TSMI's Trade Show Marketing Report

Brain Dump

My aggregator is clogging up with stuff I'd been meaning to comment on over here.  So following are some thoughts on five interesting posts from earlier this year that I didn't get around to:

1. Godin:  No shortcuts.  We have more tools to market our shows with than we did a dozen years ago.  But make no mistake, marketing is more difficult than ever.  There are more choices for relevant content, more ways to receive it and more willingness to tune out marketing messages. 

Attendance is no longer built by simply acquiring mailing lists or doing more ad barters.  It is built on a combination of messaging and relationships.  Every message needs to have viral appeal, even if you never intended on doing a viral campaign.  It's about "Hey Bill, look at this!", which can be an ad, a mailer, an email or whatever.  Doesn't have to be an expensive Flash presentation.

Successful attendance campaigns are built on a series of incremental gains.  The fat snails are under the rocks.  Which means you'll have to get your hands dirty and lift.

2. Church of the Customer: Creating Customer Evangelists (pdf)

(Via Brand Autopsy).  Six steps to getting your customers to happily do word-of-mouth-marketing for you.  Of course the first step is create a GREAT product experience.  Otherwise you're wasting your time. 

All the more reason for marketing to be involved in every facet of show development: conference content, speaker recommendations, operations (those internet kiosks better fly and the food better be good, etc. etc. if you're aiming for a GREAT experience).

If your show is sales-driven or operations-driven, someone will come along and start eating away at you.  The only way to create a higher barrier to competition is to be marketing-driven.  When the competitive going gets tough, only the marketing-driven organization will have a customer base willing to cut you a break.  Once.  But that one more break than the alternatives.

3. Dana VanDen Heuvel:  Everything Is Built on Expectations.

Or more appropriately, "How to Keep Your Job".  Dana's post has less to do with marketing a specific event than it does surviving in your organization (unless you're the top person, natch). 

Personally I abhor this stuff.  Especially the "how".  The "how" is usually obvious to me but not to everyone else.  But I was never the best at spelling it out.  If it weren't for the fact that I make people enough money so they're willing to put up with me when I inevitably start doing my own thing, I be working aisle 9 at HomeDepot about now.

So I have to remind myself of the things on this list.  Maybe it comes naturally to you, but I thought I'd share anyway.

4. BrandAutopsy: 13 Rules for More Effective Advertising

This one is from all the way back in January.  Don't know why I didn't get around to it.  All 13 rules make complete sense.  No further comment needed.

5. Brand Mantra: Space for Change

Jennifer lists her top 25 of 43 suggestions from Bruce Mau's "Incomplete Manifesto for Growth"

Another one from back in January when I was too busy to post.  Mau has compiled a terrific list on which to build a career and a company. 

I've practiced 24 of these tips in one way or another most of my career.  But Process (#3) has been a bugaboo.  Never liked it until we started the coffee shop last year.  Now I understand.  Even your weakest people have to provide a terrific experience.  And you only get that by instilling the importance of process.

I still embrance the other 24 daily (or at least when I have the time).  Although lately I might have become too enamored of #25, which isn't always as beneficial as Mau thinks.

--------------------------------

I still have a boatload of stuff on copywriting from Nick Usborne and Bob Bly that I'll hold for now.  A lot of the other posts I've held are now past their usefulness date.

Will be out at Coverings all next week so posts may get even spottier than they've been past few weeks.

Your PR Sucks, Part 1

I expect we'll be doing a lot of "Your PR Sucks" posts in the coming months.  I'm leading a session at the IAEM annual on exactly this topic.

I was going to aim the content primarly towards organizers, but from Tim's laments on talking to PR staffs at exhibitor prospects, maybe I should direct some questions toward IAEM exhibitors as well.

Have you ever called your PR agency to see what they're saying about you or whether they can answer questions about your company intelligently?  If you haven't, pick up the phone now and give it a try.

I'm surprised some of the start-up tech companies Tim is pursuing bother to hire PR agencies.  One of the key attributes found at start-ups is product evangelism.  Why take that enthusiasm out of the equation by passing off inquiries to a third-party PR firm?

