You can’t relive the past, but you can conjure up images from bygone eras. Anything from direct-mail campaigns to trade show promotions can be enhanced with retro products. In some cases, the products can even recall a company’s origins and demonstrate its history of serving a particular industry or audience. One such nostalgia-based program helped communicate a firm’s longstanding expertise and record of customer friendliness. For a trade show, King Industries Inc., a specialty chemical manufacturer, used ads, a non-traditional booth and a logoed gift to position itself as a leading source of automotive rust and corrosion inhibitors. “We wanted to try and make a point that King Industries has been around a lot of years,” says Bob Burke, marketing communications manager. In preparation for the convention of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (tribology is the study of friction and wear), King placed pre-show advertising in industry publications to encourage readers to visit its booth. The ad showed a 1930s Packard sedan parked in front of an old service center. The headline read, “We’ve had a long-standing affair with the automobile.” The rest of the copy reminded readers that King brings the highest levels of rust and corrosion protection to auto parts and systems. The ad was just the beginning. In place of a traditional booth at the show, King rented a black 1930s Packard stretch sedan. The classic car was parked in the exhibit hall on a contrasting red carpet. Glossy black posters placed on easels showed the year the company was founded (1932) and described King’s products. The car, says Burke, was the hands-down hit of the show; people were naturally drawn to it. But to absolutely ensure attendees remembered the booth, King let them walk away with a reminder. Everyone who filled out an informational questionnaire at the booth was given a die-cast toy replica of a 1930s Packard delivery truck, imprinted with King’s name and founding date. While the self-qualifying questionnaire asked attendees if they’d be interested in samples of King’s formulas, it also inquired what they felt were future trends in automobile lubrication. By the end of the show, King had given out approximately 600 trucks. Of the 600 who filled out the survey, about 237 requested samples of products. Burke says the number of solid leads was way above normal for a trade show exhibit. “Our objective was to position ourselves as a leader in these types of additives. We absolutely accomplished what we wanted to do,” he notes. “It takes a chemical company years to develop formulas, test them and market them. A leading indicator of success is requests for samples to do testing. It leads to sales.”