Manifold at MPH!
Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 12:42 am
Guys,
Thought I would do a very short write up on our trip to MPH at the NEC as whilst it was good fun, it was indeed hard work... honest!
Scott and I left sunny Scotland in a transit fully loaded with Manifold gear on Wednesday morning last week at a more sedate departure time of 10am, not the 7am time slots that Scott the family man chooses to go for usually!
Got to the NEC for about 3pm, set up the stand, and spent a short time drooling over the Hyper cars that had already been deposited and were being driven into place with a lot of revvs.
Drove the whole 2 minutes across to the Hilton where we stayed and checked in to our room, as soon as we walked through the door we were greeted by an old colleague of mine Ed Legge who is GM at Rio Prestige, i knew at that point a good time was in store!
Anyway, knackered we dragged our asses to the restaurant and had a fairly sedate first night.
Day 1 was a fairly easy day, as we didn't start until 5pm on the Thursday, but it was open every day from 10am until 10pm, and with no chairs on the stand it was pretty hardcore, not to mention working across from the Crusty Pie Company! (Anyone fancy opening one up in Scotland!?)
Friday was hardcore with a 10 am start and open until 10pm, things were busy, but not brilliant, with everyone telling us that we had better watch out as Saturday and Sunday would be mad! They were right!
On Thursday whilst Scott was off schmoozing, i was manning the stand only for the Top Gear trio to walk right past... i think i muttered something like "Afternoon chaps!" and they nodded and kept on walking... Whilst thinking how cool, and debating whether i should really be impressed, and being more annoyed i didn't try and drag them in to see the stand, Scott came back telling me he had just walked past them! We discussed it for about a minute and off he ran with three different t-shirts design in roughly the sizes we thought for them!
Scott came back having off loaded a shirt to Mr Clarkson who said he would have 'anything' that was free! May apparently walked off uninterested, and Hammond liked what he saw but declined and said he would have a look later.
Anyway Friday comes and again Scott off schmoozing, i am approached by a leggy blond, who has a quick look at the stock, and i approach her trying not to look too pushy, she mutters something like 'do you have any t-shirts of Richard Hammond' my face must have been priceless, i looked her and said errrrrm you mean like the stig t-shirts? She replies, errrr no sorry i meant for Richard Hammond!
So once on the right wavelength she explains that Richard had really liked Jeremy's t-shirt, and that he would love one. I threw three different designs her way, told her to let him choose and bring the ones he didnt want back....
So, Saturday comes and no sign of said leggy blond with the t-shirts and Scott is asking me if I had been conned and just given them away to some random....! I begin to doubt myself!
Anyway it turns out the blond was Top Gear Girl, i.e their PA, she says Richard was delighted and handed over some money for the tee, at which point we said look give him that one for nothing, and all we would like is for him to wear it or at least come and have a picture taken on our stand. She said no to the picture as there would be a bun fight if he came out whilst the public were milling about, but she said as we were in the same hotel we should try and get one tonight if we came over. It never happened as they went into Brum for a curry! However one customer does have a good picture.
What did happen was brilliant, a women came up to us on the stand and told us that Hammond was wearing the tee during the live performance on Saturday, all day!!!! We sold loads just off the back of that alone! Anyway on Sunday a women comes up to the stand and says exactly the same thing, "Richard was wearing that today" to which i replied "errrrm yeah he was yesterday" she pointed out that actually he was wearing it today, and it was Sunday! The smelly get wore the same t-shirt on Saturday AND Sunday!!!! Fair play though we couldn't have asked for better marketing!
Anyway, this is turning into a mammoth post, but long story short we had some great banter with May and Clarkson most evenings in the hotel, and the funniest moment was getting stuck in the revolving doors with Clarkson who was about to break the guy who stopped the door!
I am sure Scott will add more to this, but got back on Monday morning at 3am, absolutely knackered, but whilst not doing a roaring trade as not having the best stand, i think we still did well, and also had far too many late nights with the Rio Prestige boys, being hungover and standing on your feet for 12 hours is not good!
Well done Scott, it was great fun and as you mentioned hopefully well worth the effort purely down to all the great contacts we met!
shameless plug: http://www.manifoldonline.co.uk if you have not checked it out, have a look and keep checking as more comes on line!
