The Exhibitionist: Inspiring trade show excellence

INTRODUCTION

I’m in a hole because at some point I found a shovel and started digging. Maybe I should trade my shovel for ladders and start climbing.

—Craig D. Lounsbrough, M.Div., LPC

Have you ever invested a significant amount of budget in a trade show, spent three days on your feet and not spoken to anyone of interest before thinking there must be a better way? Maybe you keep doing what you’ve always done because your company accepts it’s ‘just the way it is with trade shows’? Or maybe you’re a business owner who really wants to get out and speak to your customers but is secretly terrified?

Congratulations! Just by picking up a copy of this book you’re already on the first rung of the proverbial ladder to generating more profitable leads and better returns from your trade show investment. You’re probably wondering how that’s possible when you haven’t even read a page yet? In our combined experience of 20 years’ working on trade shows and events we’d say success is about 70% attitude, enthusiasm and a desire to learn and 30% what you actually do. Despite the digital evolution, face-to-face events remain a crucial element of the marketing mix with 99% of marketers from overperforming organisations believing that events provide visitors with a valuable opportunity to form in-person connections in an increasingly digital world (Bizzabo, 2018). But trade shows are often hard work – emotionally, physically and mentally. Not everyone has the necessary desire or disposition to deliver them brilliantly and that’s not something any book can help with! Coupled with the perception that trade shows never deliver a measurable return, they are often easy targets for criticism and budget cuts from senior teams wowed by the latest social media platform. However just by picking up this book you’ve demonstrated the mindset for learning some new skills and taking some inspiration that will enable all your future trade show campaigns to act as the engine for your organisation’s sales pipeline.

Often when we meet with clients for the first time there’s a range of causes driving their trade show anxiety, from a lack of confidence and skill, to a lack of time and resource. They’re always surprised when we tell them that they’re not alone and that so many fellow exhibitors feel those same fears. There seems to be a culture in the industry that ‘everyone can do trade shows’, as though it’s as easy as jumping out of bed in the morning. To a certain degree, it is easy to book last minute, turn up with a couple of mis-shaped pop-up banners, spend the day chatting with fellow exhibitors or on your laptop and then moan about the lack of business generated. However, to plan, implement and evaluate a trade show brilliantly, that engages with visitors and adds real value to your business through building profitable relationships for the future – now that takes skill, experience and dedication. But by picking up this book, we know you’ll rise to the challenge!

There are so many sectors, variables, life stages, structures and budgets in business that it would be impossible to provide one blueprint for brilliant execution – one size most definitely does not fit all in this case. Equally, there aren’t very many straight yes and no answers either, it’s all about how a trade show fits in to your story and meets your customer’s needs. However, in the following chapters we hope you find an easy-to-follow framework that walks you through the key elements of delivering a brilliant trade show campaign, from the initial enquiry about which show to attend, to calculating a final number of what your investment returned (yes that’s possible, don’t believe the hype about trade shows being unmeasurable). We’ll be sharing some of the knowledge, tips, advice and examples we’ve collected over the years (good and bad) to help inspire your own trade show journey. If you’re a seasoned exhibitor you may perceive some of the advice as simplistic or patronising but often when we’re running workshops it’s the simple things that people already know they want reminding of – we’re trying to provide something for everyone so if there are bits you know, skip ahead to a bit that’s new for you! Every trade show is different, as is every exhibitor and you’ll need to give some thought to the content of each section on your own business circumstances. But there are plenty of ideas to help you understand how you convert your trade show investment into a winning proposition.

We’ve used some icons along the way that should help you steer your way around the content:

Where you see this symbol there’s a key piece of operational advice or a real-life example that will help you execute a better event. These are some of the basics you need to get right and these points should give you the core inspiration that you build everything else around.

Where you see this symbol we’re sharing a piece of industry insight or research to help illustrate why the suggestions we’re making are important. Your internal stakeholders can be your toughest critics so hopefully by sharing some of the best evidence in the business you’ve got the ammunition you need to fight for the resources you need.

Where you see this symbol, we’re sharing some inspirational or thought-provoking quotes with you to help inspire you along your journey.

How to get the best of this book?