Not that I have a ton of experience with startups and tech firms, but during the couple of years I ran marketing at Passkey, we did it all ourselves.  And we got a ton of press (which Dahlia continues to generate on her own, bless her heart).

Long Copy vs. Short Copy

I know I'm getting old because there I remember a a time when people I worked with actually cared about this argument.

But I haven't seen anyone in our industry try a #10 letter package to sell a conference in a decade.

And that's a shame.  Our industry was never big on direct mail testing to begin with.  Years ago the great Anver Sulieman suggested that we didn't test because our offers changed year to year. 

Anver was right in regards to the event content and maybe dates/venue being different from one year to the next.  But it's still basically the same event every year marketed to same audience.  So why not test?

Every client and former employer I've worked with since the early 90s seems to work the same way in developing event campaigns:

- create a short copy theme
- build the graphics around the theme
- sell the graphics as the sexy part
- fill in the rest of the copy without impeding the graphics

In other words, the copywriter is more often than not taking direction from the graphic designer when it should be the other way around.

Just once, I'd like the opportunity to challenge the need for any graphics.  Let me write a great long-form letter with personality and emotion.  I firmly believe it will outpull any self-mailer or brochure you can come up with.  If I don't beat your best brochure, you get the letter for free.

I've been making that offer for four years.  And nobody has taken me up on it.

But long copy packages still work.

Sell Out Your Event Using Only Enewsletters and Blogs

It can be done as BL Ochman reports.

Of course, you may only be able to do today it if your seminar is about online marketing. 

But these online marketers are the early adopters.  The day is coming when many of you won't have to spend a fortune on direct mail and print ads.  Although for most that's a long way off.  Still, some tech shows and perhaps even professional conferences, might find success with only limited print and a greater reliance on newsletters and blogs.

In just about every market, we are witnessing a trend towards greater acceptance of narrowcasting.  More people are tuning out mass media and even their industry trade pubs, preferring instead to get quick hits of stories compiled by aggregators who publish (profitable) newsletters and (soon to be profitable) blogs.

And why not?  These vehicles save your attendees time and energy in finding only the stories they want more information about.  Time-conscious internet-savvy people don't want to spend time flipping through a lot of magazines, especially when someone else has done the work for them compiling just the necessary stuff.  And there's less ad clutter - on a few ads in each newsletter instead of pages upon pages in a magazine.

Added bonus - most magazines don't have timely international reach.  Enewsletters and blogs don't require postage, mail carriers or customs clearance to reach Poland or Thailand or South Africa.

Keep that in mind for next year's show.  If you're not already doing so, learn about your industry's enewsletters and blogs and whether you can buy ads and sponsorships on them.  In most cases you'll find them very affordable compared to what you're now paying for print.

If All Shows Were as Fun as AD:TECH, We'd Never Have to Worry About Attendance

AD:TECH just generates the most insane blog coverage of any US event attended by employable adults.

Here are a few posts we've seen this week on their SF event:

AdRants: Robin Williams and Hookers
AdRants: Wanna Be On Top?
Flashpoint: Meet Market
AdBumbs: AD:TECH Primer (scroll down almost to bottom for Warren's AD:TECH Dos and Donts)

Of course AD:TECH has its own blog, with a party summary for those sober enough to plan ahead, along with updates.

Or as Hespos put it, commenting on last November's event, here what AD:TECH means to attendees:

1. Skipping most/all of the sessions because we have too much work
2. Reading the Ad Tech Blog instead
3. Coordinating party schedules with "The Cool Team"
4. Sending all the lameoids to the wrong parties when they ask you where you'll be
5. Going four days without sleep
6. Scheduling one hour to visit the exhibit hall to snarf up some terrific swag

Whether that's a good thing or not is debatable.  But these are ad people and techs who know how to get the word out.  They don't need to see your booth.  They'll find you online.  And if you have a good party, they'll make sure their friends know.

