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.

Companies Beware – Adapt or Die

As a medium sized company that has offices across Canada and literally thousands of clients, we have many opportunities to engage in dialogue with companies from different market segments. Whether a burgeoning IT company located in Ottawa or a multi-national with a head office in Toronto, all companies are facing similar challenges. The primary challenge rests around how to adapt to a market that is changing at rapid pace. At The Portables we are not immune to the market changes and have found the last two years to be ones of rapid change.

As managers you would agree that you have a full-time job just dealing with existing issues; having to also change the organization is a burden you are not really equipped for. Rest assured that you are not alone. The percentage of the population that are early adopters is quite small, based on my rudimentary Google search, somewhere between 5-10% of the population. So how do we fight our inherent nature to avoid change, yet still stay ahead of the competition? Based on my observations and actions with The Portables, and in my discussions with our clients here is my two cents (after all what kind of a blog does not have a list of takeaways).

1. Just do it – yes you will make mistakes but if you wait for the 100 page research document, that will only prompt further questions, the market would have moved again. Now if you are making a $20 million investment in a new plant or new technology, ignore this adage and do a lot of research.
   

   
    

2. Obsess about it – watch what happens in the marketplace once your initiative has launched. Watch it like a hawk and talk to everyone about it. You will see what is working well and what needs to be tweaked.
   

   
    

3. Do it again – fix the shortcomings from the initial launch and put it out there again.
   

   
    

Now one caveat – before you do it, please make sure that your head and gut are saying it is the right thing to do. We recently launched an online ordering system for our company www.theportables.com/online, but prior to doing so I thought out the pros and cons for a period of time. My head and gut were in total congruence when I launched it. Could I have executed the launch better? Absolutely. Did I make a mistake by launching it when I did? Absolutely not. We learned a huge amount from the launch and have fixed a number of bugs that we could not have envisioned in our beta testing. There are too many variables in the world to actually beta test them all.

Really good article on change management http://www.edistalearning.com/KnowledgePapers/PM_001-arup_infosys.pdf

 

EIC Formed to Combat Industry Concerns

Courtesy of Exhibitors Daily

Five meetings industry associations have banded together to form a new group, the Exhibit Industry Council (EIC), to address concerns from trade show exhibitors and to promote best practices for serving exhibitors at trade shows, exhibitions and events.

Representatives from the five associations met in San Francisco, where they agreed to meet quarterly in order to advocate for trade show exhibitors on hot-button issues. 

The associations are the Corporate Event Marketers Association (CEMA), Exhibit Designers & Producers Association (EDPA), Exhibitor Appointed Contractor Association (EACA), Healthcare Exhibitors Association (HCEA) and Trade Show Exhibitors Association (TSEA).

"The EIC's goal is to unify all trade show industry stakeholders to support reputable, consistent standards through the use of best practices that support world-class service at trade shows," said EIC founding member Eric Allen, HCEA executive vice president. He added that industry-wide standards for trade shows and exhibitions are critical for the industry, which must cut costs yet provide superior customer service to retain exhibitors and remain viable.

Exhibiting “One on One” written by David Woods

Okay so the cliché is Exhibiting 101, and we've all read the reams of articles on basic exhibiting, in fact Google brings up over 19 million hits for "Exhibiting Tips". If a person is fairly new to exhibit marketing and the trade show floor they will be bringing, double-sided tape, Windex, power cords and power bars, more office supplies than they have in their office, a wastebasket, spare bulbs, a tool kit, probably a vacuum cleaner and more gadgets than Agent 007. All of the tips are basic common sense and your exhibit supplier will be able to pack your "goodies box" in with the exhibit.

The basic fact is you will arrive at the arena (The Trade Show) and over the next few days have the opportunity to meet the attendees "One on One" face to face. Investing in exhibiting is like no other media, this is not a print or an ad campaign, no "Fire Hose" here, this is it; a captive audience. As Woody Allen said, this is show business and it is a business, if it wasn't it would be called show show.

So the first tip is to be ready for the arena. Have your unique selling proposition down pat, your one liners, the short stories and don't forget the opening lines, these are the "engage lines" open ended. For example: Where… When…What… Why….How; now the attendees cannot simply answer yes or no and leave.

My next tip is what if. Have you done your research on the show? Have you studied the demographics of the attendees? By the way, the show organizer can always supply you the audited demographic information if you ask. Some years ago I was supervising a national pavilion at the National Hardware Show in Chicago, one of the exhibitors had an interesting product and his annual production capacity was 50,000 units. In the first day he had enquires for 300,000 units with deliveries required within 3 months, he had no plan B for production. Needless to say he walked away from solid business and wasn't that the reason he was exhibiting anyway? So remember, what if you find that perfect buyer? Be prepared.

