7steps to exhibit success-ges

White PaPer SummaryThe new mantra for the new millennium? “Plan, Implement and Measure.” Smart trade show pros need to step up and take actionable steps that cover each phase of pre-, during- and post-show planning. This white paper explains the key components required at each phase, from setting goals and objectives and developing a campaign brief to tips for getting buy-in and creating well-oiled measurement. Each step is designed to help you rethink the old and embrace the new by refocusing your trade show energies so you can take advantage of the opportunities created by the industry’s new reality.

7 STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL EXHIBIT CAMPAIGNS Trends, Insights and Ideas for Creating Integrated Trade Show Portfolios

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2 | 7 STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL EXHIBIT CAMPAIGNS

©2011 Global Experience Specialists, Inc. (GES)

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While few would label the last few years an easy time for the industry, sometimes change is necessary for growth and recovery. Out of the adversity of a changing economy, changing marketing departments and changing corporate spending comes a new age bringing fresh opportunities for a smarter and more effective kind of engagement on (and now off) trade show floors. The secret weapon: an integrated campaign that begins long before the exhibit is even built.

Smaller travel budgets initially played a key role in driving the change. As companies tightened their belts, they limited their spending, sending only their most qualified, top buyers into the field. As a result, trade shows had smaller attendee rosters, but far fewer tire kickers. “A more qualified buyer blossomed out of that resurgence and more higher level Tier One and Tier Two buyers came to the shows. So your quality of traffic really got much better post 9/11,” says Mark Rogers, Vice President of Business Development at Global Experience Specialists (GES).

As the shows got smaller and the quality of attendees skyrocketed, there also arose a demand for more efficiency at the show. Buyers had fewer days on the show floor and fewer nights in the hotel, so they began to strategize and pre-book their appointments in the days and weeks leading up to the show. As a result, today about two-thirds of attendees already know which booth they are going to visit before they arrive.

How will you get those people on your list?” Clearly, a new economy demands a new approach—an almost wholesale departure from the model that used to rule the industry and a full-scale embracing of a new set of rules. “The ‘build it and they will come’ theory is gone,” says Rogers. “If you’re hoping for that, you’re rolling the dice because you, the trade show manager, is ultimately going to be held accountable for what the outcome was at the show.”

Translation: “A holistic, integrated approach is really about what you’re going to do to get the right attendees to your booth,” Rogers says. “And by that I mean, what are you doing from the standpoint of pre-show marketing awareness campaigns.”

Embracing the Strategic Upgrade: The Power of Integrated Trade Show Campaigns

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Successful trade show campaigns leverage high-performance planning that mix brainstorming, strategic planning and goal-setting. The five parts of best-in-class planning are:

Define Your Audience. Before you can execute a trade show program that fills your at-show appointment book with high quality leads, you have to define who you are trying to attract. There may be three or four different types of audience subsets that you want to connect with. For instance, Audience A is made up of buyers, Audience B consists of influencers and Audience C is a group of “soon to be” influencers—junior attendees getting ready to be in the Audience B role someday.

Align with Key Stakeholders. The goal-setting brainstorm session should include key stakeholders from sales and marketing, customer service and Research and Development who are involved in the show. It’s helpful to have a conversation with each stakeholder on a one-on-one basis so they know what you’re trying to get accomplished.

Set Goals and Objectives. Next, ask yourselves questions that will help you later determine if the show was successful. How many A, B and C leads do you want? How much product do you want to sell? What type of brand awareness are you trying to drive? What messaging do you want to convey? What is the end result that you want to walk away with after the show? What constitutes success?

THE PLANNING PROCESSIt All Begins with Upfront Thinking, Strategic Planning and a Group Effort

STEP 1

STEP 2

STEP 3

STEP 5STEP 4STEP 3STEP 2STEP 1 STEP 6 STEP 7

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Get Internal Buy-In. As a savvy trade show manager, you’re expected to be prepared to drive the discussion. If you have previous analytics, use them to validate your points. If you do not have any data, develop a log of notes and photos from shows that corroborate your points for improvement and the expected better results. According to the Center for Exhibitors and Industry Research, 79 percent of trade show leads are never followed up. How does your company compare, and what’s the goal for tighter qualification of leads for greater force in follow up? From here you can begin to create your business case.

