Should You Trade the Trade Show for Your Own Event?

This idea might be a wiener: hosting a solo exhibition or road show



We’re busy making final preparations for two big trade shows this month involving our clients. It’s exciting, because trade shows still offer a great marketing stage for manufacturing and other B2B companies.

However, advancements of the Digital Age present new opportunities to connect directly with customers at a fraction of the cost. It’s now more affordable than ever to drive the necessary publicity to host your own successful event.

Open houses, road shows and other self-styled exhibitions have distinct advantages:

• Focus – Without the distractions, noise and competition of a typical trade show, you have the captive attention of your guests.
• Depth – As the exclusive presenter, you have the floor, allowing for detailed presentations tailored to specific needs, rather than a quick, condensed overview at a trade show booth.
• Diversity – Your company likely serves more than one market. Your event can appeal to all your customers – demonstrating the full array of products, services and expertise you offer.

Realizing these advantages, however, isn’t necessarily easy. Even more so than for a trade show, you must attract the audience to make it all worth your while. All the strategic planning, preshow promotional emails, landing pages, media kits, etc., become even more important.

For example, these events typically target a certain geographical area, making local newspapers a critical communication channel. To gain national attention, many companies have taken their shows on the road. Consider the classic Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. Or General Electric Co.’s mobile truck, a great success when it launched the company’s new FlexEfficiency 60 power generation technology.

With the right preparation and publicity, starring in your own show can be a cost-effective and powerful way to interact with customers face-to-face and deliver an unforgettable brand experience.

What Are You Doing After the Show?

The last trucks loaded with machinery and displays have long since pulled away from the shipping bays at Orange County Convention Center in Orlando – site of NPE 2012, North America’s largest plastics tradeshow.

But many people in plastics are still feeling the energy of the event. And as marketers, we need to keep pursuing those opportunities. 

Much of the promotional work for a tradeshow occurs before and during the event. But marketing doesn’t stop when you hand off the sales leads afterward. The magnitude of the investment – often an entire year’s marketing budget – demands that you channel the show’s momentum long after your booth has been dismantled.

For example, NPE exhibitor Milacron is extending the impact of its investment with a post-show landing page. An email campaign and other vehicles are driving traffic to the site, where visitors can explore photos, videos, news coverage, machine specs and more. The page, adapted from a preshow promotional site, is proving to be a cost-effective way to keep the show’s positive vibes going.

Whether you serve up show presentations as web content or breathe new life into a show floor video, you can make a tradeshow investment live on as long as you let it.

Bottom line: Post-show marketing communications is much more than just sales lead follow-up. With marketing support, selling becomes easier, and your substantial investment generates greater returns. www.milacron.com/NPE

3 Reasons not to Abandon In-Person for Online

Don’t get us wrong: You definitely should be taking advantage of social media and other online channels to reach target customers cost effectively.

But an article in the latest issue of B2B Magazine is a good reminder of the importance of the flip side to these virtual interactions—real-life, face-to-face meetings.

Despite the considerable cost advantages of digital, every marketer needs to understand the value of balancing online and in the flesh. Whether at a tradeshow, a focus group or a lunch meeting, here are just a few reasons why in person is still in vogue:

· Clear communication. Tone and context can sometimes be lost in virtual interaction. People understand so much better when you can look 'em in the eye.

· Candid insights. Sitting down with customers (or potential customers) will yield more candid responses—especially beneficial when conducting research or building relationships.

· Undivided attention. People are far more likely to multitask in virtual encounters. Meeting them face to face demands their attention, increasing openness and recall.

There’s probably no better day than Friday to catch a potential customer in a good mood, so go ahead and set something up today.

Guerilla Graveyard?

It wasn't too long ago that guerilla marketing efforts focused on generating buzz at tradeshows had nothing but momentum. Think Bluetooth's notorious assault on the Consumer Electronics Show in which hundreds of models straight out of a Robert Palmer video swarmed the show floor.

But that was 2004. Today, we're seeing signs that trade show organizers and hosting venues are cracking down on guerilla marketing assaults on the floor.

It's no secret that organizers and hosting venues see every aspect of every event as a potential revenue stream. If they can't make a buck off something, they're loathe to allow it. And by their nature, guerilla marketing campaigns remove control over what happens on the floor from show organizers.

Which helps explain what happened as we recently prepared a client for an upcoming product launch at a large domestic trade show. I can't go into details about the client, product or guerilla tactics. Let's just say that the client is introducing a new product to U.S. media and distributors at the show. They've rented a small booth space. We came up with a campaign that involved actors walking the floor posing as something they're not (as actors are wont to do) in an effort to drive attendees to the client's booth and generate a buzz at the show.

As a courtesy to show organizers—and to protect the client—we contacted show organizers in advance to see if they'd be okay with the concept. The answer was, well, pretty clear: not a chance.

Now, since this is guerilla marketing, you'd be within reason to question why we went to the show organizers to begin with. Doesn't the politeness of this advance warning take the "guerilla" out of guerilla marketing? In the Bluetooth example cited above, the company contacted CES show organizers and got permission to move forward in advance. I know of other large companies that have taken the opposite approach, and staged guerilla/buzz stunts on the floor at industry expos without asking for permission first. These efforts produced great results and met with little or no flack from show organizers during or after the show. Safe to say, being a big, perennial exhibitor and spender can buy you forgiveness.

But smaller companies rarely have that big of a stick. Which brings us back to our client's upcoming show. The client loved our idea and agreed the buzz-generating potential was tremendous. But the client's relationships with the trade show and sponsoring organization were still in their infancy. They needed both to successfully launch their new product in the U.S. In the end, the risks outweighed the benefits—at least in Year One—and the idea was killed.

All of this raises an interesting question. Leading guerilla marketing practitioners will tell you that the real beauty of guerilla is its ability to produce big results for smaller companies with limited budgets. If that's true, is the window of opportunity closing for little guys looking to go guerilla at trade shows?

In Case You Missed the Message, Let’s Pause for a Recap

I’m posting today from Chicago , where Mike Stefaniak and I are giving a presentation at NPE 2006: The International Plastics Showcase.

“Your Brand: A Vital Yet Underutilized Asset” is a lecture we’ve presented several times, in various forms before various audiences. In this instance, we’ve adapted it for plastics executives and experts—because it’s an arena in which many plastics companies aren’t investing.

I’m not writing to promote our NPE appearance — if you’re not here already, you’ve likely missed it. Even if you aren’t in plastics, that doesn’t make our main message any less relevant to your B2B company. And what’s that message?

If you’ve been following our blog, you know we’ve chatted quite a bit about the importance of building brands.Well, once again, this theme bears repeating. But rather than take you through our whole slide show—that would spoil the fun!—I’ll just touch on a few quick points, in condensed form:

• Branding—It isn’t just for consumer goods and services anymore.
• B2B companies are building focused, unique brands not only to spur short-term sales, but also to grow enterprise value over the long term
• Because of its strategic value, brand building warrants CEO leadership.
• One of your competitors is likely building a strong brand right now.
• You have a brand, good or bad. Shape it to your advantage or ignore it at your peril.