Tip number three is
looking the part. So what is the part? Well let's face it the stage has moved, you don't have to impress the visitor with an elaborate office building, showroom or roadside signage, now that you are on the show floor and so is the competition. Yes your competition is also away from their impressive head office, so give consideration to how you look at the show. Consider when buying a car, who wants to enter a car lot where the owner has only invested in a chain of colored lights and a used trailer? Invest in looking the part and remember: the stage has moved so "to be or not to be, that is the question"

The last tip of this article is lead each night. It is a fact 60% to 80% of all leads are not followed up, this is astonishing. I met an exhibitor once that appointed a "lead sheriff" at the show, one of her staff. The sheriff entered all the leads in a simple Excel spreadsheet during slower times during the day. Each night the sales manager distributed all the leads to the various dealers and reps. the follow up was now in place and the sales cycle had begun. Amazingly leads were followed up during the show, eliminating the stress of "who has the leads? What does the back of this business card say? Who spoke to this company? And so on.

A Surprising Shopping Experience is Becoming Mainstream

Jul 23rd 2009 | NEW YORK
From The Economist print edition

"NOW you see it, now you don't" could be the slogan for American retailing these days. Even some of the most mainstream brands, like Circuit City and Linens 'n Things, have shut their doors. But a trend called pop-up stores makes sudden disappearance part of the appeal. Pop-ups arrive unannounced in empty storefronts or public spaces and leave just as quickly. Their aim, says Eduardo Braniff of Imagination USA, which does "experiential" marketing, is to "intervene in a consumer's life" and take people by surprise.

Given that eliciting shock is a prime goal of pop-ups, the more unpredictable the location, the better. Target, a national retailer, launched a pop-up "bazaar" in May in an abandoned museum, selling cheap items from its spring and summer collections. It lasted only three days. Boats, crates, buses and churches have been used for pop-ups too.

The cost of pop-ups varies between $100,000 and $600,000 a month, according to Melissa Spiegelman of Destination Media Group. For companies looking to make a splash, it can be money well spent. Pop-ups tend to attract media attention as well as consumers—sometimes more than a television commercial or full-page newspaper advert could.

Although pop-ups have been used as a marketing tool for more than five years, the weak property market makes them even more popular. Daffy's, a discount retailer not usually known for its choice zip code, opened a pop-up in Manhattan's chic West Village this week on the ground floor of an apartment building that had been tenantless. Hermes, Gucci and Brooks Brothers, all luxury retailers, have opened temporary shops in East Hampton this summer. Their leases are only a few months long, just enough to ride out the peak season.

Jack Anderson, of Hornall Anderson, a branding agency, hopes that pop-ups will revive the home of American consumerism: the mall. General Growth Properties, the second-largest American mall company, filed for bankruptcy this year, and other malls are struggling to survive. Hornall Anderson has been hired by the Westfield Group, which owns 119 shopping centres around the world, to find a way to win back brands and customers. The firm plans to use pop-ups to make shopping an unpredictable experience every month. The mall, it is hoped, will not disappear as quickly as most pop-ups do.

The Fallacy of Biodegradable Graphic Materials

We often hear from clients of the need for us to print graphics on "biodegradable" materials. In fact one of our Vancouver-based graphic competitors has information on their website showing a scientific study that highlights the biodegradable properties of their banner material. I spend a great deal of my time educating purchasers about the "green washing" that is going on in our industry. A really fascinating snippet from "The Garbage Project" by W.L. Rathje highlights the fallacy of Biodegradable materials:

"Another set of findings from the Garbage Project's digs underscores, especially for the public, the need to recycle and compost materials to keep them out of refuse. Many people have assumed that organic materials, such as newspapers, simply biodegrade in landfills. The recovery of 2,425 datable, readable newspapers from landfill excavations dramatically changed that view, especially since the relative proportion of newspapers varied little between materials deposited anywhere from five to forty years before exhumation and in environments which received anywhere between 11 and 80 inches of rain a year. The one exception was Fresh Kills Landfill that was started in 1948 when refuse was deposited in a tidal swamp on Staten Island with no liner. Under these conditions, refuse layers from the late 1940s and from the 1950s are now largely devoid of organic materials, including newspapers."