Once you’ve developed an initial list of goals and objectives, refine it until there are just one or two key objectives—primary and secondary goals—for sales and marketing. For example, sales wants to sell 25 product units at the show to Audience A (primary) and collect 200 new leads from Audience B (secondary). In another instance marketing wants to promote the company’s recent award for strong customer service among Audience A attendees (primary), and generate brand awareness among Audience B and C members (secondary).

Finally, be sure everyone is on the same page. “Your ultimate goal is to get buy in, so everybody’s involved.

Everybody agrees to the end result,” Rogers says. “If everybody agrees to the end result, you can drive more accountability and your percentage of success will be much higher”

A solid set of achievable goals and objectives not only provides the roadmap for the rest of the campaign, it establishes a clear line of accountability for the sales and marketing team that will become more important when the program is being measured post-event.

If your objectives can’t clearly answer the question, “What specifically are we trying to do?” go back and keep at it until they do.

Build the Creative Brief. The Creative Brief is a document that gives the creative team the direction it needs to drive creative campaign development decisions. It gives the creative team the insights and inherent truths about what they believe and what problem your client’s product and brand will solve for them. It also leads to defining what the ONE key fact, the one message that you want the target to walk away with and remember. This in turn informs the development of the BIG IDEA.

To quote advertising legend David Ogilvy: “It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product. Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.”

STEP 5


STEP 4

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Sample Creati ve Brief: What do we want to happen as a result of the experience?This should explain the overall objecti ves and goals i.e. what you want your audience to walk away with.

Who are we talking to?Identi fy who you are trying to att ract. Reference Step 1: Defi ne Your Audience

What insights and truths do we know about the target audience that will help us?This is where your research will play a role. Reference Step 4: Get Internal Buy-In

how do they feel about your brand now?How do people perceive your brand?

how do we want them to feel about your brand?How you would like to be perceived?

What’s the one KEY FACT we want the target audience to remember?Identi fy a unique selling propositi on here for your target audience.

Why should they believe your brand?Come up with a good reason why they should go with your brand instead of a competi tor. What competi ti ve advantage does your brand off er?

What kind of experience will support the KEY FACT?This is where you need to work with the creati ve team to build a story. The experience will be developed from the questi ons above. For example - will an interacti ve experience using technology for your audience work or should you create a more personal approach using other means besides technology? Use the data from your research to determine how to best communicate with your target audience.

how will the experience support the KEY FACT?Justi fy how the experience will sell your product or service.

What is the tone and manner to take?Describe the tone and manner the experience will convey. Consider colors, environment, architecture, apparel, booth staff demeanor, and content. For example - friendly, approachable, professional, smart, savvy, witt y etc.

Deliverables:Itemize what you will need to have the creati ve team develop. For example - booth (size), email communicati on, graphics, custom elements, and name tags etc.

Budget:Provide a comprehensive budget here and breakdown costs if possible.


Below is a creati ve brief template you can use for your next trade show or event campaign.



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You’ve done your homework, you’ve honed your goals and messages–it’s now time to bring your idea to life.

Pre-Show TacticsOnce you’ve scrubbed and segmented your list, it’s time to get busy contacting attendees.

Email. A series of well-timed emails can move attendees from awareness to appointment in the months leading up to the show. Email blasts can also help you prequalify customers so that the level of engagement at the event is more customized. A couple of brief survey questions can open up a line of communication that transforms a cold show floor introduction into a highly personalized attendee experience.

Multimedia. Email blasts can also utilize online content to enrich the pre-show relationship building experience. You can drive attendees to microsites or videos that offer sneak peeks at new products or fun elements they’ll see at the show.

Social Media. Depending on your audience’s adaption rate for technology, you can also push them to your social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and encourage a continued conversation there.

