Welcome to Part Two of “Year of the Wee”.  If you happened to miss Part One, check it out here. So, what happened after the creation of Wee Stand? Well, put it simply, we had to get our name out there. Kickstarter became our best friend, social media and email marketing, too.  Trade shows … LOTS of them! Noisy Clan have become avid globetrotters, scouring the earth for musical conventions and trade fairs to share and exhibit the Wee Stand to any musical hobbyists such as ourselves.

As our Kickstarter backers will know, things don’t always go to plan. With roadblocks along the way, we did not ship on time as we had once naively hoped we would. Our original ship date was aimed for August 2021; with so many unplanned and unexpected moderations to the design, we didn’t ship officially until January 2022. Even then, these shipments happened in small batches - we didn’t officially launch Wee Stand on our website until May 2022. As an ‘in house’ product design company we will always value quality over anything (such as meeting deadlines some might say…) and we are forever grateful for the community of product design and music lovers that agree with our ethos.

Taking the World by Storm: Noisy Clan AKA Globetrotters! 

For many, trade shows might not be a conscious vocabulary, trust me, it wasn’t in mine until I started working at Noisy Clan. To raise awareness, network, and even launch your product, trade shows do just that, but in the flesh, rather than behind the mask of a digital screen. 

NAMM (aka North American Music Merchants) has been incredibly influential in our journey in networking and marketing. The sore feet and blisters from standing all day was, of course, worth it for the fun and positive reception we received from all that met us! I mean, I should also acknowledge we were the only team collectively wearing traditional Scottish kilts, and this might have had something to do with the constant influx of affection for our Scottish history and culture - but I’d like to say people were just as excited about Wee Stand, too. Trade shows are not light work, but they are SO worth it. It’s great to chat to all the visitors and other exhibitors and  we always have the BEST time. 

A typical day goes something like this; wake up at an ungodly hour, rush out of the hotel room, inhale breakfast (which, if we are in a different country means indulging in local cuisine, or IHOP…) spend ALL Day on our feet, chatting non-stop, thanking visitors (again, and again) for their admiration for our kilts (we secretly love the attention), forget to eat lunch, hobble out of the trade show, eat more local cuisine (Taco Bell, In-and-Out Burgers, and all other famous American fast food restaurants), PASS OUT. Then repeat again the next day. It’s hard work, but worth getting feedback from folks that test out our products.