The Challenge: Standing Out in a Sea of 10,000+ Data Professionals

When 400 branded smoothies turned into a permit violation on day two of Snowflake Summit, we learned that guerrilla marketing isn't as simple as it sounds. But let's back up.

The Paradime team recently "crashed" Snowflake Summit 2025, and it was a wild ride. We didn't have a booth (those start at $50K+), but we knew we had to be there. After all, it's where all our customers, partners, ecosystem players, and future customers gather to talk about the future of data.

Here's the thing: we're building the "dbt Cloud™ replacement for the AI Era," and everyone we need to reach was going to be at this conference. Missing it wasn't an option, but we also weren't ready to drop massive booth money without understanding the ROI.

Our solution? Go guerrilla.

We tested pure top-of-funnel (TOFU) tactics to see what would stick, with plans to combine the best performers with our proven booth strategy (we saw great results at Data Council in April). Some tactics worked fantastically, others were "meh," and a few failed spectacularly.

This post breaks down every tactic we tried — organized as Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners — so you can learn from our successes and failures. But we didn't just focus on our own experiments. We also kept our eyes open to see what other companies were doing, what worked for them, and what fell flat.

Consider this your comprehensive playbook for standing out at massive conferences, whether you're going guerrilla or have a bigger budget to work with.

🥇 The Gold Winners: Tactics We'll Definitely Repeat

🎒 LED Backpack Branding

The Tactic: Our entire team wore custom LED backpacks displaying our logo, GIFs, and messaging throughout the conference.

My team and I wanted to figure out a way to stand out as we walked both inside and outside of the conference. We wanted something that would get people to talk to us, rather than us aggressively hunting down strangers all the time. Typically, that type of aggressive sales doesn't work at conferences.

Additionally, we wanted to make sure people knew Paradime as the "Cursor for Data" and the "dbt Cloud™ replacement for the AI era."

So, we decided to turn our team into walking billboards with custom LED backpacks. Unlike traditional billboards, these were shockingly cheap and incredibly easy to set up and customize to our branding.

The Investment: $150 per backpack + portable battery packs

• LED Backpacks

• Portable Battery Packs

Why It Worked:

• Mobile billboard effect: We were walking advertisements everywhere we went

• Natural conversation starter: Dozens of people approached us asking about Paradime (and where to get the backpacks!)

• Always-on branding: Even when sitting and working, we positioned them strategically

• Memorable differentiation: In a sea of branded t-shirts and polo shirts, these actually stood out

The Steal: This idea isn't original — we borrowed it from another company. The beauty is that it's cheap, eye-catching, and you can customize the content in real-time. Total no-brainer for any conference.

🍽️ Data Leadership Dinners

The Tactic: Two invite-only dinners during conference week, each with 10 carefully selected guests mixing existing and potential customers.

The Investment: $500 per dinner

Why It Worked:

• Quality over quantity: Deep, meaningful conversations instead of booth small talk

• Relationship building: Fostered deeper connections with existing customers while creating new opportunities

• Intelligence gathering: Learned about real problems data leaders are tackling

• Intimate setting: Nobody screaming across tables, everyone engaged

The Execution Keys:

• Booked restaurants and started inviting people 1 month out

• Spent 10+ hours researching and targeting the right invitees (no spray-and-pray)

• Came prepared with thoughtful questions to guide conversations

The Reality Check: Plan for ~70% attendance rate. For 10 seats, get 15 confirmed RSVPs.

🥈 The Silver Winners: Solid Tactics with Caveats

🥤 Smoothie Giveaway

The Tactic: Partnered with Pulp Pours to distribute 400 branded smoothies outside Moscone Center during lunch hours.

At conferences, everyone's already had three cups of coffee and is bouncing off the walls. We wanted to offer something refreshing that would actually make people feel good, not more jittery. Plus, literally every other company was doing coffee - we needed to stand out.

