Do not be part of the “Herd”. Go Big When Others Are Small.
Often you hear trade show marketing managers saying “Oh it is a small venue. We do not have to go big.” However, if you did your market research of Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning, it does not matter what other exhibitors are doing. Your exhibiting marketing goal should always be implementing your segmentation by optimizing your products/services for that segment and communicating that your brand have made the choice to distinguish itself. If you follow this mantra you automatically weed out at least 70% of your competition. As you see in the images below, Cloud Shield chose to do exactly so at Focus 11, Security Conference that is going on now. Notice, how most of the exhibitors are in an “inline space”. Cloud Shield stands tall way in the back towering above everyone.
The show is sponsored by McAfee: notice how McAfee on to your left is subdued by the monolithic structure of Cloud Shield. Good Move you would say and I would say: Follow Basic Marketing 101 Principles. You will never go wrong.
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7 Rudimentary Instructions for Trade Show Booth Staffers
As a trade show manager you are responsible for the success of your mega production. Having a prepared booth staff will definitely help you in the long run.
1. Instruct staffers where and when to pick up badges if you are not distributing badges to the staff before the show.
2. Instruct the staffers the show dates and hours that they need to be at the booth. converse with the staffers what they should do if they are running late for their assigned time or fall ill and are unable to make it to the show floor. It is wise to schedule a few floaters for every shift in case last-minute changes.
3. Instruct the directions, transportation options from the hotel to the convention center. Give the estimate time to travel on show days.
4. Instruct your company’s dress code and distribute booth uniforms if you are using them.
5. Instruct on the limited personal storage space in the exhibit. It is messy and not secure to leave the personal belonging lying on the booth floor.
6. Instruct the schedule and location of end-of -day debrief meetings to review what worked and what did not work. This is a great way to brainstorm any necessary mid-course connections that needs to be implemented for the remainder of the show.
7. Instruct the individual responsibility for exhibit tear down. Schedule task ahead of time to ensure that your staffers are there when you need them.
Source: Exhibitor Magazine
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Are Trade Shows Worth Going to?
Looking for proof that trade shows are still a powerful marketing medium? You’ve got it! Skyline and EXPO Magazine have created a new white paper. Based on extensive surveys with over 500 trade show exhibitors and attendees, this report reveals that even in the midst of recent technological changes, exhibitors and attendees still find significant value in trade shows, and expect to for many years ahead.
Download Free Whitepaper Here.
Value of Trade Shows!
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Branding Demystified
The definition of branding has evolved quite rapidly over the past couple of years, mainly due to the advent of social media and the decline of the influence of traditional media. No longer are brands manufactured in board rooms and no longer are perceptions shaped primarily based on what corporations tell us to believe through advertising. Today a brand can be defined as your reputation built off of both your promise to your customers and the sum of all of their experiences with you. Lara McCulloch-Carter has been a branding consultant to some of the world’s most recognized packaged goods companies, and runs a consultancy called READY2SPARK that helps small businesses through branding, marketing & social media consulting. Here she talks about the importance brand proposition.
Filed under: Brand loyalty, Creative Marketing, customer loyalty, Island Design, Sarmistha Tarafder, Show Tips | No Comments »
Take Back Your Schedule
Simply put, if you allow 2 weeks to complete a project, guess how long it will take? Everyone has deadlines and those of us in the trade show display world know this as well as anyone, but if we only allow work to take up only so many hours of our day and work relentlessly to maintain that schedule you will be amazed at how you are able to accomplish.
Parkinson’s Law:
“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”
Think back to the day before you went on vacation or the time you had that last-minute change that you somehow were able to accomplish before the deadline. Yes, it may have been a miracle but more than likely you were conforming to the constraints that were put upon you. These constraints, whether they are exterior (say, show deadlines) or interior, you are personally putting a deadline on a project, forcing you to be more productive. Read more on Time Management.
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10 Must See Trade show Promotional You-tube Videos
If a picture tells a thousand words, then with 30 frames a second, a 1-minute YouTube video can tell 108,000 words! No wonder marketers have harnessed the power of video to entice people to visit their trade show booths.
Let’s look at 10 examples of good pre-show, at-show, and post-show promotions posted on YouTube. We’ll see what they include in their videos to drive more booth traffic, and finish with some suggestions on other ways you can drive more viewers to your trade show promotional videos.
Filed under: Creative Marketing, Pre-Show and At Show Marketing, Sarmistha Tarafder, Show Tips | No Comments »
How you can make your trade show exhibit memorable!
Product demos are the most important element you can control in your exhibit to create more memorable exhibits.
Product demonstrations take full advantage of the face-to-face, interactive trade show environment. A good product demo can set you apart from other exhibitors who just sit there, even if they have a popular product and a well-known company. A good product
This is jump-up-and-down, shout-it-from-the-show-hall-rooftops news. This is where you can make your trade show marketing more powerful, more memorable, and more effective than your competitors.
So if you are not doing a demo in your booth, create one. And if you are, make it even better.
To help you, here are 7 elements that make a great trade show demonstration.
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Better Your Trade Show Results!
Make Your Collaterals Work Harder!
Scientific studies have proven that repetition improves recall. Potential customers who visit your tradeshow booth may or may not remember your company name after the event is over, but the chances they will recall who you are and what you have to offer increases dramatically if they visit your booth one week and receive company literature the next week. Jogging their memory with a short, personal note included with your literature will also make readers feel appreciated. Everyone likes to be remembered. Read more!
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Sustaining versus Disruptive Innovation
“A customer will never lead you to develop a product which that customer cannot use.” Clayton M. Christensen. In his book Innovator’s Solution he mentions that companies cater to their most profitable customers and focus investments where profit margins are most attractive. This happens because the resource allocation process of established companies are designed to maximize profits through sustaining innovations, which essentially involve designing better and better mousetraps for existing customers for proven market segments. Established industry leaders leave themselves open for disruptive technologies. When disruptive innovations—which are cheaper, simpler to use versions of existing products that target low-end or entirely new customers—emerge, established companies are paralyzed. They are almost always motivated to go up-market rather than to defend these new or low-end markets, and ultimately the disruptive innovation improves, steals more market share, and replaces the reigning product. We call this phenomenon “asymmetric motivation.” It is the core of the innovator’s dilemma, but it is also the beginning of the innovator’s solution.
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Form Follows Function: Denmark Pavilion, Shanghai 2010
Based on the concept of “welfairytales” — a blending of “welfare” and “fairy tales” — Hans Christian Andersen’s native country authors a new fairytale for an ecology-minded era. The centerpiece of the pavilion is the statue of the Little Mermaid, which was brought to Shanghai from its home in the Copenhagen harbor where it has sat since it was unveiled in 1913. Denmark also shipped a supertanker full of water from the harbor — where, after years of rank pollution, Danes can now swim, thanks to various Green efforts. The statue and water form the pavilion’s Harbour Pool, whose soft aqua lighting illuminates the ground floor as well as the VIP area below it.
While bikers wheel around, visitors can take in the trio of presentations: “Tales of how we live,” “Tales of what we love,” and “Tales of where we’re going.” In “Live,” Danish director Martin de Thurah shows how the average Dane’s lifestyle is centered on sustainability, while in “Love,” photographer Peter Funch’s pictures spin stories of Danish people’s lives. “Going” completes the trilogy, illustrating how Danish-Chinese cooperation can improve city life. Their souls nourished, attendees can sustain the rest of themselves by biking or hiking to the roof, where a café serves traditional Danish foods in picnic baskets.
Original post: Exhibitor Online
Denmark Pavilion 2010
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