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: Chris Roberts, President of The Tradeshow Network Marketing Group

Our core values of hard work, strong business ethics, and a commitment to helping our customers meet their challenges are the cornerstone of our business, which has served us well over the last 19 years. These values resonate with our customers, partners, suppliers and associates.  In 2009 it was a trying year for most businesses, including ours, in order to maintain our superior level of service we needed to make some tough changes to reduce expenses without sacrificing quality. It proved to be a difficult task, but we feel we accomplished this lofty goal.

Our commitment to our customers was never comprise our service with respect to cutting expenses. By investing in technology over the last few years we were able to create better efficiencies with our core personnel which enabled us to do much more with less.  We streamlined our processes via our Online Trade Show Management System (OLM), which allowed complete documentation of our clients entire trade show exhibit properties, schedules, documentation such as; electrical layouts, setup instructions and much more.

This password protected system enables us and our clients to communicate effectively to maximize efficiencies by saving a substantial amount of time with full access to all show information anywhere in the world.  The system becomes more valuable when multiple configurations or additions to existing properties are required. Our team insures that the correct components are delivered and the properties are in top condition for each event.  We truly believe that your exhibit and image are a reflection of our company as well as yours and we will do whatever it takes to insure this happens.

This year will be very exciting for us; we are investing in state of the art office facilities to improve our efficiencies so we can offer our clients an enhanced experience through better communications.  The planned move will take place prior to the end of February, our hope is to not interrupt any of our services and have this move appear as seamless as possible for our customers.

In addition to the office expansion, our past investment in rental inventory enabled customized rental exhibits, which significantly reduce expenses.  Typically rental exhibits are for clients that have one significant event or a few events to promote a new product where it does not make financial sense to invest in a new property.  We have also developed overseas partnerships to help our North American clients promote their business internationally by utilizing our design services with our partner’s rental and graphic capabilities to produce cost effective rental solutions.

Over the years we have built relationships with partners, suppliers, associates and personal that share our core values, principles and commitment.  We continue to evaluate all aspects of our network and team to insure that our clients are getting the best possible service for their investment.  If our clients need a simple exhibit design to communicate their current message, need a comprehensive asset management of their inventory, an event strategy to achieve results at an important event or an entire overhaul of their marketing strategy we can provide the necessary services and team to help.

We feel the investments we have made in rental inventory, facilities, technology, personal and associates will help our clients control costs much better, save a tremendous amount of time and aid in achieving critical objectives.  We know if we continue to help our clients in these areas we will continue to grow through our current customer base and referrals from those clients.

Keep in mind that we have a very aggressive referral program that can help you reduce costs even further if those referrals become our customer.  Let’s work together to make 2010 a time to dedicate ourselves to the future. If there is anything that would help you with trade show event marketing, please let us know!

The Tradeshow Network Marketing Group has developed and released a new trade show marketing newsletter designed to provide event marketing information to marketing, event, and trade show managers.  This new marketing newsletter called “On Target” contains informational articles on current trends in the trade show industry along with links to education, services, and other trade show marketing activities.

This month’s articles focused on cutting costs for exhibit booths along with how to use technology when conducting face-to-face marketing.  In addition, there were links to educational seminars being held online along with newspaper articles on some current trends in the industry and a section on ask a marketer any question.  “This is another tool that marketers can use to stay current in the industry” remarked Karin Roberts, Marketing Manager of The Tradeshow Network Marketing Group. “In addition, we plan on incorporating customer stories so that everyone can share in their success stories in the industry”.

The newly launched newsletter can be found on the companies website – http://www.thetradeshownetwork.com under the resources tab or send a request to info@thetradeshownetwork.com.

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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The rough economic times are especially having an impact on small businesses and newer businesses. But the old adage is true that you have to spend money to make money. Sometimes participation in trade shows is mandatory for your business’s success. If you want to remain competitive in your field, then you will have to spend some money on advertising.

Even if this means that you have to participate in trade shows, it does not mean that you have to spend copious amounts of money. There are a number of things that you can do to reduce your operating costs at trade shows. For example, instead of purchasing a custom-built exhibit, you can get trade show exhibit rental.

You can significantly reduce your trade show costs with a few simple changes. One of the smartest ways to save money is to use a trade show rental opposed to having a custom booth display made for your next appearance. There are various ways in which you can embellish a rental display to make it appear as if it were made custom for your set up.

