OPEN empowered small business owners to share their passion for their work and build their brands by creating a literal stage for three select small business owners at SEMA (an automotive aftermarket tradeshow) and MAGIC (a fashion tradeshow).

The Rising Stars experience was a live design competition on both tradeshow floors, highlighting OPEN’s dedication to automotive and fashion small businesses. Within the booth at MAGIC, designers created handbags – from sketch to finished product. At SEMA, airbrush artists turned blank car hoods into works of art. Each tradeshow also had a sweepstakes where attendees could win the Rising Stars’ creations.

OPEN saw non-stop booth traffic with repeat visits by the small business target audience to watch the competition progress. The Rising Stars built their brands and met potential new customers. The increased traffic, buzz and social amplification helped OPEN drive brand awareness and new Card acquisition:

-SEMA: YoY increase of 31% [Exceeded Card application goal by 18%]

-MAGIC: YoY increase of 14% [Exceeded Card application goal by 4%]

The shows garnered an average of 2,425,397 potential social media impressions and the sweepstakes provided 31% of the annual lead goal.