Direct Mail. It still has an important place in the pre-show mix, too. Many companies have strict firewalls that will kick your emails back. And some industries show a higher acceptance rate for paper invitations than electronic. It’s up to you to incorporate these demographic insights into your pre-show audience segmentation and analysis so you know which tactic will work best.

Phone Calls. Friendly phone calls may seem old school, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have strategic value. “It’s easy to lean too much on social media and email, and forget about that important phone call,” Rogers says. “But people love that. They love the sincerity that a phone call conveys.”

Booth Staff. Finally, don’t forget to train your booth staff before the show so they can deliver on the key messages set out in the brief. Rogers recommends creating a playbook for everyone working the exhibit that lists goals and objectives, messaging points and what is expected.

At-Show TacticsThe development process for the architecture and graphics that will comprise your trade show exhibit should convey a succinct primary

STEP 6 IMPLEMENTATIONIt’s Time to Execute the Campaign

objective and provide an environment conducive to meeting all your top objectives.

Booth Interactives. Ways to engage attendees and generate data should also be developed in tandem with the exhibit design process. These could include iPads or kiosks for data collection, on-site social media activities, photo activations, touchscreens, games, in-booth entertainment and other activities designed to lure prospects in and then deliver on an experience that maps back to your primary message.

Measurement Tools. Metrics should take top priority at this stage. Use your pre-show analysis to determine which data generation technologies your audience segments will be most receptive to, and what specific information you want from them (for a more in-depth look at measurement, see page 7).

Show Involvement. Other activities that offer great exposure include keynotes, roundtables and session presentations—putting your company experts in the spotlight in the context of the show. You don’t want to set an excitement/engagement level during the pre-show phase and not continue that momentum to the at-show booth. Says Rogers: “You want to drive the excitement all the way through the experience. That’s when people really take notice.“




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CASE STUDY: BALANCED EFFORTSInside the integrated trade show campaign in actionA leading pet care company needed a show-stopping experience to promote its newest line of pet foods at its largest industry event, the North American Veterinary Conference (NAVC). GES created an integrated marketing campaign designed to immerse attendees in the principles of the brand—health, strength and balance. A unique and engaging product video accompanied by in-booth “balancing acts” brought the campaign to life and delivered award-winning results.

Goals & ObjectivesDevelop an integrated marketing campaign of pre-, at-, and post-show touch points to increase brand awareness and qualified leads while driving traffic to the booth and website. Create an exhibit that captivates and educates attendees while distinguishing the brand as the go-to source for pet foods. Increase veterinarian recommendations and sales of the brand’s distinct product lines.

Pre-ShowPre-show direct mail drove traffic to the client’s website where prospects could pre-register, fill out a survey and view a teaser video for the event.

At-ShowThe dynamic booth design featured interactive components, a large-screen theater, numerous lead stations and fabric panels to visually illustrate the idea of movement and balance. At-show activities included acrobatic performances and a presentation of the video featuring unique shadow art performances by an internationally acclaimed dance company. Staff training and measurement stations helped the brand collect a record number of qualified leads, while premium giveaways aligned with the campaign theme.

Post-ShowPost-show thank you emails and post cards reinforced the brand’s message and drove traffic to its website for additional product information. The client captivated its target audience (average length of booth visits was 20 minutes) and doubled the client’s qualified leads from the previous year.


Post-Show TacticsImmediately after the show, it’s time to begin mining all of the valuable information you’ve collected throughout the pre- and at-show processes and then uploading these into your company’s CRM system.

Post-event, be sure to send a thank you email within five days, if not sooner. In addition, make a follow-up phone call or drop a direct mail piece that contains a survey.

Finally, bring the entire team together again for a post-show meeting. Provide the group with an analysis of what was measured and what the outcome was. It’s key to creating accountability that the same key stakeholders who were part of the objective-setting process are in the meeting so they thoroughly understand the data generated from the show.


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did they do and what did they get out of it? That can be a clue that you’re

Out of who was invited and who came, next you assess what did they do when they camefar along did you move them through the channel? The pet food brand,

focused on small animals. How many of those did they get?

