August 12, 2014

Outdoor Retailer Summer Market Recap (and Awards)

Outdoor Retailer is so big sometimes I wonder why it’s not in Vegas. But no, Salt Lake City is the perfect setting for this fun, extravagant and energetic national tradeshow. With mountains only a short drive away, SLC is positioned perfectly to host this confab of outdoor enthusiasts from all over the country (and around the world). There’s so much going on in the outdoor industry that they hold the show twice a year: once in winter and once in summer.

The recent OR Summer Market took place the week of August 4^th at the Salt Palace Convention Center. On Tuesday, attendees were invited to an Open Air Demo at Huntsville, Utah’s Pineview Reservoir, tucked neatly in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest just down the road from Snowbasin Ski Resort. The OAD was packed with 100-plus small exhibitors crouched under branded canopies, many of them offering free tryouts on kayaks, paddleboards and more. After a brief downpour mid-morning, the rest of the day turned into a fun, engaging and playful event.

As for the tradeshow itself, several acres of floor space at the convention center are occupied by the biggest show of the year in Salt Lake City, resplendent with top-notch exhibits, some as large as 100’ x 70’ that dominate the area. Keen, Merrell, Thule, Timberland, The North Face, Cascade Designs, Mountain Hardwear, Columbia and more came to Outdoor Retailer ready to show off their new goods – and no doubt spent a pretty penny with HUGE exhibits.

So what caught attendee’s eyes? For me, it was solar power. Lots of solar chargers: foldable, portable and powerful. Solar power is coming into it’s own and in the next half a decade or so it should explode as the cost of creating a kilowatt of power via solar will continue to plunge below that of the cost of typical energy. It seems that every time I turned a corner there was another solar-powered gizmo.

And the booths? Well, let’s have a little fun with some awards, shall we?

Best brand representation: Keen Shoes. Yes, this is a category with a lot of tough competition, but Keen is so over-the-top with recycled pallets for walls, recycled windows, hand-made booth elements and funky swagger that how can you NOT give this award to Keen?

Walking Dead Re-birth: Kelty. Yes, the Walking Dead were used as inspiration for having to carry around a crappy backpack, so you’d better get fit with a really good Kelty Pack!

Best Use of Stuffed Dogs to Show Off Your Products: Ruffwear. You might be surprised, but there were a LOT of stuffed dogs used to show off gear. Ruffwear managed to do it with style with gear made exclusively for dogs. Talk about focus!

Best Tent Campground. Lots of tents at OR, but The North Face took over nearly a quarter of an acre with tents. Lots of tents. It felt vaguely like a Grateful Dead concert, missing just the tie-dye and herb.

Best use of Brick: Carhartt. The faux brick surface made it look like the two-story booth that represented a storefront had been built one brick at a time. Beautiful.

Best ‘Stop Dead in Your Tracks’ Booth: Brunton. Use of bright colors, back lit panels and shapes that grab your attention did indeed stop people in their tracks. Hard to capture in a photo, but I gave it a try.

Best Product Demo Video: Coast Portland. It took a little patience, but after viewing the video shot near Oregon’s Coos Bay showing off the company’s flashlights, you came away convinced that they were the best you could buy.

And finally, Most Iconic Use of an Icon: Leave No Trace’s Bigfoot, who posed for photos and invited attendees to tweet selfies for a chance to win footwear!

I spent two days of the show jotting notes on my clipboard, doing booth assessments: subjecting almost two dozen booths to a closer exam that I call the Tradeshow Booth Performance Test. I’ll be sharing that information with those companies in the few weeks – always a great learning experience for both (I hope!).

July 18, 2014

Outdoor Retailer Summer Market on the Horizon!

Hey, I’m heading to Outdoor Retailer in early August. Salt Lake City hosts this fun and engaging national show twice a year: one for winter market (think skiing!) and once for the summer market (boating, hiking, bicycling and more!). Thousands of exhibitors and tens of thousands of attendees take over the Salt Palace Convention Center the first week or so of August.

…and I’ll be there doing some tradeshow booth performance tests. You know, a look at how companies are using their tradeshow booths to live up to the promise of gathering leads, attendee engagement and delivering a brand message.

Check out my invitation:

December 16, 2013

An Open Letter to Veteran Exhibitors

Dear Exhibitor,

You are an experienced tradeshow marketer. You probably have been to many more shows than most of your colleagues. You’ve seen it all – from the small mom and pop shows decades ago to the sophisticated shows with several thousand exhibitors. You’ve seen goofy musical acts, professional product or service demonstrators in booths, wolfed down tons of free food samples, pocketed hundreds of free giveaways until you finally decided they were mostly just worthless junk.

