoff game up the highway in Cedar Park. For those of you unfamiliar with the team, the Toros are the NBADL affiliate of the San Antonio Spurs, and we figured it was only right to reward their diehard fans with some customized keepsakes to commemorate such a great season.

With so many sports franchises in our service areas — everything from the San Diego Chargers, Padres, LA Dodgers, Angels, Kings, Lakers, Clippers, Ducks, Dallas Cowboys, Mavericks, Stars, Rangers, Houston Astros, Rockets, Texans and the San Antonio Spurs (see, I told you there were a lot)  — we’d love to collaborate with teams like these and their corporate sponsors to bring a unique item to their fans. With on-site marketing and a viral social aspect, it’s a great way to reach a target audience. However, all the metrics in the world don’t mean anything if the photos aren’t sweet looking, and that’s what we take the most pride in — because really, who wants a wide-reaching campaign that looks junky? Not SUM Booth.

A Town constructed primarily of Brackets

Bracket Town, the NCAAs fan fest revolving around the Final Four, is always one of our largest events of the year. Not only is it 5 straight days of custom trading card creation for thousands of fans, but it’s also 3 photo stations running simultaneously for the entire time, which makes it a whole ‘nother animal.

Thanks to everyone who helped to make the event a success yet again — whether it be local help, the SUM Booth crew, the army of volunteers, or all of the fans who waited in line to take home a personalized piece of the 2012 Final Four.

Yu-Gi-Woah..

Here’s a glimpse of our line after returning from our lunch break at the 100th Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series event in Long Beach. Record crowds of over 4,000 gamers flocked to the 2-day event, with many of them flocking to our photo booth as well, as you can witness in the photo above.

RAD

We here at SUM Booth love kids. We also love the 80′s. So when the Austin Children’s Shelter approached us about coming out to their annual 80′s themed dance party fundraiser, we said yes faster than Sloth would say yes to a Baby Ruth.

Normally, our standard service includes a print of some sort, but at dance parties people aren’t always able (or sober enough) to spend the night holding on to a photo, so we opted to go with a digital delivery with a live slideshow of all the images so party-goers still could get their instant gratification fix. As a result, a totally tubular time was had by all.

THIS.. IS.. A THEMED EVENT!

When a client approaches us about a project, there’s always formalities that need to be ironed out. Things such as:

What date is the event?
Where is the location of the event?
How many hours is the event?

All the while, there’s one question that’s really at the forefront of our thought process, just dying to be answered:

Is there a particular theme involved with the event?

If this is answered with a “yes”, we stand up, high-five ourselves, and march around the room while fist-pumping the entire time.

So when BancVue got in touch and told us about their Spartan and Super Hero themed event in Wichita, we nearly ran out to a consignment shop and purchased a fainting couch, because I wasn’t positive we could handle such exciting news and remain conscious. Plus, I’ve always wanted one of those in the office.

So what design was born out of the excitement? Feast your eyes on the Spartan-themed goodness of the sample below — photographed, processed and printed out on-site at BancVue’s Emprise Bank event.

Hockey and Donuts

Ottawa – you’re a great city. Beautiful frozen canals with people skating to and fro. Awe inspiring parliamentary buildings create a memorable skyline. But let’s be honest, all of these things are seriously hampered by one glaring negative.

TIM HORTON’S DOESN’T TAKE VISA.

How am I supposed to partake in that national pastry when all they take is Mastercard?! Cash only, I can understand, but I truly feel that until Tim Horton’s takes Visa cards, your tourism industry will always be hindered by gluttons donut-conessiours like myself.

Note: you’ll see a photo of a Horton’s donut that was reluctantly bought and angrily ate after withdrawing cash from an ATM

Now that’s out in the open, let’s talk about the event itself — the 2012 edition of the NHL All-Star game and Fan Fair.

Like the MLB and NFL, the NHL has a dedicated fan celebration at a nearby convention center, and that’s where we set up shop the first three days in Ottawa. Nestled in the corner of Upper Deck’s showroom, we had a steady line of fans the entire time we were there, which gave Upper Deck the opportunity to promote all of its products to a captive audience. The NHL also enacted some demographic data collection for everyone taking photos as well. During our time at Fan Fair, we produced well over 1500 cards — which means potentially 1500+ new card collectors for our client Upper Deck.

