Beatles Tunes, Draper Company Come Together at Comdex

By Lisa Carricaburu

Fall, 1996 -- Las Vegas - American Covers, Inc. (ACI) is getting by at Comdex Fall '96 with a little help from its friends.

At the company's theaterlike exhibit in the Sands Expo and Convention Center here, speakers blast out Beatles tunes in support of ACI's new product - computer mouse pads picuturing the foursome in varies poses and packages to mimic "The White Album."

ACI's license to superimpose Beatles images on mouse pads, wrist rests and other computer accessories was an important coup for the Draper company, said Don Watkins, chief executive officer.

So he is sparing no expense to make sure the 210,000 potential customers attending the nation's largest computer-industry trade show this week get a good look at his conquest.

Watkins and ACI General Manager Alan Wheatley combined the classic music with blaring video clips of Beatles to create an atmosphere that is lush, loud and very Las Vegas.

Many of the 2,100-some Comdex exhibitors offer more elaborate displays. But they are peddling wares that are complex at best and mind-numbing at worst, said Watkins, whose company has 115 employees.

“In contrast, our products are where the sizzle is. They're exciting and fun,” he said. “That's our key to competing against all the giants trying to grab some attention here.”

Comdex champions excess. Ostentatious displays are the norm. Utah's biggest players go all out.

Orem-based Novell Inc.'s efforts to market its IntranetWare and Groupwise products, for example, includes a full-size stage where it is showing a “Mission Impossible” spoof.

Corel Corp., which creates its WordPerfect line of products in Orem, is offering free hot-air balloon rides in a rainbow-colored craft outside the Las Vegas Convention Center. Inside, slow machines offer customers a chance to win one or all of the company's software products.

Nearby, Iomega Corp. of Roy has Elvis and Marilyn Monroe impersonators handing out buttons and other paraphernalia that promote its data-storage products with slogans such as "I [the company's symbol] can do the Macarena."

But despite plenty of competition, small players still can make a splash, said Greg Erickson, corporate-communications manager for Zebra Technologies VTI Inc.

The Sandy company's primary product is Barcode Anything Suite. It includes bar-code labeling, scanning and tracking tools that allow companies to use bar codes for asset tracking, inventory control, automated data entry and other applications.

To promote the product at Comdex, Zebra is handing out bar-coded buttons that carry messages such as “I belong behind bars,” and “Give me a Wedge[ie].” A wedge, Erickson said, is what the hand-held instrument used to scan bar codes is called.

Zebra has sent out a photographer to take pictures of button-wearers and then will scan the bar codes on their buttons into a computer. Later this week, it will use the codes in a mountain-bike give-away.

“We're trying to sell this thing as a labeling-and-tracking solution,” said Wayne Wilkinson, Zebra's marketing director. “We're trying to take something mysterious to many people and put a personality on it, and…we're succeeding.”

Other Utah companies are taking a more subtle approach.

CallWare Technologies of Salt Lake City sells software that integrates computer systems with telephone systems. Sarah Gloyn, the company's marketing manager, said users of the technology, can see, for example, voice-mail messages on their computer screens. It also allows them to route important calls from office phones to cellular phones at a specified time without callers knowing their calls were rerouted.

CallWare's exhibit features photographs of a southern Utah landscape with two clouds of smoke extended skyward. The photos' inscription reads, "Until CallWare, this was the only way to send a long-distance message for free."

Cirque Corp. of Salt Lake City is using Comdex to demonstrate TouchPad 2. Using a special pen, a user of the product can sign a pad on her or his computer keyboard and then transfer that signature onto a computerized document, said Kurtis J. Van Kampen, product marketing vide president of Proformix, a company that is displaying use of Cirque technology in its own ergonomically designed computer products.

“Marketing gimmicks aren't necessary because we're lucky enough to have products that excite people to the point where they come looking form them.” Van Kampen said.

Regardless of their approach, Utah companies probably will feel the effects of Comdex in their bottom line.

More than 10,000 new products will be introduced or demonstrated before the event ends Friday to nearly 2,500 technology writers and editors from around the world. And the 210,000 attendees include thousands of resellers and retailers.

"It's definitely an important part of our annual marketing effort," said Clint Argyle, marketing manager for Provo's Keystone Learning Systems Corp., which provides training videos for Microsoft Corp. products. "If it weren't we wouldn't be here."