And it’s a pretty good bet you know what works. You’ve tested pre-show marketing, booth staff training, having your best sales people on the show floor and you wonder why your company’s sales staff still has a hard time following up on all of those leads once the show is over.

So let’s see it: let’s see the results of those years of experience. What did you get out of it? By now you must have figured out exactly where the wasted dollars are – and you’ve plugged those holes so that every single dollar spent on tradeshow marketing makes an impact. Right?

Yes, let’s see the records of all of those tradeshows. No doubt – with your experience – you can pull out a 3-ring binder for every show for the past decade and answer any question about the show: how much was spent on booth space, drayage, travel and lodging, pre-show marketing, etc. – and can show us what the ROI was on all of those dollars invested.

Heck, you can probably even show us in great detail with song and dance, the impact of your young social media team. No doubt they’re compiling stats on how many contests they’ve run through Facebook and Twitter to drive traffic to the booth – and what the results of those contests or show specials are. They likely have a precise count of the number of photos and videos they’ve posted in relation to the show, and what the feedback was from them.

So: let’s see them. Let’s see all the results of your professionalism in action. If you can immediately pull those results up on your computer or grab a binder and hand to me – then you’re good. In fact, you’re awesome. You can go back to whatever it was you were doing before you started reading this letter. After all, you are the pro. You’re the expert – the veteran tradeshow marketer who’s been doing this for years. No one can surprise you. After all, you’ve seen it all.

But, if not – if you can scrunch up your face and say ‘Hmmm…I might admit that there are a few missing spots…’ I would ask: What exactly is missing?

Don’t have all the records you think you should? You’re not doing all that you really could be doing at each show?

Let’s suppose that it might be good to have a refresher on the various elements of tradeshow marketing – JUST to make sure that you’re not missing any pieces. After all, it’s not a bad idea to see things from a new perspective, right?

So, from my viewpoint, here’s a list of what you might consider keeping track of in your tradeshow marketing endeavors:

Overall Tradeshow Marketing Objectives
Shows You Attend and the Specific Objectives for Each Show
Budgeting Figures
Pre-show Marketing
Public Relations Outreach
Exhibit Booth: size, age, layout, cost
Booth Staff: who are they; what’s their experience and training and overall level of knowledge of the tradeshow marketing efforts
Show and Booth Visitors: breakdown of each show in detail
Social Media Sharing: who’s in charge, what content gets shared, what are the results
Post-show Follow Up
Lead Generation: methods of collection, grading, distribution
Record Keeping
Final Overall Assessment

These bullet points can be broken down in great detail and the more detail you have, the more educated you are – and the higher the chances that you will have a more successful show.

Remember this: your competition is out there and many of them invest heavily in booth staff training, pre-show marketing, public relations, and social media engagement. They’re not fooling around. If you’re not looking closely at these items on a regular basis and keeping your tradeshow marketing assessment current, you could be slipping behind because it’s a good bet your main competitors are. Those competitors want to win – and they want to take away your current clients and customers. No doubt they’re doing everything they can to achieve those goals.

What are you doing with your tradeshow marketing to keep one step ahead of your competitors? Are you investing in an upgraded booth when the old one is falling apart or do you limp along another year? Are you investing in keeping your booth staff on top of their game with regular trainings? Are you investing in creating a great experience for your clients and potential clients at the next tradeshow, or do you just cross your fingers and hope that the status quo will be ‘good enough’ for this year?

Do you think your competitors are settling for ‘just good enough’?

If not, what are you going to do about it?

Sincerely,

Tim Patterson
TradeshowGuy Exhibits
1880 4th Street NE
Salem, OR 97301
Toll Free: 800-654-6946
TradeshowGuyExhibits.com

PS. If you need help performing a complete tradeshow marketing analysis or audit, click here.

August 13, 2013

Tradeshow Marketing IS Your Brand

Are you going to a tradeshow simply to sell products?

Right! Of course you are!

But seriously, there’s more to a tradeshow than just selling. Among other things, there’s no doubt that you’re there to build brand equity and credibility.

From a practical standpoint, your tradeshow booth not only has to function to meet your exhibiting goals, but the booth itself should shout “THIS IS US!” without anyone saying a word.

From the look and feel of your booth to the style of interaction with your visitors, anyone who drops by should go away with a distinct feeling of what your brand is all about.

Having seen the design process from initial discussion to final fabrication and set-up, I can say that creating a booth that helps build brand equity is not an easy thing. It’s also not that hard. Anyone who’s been with the company for a few years knows the brand inside and out. They know who their customers are, they can describe the brand in a sentence or two and they know how their products are perceived in the marketplace. They also know how they separate their brand from their competition.

