The Exhibitor's Resource – Trade Show Marketing Blog

Trade shows have been an important part of a company’s marketing mix for some time, and have supported the overall marketing strategy by complementing the other “pillars” of the effort.

The marketing mix used to only include
Trade Shows, Radio, Print Media, Billboards, Newspapers and TV

Now marketers also have
The Internet , Social Media such as Blogs, Twitter, Linked In, Facebook and Special Events.

Special Events have emerged as another successful Face-to-Face marketing strategy because of the focused, direct interaction with the customer that they offer. A special event could be an after hours, off show site, invitation-only social event held one evening during a larger trade show. It also could be an annual gathering at a company’s headquarters to pump up dealers or introduce new product to the media and existing customers. It could be an appreciation or awards event at a destination location to thank loyal employees, company partners or long term clients. Or it could be a sponsored event tied to a charity fundraiser or sporting event. No matter the venue or focus, special events often have an element of exclusivity, and can afford companies the opportunity to present their message to a receptive audience without distractions.

Popularity: 44% [?]

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.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Trade show marketing requires a lot of preparation, coordination, and imagination. To make trade shows pay off in this new, over-saturated marketing world, an exhibitor must change the way they define their goals and how they execute their plan. As mentioned in previous posts, pre-show communication with prospects AND clients to get them to stop by your trade show booth is essential, as is having something to show them when they ultimately show up.

But an exhibitor can extend the payoff of their trade show investment into the future in the form of press releases, blog posts, photos, video footage and other buzz created while at the show. A trade show presence is an irreplaceable venue for interaction with key industry players, but it’s also a wonderful place to get in front of the media. Reporters from media outlets throughout the country, and indeed the world, attend trade shows looking for trends to report on. The better prepared you and your staff are, and the better your trade show display looks, the more likely you’ll be featured in a news story from the trade show floor.

And you can create your own media splash from the event yourself. An emerging trend in trade show marketing is for companies to launch a new product, announce a new service, or feature exciting demos within their trade show booth space, and document it all with photos and video footage. They then use the content they captured from that blitz across all the media formats and outlets they can. They immediately add posts to their blogs, send out press releases, and distribute the video. The trade show display acts as the stage in many cases, making sure their name, their brand, and their unique offer is seen and understood by whoever sees the photos and watches the clips.

Pulling that sort of coordinated marketing effort together may seem a daunting task, but have no fear, there are resources available to help you. A trade show consultant from an exhibit design firm is a great start, and can help exhibitors develop a strategy, create a design that supports your show activities and goals, establish a budget and help you stick to it, and handle all of the logistical details of the show itself. Because a seasoned trade show consultant has managed many exhibiting programs, they can suggest best practices to save time and money and help exhibitors catch potentially disastrous problems before the show. Exhibitors that work with trade show consultants have more time to devote to other planning for the show, such as rehearsing that demo presentation or energizing the sales professionals that will be staffing your exhibit.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Exhibit Resources hosted another Independent Communicators Alliance meeting on Wednesday night. About 25 designers, marketing professionals, and corporate writers attended the talk, entitled “Creating your BUZZ on the Internet: Marketing that gets results!” The talk focused on non-traditional marketing via Social Media and was led by Deidre Hughey of The BUZZ Builder.

Exhibit Resources has hosted several events similar to this one in an effort to support professional design and marketing organizations.

Popularity: 16% [?]