Other data points from the event should answer: who you talked to

compound studies. Equipped with a sound dome above the monitors, doctors were spending 5-20 minutes on various studies. Supplying data

well.

data. You can track and report on every touch point within the booth,

STEP 7 MEASURING AND REPORTProve Performance and Understand What Did or Didn’t Work

from the entrance and exit points to the duration of time spent within each area to the interest in video clips, to assess how well it worked. “It’s incredibly valuable to understand that a certain percent

trial product over another and there’s a three percent abandon rate on the product video,” says

are the kinds of statistics that brand managers need and want to know.”For a government agency client looking to connect with Gen Y taxpayers, GES researched audience, behavioral trends, and communication channels. The result? A portable game series. This experience included collecting demographics, on-demand personalized VIP cards

started with 1-2 opinion baseline questions, activity game and the rewarded questions. The experience allows real-time

VIP card has a website and plans

show eventually.

well before the show or event.


Post-show, it’s imperative that you get your show data uploaded into your company’s CRM or Salesforce database immediately. There are two ways to make this process go faster: one, get a clear understanding of how the data base fields are set up before programming your data collection devices. If you do not ask for information in the same format as your database system… well, let’s just say that someone has a lot of post-show data cleansing and reformatting to do, says Triano. And two, clearly define the roles and steps to processing this most valuable asset. Roles should include onsite data backup to protect the precious data from corruption or general loss, to delivering raw data to a data manager or partner as soon as possible after show closes. Remember, prospects and current customers are waiting for a follow-up. Provide cleansed and non-duplicate files to the appropriate team members. In some cases you may want this data already split by regional zip codes, products or pre assigned to a sales representative, says Triano.



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The top notch sales teams who staff your booth are customarily highly effective in the field. But, during the few times a year they are called on to work an event, they need specific preparation for working this unique and different environment to transition their field skills to the exhibit floor–the dynamics of communication are different. “A lot of marketers say, ‘We’ve got our best people in the booth, they know what to do.’ But those folks, as good as they are, haven’t been as schooled as they need to be in the dynamics of the trade show or convention exhibiting process,” says Jerry Gerson, a corporate training specialist and GES partner.”

Here are a few ways to get your booth staff up to snuff in the months before the event:

Arm Them with Data. Help them understand that today’s trade show experience is ripe with new opportunities who are walking the floor looking for what’s new, solutions that can work for them and exhibiting companies who are willing to talk with them, not pitch to them, and that just one attendee could make their sales year. Teach them how to effectively engage attendees before and during the event. Says Gerson: “The average attendee, across the exhibiting landscape, is going to visit an average of 20 to 35 exhibits at a trade show and will spend between five and 17 minutes where they have interest. About 63 percent have buying plans, 76 percent have an agenda and two-thirds have pre-selected which exhibits they’ll visit before they even arrive. We often hear ‘I’m going to meet with my customers–everybody who comes knows us.’ While it’s great to meet with current customers, they need to be prepared to exploit what I call the areas of existing growth. 36 percent of attendees are first-time attendees (per the Center for Exhibition Industry Research, CEIR). The old assumptions don’t work anymore.”

Make Them Accountable. The line of accountability starts with goals and objectives and leads right onto the show floor. That’s why clear, specific and focused objectives that are written and communicated to the exhibit staff in advance gives them clear direction on what they are to accomplish. Be sure it’s clear to them why they are at the show, who they are trying to attract (the target profile), what must be communicated to that target attendee, what the company is trying to bring home and how the company will measure success. “If they understand what the end result is supposed to be—and what is the business-useful result, then you have a focus and a direction in terms of performance and accountability,” says Gerson.

Define the Differences in Dynamics. “The intent of sales is to close the sale,” Gerson explains. “The intent of exhibiting is to open opportunities for sales to close.” If you explain the differences to your booth staff, they can learn to adjust their approach.

A sales call appointment, for instance, can take days or weeks to schedule.