Pictures to come!
Dave
Thought I would do a very short write up on our trip to MPH at the NEC as whilst it was good fun, it was indeed hard work... honest!
Scott and I left sunny Scotland in a transit fully loaded with Manifold gear on Wednesday morning last week at a more sedate departure time of 10am, not the 7am time slots that Scott the family man chooses to go for usually!
Got to the NEC for about 3pm, set up the stand, and spent a short time drooling over the Hyper cars that had already been deposited and were being driven into place with a lot of revvs.
Drove the whole 2 minutes across to the Hilton where we stayed and checked in to our room, as soon as we walked through the door we were greeted by an old colleague of mine Ed Legge who is GM at Rio Prestige, i knew at that point a good time was in store!
Anyway, knackered we dragged our asses to the restaurant and had a fairly sedate first night.
Day 1 was a fairly easy day, as we didn't start until 5pm on the Thursday, but it was open every day from 10am until 10pm, and with no chairs on the stand it was pretty hardcore, not to mention working across from the Crusty Pie Company! (Anyone fancy opening one up in Scotland!?)
Friday was hardcore with a 10 am start and open until 10pm, things were busy, but not brilliant, with everyone telling us that we had better watch out as Saturday and Sunday would be mad! They were right!
On Thursday whilst Scott was off schmoozing, i was manning the stand only for the Top Gear trio to walk right past... i think i muttered something like "Afternoon chaps!" and they nodded and kept on walking... Whilst thinking how cool, and debating whether i should really be impressed, and being more annoyed i didn't try and drag them in to see the stand, Scott came back telling me he had just walked past them! We discussed it for about a minute and off he ran with three different t-shirts design in roughly the sizes we thought for them!
Scott came back having off loaded a shirt to Mr Clarkson who said he would have 'anything' that was free! May apparently walked off uninterested, and Hammond liked what he saw but declined and said he would have a look later.
Anyway Friday comes and again Scott off schmoozing, i am approached by a leggy blond, who has a quick look at the stock, and i approach her trying not to look too pushy, she mutters something like 'do you have any t-shirts of Richard Hammond' my face must have been priceless, i looked her and said errrrrm you mean like the stig t-shirts? She replies, errrr no sorry i meant for Richard Hammond!
So once on the right wavelength she explains that Richard had really liked Jeremy's t-shirt, and that he would love one. I threw three different designs her way, told her to let him choose and bring the ones he didnt want back....
So, Saturday comes and no sign of said leggy blond with the t-shirts and Scott is asking me if I had been conned and just given them away to some random....! I begin to doubt myself!
Anyway it turns out the blond was Top Gear Girl, i.e their PA, she says Richard was delighted and handed over some money for the tee, at which point we said look give him that one for nothing, and all we would like is for him to wear it or at least come and have a picture taken on our stand. She said no to the picture as there would be a bun fight if he came out whilst the public were milling about, but she said as we were in the same hotel we should try and get one tonight if we came over. It never happened as they went into Brum for a curry! However one customer does have a good picture.
What did happen was brilliant, a women came up to us on the stand and told us that Hammond was wearing the tee during the live performance on Saturday, all day!!!! We sold loads just off the back of that alone! Anyway on Sunday a women comes up to the stand and says exactly the same thing, "Richard was wearing that today" to which i replied "errrrm yeah he was yesterday" she pointed out that actually he was wearing it today, and it was Sunday! The smelly get wore the same t-shirt on Saturday AND Sunday!!!! Fair play though we couldn't have asked for better marketing!
Anyway, this is turning into a mammoth post, but long story short we had some great banter with May and Clarkson most evenings in the hotel, and the funniest moment was getting stuck in the revolving doors with Clarkson who was about to break the guy who stopped the door!
I am sure Scott will add more to this, but got back on Monday morning at 3am, absolutely knackered, but whilst not doing a roaring trade as not having the best stand, i think we still did well, and also had far too many late nights with the Rio Prestige boys, being hungover and standing on your feet for 12 hours is not good!
Well done Scott, it was great fun and as you mentioned hopefully well worth the effort purely down to all the great contacts we met!
shameless plug: http://www.manifoldonline.co.uk if you have not checked it out, have a look and keep checking as more comes on line!
Pictures to come!
Dave