We selected three flavors that would appeal to different tastes and energy needs:

• Brazil '66 - Mango, Pineapple, Banana

• Babaloo - Acai, Pomegranate, Blueberry, Blackberry

• The Cherish – Truly Latte! - Dark Roast Colombian Coffee with Vanilla and Cream (for the coffee addicts who couldn't resist)

Each smoothie came with custom Paradime branding and QR codes linking to our product demo. See Smoothie giveaway in action here.

The Investment: $2,600 (roughly $6 per smoothie)

Why It Worked:

• Differentiation: Everyone offers coffee. People are already jittery. Smoothies felt fresh and healthy.

• Quality vendor: Pulp Pours delivered exactly as promised with reasonable pricing

• Timing advantage: Hit the lunch crowd when people needed a break from coffee

Why It Didn't Work:

• City permits required: Day 2, the city watchdog came and we learned you need permits for street vending. Make sure you get a street vending permit from SF (costs $471) or ensure your vendor has it

• Low conversion: People loved the smoothies but didn't engage much with the QR codes or learn about Paradime

• Wasted inventory: Left with 100+ extra smoothies (thankfully donated to local food charity)

The Lesson: Guerrilla marketing at major conferences has its upsides, but you need to mitigate risks. If you go this route, make sure you have ALL required street vending permits, and perhaps a backup plan or two.

🥉 The Bronze Winners: Good Learning Experiences

📱 Mobile Street Demos

The Tactic: We recently got inspired by ariatinsta's high-quality, engaging content on Instagram. He's a "mobile producer" who creates beats with strangers on the streets. We had to take a page out of his book. So, we equipped Parker Rogers with a laptop harness, Apple Vision Pro, and demo setup to offer VR demos on the street.

The Investment: $200 for harness + rental fees for Vision Pro

• Laptop Harness

• Vision Pro rentals: Immersion Rentals (~$100/day)

Why It Worked:

• Unique and memorable: Nobody had seen anything like this before

• Content goldmine: Generated tons of engaging social media content

• Conversation starter: Completed 14 demos over two days

Why It Didn't Work:

• ICP needle in haystack: With 10K+ attendees and maybe 5% in our ideal customer profile, street targeting was inefficient

• Wrong time, wrong place: People left the conference for a reason (lunch, decompress, meetings). They didn't want to be bothered by sales during personal time

• High rejection rate: Faced tons of "not interested" responses

• Learning curve: The user experience of VisionOS takes time to get used to, so people needed several minutes just to understand the interface

The Verdict: We think the Vision Pro as a top-of-funnel tactic is not worth it, and we're exploring other ways this technology might be useful.

What Others Did: Lessons from the Competition

While running our own experiments, we kept our eyes open to see what was working—and what wasn't—for other companies. Some tactics were brilliant, others were... questionable. Here's what we observed:

🥇 The Gold Winners: Tactics That Impressed Us

🏢 Club Hex Pop-Up (by Hex)

The Tactic: Hex created a luxurious off-site lounge called "Club Hex" just steps from Moscone Center, serving as both a daytime workspace and evening entertainment venue. During the day, it functioned as a premium co-working space with delicious food, killer drinks, great wifi, and a luxe lounge full of data minds looking to network, demo products, or simply unwind from the conference chaos. Come evening, the same space transformed into a happy hour venue with special events and networking opportunities.

The Investment: We're not even going to try and guess, but that budget could probably get you a pretty neat booth 😂

Why It Worked:

• Unmatched engagement: We spent hours at both Club Hex and the actual conference - Club Hex unquestionably had more engagement than any booth we saw

• Tons of foot traffic: Constant stream of visitors throughout the day

• Dual-purpose venue: Used during the day for work/leisure, evenings for happy hours

• Great branding: Everyone stopped by - it became the unofficial conference hangout

• Constant demos: Always had product experts available without the pressure of a formal booth

What We Learned: Sometimes going completely off-site and creating your own experience beats trying to stand out in a crowded expo hall. And yes, it comes with a price!