On game day, we arrived bright and early to set up our photo station near one of the main entrances to Scotiabank Place, the home of the Ottawa Senators. After overcoming some travel woes (lost luggage containing clothes and miscellaneous equipment), we were ready to go at full speed. We were operational from the time the doors opened until the game started, and then from the start of the first intermission until the end of the second intermission, ensuring that fans would be in their seats for the start and end of the game — which hasn’t always happened at other NHL events (like overtime Stanley Cup final games — go watch the game, people!).

Finally, we have a huge debt of gratitude to all of the volunteers that assist at NHL events. Without their help, our workflow would be affected and we wouldn’t be able to accommodate the high volume of fans we strive for. Once again, thank you, and we’ll see you at the next NHL event!

Here I come to save the day

Here’s a fun fact — I have a knack for saving things in need.

Cat stuck in a tree? Give me a ladder, I’ve got this.

Bird get in your living room? Ok, I’ll need a pillowcase, a paper-clip and a stick of Doublemint gum.

Another vendor have to cancel on you at the last minute and you need SUM Booth at your event that starts in 4 hours? Let’s do this. I just need to shower first.

This was the case earlier in the week, when I got a call from Yassine Enterprises’ marketing maven Laura, who was in a serious predicament. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the vendor she had previously booked had to back out, leaving a huge void in the “fun” portion of the Yassine holiday party — and here’s the kicker, the party was scheduled to start in around 4 hours from when the call was made.

After wrapping my head around that for a moment, I told both Laura and myself that we could make it happen. Then I asked her what the theme was, and she mentioned it was kind of a retro/casino/holiday theme. After hearing that I took a big gulp, knowing that it wasn’t going to be easy to pull off.

However, we pulled it off. We combined some 1970′s Las Vegas imagery,  gave it a retro tint and styling, plopped down a Christmas tree and even added the company’s name on the marquee. The result was a one-of-a-kind, custom design that you’d never known was started and finished just hours earlier — and by the throng of party-goers we had surrounding us all night, we can tell they loved it.

What’s the moral to the story? That even in a pinch, SUM Booth can be there to save the day for you and your event. We won’t always be able to accomodate a last minute request such as this — well maybe not this last minute —but don’t hesistate to ask.

And if you have a cat stuck in a tree in the Austin area, I can help with that as well.

A Tale of Two Cities

‘Tis the season.

The season where SUM Booth boards a 4-story yacht in Los Angeles and provides its services at the TMZ Holiday Cruise.

The season where SUM Booth sets up at a shopping center in Austin to deliver photos with Santa to patrons young and old.

The season where we do both on the same day. Oh yes, ’tis the season.

That was the story this past Saturday, being the last weekend before Christmas and a time when Holiday related events come to a final crescendo. Like we mentioned, SUM Booth ended the season with a duo of events — a corporate event on a luxury yacht in California, and a shopping center sponsored Santa photo station in Texas.

The TMZ event was put on by GBK Productions and was a little different than some of our normal events. Well, first off, it was on a boat. Luckily, we aren’t talking about the SS Minnow — this was like a miniature cruise ship. Outside of a 7′ height restriction that had to be worked around, our ultra-portable system fit into the comfy confines of the ship’s interior without a hitch. Also, the event was one of the rare occasions where the client supplies the artwork. Although we would have liked the opportunity to do something a little bit more interactive, camera-ready art is always welcome and appreciated.

And just to note, we added the bars over the eyes and the pixelated face after the fact to honor TMZ’s roots and to protect the innocent.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day on dry land we set up shop at the Arboretum Shopping Center in Austin to provide complimentary Santa photos for children — and kids at heart. Although it’s sometimes tricky capturing photos of newborns and toddlers, we came away from the event with some high praises. Some of the comments overheard were “the photo turned out so great … I wish I didn’t send out that other one we took to our family now,” and “we stood in line for like 2 hours the other week at a mall and the photos didn’t even turn out this good,” and “the lighting is so beautiful in this photo”.