Consult your in-house marketing or creative team to come up with fresh and innovative ideas that will appeal directly to prospective customers. Let the creative juices flow and then enlist the services of a company that provides these rentals to assist you.

They will be able to help you select a rental system that will showcase your product or service and serve it justice. Even though you may be trying to save yourself some money by renting, it does not mean that you should end up with a substandard display. You still should have original brand imaging and a plethora of informational literature and other helpful aids that will assist in promoting your products or services.

First of all, it is important to think vertically as well as horizontally. Once you find out your special restrictions you can start customizing your trade show booth display to take full advantage of every square inch of space that you have to work with.

The height of your display space can be used effectively to guarantee that your prospects can easily locate your booth at the show.

By using a display that maximizes the vertical space that you are allotted you will be able to clearly illustrate your brand imaging and ensure that interested prospects will be able to find your booth.

If you are having a custom booth created you will want to find out your vertical limitations early on in the planning stages so that the custom booth designer will be able to use them to your full advantage.

In a trade show exhibit, every inch of space is important which is why you must carefully consider how you plan on delivering your message and marketing objectives. If you have several products that you’d like to feature then you should consider using plasma television screens to inform potential clients about each respective product.

This tactic will save you valuable space and add a sophisticated touch of design to your custom display. You can devote a screen to each product that you would like to have featured and customize each demo to contain all of the pertinent information concerning the product that you want featured on each screen.

Instead of creating boards and having to condense the amount of information on them in order to make them aesthetically pleasing, you can have all of this important information conveyed through your video demo. The incorporation of plasma screens is your booth design will enhance the functional and visual effects of your booth.

Effectively maximizing the space of your display will ensure that you draw prospects to your booth and are able to get your marketing message across to them. By having a custom booth display made to fit your specific spatial requirements you can optimize the success of your booth at the event.

Professional trade show booth displays are designed to connect prospective clients with your business. This is a very basic yet important step that is necessary for your business’s success. The more clients that you are able to connect with, the more successful your business will be.

This is why many businesses decide to showcase their products or services at trade shows. Trade shows serve as a perfect opportunity for company’s that have a product or service that they would like to sell to be introduced to future customers. While the trade show itself provides you with this opportunity, it is your responsibility to make sure that your product or service stands apart from the competition and that your display captures the attention of prospective customers.

This is where you must come up with a strategy for a successful booth display design. A professional company that specializes in creating trade show displays will be an invaluable tool in assisting you in coming up with a top notch trade show display.

If you want to experience success at all of the trade shows that you attend then you need a strategy and booth display that will deliver you the results that you are looking for. The only way that you can find guaranteed success is by heeding the advice of a professional marketing service that has helped hundreds of other clients set up successful trade show displays.

Only a company that specializes in producing booth displays will know all of the latest trends in trade show displays and know how to capture the attention of your prospective audience. They will be able to provide you with all of the advice that you need to end up with a finished display that will serve its purpose well.

If you are coming up with a new product or would like to revamp your existing booth displays, consult with an expert marketing strategist in coming up with an entirely fresh and innovative trade show display for your next showing.

First of all, if you are the owner of a business that is just starting out at the trade shows, your exhibit booth rental will be more of an experimental version than a permanent one. It is always a good idea to work a few trade shows before you decide to purchase and design your own setup.

Your first trade show will be an incredible learning opportunity for you: walk around and find displays that you like and incorporate the elements that you like into your own innovative display. You can see first hand which displays work and which ones do not. It is a great idea to jot down notes about some of the designs that you like.

This is why it is a smart idea to rely upon a rental for your first trade show appearance.

Before you make a substantial investment in your custom-built booth, choose a rental and take it for a test run.

You want to attract prospects and customers to your booth and inform them of your product or services. There are several different approaches you can take to setting up your exhibit which is why it may be a good idea to use a rental before buying a custom booth so that you can get a feel for which key elements will bring you the most success.

For your own exhibit booth rental, it is best to keep things simple and straightforward at your first trade show. You can work on your brand imaging and bring out all of the bells and whistles once you become acclimated to the entire trade show arena.

In the end, it is best to go with a rental booth for your first tradeshow, rather than buying one immediately. You will save money and learn which elements you want to incorporate into your custom display.