CULTIVATING CONVERSATIONSA Primer on the Importance of Pre-show Sales Team Training

On the show floor, you get three seconds to engage a stranger. At an initial meeting and a few minutes of introduction, one generally goes into several stages in the sales process that includes an in-depth Customer Needs Analysis which can take several calls and lots of time. On the exhibit floor you get about 45 seconds to get a profile match (do they fit what you’re looking for?) And then you’re trying to qualify their needs and create an experience that leaves the attendee wanting to continue the conversation for their reasons, in less than 15 minutes. That is why making your messages clear, concise and to the point have greater memorability.

And finally, capture sales-useful information for the field and ask the attendee “What should be our next step?” There is an effective approach for working the exhibit floor and your staff should be exposed to it.

The on-site magic really happens when your measurement tools enable your team to scan a badge and quickly give your sales team the pre-qualifying data you collected months before the event. This leads to a highly personalized, deeply relevant conversation. “They come in and swipe and you say, ‘Gosh, we already have your information, and I understand you want to talk about X, I’m so glad you came to the booth. Let’s chat about your issue,’” Rogers says. “It makes them feel that we’ve listened, we care. And it also takes them out of that cold call experience.”



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After the show wraps, ask yourself who was invited and who came? What did they do and what did they get out of it? That can be a clue that you’re not communicating properly with that attendee before the event.

Out of who was invited and who came, next you assess what did they do when they came? Not only what information did they give you, but how far along did you move them through the channel? The pet food brand, for instance, wanted appointments with new, multi-doctor clinics that focused on small animals. How many of those did they get?

Post-show, it’s imperative that you get your show data uploaded into your company’s CRM or Salesforce database immediately. There are two ways to make this process go faster: one, get a clear understanding of how the database fields are set up before programming your data collection devices. If you do not ask for information in the same format as your database system… well, let’s just say that someone has a lot of post-show data cleansing and reformatting to do. And two, clearly define the roles and steps to processing this most valuable asset. Roles should include onsite data backup to protect the precious data from corruption or general loss, to delivering raw data to a data manager or partner as soon as possible after show closes. Remember, prospects and current customers are waiting for a follow-up. Provide cleansed and non-duplicate files to the appropriate team members. In some cases you may want this data already split by regional zip codes, products or pre assigned to a sales representative.

Other data points from the event should answer: who you talked to before the show, what information did you get, what did people say, what were the trends across the show, how many people actually participated before the show, and were those the same people, or different people that participated at-show? You will also want to measure what happened in terms of the booth experience, from the swipe information to immediate product follow up needs. By building a pharmaceutical interactive program and configuring a badge scan, one GES client was able to measure trial compound studies. Equipped with a sound dome above the monitors, doctors were spending 5-20 minutes on various studies. Supplying data points that supported interest trends, duration of time spent within each interactive, all abandoned pathways or videos were captured as ǿŜƭƭΦThe doctors could even request a follow up on specific information.

Data about your booth’s performance in terms of traffic flow per day or per hour, and interactives within the booth can reveal excellent behavioral data. You can track and report on every touch point within the booth,

STEP 7 MEASURING ANd REPORTProve Performance and Understand What Did or Didn’t Work

from the entrance and exit points to the duration of time spent within each area to the interest in video clips, to assess how well it worked. “It’s incredibly valuable to understand that a certain percent of attendees are interested in one trial product over another and there’s a three percent abandon rate on the product video,” says Angela Triano, Marketing Solutions Account Executive at GES. “These are the kinds of statistics that brand managers need and want to know.”

For a government agency client looking to connect with Gen Y taxpayers, GES researched audience, behavioral trends, and communication channels. The result? A portable game series. This experience included collecting demographics, on-demand personalized VIP cards and an interactive journey that started with 1-2 opinion baseline questions, activity game and the rewarded questions. The experience allows real-time metrics on perception rates. The VIP card has a website and plans to continue the experience post show eventually.

The kind of statistics that transform a reactive trade show program into a proactive, holistic program that delivers on objectives and begins well before the show or event.
