The Exhibitor's Resource – Trade Show Marketing Blog

In thinking about the December holidays, we at Exhibit Resources can’t help but notice some parallels to our face-to-face marketing world. Sure, the food, the presents, the carols, the candles and the decorations are a part of what make the holidays so special, but some of the underlying magic behind it all might be the connections we make or strengthen with friends and family during this time.

In fact, the holidays are about fellowship, much like trade shows and other marketing events that bring people together. Another word for fellowship is community, and building a community is the most desired result in marketing. A sense of community leads to deep, long‐lasting, relationships with customers.

So when you’re gathering around the dining room table for the holiday feast, celebrating at one more party or finding a place near the fireplace before exchanging gifts, try and imagine how you’d be able to trade stories, share moments, forge bonds, or develop the sense of community without being there, in person. Perhaps there is something in there to consider when planning next year’s marketing strategy.

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Preparation for exhibiting at academic and professional conferences is similar to that of trade shows or expos, but there are some subtle differences that an organization may want to consider.

One common difference is that the venue may not accommodate as large a display as you might set up on the trade show floor or in an expo hall. Working with an exhibit agency such as Exhibit Resources will help you successfully translate the look and feel of your larger exhibit space to the smaller scale that might be required. There are several approaches to small space branding, depending on what is offered at the conference. One uses the conference-supplied table, usually 6ft or 8ft long, for which you will want to develop a professional table top display, including a branded table cover or table runner. Another scenario is a 10′ conference exhibit space in a ballroom or large lobby without a table. A good option for this space is a fabric pop-up display, which can be shipped in a small case to the hotel and then transported to the conference and set up by one or two reps. For more restricted spaces, either narrower or lower than a standard 10′ wide and 8′ high portable backwall display would fit, exhibitors can set up two or three banner stands to approximate the look of a backwall, but with some adjustability in height and width.

Aside from space considerations, the wording of messages may need to be developed specifically for the audience of the conference. Depending on the type of conference, the tone of the message may be need to be more targeted to the specific niche, or it might benefit from a more academic or trust-building focus. Bold yet conservative graphics could be more effective than the in-your-face attention grabbers that may play better on trade show floors.

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Exhibit Resources hosted another ICA (Independent Communicator’s Alliance) meeting Wednesday night at our showroom in Raleigh. And this time, in addition to providing the venue, we also offered the insight by presenting our talk “The Value of Face-To-Face Marketing.”

The trend in recent years has been for marketers with tight budgets to allocate their limited dollars to customer-facing and lead-generating efforts, including trade show and event marketing. At Wednesdays talk, I provided an overview of what it takes to create successful trade show displays and face-to-face marketing programs. I discussed how exhibiting benefits the broader marketing effort, how exhibitors can realize the greatest return on their event marketing investment, and I gave a sneak peek at emerging trade show display design trends.

Highlights from the talk were mentioned in a press release written about the talk by ICA member Cindy Turner.

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While aspects of the face-to-face marketing industry – which includes trade shows, special events, meetings, conventions, and the related travel & hospitality - have all felt the effects of budget cuts in the past year, there is plenty of justification to continue this type of highly effective marketing.

According to a recent survey of Fortune 1,000 Chief Marketing Officers, meetings and events provide the highest return on investment of any marketing channel. According to a recent study by CEIR, the Center for Exhibit Industry Research, exhibitions and events remained at the top of MarCom spending, accounting for 20% of the budget despite reductions in overall marketing spending.

Still, as a result of the downturn, exhibition budgets for 2009 are down by 17% and an equal 17% of exhibitors have reported that they will participate in fewer shows in 2009. The US Travel Association estimates that 200,000 travel related jobs were lost in 2008 and expect another 247,000 to be lost in 2009 According to the results of a Meetings and Conventions magazine, 52% of respondents claim that the economic downturn has influenced their company’s decision to hold events.

So why should companies still exhibit during an economic downturn?

To Close Deals & Sell More Product – Why would you want to shut off a stream of revenue when every bit counts?  Studies have shown that sustained marketing during a recession yields higher sales in the short term. And market share increases accomplished in while weathering a recession are often maintained or expanded during the recovery and subsequent boom years.

To Remain “Top of Mind” for Prospects and Existing Customers – Let them know that your company is still strong, or maybe even take this opportunity to kick it up a notch and stake your claim to the top player position in your niche.

To Take Advantage of Less a Crowded Space – Perhaps your company can secure more prominent booth space that may have been vacated by the competition. And with fewer exhibitors, there will be less noise, allowing your message get through and resonate longer with attendees and the media.

To Make High Quality Connections – Although the industry has seen a drop in the number of total show attendees and the sizes of booth spaces have been reduced, the QUALITY of the visitor now is much better. Companies may no longer be sending 25 reps to a conference or industry expo, now it’s maybe 10 or 12 – but those that they are being sent are the key decision makers and top representatives of companies you are looking to connect with. While companies are watching travel and entertainment expenses, they still feel that it’s important for their staff to stay connected, stay current on emerging trends in their industry, and to participate in education opportunities typically offered in conjunction with trade shows and other events.

Face-to-Face marketing experiences are personal, sensorial, tactile, emotional, and tangible.  No alternate or surrogate for that kind of direct contact exists.