Ideally, we’d suggest reading the book in its entirety before starting on your planning to help you best understand how all the elements fit together as a jigsaw. We’ve broken it up into bite-sized chunks that should allow you to tackle and digest each building block as we navigate the whole process. In Part 1 we’ll look at why trade shows are still relevant in the digital age and deciding whether trade shows are even the right tactic for your business in its current position.

The bulk of the book comes in Part II, which we’ve broken up into three further sections – Planning, Implementation and Evaluation (P.I.E.) where we will delve into the intricate details of executing your trade show campaign brilliantly; we have broken these down into sections, listed in the table of contents, to help you navigate through them easily. As mentioned, it’s worth reading all three sections in their entirety before starting your journey, as there will be things you’ll need to be thinking about in the planning stage to measure the right things for your evaluation! However, we know that might not be feasible so if you’re pushed for time, we’ve made the contents table as simple as possible, so you can jump in and out of the specific areas where you feel you need the most help. In the Planning section we’ll pick up on elements including researching the right show, budgeting, logistics, stand design and pre-show marketing to ensure that you’re in the best possible shape to engage effectively with visitors. Moving into Implementation we look at the different roles required on a stand, typical characteristics of your squad and how to manage them as well as how to open conversations, filter visitors and identify the ones who have high potential for your business. After the show we look at Evaluation which includes how to follow up effectively (almost 90% of exhibitors don’t) and how to calculate success including how to measure the business your investment has returned.

Finally, in Part III, as you build your confidence and skill, we go beyond the trade show floor and discuss exhibiting internationally and using the media to promote your message to really drive the value of your investment even harder.

There’s a lot packed into this book and to do everything we’re suggesting would be unrealistic (but if you do manage it, you’re our hero!). We’ve concluded every chapter with a checklist of the key questions that should help you reflect on how you can use the advice to make the most effective decisions for your organisation. There will be things you’re already doing really well (great, keep doing them), things that won’t be appropriate for you and things we haven’t included (even 20 years in, we’re still learning every day). But even if you just select one or two tips and change your plans accordingly, we’re pretty sure you’ll see a positive effect on your outcomes.

If you’ve already got a trade show in mind and want to get maximum value from this book we’d recommend using it alongside The Exhibitionist Project Manager Journal (available from www.inspiringexhibitors.com) which will give you the tools, templates and timelines all in one handy folder that will help you track your progress and developments as you plan a fantastic event.

There will be regular blogs on the www.inspiringexhibitors.com website which will give you any new ideas that we’ve come across in the trade as well as fortnightly podcasts with experts from within the industry to help give you even more inspiration and advice. You can sign up for the Inspiring Exhibitors newsletter via the website too. We’d love to hear your feedback about the book, your planning, what you’ve learnt and what more you need to know so please get in touch any time via Twitter (@ProExTraCo) or email proextra@12th-man-solutions.co.uk.

Trade shows and exhibitions are always evolving, and this book is just part of a much bigger conversation. The basic framework for delivering a great show hasn’t changed much over the years, but the tactical execution, such as stand design and digital and social media are changing fast. The key factor in ensuring your tradeshows deliver meaningful and measurable results, is continuously building your company’s exhibiting capability. How best to exhibit at trade events has been debated for decades and has become more complex, with the body of knowledge on executing profitable trade shows exploding. However, it’s often hidden in pockets of excellence that in isolation don’t give a full appreciation of the end-to-end process. Far too few exhibitors are keeping up with the changes and seeking out the latest thinking and best exhibiting practices. Many companies are operating on an exhibiting model that is 10 years out of date where they all seem to know what they are spending, but too few know what they are really getting in return or how to better it. By reading this book and acting on its contents you will undoubtedly improve the chances of generating more profitable leads from your investment and maybe you’ll put your shovels away too and climb above your competitors! We wish you the very best of luck on your trade show journey.

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

—Plato, The Republic

PART I

WHY ENGAGE?

CHAPTER 1

WHY TRADE SHOWS MATTER EVEN MORE IN THE DIGITAL AGE

It’s hard to say exactly what it is about face-to-face contact that makes deals happen, but whatever it is, it hasn’t yet been duplicated by technology.