All early discussions in a booth-building process should focus on the brand: who you are, what you do, how does the marketplace perceive you, etc. You have collateral on hand that aptly demonstrates the brand. All of this will be communicated to the designer, who – if she’s competent – can craft a design that does indeed should “THIS IS US!” to any tradeshow visitor.

Beyond the look and feel and function of the booth, though, when you exhibit at a tradeshow, you are giving visitors the most important aspect of your brand: your representatives. These are usually employees, although some reps may be hired professionals, which should know your business and product line inside and out. They should be 100% aware of the company’s goals at the show – and how those show goals may differ from other shows – so that if any visitors pops an unusual question, they can address it confidently, whether it means finding someone who knows the right answer, or if it’s even a question that should not be answered at all.

A visitor will not stop at every booth at a tradeshow. That’s impossible – there’s not enough time! A visitor will leave the booths they visit with a strong impression of the company. That impression will be gathered from the few moments they stop at a booth: the look and feel of the booth and the interaction of the staff, and the product offerings. Miss one of the links in the chain, and the impression may be easily outweighed by one or more of your competitors.

The way you draw your visitor to your booth also plays into their perception of your brand. Did they receive an email invitation? A direct mail piece? Did they see a tweet or read about your appearance on Facebook or Google+?

Every bit of the pre-show invitations and post-show follow-up should adhere to the line of building brand equity.

The sum of all of these efforts is the final impression that your visitor receives from your show appearance. How many pieces are you missing? How many are complete?

January 22, 2013

7 Surefire Ways to Energize Social Media at Tradeshows #4 – Build Relationships

See previous posts in this series: Basics, Look at What Others are Doing, Don’t Publish Selfish Content and Don’t Just Push Stuff Out.

What? Social media ain’t for building relationships! Those so-called conversations are just a tweet or two or maybe three and then nothing! How can you build a relationship on that?

First, let’s define relationship in terms of what it means in social media. Here’s what it is NOT: a date, a lover, your mother, your best friend or a co-worked. Those are all relationships that are done face-to-face. And they’re all different.

Creating a relationship with someone online is different. It’s about finding someone that is like-minded in at least a few ways and supporting them in their endeavors. Beyond that, your online social media relationships can be spread far and wide. You may be able to connect with the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or your favorite rock star. Okay, that’s not a real relationship, but consider that you may be able to make a valuable connection with some one that’s higher up in a company that can open doors for you.

So, to keep these online relationships on the positive side, here are the things to remember.

Honesty is still the best policy. You may not be a 75-year old guy in a trailer impersonating a 22-year old model, but there are levels of deception that some people still feel are okay. I disagree. There’s no level that’s acceptable. If you represent yourself as someone you’re not, it will eventually catch up to you.

Be authentic. Slightly different than honesty, authenticity has to do with sharing thoughts online that you truly believe and support. Are you being true to your vision with your postings, or are you just being irreverent, short-sighted and snarky at times?

Be real to create trust. Now that you’ve committed to being honest and authentic, this ‘real-ness’ leads to building trust. The acts that build trust over time contribute to your overall online reputation, which helps you build your business.

Advocates are an incredible asset, so pay attention and nurture them. In the social media world, an advocate is someone who will stand up and defend your company and your products, and go to great lengths to stand in on your behalf in situations where you would otherwise have to go on the offensive to clear up misinformation or deal with a situation that could create negative press. When you identify a true advocate, do a little research and find out who they are (easy to do if they’re on Facebook or Twitter), and if appropriate, gift ‘em now and then, so they’ll continue to be an asset.

Really connect. When you find someone online that resonates with you in some noticeable way, reach out to him or her. Look up their business. Pick up the phone. Send a personal email. I’ve made terrific friends a few times by just picking up the phone. It helps put a personality to the online presence, and next time you’re in their city, make a point of trying to schedule a lunch or coffee. You’ll be glad you did.

Recapping:

Honesty is the best policy
Be authentic
Be real to create trust
Advocates are an incredible asset
Really connect!

photo credit: Josh Jensen

November 7, 2012

Bringing Home the Bacon

In the swirl of the tradeshow marketing soup, you’re working to create a potent mix of trained staff, an awesome-looking and appropriately-functional booth, interactivity, social media engagement. When all is said and done, the ONLY important thing at most shows is: bringing home the bacon.

