Trade Show Exhibit Advice

By: Barry Siskind

Last month I posted a question on the TSEA (Trade Show Exhibitors Association) Group/Linkedin about the use of promotional products. Forty-five comments later and the discussion is still going strong. Comments ranged from those who thought promotional products were a waste of time and resources to those at the other end of the spectrum who found them very useful.

Tote bags, pens, mouse pads, lanyards, CD’s, note pads, candy, gizmo’s for your computer, stress balls,  luggage tags, buttons, pins, card holders, golf tees, sweat bands, mugs… don’t you just love it? Lots of people do. Ask visitors why then attend certain shows or what they remember best and they say – “all those cool giveaways.”

Ask them what they remembered more, the give away or the exhibitor, and nine time out of ten the answer is the give away.  So, does the investment in promotional products at a show make sense?  Sure it does. But there is more to making a promotional product work.  It’s serious business and requires some intense thought.

A study by the Promotional Products Association International reported some interesting findings:

Of the people who received a promotional product in the last 12 months,

• 76% could recall the adversities’ name
• 52% did business with the advertiser
• 52% had a more favorable impression of the advertiser after receiving the item.
• 34% had the item on their person

The advertising specialty people like to use cost per impression as their method of measurement. A study by the Advertising Specialty Institute found that bags topped the list with a staggering 1,038 impressions per month per bag given away. Caps were next with 476 per month followed in descending order by shirts (365), writing instruments (363), business accessories (294), glassware (251) and calendars (227).

The other noteworthy response was that in terms of wearables. The average respondent usually kept the article for seven months, bags were nine months and glassware seven.

The study reported that the most commonly used products were writing instruments (54%), shirts (45%), caps (31%), bags (29%), glassware (23%), business accessories (17%), calendars (17%) and other wearable’s (4%).

How often does a respondent will use the product?

• Nearly one third who receive glassware used it at least once per week, and another one quarter used it once per day.
• 40% of writing instruments were used at least twice per day.

One further noteworthy finding was that 42% said their impression of the company who gave them a promotional product was more favorable after receiving the item. The only exception here was bags where the number increased to 53%.

Here is a sampling of the positive and helpful comments that were posted on the TSEA Linkedin Group.

• The promotional product should be a thank you item not a must have item.
• Can be used effectively to reinforce the brand.
• A great way to reward survey respondents.
• Consider the environment and choose products with a longer life cycle and better quality.
• Integrate the promotional product into the overall lead generating strategy.
• Use as prizes in conjunction with a contest. This can motivate customers to spend more time in the booth.
• Make sure the promotional product is tied to the overall messaging and theme of the display.
• Don’t give away stuff for kids.
• Train staff on how and when to hand out a promotional product.

The debate rages on. Some love promotional products and swear by the benefits they receive while others avoid the discussion altogether. But, in an age when we need every advantage we can to make our show participation memorable, perhaps promotional products deserve another chance.

By: Karin Roberts

Background. This client came to us because they had decided to exhibit at a new trade show event and therefore requested a new custom exhibit design and event strategy that would help drive increased brand awareness and capture the attention of the architectural community. The goal of participating in this event was to clearly articulate the company’s message as the number one supplier of all glass.

The Solution. After conducting some research on the target market and some of the competitors in this space – “Where glass becomes architecture. We turn ordinary glass into extraordinary buildings” became the new high powered message used in both the custom exhibit strategy and the event strategy. For the custom exhibit, we decided to use a more artistic display featuring bright eye-catching visuals and imagery which would appeal to this audiences taste and would entice them to see what this client had to offer. A light show was added to the booth that highlighted glass used in commercial building contracts. A dynamic exhibit that clearly articulates messages and captivates interest certainly was effective at increasing overall brand awareness. However, the client needed to take additional steps to secure quality leads. As an incentive to draw attendees to the booth, an event strategy was implemented and it was recommended that the client offer a drawing to win a new Tablet PC. To enter the drawing the attendee needed to complete a survey card which asked a few key questions designed to qualify the prospect. The client obtained 255 leads from the top 1000 architectural firms, which was far above their pre-show objective of 50 firms.

The Results. The results of this integrated program were phenomenal. The booth traffic was enormous and was predominantly due to the exhibit itself, graphics, and the draw or a giveaway. The client obtained 255 leads which was a 325% improvement from their last show. These leads were entered into a database and contacted by sales representatives and literature was sent out as a follow-up measure. The client stated that based on the survey card results, the exhibit itself attracted 21% of the target audience.