Hearing comments like that is like an early Christmas present to us, because just as much as we love delivering photos to provide instant gratification, we love the instant feedback we get from everyone as well. Now only if we can stash a hidden microphone somewhere to record all the glowing comments and then put them online as Yelp reviews, we’d be getting somewhere.

No matter the reason, we here at SUM Booth hope you all have a wonderful Holiday season. Although after spending some quality time with Santa himself yesterday, we’d be remiss to not go ahead and wish you a Merry Christmas as well.

Texas Thunder and LA Storm

Two days, two events, the Texas Longhorn Co-Ed Cheer team, and a huge storm. Sounds like a typical weekend at SUM Booth, right? Well unfortunately, it was far from typical for one reason in particular, but I’ll get into that in a bit.

On Saturday, we started off our weekend at the Texas vs Kansas St football game, setting up our trading card photo booth to promote Upper Deck’s new Longhorn football set. Not only did Longhorn fans love it, but our cards were a big hit with the UT Cheer team as well, which undoubtedly drew more attention to what we were doing. It turns out that members of the cheer team have nicknames for their different groups, such as The Thunder and The Storm, which ended up being somewhat prophetic for the latter half of our weekend. All in all, even though the game didn’t go the Longhorns way, fans had a great time taking home a personalized souvenir of their favorite team.

On a personal level, it was my first time at a UT football game, and the sheer amount of burnt orange in the stadium was mind-boggling. Let me just point out that burnt orange is not a color that’s all too common in the Average Joe’s wardrobe, so you have to make a concerted effort to actually go out and buy a UT shirt, jersey or anything else orange. These people love their Longhorns though, and the people of Austin must have more orange in their closets than anywhere (besides a Shaolin Temple).

Next up was the MLS Cup in Los Angeles — a joint sponsor between Upper Deck and Castrol. Earlier in the week, there had been rumblings about a possible storm rolling through Southern California during the weekend, but after living in San Diego for almost 3 decades, I know all too well about “storms” in SoCal. A light mist in Southern California is usually enough for local news reporters to take to the streets for “Storm Watch 2011″. If you’re driving on the freeway and it starts to sprinkle, people slam on their breaks as if the water droplets may shatter their windshield if you continue driving 55mph. In essence, we’ve dealt with weather before at other events — whether it be rain or snow or wind — and it hasn’t hampered our work in the past. A little SoCal storm wasn’t going to get in our way.

However, this wasn’t your typical SoCal storm.

Anytime you see something besides light green on a Doppler map in LA, it means business. The above map was grabbed just as we had arrived to set up, after hydro-planing our way to the Home Depot Center to set up. Upon arrival, we wheeled some equipment to the area where we were to set up and found a pop-up tent with two drenched security guards taking cover from the rain. After surveying the scene, it was becoming more and more apparent that we’d experience a first — a rain out. That notion was quickly confirmed once I got in touch with reps from the sponsor and was notified that it was a no-go.

If you happened to read the past entry and were at the Soccer Celebration hoping to get an MLS trading cards, we apologize for our unannounced absence. There are very few things that can stop us from doing what we do best, and exposure to rain and water is at the top of that list. We look forward to our next soccer event — we’ll let you know when and where that may be — and hope that was the first and last rain out we ever experience.

Big sports weekend for us — first up is the UT vs. Kansas State football game on Saturday night in Austin. If you’re at the game, stop by our photo station just inside the north side of the stadium and get your very own Longhorn trading card made! We’ll be there from 4pm until the game is over.

Speaking of trading cards, 12 hours after that event wraps up we’ll be setting up for the MLS Cup in Los Angeles where we’ll be providing the same service to fans — all for free, of course. We’ll be at the Upper Deck booth, which is next door to the Castrol booth.

Shortly after that, we’ll sleep until it’s time to eat on Thanksgiving day. Sound like a plan? Alright, let’s huddle up. Ready? BREAK!