THE GARBAGE PROJECT & "THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF US" by W.L.Rathje

 

The focus of manufacturers should be on recycling of materials and not trying to convince clients that they will biodegrade in a landfill. Clearly, if newspapers did not degrade anywhere from five to fourty years, how can we expect graphic printing materials to do so quicker. The Portables is working on solutions that are based on scientific research that try and keep materials out of the landfill. I will keep you informed as to how we are progressing.

Coloring Forecast

Courtesy of Event Design Magazine Wednesday, October 15, 2008

 

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Ask Landor Associates design director/Color Marketing Group president Jack Bredenfoerder about colors and get comfortable—the man knows his stuff. The Color Marketing Group boasts hundreds of member designers from all over the planet who meet regularly to share ideas and observations, and to forecast color trends years—not months—in advance.

This year alone, Bredenfoerder has traveled to India, Spain, Montreal, and Buenos Aries to talk color trends with designers in fields like fashion, retail, and branding.  

"I think we're seeing a return of more basic colors from what we've seen in the past," he says. "I'm personally seeing a shift from some of the secondary colors to more of the primary colors again."

The hottest hues? The return of yellow and blue are a big story in the color world, as they're both coming on very strong in different ways than they have in the past. The perfect example is Yves Klein blue, a very intense ultramarine blue reminiscent of the color the earth appears when viewed from space.

"It's a very unifying blue and I think it's good to have a good basic blue that makes a statement rather than the more muted blues we've had in the past," Bredenfoerder says.

Yellow's big comeback is also on the horizon, with experts already seeing its return in fashion.

"There's been a lot of black and white and gray in fashion, and there has always been an accent color. Yellow seems to be the hot one right now and it makes sense, especially with blue returning because it's a nice accent for blue," Bredenfoerder says.

The reemergence of these two classic colors is coming from a more honest approach to design and color, and is a sign that people are getting back to basics.

Bredenfoerder's advice for integrating these colors into events and environments is to first connect with attendees on a more emotional or intuitive basis. First focus on the message and story a brand is trying to get across to consumers and look at what colors are going to tell that story well, then tie in some of the trend colors to give an event space a little different look.

"We're at a point in time that's about to shift. I think you are going to see a relatively dramatic shift in color in the year ahead," Bredenfoerder says.

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Turn economic downturn into opportunity