—Paul Graham, computer scientist, entrepreneur,

venture capitalist, author and essayist

The digitally connected world

From a worldwide population of over 7.5bn in 2017, there are 3bn active social media accounts, with people spending on average 2.5 hours a day scrolling through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and every other existing and emerging platform. That’s 2bn active Facebook users, 500m of us on LinkedIn and over 1.3bn Twitter accounts plus Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and all the others. In addition to all this frenetic social media activity, it’s estimated over 269bn emails are sent globally every day with the average office worker receiving over 121 emails a day (Tschabitscher, 2018). The culmination of all this activity resulted in a staggering 2.3 trillion dollars of global on-line consumer spending in 2017 with predictions that this will grow to over 4.4 trillion dollars by 2021 (Statista, 2017). Therefore, you’d be forgiven for assuming that the internet was the holy grail for generating sales growth in our digitally engaged era, but the numbers only tell half a story. Dig a little deeper and all is not quite as promising as it first seems. Ninety-six per cent of people who discuss brands online don’t follow the brand itself suggesting that although they are being ‘talked’ about there isn’t necessarily a deep or sustainable relationship (Hainla, 2018). There are an estimated 270m fake Facebook accounts and of the 1.3bn Twitter accounts, only 300m are live, with only 1/3 of those being accessed daily. Whilst LinkedIn markets itself as a network for building business relationships, the average CEO has almost 1,000 connections (Sikandar, 2018), implying that whilst broad, the connections are unlikely to be deep or trusting. And remember those 269bn emails that get sent every day – almost 50% are registered as spam and never even make it to their intended recipient (Sikandar, 2018).

As a brand or service fighting to make itself heard in a crowded digital marketplace, the competition is tough with 65m business pages on Facebook, 500m daily Tweets, 300m company pages on LinkedIn (Sikandar, 2018) – not to mention the 95m images which are uploaded to Instagram every day and the 75bn ideas currently listed on Pinterest (Aslam, 2018). Admittedly, there are tools, software and agencies that can help ensure marketing content is generated and targeted so it hits the most relevant audience but that can suck up time, money and resource for any business regardless of size.

Digital revolt

In addition to the mass of noise on social media, there is a growing tide of disengagement, with suggestions that our love of (un)sociable media may be reaching a tipping point. Growing reports of fake news, tampering with political elections, invasive advertising, jealousy over aspirational lifestyles, invasion of privacy, trolling and cyber bullying are leading us to question whether as a population we’re starting to crave more human, emotional and meaningful relationships. Research from software provider Kapersky found that almost half of all respondents felt jealous when their friends’ posts received more likes than their own (Ismail, 2017). Unsurprisingly 72% of people were frustrated with invasive advertising that interrupted their communications or distracted them from a transaction they were looking to complete (Ismail, 2017). Millennials particularly seem to be deserting the social media channels they have grown up with, seeking instead more immersive brand experiences which they can feel a part of. According to Origin, a Boston-based market research group, 34% of Gen Z’ers are saying goodbye to social media while 64% have decided to take a break from it (McAteer, 2018).

This trend is flowing through into brand planning, evidenced by the significant growth in experiential marketing budgets in recent years with organisations instead looking to invest in real-life experiences to build relationships and drive loyalty. Experiential marketing covers a broad range of different tactics but could include consumer roadshows, sponsorship, trade exhibitions, pop-ups, permanent installations and even augmented reality. Campaign research reported that in 2017 Chief Marketing Officers expected to allocate between 25–50% of marketing budgets to experiential tactics over the next 2–5 years. The research showed that positive results were being generated from deeper interactions with customers in both the Business-to-Business (B2B), selling through a third party and Business-to-Consumer (B2C), selling directly to the end user, environments with almost 60% agreeing that live events create the opportunity for deeper and more sustainable relationships which drive more frequent and higher value transactions.

Case Studies of High Impact Experiential Campaigns 2017

1. Organisation : David Lloyd — ‘Run For Your Bun’ Café

Objective: To demonstrate how healthy food and exercise form part of a balanced lifestyle

Execution: Located in London, this pop-up witnessed customers ordering their healthy and nutritious lunch, following which they had to participate in a vigorous 10-minute workout before they were given their food. The activity targeted office workers to show how they could incorporate exercise into their day.