What was learned. It is extremely important to conduct an analysis of your target market at each show you attend. Every market has different pain points and issues that will attract them to your exhibit – you just need to determine what they are – and create them within your booth space. They say if you build it they will come, I do not agree. But if you build it with market intelligence your chances of a qualified lead coming into your exhibit space is greatly enhanced. Try it. You will like it.

By: Barry Siskind

My kids think I’m a Luddite. I am from the world where the value of face-to-face marketing was one I understood. Now I live in a world where people communicate with their thumbs. However lately I’ve seen that faces and thumbs can live in harmony.

I will admit that thumbs can connect to the world instantly. They can communicate to large numbers of people in real time, even at the cost of good grammar and spelling. Faces still have the advantage of being able to stare eyeball to eyeball with a client even if it is only one at a time. So in a world where it is faster and considerably less expensive to connect with a text, can one justify the cost of face-to-face?

A report I read recently prepared by the Harvard Business Review called, “Managing Across Distance in Today’s Economic Climate” focused on the issue of the high cost of business value versus the benefits.

The report described four key areas where face to face trumps technology:

• Developing new clients. 95% of respondents said that face-to-face was crucial for building strong and long-term client relationships.

• Negotiating: When negotiating major contracts and agreements, 82% said that face-to-face meetings are the most effective tool in their arsenal.

• Maintaining relationships:  It’s relatively easy to hide feelings, concerns and priorities behind technology. Any one who deals with people face-to- face on a regular basis will attest to their ability to pick up on signals that often reveal the real story behind the words.

• Cultural barriers: Try texting a partner on the other side of the world and see if the real message was understood the first time. I am not just talking about language but the nuances of your message which may or may not be recognized. The value of face-to-face is to be able to read the non-verbal acceptance of what you are saying and be able to clarify if necessary.

So there are advantages to face-to-face. However, with the high cost of business travel in a shaky economy do these advantages justify the cost?

In this same report 60% of sales and marketing people said that cutbacks in their business travel would hurt business, while 36% of finance people said cutbacks  would have no impact on the business.  So now we have the age old conflict between those who solicit business and those who pay for it.

The solution is to make a strong enough case for face-to-face and to provide new metrics for measuring return. Here are three things to consider:

• Combine business travel with other activities.  A major event like a trade show or conference is a magnet for buyers and sellers. By combining your exhibit investment to include time for individual sales calls, meetings and presentations, you can amortize the cost and increase the value of the investment to your corporation.

• Establish a singular budget. Often the exhibition budget is a marketing activity while sales calls are sales. When you combine both activities under one budget line you create a corporate expenditure that has a higher probability of measurable success.

• Establish multiple metrics. In the past, corporations measured success by focusing on one or two metrics. In our new world this list of metrics should be expanded. For example you may use your trade show to gather quality leads, a sales meeting to close a sale and an on-site presentation to advance the sales cycle. Three activities needing three individual metrics with the results of the three being attributed to the overall success of the exhibition program.

The battle of thumbs and faces has only just begun.  Perhaps in the future one will totally replace the other – but that’s not the case now.  Before you let the finance people decimate your face-to-face budget perhaps its time to sit down with them and have a serious conversation.

Reference: . http://hkg.grants.ba.com/harvard-business-review.pdf

By: Barry Siskind

I have been walking trade shows for nearly a quarter of a century and I still get excited each time I do. It’s the energy and the glitz and glamour of show biz that keeps me coming back for more. It’s especially interesting to watch a show during set up, sometimes from the vantage point of a balcony of mezzanine. Beneath me I see the organized chaos of hundreds of people scurrying around, forklift trucks lifting wooden boxes and empty spaces being converted into showpieces – each piece of the jigsaw puzzle magically coming together.

Try watching the show you are exhibiting at take form. See if you aren’t as impressed as I am. But, we don’t have to keep this excitement our little secret, my guess is that lots of your customers might really enjoy seeing the sights and sounds of a trade show even if they can’t attend. You can share the experience through the technology of social media.

I read an article in Exhibitor Magazine which reported that the Freedman Decorating Company of Dallas, Texas used Twitter to bring visitors to their booth. That sounds easy enough. They had a significant following on Twitter so by offering a $5.00 Starbucks coupon and an opportunity to hear about their latest offerings, their pre-show promotion took on a whole new look.