We should all be so lucky that our attendees really look forward to our show coming to town.

Btw, I saw that JDEvents charged a mere $15,000 for sponsorship of the after-party.  Sponsor assumes all drink costs.  Seems like a bargain.

Japanese Banned from China IT Expo

This is very disturbing.

The shi is hitting the fan.  Everybody in our industry should be a least a little concerned over the way China is flexing its considerable political and economic muscle on the trade front.

Japanese companies are being barred from participating in a major IT exhibition in China, as rising political tension between the two countries spills over to the technology sector.

Mason Expo, the organizer of the upcoming China IT Expo 2005, said on its Web site that the sanction was prompted by recent actions taken by the Japanese government.

Specifically, the company took issue with Japan's decision to approve local history textbooks that played down the country's role as an aggressor in the Second World War. In addition, Japan's continued bid for a seat in the United Nations Security Council and its territorial dispute with China over Diaoyu Islands also are issues that have angered the global Chinese community, Mason Expo said.

Next thing you know they'll be block American companies from exhibiting because of US support for Taiwan.  It's really not a stretch.

One more reason to be alarmed at the Chinese capability to send our economy (and that of any other country tied to the Dollar) into a tailspin should they decide to call in the US debt.

It's getting ugly in Asia.  Politics and trade shows is no less pleasant that politics and the Olympics.

"Pure Brightness" indeed.  Can't wait for the Japanese response.

Lakh, That Would Be Huge

A little Monday morning math fun.

If the size of the new India Expo Center in Noida was actually as large as noted in the second paragraph of this report, it would easily become the eighth wonder of the world:

From Deepika Global:

The first phase of the country's largest exhibition centre, India Expo Centre and Mart, spread over 60 acres in Greater Noida, will be inaugurated by Uttar Pradesh Development Council Chairman Amar Singh on April 26.

The master plan of the mart provides 20,00,000 lakh sq ft for exhibition halls, exposition mart, restaurants, conference centre, food plaza, hotel, helipad and other facilities.

The first paragraph mentions 60 acres, which is 2,613,600 sq. ft.  So a two million sq. ft. complex could easily be accomodated.

However, the second paragraph mentions two million lakh.  A lakh equals 100,000.  Therefore, two million lakh would equal 200 billion square feet.

200 billion square feet = 4,591,368 acres = 7,174 square miles.  Which is more than the combined area of Connecticut and Rhode Island (you could even throw in DC and still have room for a nice subdevelopment).

Not that India couldn't do it if it really wanted to.  But could you imagine walking the hall?

On the Sale of Canon Communications and Creating for Acquisitions

Earlier this week it was announced that Apprise Media would acquire Canon Communications.

What's interesting to me about this is the backstory on how Canon Communications built itself into a significant media company with judiscious purchases of scraps from Reed and unproven start-ups from McGraw-Hill.  Also interesting is conjecutring on whether Apprise Media will be looking for more acquisitions in the same market.

Only a decade ago, Canon had but one franchise: medical device manufacturing.  But it was a strong franchise.  They were able to launch a product tabloid off the success of their primary editorial publication and were also able to launch two regional clones off the strength of their flagship show. 

And that franchise still exists today, stronger than ever and now with international versions of the domestic shows, publications and web sites. 

But over the past decade, Canon has added to its arsenal in an intriguing way - by buying "damaged goods" and acquiring startups before they have a chance to become competitors.

If you've been in the industry for more than a few years, you'll recall that Reed once challenged PMMI for supremacy in the packaging world with its WestPack/EastPack/SouthPack franchise.  That was before exhibitors revolted against Reed over costs associated with those shows.  They imploded very quickly in the late 90s and Canon was there to pick up the scraps.

In 1995, I was working with Rob Ingraham's Exposition Excellence with the charge to launch four shows within one year.  One of the shows I'd convinced Rob to do was a Boston-based electronics event to be called OEM Expo.  At that time there were significant contract issues with the IEEE's Electro shows, which was the category leader.  And that show was suffering.