2. Organisation: Adidas – ‘D Rose Jump Store’

Objective: To introduce a new line in basketball footwear to the UK

Execution: Pop-up stores aren’t a new concept, but Adidas’ ‘D Rose Jump Store’ in London was a cut above the rest. Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose was in attendance to challenge fans to win a pair of free trainers by taking them off a shelf that happened to be 10 feet in the air. It was a relevant, exciting and memorable experience for all the children and parents who took part.

Trade show traction

The B2B trade show and exhibition industry is certainly benefitting from the growing interest in experiential with over 31,000 certified events globally each year (UFI, 2014). Outside of the official events recorded with industry researchers, there are countless other smaller, regional and local roadshows, expos and networking events where suppliers and customers can discuss opportunities for working together. In one of their sourced blogs Eventbrite, the world’s largest event booking provider, suggests that in the UK alone, the exhibitions sector contributes over £193bn to the economy through attracting global visitors and exhibitors as well as supporting UK based suppliers. They go on to explain that over 1.3m business events were held in the UK in 2017 with an estimated £40bn being spent in the local economy (Eventbrite, 2018).

Almost 4.5m companies exhibit globally at trade shows every year, welcoming over 260m visitors to their stands demonstrating the scale and power of live events (UFI, 2014). There are a number of reasons why an organisation will choose to exhibit at an event including generating new leads, launching a new product or service, building relationships with existing customers or to be part of an industry conversation (see Section 3.1, SMART objective setting). Regardless of the objectives a company sets for the specific event, the ultimate aim is to grow sales and profits and trade shows are increasingly being seen as a high potential platform through which to do it.

Ninety-one per cent of visitors state that attending a trade show impacts on their buying decision in some way (GraphiColor Exhibits, 2017), be that positively or negatively. From a well-planned and executed exhibition stand, a visitor takes away the perception of quality, reliability, value and trust. From a poorly planned exhibitor, the visitor leaves disappointed and anxious about how difficult any future relationship might be. Yet for those who do not even exhibit, a visitor could be impressed by the investment, quality and offer delivered by their competitor and choose to do business with them instead. It is worth noting at this point that we talk about a visitor ‘doing business’ in the future as trade shows of today facilitate making a connection for future business, rather than generating high value sales at the show itself. The roots of trade shows can be traced back to the medieval era when producers and craftsmen would travel between towns to showcase and sell their wares either to individual customers or to guilds on behalf of the town. The industrial revolution witnessed the evolution of trade shows into industry specific events focussed on selling products to a target group of commercial entities. Throughout the twentieth century events became a trading floor for deep-cut discounting and ‘deal-led’ activity where the cost of the show was minimal compared to the loss of profit on eye-watering deals. Increasingly trade shows have become a forum for bringing together those with a common interest to satisfy a conscious need and establish how they may work together in future. There are still some events which are highly transaction led but if this is not aligned to your specific objectives, some quick research should eliminate these shows from your radar (see Section 3.2, Which show?).

Trade shows facilitate a deeper conversation with a prospect than could ever be achieved in a 240-character tweet or Facebook post. Trade shows open up a conversation based on the buyer need, to understand how your product or service can help save them time or money, generate more profit or simplify their processes. Equally, it can also establish very quickly where your product or service isn’t able to help meet the needs of the visitor and enable both parties to respectfully move on to more lucrative opportunities. Forty-seven per cent of marketers believe events are a highly efficient and effective way to reach and engage with multiple customers and prospects (Marketing Charts, 2013). The key qualifier here is being able to identify ‘higher quality’ prospects and leads, as having taken the time to understand the key problem a prospect is facing and how your product solves it, the follow up conversation becomes more effective and targeted.

Studies by the Centre for Exhibition Research (CEIR) and Exhibit Surveys, Inc. show that closing a lead generated at a trade show costs almost forty percent less than a lead generated from the field.

(CompuSystems, 2010)

A polite referral, or a review of a lead database, don’t start to explore at a deeper level how a product meets a need, or whether two organisations can, and more importantly want, to work together. Trade shows and exhibitions bring together interested buyers and sellers who can