But, you have the power to take your show promotion even further. For example the technology giant Intel Corporation posted images and videos on YouTube and Flicker for people around the globe who could not attend one of their major international conferences. These absentee customers could see new products, hear speeches and share in the experience of a show.

It’s pretty easy to explore the world of You Tube. Visit www.youTube.com and enter trade shows. When I did it I was quite impressed. I found one video that received 1,940,425 views and another with 1,276,956. While this may be beyond most company’s realistic expectations you can still achieve a viewership. With a bit more searching I found a video posted by Auto Page, an automotive solutions retailer, who shot a video at their show in Las Vegas and received 5, 019 views and Freeline Skates who manufactures skate, surf and snow boards, exhibiting at in San Diego received 981 views.

Think about it. Freeline Skates was able to attract 981 people who spent 2:38 minutes watching a video about their products. That’s not bad.

So, if you are looking to beef up your show promotion efforts with a minimum of costs keep social media in mind.

Here are a couple of things to consider:

• Take serious steps to developing a social media site on Twitter, LinkedIn, Flicker or Facebook to encourage the people you want to follow you with interesting and timely information. You can also use social media to invite guests to your display.

• Videos don’t have to be broadcast quality. You can take it on your  iphone. An interview with a customer at your booth, a tour of your trade show exhibit booth or a walk around the show may do the trick.

• Video don’t have to be lengthy. The most popular videos on YouTube were those in the 2 – 4 minute range.

• Focus on the experience. Keep away from the tendency to reiterate information your customers can already see on your web-site and focus more on the experience they are missing at the show.

• There is no limit to the number of videos you can post. You can do a comparison of your display this year to the one you had last year to let your customers know that you really listened to their feedback. Perhaps you can do a mini version of an in-booth presentation or take a time-lapse video of your booth under construction.

Promoting your attendance at a trade show is crucial, but the methods have changed largely because of the demographic shift in your customer base. Years ago sending out a thousand e-mails might have done the trick, but not today.  The Generation X’s and Millennials who are technology savvy, demand information in bit size chunks. Keep these tips in mind when you promote your next show.

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By: Barry Siskind

One of my favorite places to buy books is Amazon.com. If you are one of millions of book buyers like me, you are familiar with the typical Amazon.com listing. Their history is noteworthy. Amazon started selling books on the internet in 1995. Over the past decade they have grown to the point that they sell more books, DVD’s, CD’s M3P’s software, videogames, electronics, apparel, furniture and toys on-line than anyone – anywhere in the world. Why? Because they have a formula that works.

Picture an Amazon.com listings and think of it as above and below the line.

Above the line you find the title, price, shipping dates, inventory levels, number of pages, publisher, language, ISBN number, and the details about what’s inside the book. There’s no fault here. Everything you need to know is clearly spelled out. But that’s not why people buy books particularly if it is an author they hadn’t heard about before. They need more than details which bring the discussion to those things that are below the line. These include information about the author, citations, customer rated reviews and a section called, “What do customers ultimately buy after viewing this page?” Above the line points the purchaser to the details and below the line reveals the experience. Which do you think is more important?

This same analogy applies to an exhibit program. What do your signs and graphics say? Are they filled with information about products and services? What about your literature? Is it teeming with enough information to sink a supertanker? And what about your trade show booth staff? Do they fill hours at the show telling people all about the features and benefits of your products and services?

If you answered yes to any of these then it’s time to stand back and re-think your approach.

It all comes down to understanding the difference between remembering and knowing. Remembering, which is prone to error, requires a deep mental level of processing information that is often referred to as the “episodic memory.”  Knowing on the other hand triggers a familiarity which interestingly enough is often without the details of a specific product or service. This is referred to as the “semantic memory.”

The lesson to learn is that knowing lasts longer and has a more powerful impact on decision making than remembering.  When I decide what to buy on Amazon.com, I often refer to the items below the line. This is because to have an  experience on-line, the best I can do is find out what other people feel.

But in a show environment we have the advantage of face-to-face contact. Our customers have an opportunity to touch, hold, smell, taste and hear our products and services through one or more of their senses. It’s when we harness the power of presenting below the line that we create a lasting impact.

Here are few quick pointers:

1. Your front line booth staff should be passionate about the product and services they represent.
2. They should leave the customer with a positive feeling about doing business with your company.
3. Signs and graphics should focus on experience rather than details.
4. Literature should utilize lifestyle photos.
5. It’s little stuff that makes the greatest impact.

