The Exhibitor's Resource – Trade Show Marketing Blog

Exhibit Resources is proud to host the Triangle AMA’s February Social Event, “Green Marketing Challenges and Benefits in the 21st Century,”. Join us to learn more about Green Marketing (Challenges and Benefits) from IBM’s Program Manager, Steve Cole, and connect with other marketing leaders.

When: Wednesday, February 3, 2010 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM

Where: Exhibit Resources, 7521 Exhibit Court Raleigh, NC 27617

Attire: Business Casual

FEE: View Event Fees

RSVP Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Sustainability is an imperative for 21st century business —one that not only encompasses conservation and pollution prevention, but also enables the creation of entirely new marketing opportunities, such as strengthening brand reputations and creating products and services that give rise to new markets. How do you do this and enable your workforce, dematerialized operations, prepare for pending regulatory compliance and still keep cost in line? Mr. Steve Cole with IBM’s Energy and Environment Division will address these questions as well as how to identify and manage the marketing responsibilities in this new “low carbon economy” and be environmentally responsible at the same time- to the benefit of both the planet and the bottom line.

Steve Cole works as a program strategist for IBM Smarter Plan ―Green & beyond initiative. He is responsible for IBM’s end to end “green” segment business plan, working closely with IBM Systems, IBM Systems Storage, IBM Global Technology, IBM Software Group, IBM S&D Industry Solutions, and IBM Sustainable Business Services and Solutions. Steve is a two time recipient of the prestigious Gerstner Award for Customer Excellence for his contributions in the creation and execution of IBM On Demand and for IBM Project Big Green. Previous experience includes Vice President, Telular Corporation and Vice President of Marketing, ITT Telcom Systems.

Business Sponsor:
Exhibit Resources is a full-service exhibit design and event marketing agency based in Raleigh. We provide total trade show management, including the design, fabrication and installation of trade show exhibits and corporate interiors for clients worldwide. Our portable, modular, and custom displays, combined with our full-color large format graphics, support face-to-face marketing efforts for organizations of all sizes.

Popularity: 60% [?]

A significant and potentially hidden expense of exhibiting at trade shows may not seem like a big deal until you run the numbers after a show. That’s right, I’m talking about the costs associated with producing, shipping and dealing with promotional literature, whether it’s company brochures, product catalogs, or white papers. In the planning stages, little thought may be paid to this traditionally mandatory element of exhibiting at trade shows. However, that lack of planning early on might double, triple or quadruple your costs for this increasingly altogether unnecessary expense. Last minute copy or design changes to literature can delay getting your files to the printer, and force you to pay rushed printing fees, and then rush shipping and handling fees to get the literature to your booth before the show starts. Depending on how much literature you’re bringing in, you may be subject to convention hall drayage fees, and “late surcharges” to boot.

These literature-related costs make you wonder where where all of it ends up. Some estimates say that over half of printed literature handed out at trade shows never even makes it back to the attendee’s office.

So what are some strategies for minimizing this expense?
Exhibitors could bring some literature with them on the plane, but smaller pieces that just hit the highlights but still give the visitor something to remind them of them later. Or exhibitors could bring individual sell sheets so that booth staff can provide info on the specific thing that the visitor was interested in, rather than providing an entire catalog.

Exhibitors could bring a small supply of literature, and replenish only what they start running out of with a quick electronic order via a national quick-print chain (you know some popular options). You can even leave your home city while the final tweaks to the design of the new brochure are being made, and have the digital files electronically sent over to the print center in the city your show is in and have them fulfill small batch orders from there.

Or you can be a savvy exhibitor and bring none, but be set up to print on-demand inside your exhibit on the show floor. On-demand printing gives you an extra advantage because it allows for custom-tailored information to be added to the documents being printed. Not only can you provide information specific to the products or services that the prospect is interested in, but you can even include their name for a personalized touch, and the name of their regional representative or local dealer office.

But you could be a real maverick and not just send no literature, but offer digital-only versions of everything. Depending on your industry and how your company does business, this might not be as out-there as it might have once seemed. The literature you once thought to be a requirement might actually be a burden that your contact doesn’t want to carry around the show the rest of the day or weigh their luggage down with. And what better way to follow up with your prospect or client after a show than to email them the product catalog they requested and you promised? Even mailing out select pieces of literature can be a smarter move than providing it on the trade show floor.

Need another good reason to consider alternative lit printing strategies? Here’s one: reduction of your company’s carbon footprint. The less literature you print and ship (especially air ship), the better for the environment it is. Reduce the number of trees required to produce the paper. Reduce the amount of fossil fuels it takes to not only ship bulk literature out to the show, but to ship the left overs back to your home city.

Popularity: 44% [?]

We enjoyed very much having Tom Bowman here at Exhibit Resources to speak about sustainable business practices, and how all businesses benefit from developing a “Green Business Plan.” We had over 100 people RSVP for the event, and were happy to host so many members of our community as we learned more about moving forward into a better, more sustainable business future. Stay tuned for a full recap of Tom’s talk, and links to online resources to help your business kick start it’s Green Business Plan.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Our Spring Event, “Meet Mr. Green” is fast approaching. Tom Bowman (AKA Mr. Green), will be here on Thursday, April 16th to give his presentation on Sustainability, Green Exhibiting, and how Green Business Practices are the way forward for businesses, both from an environmental perspective, as well as an economic one.

Attendees will learn how to reduce the impact of event marketing, how to improve their company’s overall sustainability effort, and how to turn the huge challenges we all face into opportunities.

Tom Bowman is an advisor, strategist, communicator, and producer with a focus on global change, climate and energy science, and green business strategies. Through his work with the National Academy of Sciences, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and energy companies across the country, Tom discovered an urgent need to improve science communication and employ its results to make better, more sustainable decisions.

His team created the Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences, and award-winning exhibitions on global warming, health, and ocean science that set new standards for engaging the public with authentic, unbiased information. Tom has written about climate change and communication priorities in the academic and popular press and has contributed to NOAA’s Essential Principals of Climate Literacy and NOAA/CORE Public Ocean Literacy publications. More Info at Bowman Global Change

Popularity: 10% [?]

We had a blast at the “Southern Fried” ADDY Awards at the new DPAC in downtown Durham last night. Exhibit Resources took the Gold ADDY in the “Trade Show Exhibit” category in this year’s competition for the “Burt’s Bees Green Exhibit” we produced.

In addition to the fun of winning, we also got a kick out of all of the myriad of interpretations of “Southern Formal” style. There were enormous cowboy hats, frilly Southern Belle dresses, “Colonel Sanders” style string ties, and lots of retro southern panache.

Popularity: 17% [?]