🥈 The Silver Winners: Solid But Familiar

☕ Coffee Trucks (Various Companies)

The Tactic: Multiple companies set up branded coffee trucks outside Moscone Center.

The Investment: $7K-$12K depending on size and customization

What We Learned from Watching:

• Preparation matters: Companies with proper permits (Food Truck Campaigns, Sextant Coffee Roasters) survived shutdown attempts

• Timing issues: Busy in early mornings, dead during afternoons

• Overcrowded market: Too many companies doing the same thing

• Brand execution matters: Poorly executed guerrilla marketing can hurt your brand as much as help it

Our Take: Coffee trucks are becoming the new conference swag - everyone does it, so it doesn't differentiate anymore. Making each cup takes time, creating long queues. Non-coffee alternatives win for uniqueness.

🥉 The Bronze Winners: Creative But Limited Impact

✈️ Sail-Plane Banner

The Tactic: A company flew their banner in the sky above the conference area using a sail-plane.

The Investment: Per flight, likely around $750-$1K

Why It Worked:

• Memorable: We remembered it, so others probably did too

• Reasonably priced: Actually not that expensive for the uniqueness factor

• Unique: Only plane we saw with advertising during the entire conference

Why It Didn't Work:

• Not "always on": Only a small portion of attendees saw it during the brief flyover

• Limited exposure: One-time visibility vs. continuous presence

The Verdict: Creative and memorable, but limited reach makes the ROI questionable.

The Loser

📄 Paper Flyers (Everyone, Including Us)

The Tactic: At every conference on earth, including Snowflake Summit, people pass out paper flyers both inside and outside the venue. We also brought flyers to hand out alongside our other tactics.

The Investment: Probably $100-$200 based on volume

Why It "Works":

• It's cheap: Low barrier to entry

• Booth support: Can add some value when someone shows clear interest at your booth

Why It Doesn't Work:

• Not unique: Literally everyone does this

• Immediate trash: People throw them away without reading

• Poor conversion: From our own experience and watching others, we didn't see anyone actually engaging with flyer content

Our Take: Paper flyers are the participation trophy of conference marketing. They make you feel like you're doing something, but the impact is minimal. We learned this firsthand.

Three Big Takeaways That Changed How We Think About Conference Marketing

After analyzing both our experiments and observing the competition, three insights stood out:

1. The "Always-On" Principle Wins The LED backpacks and Club Hex worked because they were always working. Whether we were grabbing lunch, sitting in a session, or walking between meetings, we were marketing. Compare that to our street demos or the sail-plane, which only worked during active moments. The best tactics don't require you to be "on" all the time.

2. Relationships Beat Transactions Every Time Our dinners and Hex's lounge generated more qualified pipeline than transactional tactics. Why? Because they created space for actual conversations instead of quick exchanges. The smoothies and flyers were fun, but nobody remembers the company that gave them a drink. They remember the company that invited them to a thoughtful dinner or created a welcoming space.

3. Preparation and Compliance Matter The difference between companies that got shut down and those that didn't came down to research and preparation. Whether it's getting the right permits, understanding venue rules, or having backup plans, the execution details matter as much as the creative concept.

So how can you apply these lessons to your own conference strategy?

Your Turn: Steal Our Playbook (And Make It Better)

The data community gets stronger when we share what we learn. So here's what we're hoping happens next:

Try our LED backpack approach at your next conference. Improve on our smoothie strategy (maybe get those permits first). Host better dinners than we did. Create your own version of Club Hex. Skip the paper flyers entirely.

Then tell us about it. Share your wins, your failures, and your "holy crap, that actually worked" moments. The best marketing happens when we're all pushing each other to be more creative.

Coming to Big Data London in September? Find us — we'll be the ones with the LED backpacks and pushing the limits of creativity. Let's grab coffee and talk about what guerrilla tactic you want to try next.

P.S. — That "dbt Cloud™ replacement for the AI Era" we keep mentioning? We're not just making noise. We're building something that matters. But that's a story for another blog post. 😉