This last point focuses attention on an important quirk of human nature. People who expect a certain level of service become very critical when it slips even one iota. When dealing with the public you and your staff should constantly try to provide extras that go above the standard. It’s these little things that often solidify the knowing part of memory.

Whether you are in your showroom or at a trade show, leave your customers  with a positive experience and you will remain top of mind when it comes time to place an order.

Most traffic through a trade show is just passing through. If you want visitors to really notice what you have to offer, you need to attract their attention. Design is key when it comes to trade show booth displays. You should avoid complex explanations, as well as elaborate descriptions that will just bore the passing viewer. You need to focus on a message that tweaks their curiosity, directly telling them how your product can improve their world. You need to explain everything they need to know up front, but in an enticingly interesting way that makes them want to learn more.

To keep trade show booth displays looking good, make sure they are properly packed tight. Get a display case that has a separate storage area for each component. Don’t tuck non-display components in the case, as it can permanently damage your display.

You might consider buying a refurbished display to save money. Many trade show booth companies feature used displays that can be altered with other components to give them a uniquely customized look. You’ll need to spend money on new signs, but you can save on other components by getting them used but still in good condition.

Always make sure you do a dry run before the show. Set up the display before hand. Ask friends and coworkers for feedback on how it looks. Doing a dry set up helps you foresee problems ahead of time, as well as gives you a heads up for any special equipment you might need.

Also keep in mind that you can rent trade show booth displays and save money if you don’t know how many shows you’ll end up doing. That’s perfectly reasonable. The key is to not make it look like a rental. This can be done by utilizing a variety of components to give the display shape and character. Just because you’re renting doesn’t mean you can’t customize your design. It’s almost like working with a set of Legos. You can use the components to design any display you want.

Just make sure your design is fresh and interesting. It’s easy to get lost in the ocean of trade show booth displays at a typical trade show, so have a presentation that’s visually enticing. Stand out in the room with a display that commands attention.

By: Barry Siskind

If you want to improve your golf game watch and learn from Tiger Wood as he drives, pitches and putts. Re-run each swing in slow motion and when you are ready practice…. practice…. practice. While the chances of you or I ever being as good as the master is next to zero, the chances of improving our game, even a little bit, is pretty good.

Modeling the techniques of those who excel at what they do applies to all pursuits. Let’s say you want to improve your exhibit. Find to a guru then watch and learn. The problem is that that amongst organizations that choose exhibit marketing there is no one superstar. Many are pretty good, but those who consistently tower above the rest, year after year, are hard to find.  Does this mean improving your custom exhibit is a lost cause – not at all? In fact watching what other people do – both the good and the not so good – can be a fantastic method of gathering information that will make a powerful difference in your exhibit program.

Where you start is by searching out those places where company’s and organizations like yours exhibit; trade shows, special events, malls, lobbies, or conferences. Then once you have identified a few likely prospects arrange to take a few hours away from the office to attend. Begin looking at exhibits from an exhibitor’s perspective. This is not as easy as it sounds.  Go back to the basics and separate the theatrics of what you observe from the substance. The goal of a display is to attract attention; the right attention.  Attracting the right attention then becomes the substance. The theatrics are the tool and techniques you use to accomplish the displays purpose. When you become overwhelmed with cool ideas and interesting technologies at face value the result can often lead you in the wrong direction. Often interesting ideas can be a distraction rather than a benefit so look and learn.   A better approach is keeping the substance in focus and as you see interesting ideas weight their benefits against their ability to accomplish its purpose.

Another helpful tip to be vigilant. If you find one of these messages is running through your head then you are missing the point of your visit;

•    That company obviously has lots of money and we don’t,
•    They are too big,
•    They are too small,
•    Their product or service offerings are different than ours.

If any of these thoughts sound familiar then you may be short-circuiting the possibilities of coming away with valuable and useful information. Forget about the differences between the custom exhibits you see and focus on the similarities. In your case these similarities are found in your reason for being there in the first place – to attract attention.

When you finish seeing all there is to see in custom display exhibits take time to watch the people who work in these trade show exhibits. Stop, visit and engage in a face-to-face conversation. When its over ask yourself, is that the experience I want my customers to have when they visit my display? More importantly, ask, how do you feel about the interaction. Then ask what could I have done better or in the case where you were treated well, what did I learn from this person.

What all the observations help you with is what I call your “expo eyes,” With expo eyes you are now opening up the possibilities of improvement that you never thought possible. When you can’t look to one spectacular example of trade show exhibit excellence, look to them all. Both the good and bad have valuable lessons for you.

