Giving Stuff Away For a Reason

By Brian Keobke, CME

When you are exhibiting in a tradeshow it's important to fill your exhibit with visitors and one way to seem busy at a tradeshow is by giving out high quality promotional items for no apparent reason other than an attendee was walking by.

However, it's much more important to fill your exhibit with the "right" visitors, ones that have been pre-qualified as high potential customers.

One of the most effective pre-show promotions you can use to attract visitors by sending them a gift before the show. Well actually, half a gift.

What you want to do is first is assemble a list of qualified clients who will be attending your next tradeshow and send them a portion of a gift that they will receive if they visit your exhibit at the show. Of course when they do visit your exhibit for the other half of your gift you will be ready to demo your products to them.

Depending on the location and type of industry the possibilities are endless:

For example, you could send your clients:

• the case for a pair of sunglasses,
  
• the outer package for golf balls
  
• the case for a quality pen
  
• a lanyard for a USB drive
  
• a bookmark for a book
  

The key here is that you are investing very little in sending out an empty case or box but if it gets a qualified attendee to visit your exhibit it is well worth the investment.

Done right, this idea will save you money and increase your sales.

When is enough, enough or why we don’t need any more tradeshows

Michael Robertson, President and CEO of SGIA (Screen Print Graphic Industry Association) put out an interesting letter to the membership, discussing the latest attempt to create another tradeshow in an already crowded space. See portion of article below

"While SGIA is responding to the interests of the exhibitor community by continually building on the industry's leading show in the Americas, Fespa is attempting to add more shows to an already crowded schedule. They are providing a good example of how not to listen to customers. The outcry from exhibitors who are in opposition of Fespa trying to rejuvenate the struggling Graphics of the Americas show compels us to bring this concern to the forefront.

Another wide-format imaging tradeshow is the last thing exhibitors want. Attempting to rejuvenate the Graphics of the Americas tradeshow would not introduce a new market; it would only segment the existing market.

As has been Fespa's approach in the past, they will try to pressure exhibitors into participating by playing one against the other. However, this time I believe the manufacturers and suppliers in the community have had enough. They will make the right decision to limit the number of shows in which they participate and further invest in the development of new technology that moves the entire community forward."

As a provider of exhibit marketing related products and services, The Portables should be the first company to agree that more tradeshows are a good thing, but we take quite the opposite view. Tradeshows are an extremely effective marketing tool and generate a significant ROI, only if they are well attended. If customers don't come to the show, the cost of attending the show becomes quite prohibitive. We constantly preach to our clients to attend the most significant tradeshow in their space and make a big impression as opposed to attending a number of shows and being a bit player.

Ultimately the attendees will determine whether another tradeshow for the Large-format print industry will appear. From our perspective, since we are in the market for more digital print equipment, the only show that we will be attending will be SGIA 2010.

 

 

 

CES 2010 attendance up while exhibitor participation drops

Here is an interesting article on the shape of 2010 Exhibition season. CES has shown that attendees are ready to jump back into the market; it will be really interesting to see how exhibitors react. 2009 was a year of cautiousness, but based on our discussions with clients, 2010 looks like it will be much more active than 2009. Written by Aleta Walther

Many consider the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas each January to be the bellwether event of the tradeshow industry, the crystal ball foretelling the general health of the tradeshow industry for the coming year. If such is the case, show producers and exhibitors may see an up tick in show-related attendance and/or business throughout 2010. On the other hand, general contractors, installation and dismantle (I and D) companies, exhibit houses and other tradeshow suppliers must still contend with corporate cutbacks that are negatively impacting tradeshow attendance. Held at the Las Vegas Convention Center and several neighboring hotel venues January 7-10, CES is the world's largest tradeshow for consumer technology and one of the largest shows worldwide. According to a CES press release, about 120,000 attendees registered for the 2010 event, up about 6 percent over the 2009 attendance of 113,085. It sounds optimistic until you consider that the 2008 CES had a verified attendance of about 141,000 visitors; that's about a 5 percent drop between 2008 attendance and 2010 attendance. Admittedly, there are probably more than a few show producers that will believe a 5 percent dip in show attendance this year over last year is tolerable as many experienced attendance slides of 20 to 30 percent between their 2008 shows and 2009. Although CES attendance was up in 2010 compared to 2009, the number of exhibiting companies dropped 7.4 percent from about 2,700 exhibitors in 2008 and 2009 to 2,500 for 2010. In closing, this writer would like to add that having spent five days on the show floor, I am happy to report that the show's overall energy appeared stronger and attendee and exhibitor enthusiasm higher compared to 2009. So, I am going to opt to see the CES glass as half full.

Beyond The Ordinary – How to Stand-Out at a Show

The show is busy, lots of people milling about. The perfect opportunity to ensure your investment in your tradeshow program pays off. At a show, it is all about ROI. You want to generate a positive ROI (defined as [Sales divided by Investment $ > 1]) at every show. So how do you stand-out from the crowd?

1. Keep it simple – elaborate methods of garnering attention cost a lot and require you to push more sales through to generate a positive ROI. Sometimes the most effective ways are the least expensive ways. I once saw a large number of an exhibitor's staff wearing large brown paper bags as their uniforms. They would hang around the aisles and were handing out environmentally friendly paper bags for carrying swag. Cheap, simple yet very effective. The simple cartoon below, while not very repeatable is an example of a very effective "gimmick" – when it works.
2. Focus on your theme – the "paper bag" company was an environmental company and the attention grabbing method they choose fit well with their theme, significantly enhancing memorability. It takes time and a lot of effort to come up with a theme that is cost-effective, memorable, fits in with your company's products, and is one that your staff will embrace. Brainstorming prior to attending a show is crucial, and no idea no matter how outlandish should be ignored.
3. Keep it consistent – make sure your theme is carried through from your pre-show mail outs, to show presence, and finally to post-show follow up. Repetition of a theme allows your presence to stand-out from the crowd and remind prospects of why they need to deal with you. You may want to consider a tease of the theme in your pre-show mail outs, a full unveiling at the show, and then an evolution of the theme for the post-show follow up. A simple example for a cataract surgery hospital may be to send a glass eye with the quote "an eye for an eye making the whole world blind". Ask them to bring the eye to your booth. At the show, hand out inexpensive toys without the eyes and put the first eye into the doll. Have them complete a survey and as their reward, the remaining eye will be mailed to them. The "evolution" may be that the eye is a different colour and is the result of a positive cataract surgery. At the same time you will send them your marketing material and put them into your database for a follow-up call.

Have fun with themes and ideas, but don't spend a lot of money on brochures or giveaways that the attendee will not keep. They have enough pens, pads, envelope openers, key chains, etc. Give them something that will appeal to their children and the odds of them keeping it will significantly increase. When their children play with it the positive associations with your company will be well worth the investment.