Written by Andrew Mickey

Do you know what a Model T is? Of course you do. Who doesn't? It's the car that put America on wheels. It was the product of some of the greatest manufacturing innovations. It changed the world. Do you know what a DA Master is? Unless you're a classic car fan, probably not. It's one of America's many forgotten cars. However, the story of the DA Master can teach us a lot right now. One of the most important lessons is how to invest successfully when the economy looks downright depressing. You see, the DA Master was Chevrolet's top seller in 1934. It was a huge success. Sales of the car pushed General Motors (owner of Chevrolet) into the No. 1 spot for U.S. automakers. Here's the thing, GM didn't necessarily make better cars during the Depression. GM didn't charge any significantly lower amount. The difference was GM didn't stop marketing its cars aggressively. GM stayed in front of the eyes of its customers throughout the Depression. As a result, GM jumped ahead of Ford during the Depression. Not long before the DA Master showed up in car lots, GM was outsold by Ford 10-to-1. The Depression played a key role in helping it jump ahead of Ford America's leading carmaker for more than 70 years. Darwinian economics GM didn't just survive, it thrived. It grew market share which it would reap greater rewards for when the market did return. It wasn't all just marketing though. GM's legendary chief, Alfred Sloan, revolutionized the management of the company. In Industrial Revolution in America, authors Kevin Hillstrom and Laurie Collier Hillstrom note: "Along with AT&T, Coca-Cola and a few of the railroads, [GM] was a gleaming example of business progress against the ravages of hard times," observed one historian, "Whatever Henry Ford had done to turn his factory floor into a model of efficiency, Alfred Sloan superseded by creating the optimum office environment. Sloan honed management charts until they flowed in only one direction, toward the creation of a motivated workforce. As a result, GM's organization was studied and then copied by thousands of corporations around the world, but no one could copy Ford's organization – there wasn't one." Under Sloan's watch, GM made it through the entire Great Depression without a single losing year. It wasn't just a few big carmakers that managed to make the best of a bad situation. It happened all across America and to many of today's leading companies. When life hands you lemons One glaring example of someone who laid the foundation for huge success during the Depression was in the cereal industry. C.W. Post founded the company with his own name (Post Cereals, which would go on to become General Mills) in the 1890s. He was a patient/guest at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, which was operated by the Kellogg brothers. By accident one day, they produced a dried, flaky creation to serve during breakfast. Corn flakes were born. Post took the idea and sold it around the country while the Kelloggs stayed at the sanitarium. After a falling out with his brother, W.K. Kellogg went on to sell Kellogg's Corn Flakes with his signature (that's why Kellogg's has a cursive brand name) as the "original" corn flakes. Post had a decade head start and led the industry for many years. That is, until the Great Depression hit. Post cut its ad budgets while Kellogg was ramping up its ad spending. By the end of the Depression, Kellogg was number one. If you think about it, most of the truly iconic American corporations were founded during hard times. The Panic of 1873 kicked off the original Great Depression (which it was known as until the world rose out of the 1930s Depression). The failure of the leading North American investment banking firm, Jay Cooke & Company, sparked one of the worst economic downswings in history (eerily similar – I know). The downturn lasted 23 years. Five years after Panic, with the country mired in depression, the Edison Electric Light Company was founded. Edison's company grew into General Electric (NYSE:GE). The Tabulating Machine Company, which would become IBM (NYSE:IBM), was founded during the late 1890s recession shortly after the (then) mighty Reading Railroad failed. Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) was founded in 1975. In 1940, the first McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) opened up in California. The list goes on and on, but you get the point. Downturn = opportunity These business leaders jumped on opportunity when everyone else was running for cover. They trounced their competition by innovating and not holding back when it came to ensuring their customers didn't forget about them. Right now, things look bleak. Even the president is warning, "It's going to get worse before it gets better." I agree and we're not at the end of this by far. There will be more businesses that disappear. This also means competition for many businesses making the right moves now will go away as well. The strong, well-run businesses will be left behind in an even more dominant position. There will be more volatility in the markets. Adept traders will make a fortune (I personally was buying stocks hours after Obama took over the White House), but there will be even greater opportunities for investors who make the right choices over the next year or two. In the next Prosperity Dispatch, we'll take a look at the companies making the right moves to survive and then thrive during the current situation. The next Sloans, Edisons, Gates, Watsons (of IBM, not Alexander Bell's assistant), and McDonalds are out there. All of them stood up in the face of economic challenges to achieve true financial independence (they'd all be billionaires many times in current dollars). Now is the time when they stand out and you can invest with them at very good prices. Although it doesn't always seem like it, right now is the time when the seeds of wealth are planted. There will come a time to harvest eventually. Good investing, Andrew Mickey Chief Investment Strategist, Q1 Publishing

Show attendance down, but quality of leads up – a mixed blessing in Las Vegas

Written by Helen Holzer

LAS VEGAS – As the numbers are trickling in from all sectors, overall convention attendance in Las Vegas is dropping, like a rock. The 42nd annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) ran Jan. 8-11 at several venues in Las Vegas. Attendance in 2008 was pegged at 140,000, but this year that figure dropped to 110,000, marking a 21 percent decline. At times, the show floor was nearly empty. Worse yet, prime CES show floor exhibit space was also left empty, as key exhibitors dropped out in this sagging economy. At least 10 percent of last year's exhibitors failed to show up in 2009. And if trade shows are indeed a true reflection of the economy, then the consumer industry that's been hit perhaps harder than any other – home building – took another hit at the National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB) Show/NextBuild. Attendance was down a whopping 29 percent at the Jan. 20-23 show at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Leaving the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando after four years, hopes were high for an upturn in numbers by moving the NAHB show to its new venue in Las Vegas. Attendees numbered 91,000 last year, but only reached about 65,000 in 2009. The 29 percent drop reflects the dismal house sale figures that have only recently started to rebound in some parts of the country. Exhibitors at the show also dropped about 10 percent, with a similar reflection in the show's net square footage. What's the exhibitor response to the numbers? At both shows, booth personnel were upbeat about the quality of attendees and getting the right people to attend. Those who came were serious buyers in serious times. One official at NAHB said, "Exhibitors are telling us that these are the people they need to see." Adding, "It's a testament to the power of face-to-face marketing." Another January show that schedules at the same time as CES to draw in its crowds also saw a decline in attendees and exhibitors. This year's annual AVN Adult Entertainment Expo Jan. 9-11 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center is the largest event for the adult entertainment industry worldwide. Last year's attendance numbered 12,000 sex industry workers, 17,000 fans and 1,300 members of the media. But this year, only 250 exhibitors showed up, down 18 percent, according to expo spokesman Sean Devlin. So even though "sex sells," it doesn't sell as much as it used to.