By: Barry Siskind

In a recent issue of Trade Show Executive, I read an interesting article about Magic Stick, the winner of the TSE 2009 Innovation Award. Magic Stick is a small gadget, about the size of a computer memory stick that you carry with you. When you see someone also carrying a Magic Stick you can electronically exchange contact information. You each aim, push a button and voila you are networked.

Welcome to the age of High-Tec social networking whose first victims may very well be the handshake and a business card.

Twitter, Facebook, Web 2.0, SecondLife, LinkedIn, Flickr, LibraryThing, Ning, Jaiku, EventPeeps, are here to stay. There is nothing we can do about it nor should we for fear of being labeled Luddites. We should embrace social networking as a positive technology to help us build our personal networks.

This discussion is reminiscent of a time – a decade ago – when the world was a twitter (oops) about something called a virtual trade show and how this heralded the death of face-to-face marketing as we knew it. What happened to virtual exhibitions was that they became an integral part of larger face-to-face events providing year round exposure to products, services and education. What was feared to be an enemy became a powerful ally. The same, I am guessing, will happen to social networking sites.

Face to face marketing needs all the help it can get to maximize its potential and if technology can help, then all the better. But technology cannot replace the power of meeting a vendor or customer and talking about issues eye-ball to eye-ball. Meeting face to face is how we form opinions of people and the institutions that employ them. When we can integrate the technology to enhance our interpersonal contacts then we become winners in this brand new – very old game of networking. Here are a few thoughts as you go about building a productive and profitable network.

• Networks are not mailing lists – Social scientists tell us that each of us has approximately 200 people in our network. When you misuse the technology and build lists that include thousands of contacts you are clearly misusing the tool.

• Find your six degrees of separation – Each of your 200 people also has a network of two hundred, each of their two hundred has two hundred as well. If you take 200 to the sixth power the number is slightly more than six billion which coincidentally includes everyone on the planet. Learning how to tap into these sub-networks opens you to unlimited potential. If you look carefully you can find anyone you want to contact through your six degrees of separation.

• Don’t abuse your network – this is so easy when you simply use your network for commercial purposes. The people in your network are folks you have made a personal contact with. They have families, worries and dreams. When you can treat your network as an extension of yourself and treat these people as individuals you cannot lose.

• Stay in touch – there’s not much point meeting someone at a trade fair, exchanging information and not staying in touch. Treat your network as a living breathing thing that needs attention or it will simply wilt and die.

• Make it a 24/7 habit – don’t just built your network in times of need. You should be constantly looking for opportunities to expand your sphere of influence.

• Give something back – If your network is a living entity then it needs food to survive. The food you provide is in your willingness to give back. This means being constantly on the lookout to offer advice, contacts or a friendly word to your 200 people.

Social networking is quickly finding its place in the face-to-face marketing world. When you combine the power of your interpersonal skills to build your network and then integrate technology to record the experience and maintain contact you have a winning combination.

By: Barry Siskind

It’s an age old problem. Managers intuitively know that providing staff with specialized training makes them more proficient, helps increase confidence and improves the bottom line. So, you might ask, what is the problem? The answer is simply they can’t prove it. And, proof is what’s needed in order to justify the time and cost of providing training.

The challenge of creating a ROI for training is that it needs something to be compared to and without the ability to know what the training investment is being compared to, calculating the ROI is next to impossible. The root of the issue is the establishment of benchmarks. Here is where many trade show exhibit managers fall down in their ability to collect meaningful data from their exhibit experiences and to use that data to establish a benchmark from which future performance is compared.

Here is an example of a few of the bits of data that should be included in a post-show statistical analysis:

Sales cycle
This calculation of the average time it takes once your sales folks have met someone to the time it takes that contact to make a decision. This is an important number because once it is defined, it helps your booth staff focus on the right people.

Average time to convert a visitor to a lead
This is important because it helps your booth staff determine the length of a booth presentation and helps them manage their time.

Audience profile
You need to have a breakdown of the audience at any event to determine if there is a match between who is attending and the profile of your target contact (that is the person most likely to turn into a high quality lead)
that  you should have created ahead of time.

Success ratio
Success ratio answers the question “If you gave one of your staff 10 good quality leads, how many of these leads will be converted into a sale in the next 12 to 18 months?” The challenge is that when you measure ROI the number is often distorted because actual sales take time depending on your sales cycle. However knowing what the success ratio is helps you put real numbers to short term success.