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This long weekend, many Americans will be heading out to special events around the country in celebration of Independence Day. Whether you’re headed to a city-sponsored parade downtown, a fireworks show over the water, a BBQ competition in the burbs, or a Bluegrass show at the local taproom, there will undoubtedly be “Mobile Marketing” present at the event. Although trade show marketers may not typically do this type of “in the field” marketing, the trends for these types of events can inform and inspire other types of face-to-face marketing. We suggest that as you roam the craft stands, food vendors and antique car shows that you keep an eye out for clever event marketing strategies in action. Take note of what technique might be drawing crowds at the new car tent off to the side. Why is there a line in front of the stand promoting a new brand of sugar water? At the end of the day, think back about all of the branding you saw that day and consider which brands stand out most and why. Obviously, the biggest brand of the day will be the Red, White, and Blue of the Stars and Stripes – AKA Team USA. But the brand that comes in second has benefited from a well-executed Event Marketing strategy, and stands a good chance of growing their business, the pinnacle of the American entrepreneurial spirit.

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Exhibit Resources just started using twitter to see what all the hype was about. We initially thought that it would be no more than a novel way to discover like-minded trade show exhibit professionals and display designers and suppliers. Little did we expect that this twitter thing actually had a lot of value. So far, we’ve made some pretty interesting connections.

We’ve also noticed a lot of trade show producers using twitter to communicate with attendees and exhibitors. One example is InfoComm09, which posts informative links, info and statistics on the InfoComm show in mid June. How else would we learn that 7.2 miles of Aisle Carpet will be installed at the show, or get a handy link to planning your trip to the show? Here are some recent InfoComm09 tweets:

# From move-in to move-out approx. 18,058 hours of labor will be used to produce InfoComm 09
# Visit InfoComm’s booth, #5261 to find out more about membership, certification, education & social media
# 7.2 miles of Aisle Carpet (38349 liner ft) will be installed at InfoComm09
# Don’t miss over 100 new exhibitors at InfoComm 09!
# 50% of Classes are new at InfoComm 09! Check out all the classes, http://bit.ly/OUBI7
# Planning your trip to the show? Find deals to Orlando from Total Travel http://bit.ly/12UsDk

We’ve also seen some companies tweeting about the trade shows they are preparing to exhibit at to drive traffic to their trade show booth, tweeting from their trade show display during the show, and using twitter to update followers from live demos, key note addresses and conference sessions.

Exhibit Resources plans to participate in a webinar on the future of “Digital’s Role in Exhibit Marketing” on June 4th, when The Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) will share the findings of their recent survey findings on the topic. The session will include stats on measurement, ROI, budget for digital media and best practices exhibitors can use to integrate digital and social media into their event marketing plans.

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As an event marketing manager, you may be asked to justify the costs of face-to-face marketing. Here is a quick list of the benefits of event marketing that no other marketing effort can offer:

Start a dialogue. A two-way conversation is better than mono-directional broadcasts, and face-to-face marketing on the trade show floor, or at other events is the best way to begin that communication. Of course you’ll want your booth staff to be on-message, but because it’s a conversation, they will be able to give the visitor best-targeted message.
A personal connection builds trust. Meeting face-to-face, with your company’s brand and message on display around your, a prospect is likely to be comfortable being approached and learning about what your offer is. A trade show exhibit space is one of the few places today where a “sales pitch” isn’t taboo.
Access to a receptive audience for your message (they are likely there to learn about emerging trends in their industry).
Immediate fulfillment of prospect requests. Booth staff can answer questions, provide information, deliver catalogs, and set up accounts on the expo floor. The interested client doesn’t need to wait for a returned call, a sample to ship, or a sales person to schedule a meeting in order to get the process started.
Establish or reinforce brand awareness and industry prominence. Even if your company is lucky enough to enjoy a dominant position in your market, it’s wise to reinforce that lead position and stay top-of-mind for your existing clients in addition to maintaining or enhancing your brand awareness to those who haven’t yet joined the majority.

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The best investment an exhibitor can make in addition to exhibiting at a trade show, is to get the word out ahead of the trade show that they will be there. There are several effective ways for exhibitors to do this. One is to send out a pre-show mailer or email campaign. A postcard or blast announcing that your company will be exhibiting at an upcoming show, complete with your trade show booth number is a start, but you can further entice prospects to visit with a special offer such as a giveaway. Many exhibitors have found that they have success with promoting special in-booth presentations or new product introductions during the expo. In addition to mass-marketing efforts like those, you should also mention your show presence to each prospect AND client you speak with in the months or weeks leading up to a show. It can even be a good reason to place another call to that prospect you haven’t heard back from. Sales staff can personally call and schedule in-booth visits with key prospects and existing accounts. Even if it’s just a mention of when that sales person plans to be in the booth, such personal invitations are highly effective.

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What’s the best way to get prospects to visit you at your office? Set up shop on the trade show floor! Many sales professionals would jump through a lot of hoops to have hundreds of qualified prospects visit their office in just a few days. Yet some sales people are less enthusiastic about staffing their company’s trade show display. Are expo days long? Yes, they are! Are your feet tired by the end? If you’re not gelling, they may be. But look at what you get out of it: lots and lots of leads, many introductions, several good starter conversations, a few really promising business relationships, and a handful of sales or pending sales. Is it worth it? Absolutely! You just need to think of your trade show display as your office away from office. Or showroom away from showroom. Would you show up for your work day without appointments on the calendar? Of course not! Be sure to set appointments at your show just as you would at the office. You need to get on your prospect’s dance card. You need to make time for existing clients. Reach out, be a good host, and make the most of your satellite office!

Office Away from Office

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