I also convinced Rob to "reanimate" Reed's dead Design/West show.  Reed had stopped producing the coastal clones to its National Design show two years earlier.  Rob's organization was such that it could profitably run smaller shows where Reed couldn't.  He and I both felt that if we could get Design/West going again, then Design/East could follow the next year.

Additionally, we looked into going after Canon directly with a Midwest event in the medical instrumentional design arena.

While these shows were minor successes for Rob, he was not in a position to continue to run them and sold the lot to McGraw-Hill, which in turn, found operating these small shows not worth their time and effort.  However, Canon decided they were worth it and bought the lot, along with Modern Plastics magazine. 

Ten years later, none of the abovementioned shows could be described as wild successes.  On their own, they are simply unexciting middle-of-the-pack niche events. 

But when viewed as tactical components of an overall strategy, these shows complement Canon's franchise and expertise in the medical device niche, allowing for what is essentially a vertically integrated media strategy:  design/electronics/manufacturing/packaging for medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

None of the shows I worked on with Rob cost more than a quarter-million to produce at the time.  But those shows were never meant to make a lot of money, either.  They were created in order to be flipped immediately for cash and whatever small multiple was possible.

There are still many among us who've been in the industry awhile and maintain a dream of creating a show in order to sell it for a big multiple.  But keep in mind that the acquisitions market has changed.  Not every show will find a buyer.

Whereas in the 80s and 90s shows were bought almost exclusively on the basis of profitability, today's buyers are likely to consider strategic fit as important as profit. 

If you are really considering launching a show for the primary purpose of selling it, you have to know who's buying in the market where you want to launch.  And if they're buying.  Otherwise you might find yourself managing a show for longer than you planned.

Which, of course, is how you should be thinking anyway.

Soup For You at FMI

Normally we don't go out of our way to promote individual exhibitors at any show.  But we're making an exception because of the cultural significance of this particular exhibitor.

Soup Kitchen International and Original SoupMan (TM) Al Yeganeh (that's not him on the left) is introducing a line of "heat n' serve" soups at next week's Food Marketing Institute show at McCormick.

The article doesn't indicate whether Al himself will be at the booth.  But one can only imagine that if he is, the booth will be crowded with folks determined to rile him and get a "No soup for you" response.

Of course, people might be disappointed to meet the real Al Yeganeh (at left) instead of the Soup Nazi character portrayed by Larry Thomas.

But perhaps Yeganeh will show a bit of his legendary surliness by the time he gets to Chicago.  His restaurant has been closed for awhile due to franchise remodeling, so he may need the outlet.  And it's getting pretty close to the time of year when he usually shuts down to go winter in Argentina.

Inside E3: Educating Consumers On What Goes Into the Show

In an article published Friday, Game Daily Biz interviewed E3 show manager Mary Dolaher on marketing and security at this May's event.

It's an article worth reading for a couple of reasons - first, to get an idea of what goes into security at E3; second, is that it's the type of article that most, if not all, shows should consider doing with their own industry pubs.

While the interview doesn't break any news on marketing innovations, the portions of the interview involving security are interesting. 

The nature of E3 demands a level of security that is much higher than most of us face.  After attendees are screened by E3 staff for buyer qualifications, the list is sent to the Feds, who examine it to look for registrants with prior records of software and game pirating or those on government watch lists. 

Also of interest is how Dolaher stays one step ahead of badge counterfeiters and has implemented one of our industry's tightest show security programs, which includes both uniformed LAPD and undercover cops on patrol throughout the show to prevent theft and vandalism.

It's good to see that a gaming industry publication was interested in running an article like this one. 

In fact, we'd recommend this story angle for all show managers. 

Most attendees (and unfortunately too many exhibitors) still have no idea what goes into producing a show or conference.  Offering an insider's "behind-the-scenes" look at your show provides both a humanizing element and demonstrates the value add that the show management team provides to the industry. 

You can argue that such an article may even more valuable than the usual release of show statistics that many of your audience will greet with skepticism, if they read it at all.