$500 Turned Into $300,000

They locked $500 in a box and let people guess which key would open it. This is one of the stories from my "301 Do-it-Yourself Marketing Ideas" book, which I wrote years ago.

A trade show decorating company had just made the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies. At their next industry conference, they turned that bragging right into a stunt instead of a press release.

Every hour, for five hours, they held up a key that could open a locked box holding five $100 bills, then dropped it into a fishbowl of nearly identical keys. Show managers lined up each hour to try their luck. Word spread that $400 was still in the box. The cheering when someone finally won could be heard across the hall.

Five hours. $500 in prize money. Over 50 leads, more than a quarter-page ad in the trade press would have gotten them. Those leads turned into $300,000 in sales!

The lesson isn't "run a giveaway." It's that visible stakes pull people in before you've asked them for anything. A locked box you can see. A countdown that resets every hour. A crowd reacting in real time. People had a reason to keep coming back.

What's sitting in your next event that could double as a locked box?