When you get back to the office, the big question that determines the success or failure of your tradeshow marketing effort is this: did you get enough warm and hot leads to justify the expense of going to the tradeshow and planning to go again next year? Because if you haven’t, there’s something missing. But what?

When you examine the various and disparate elements that go into a successful tradeshow marketing experience, you may be reminded of the famous question attributed to Henry Ford: “I know that half of my advertising dollars are wasted, but which half?”

Make no mistake, if you can’t identify the wasted parts of your tradeshow marketing efforts, you’ll continue to leak dollars and leads and return from shows with half-empty cups of leads.

It behooves you to examine all of the elements of your tradeshow marketing to determine where the inefficiencies lie:

Tradeshow booth ‘look and feel’ and function: does your booth draw the right people and once they get there, is it set up to handle them properly?
Booth graphics: do your graphics qualify and disqualify visitors as they arrive?
Tradeshow staff training: what’s the level of knowledge of staffers on your products and services and are they properly trained in how to interact with visitors in the chaotic environment of a tradeshow?
Are you attending shows that offer the best market for your products and services?
Social media marketing: do your SM marketing staffers understand social media and the art of engagement?

By hitting all cylinders properly, you’re actually doing two things: one, you’re putting a much more effective tradeshow marketing machine on the tradeshow floor, and two, you’re positioning your company at a much higher level than most of your competitors.

Given the stakes at risk and the amount of money you’re investing in your tradeshow marketing, I have one question for you:

Why wouldn’t you want to do all of these things properly and with excellence to significantly increase the odds of bringing home the bacon?

If you’re not willing to do that, perhaps you are not yet ready for tradeshow marketing.

Oh, and if you want to know where the inspiration for the title for this post came from…

January 19, 2011

Podcast Interview: Darren Hart, Tradeshow Magician and Presenter

A few weeks ago Darren Hart reached out to me and offered to submit a blog post that he’d written. It was a good post and I took him up on it. After checking a little deeper on who Darren is, I decided he might be a fun interview. After all, Darren has what I think is an interesting occupation: he uses magic combined with sales skills to generate leads for his tradeshow clients.

Darren and I got on the phone recently and discussed his approach to tradeshow marketing using magic in his presentations.

June 3, 2010

20 Tradeshow Exhibitor FAQs

Years ago websites started posting FAQ’s – Frequently Asked Questions – as a way of helping those on the site seeking answers to a variety of items. Somehow I felt that FAQ meant ‘Frequently ANSWERED Questions’ because that was the point: Answer the freakin’ questions! But sometimes the questions that you WANTED to ask never got answered. So therefore you never saw those questions show up in an FAQ list.

But if you think about it, there are a lot of Frequently ASKED Questions that go unanswered. Or maybe in this case they’re INFrequently Asked Questions. Either way, it presents an opportunity to see what some of those questions are…

Maybe you have answers for these?

What’s the theme song for a tradeshow manager?

How much sleep will I get when I’m in Vegas for the show? Will it matter?

Why do attendees ask such dumb questions? And why did my parents try to convince me that there’s no such thing as a stupid question?

Will the airlines ever actually give me a decent meal again in my lifetime?

What has the charge for extra luggage gone up to since the last time I booked a flight?

Where’s my freakin’ exhibit!?? It should have been here yesterday!

Why did I leave most of my business cards back at the office?

Why did I let my spouse convince me that since the show is in Anaheim we should double up, bring the kids and tag a couple of extra days on the trip at Disneyland?

How will I ever get away with giving my list of uncategorized leads to the sales department without them getting totally ticked at me?

Why is it that the most uncomfortable shoes I have are the ones I brought to wear all day at the show?

Where are those receipts I need for my expense report?

Why do those graphics look crappy here at the show when they looked fine at the office?

Where are our product samples?

Why does our hired ‘professional’ presenter have such bloodshot eyes?

The C-level celebrity wants HOW MUCH to appear at our booth?!

The drayage bill was HOW MUCH?!

You’re not going to put THAT photo on Facebook, are you?

Why didn’t you tell me the CEO was coming?

Can you make that espresso a double?

Can you make that martini a double?

No doubt you can add your own questions to our Exhibitor’s FAQ…feel free!

January 19, 2010

Core-Apps demo of “Follow Me” at NAMM

In October Jay Tokosch appeared on our podcast to discuss “Follow Me,” an iPhone app that is customizable for tradeshows to help direct you to various booths, locate yourself, and generally help your whole tradeshow experience.

Jay just sent me a note with a link to a YouTube video that Core-Apps just tossed up that demos the app. This quick video definitely shows how cool the app is.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP-VRiPYQew

Listen to the podcast with Jay here.

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Tradeshow presenting