TSMI's Trade Show Marketing Report

Ross Mayfield: Cheaper to Host than Attend

Ross, at the forefront of utilizing social networking technologies for hosting conferences and distributing content, offers his take on what's coming down the road.

Excerpt:

With the right social software, you can promote, coordinate and self-organize events with near zero cost. Location does matter, but not for everything. Now cost can be a good thing, as some events are better with a little exclusivity, but inclusive options provide alternatives that help the ecosystem as a whole.

A more wild thought is that event models almost correspond to the three modes of production identified by Benkler:
* Firms and contracts: invitation is the barrier to participation
* Markets and prices: price is the barrier to participation
* Commons-based peer: reputation is the barrier to participation

Yes, at the moment the technologies and execution of what Ross is discussing are primarily in the domain of geekdom (and marketing) events.  But they're just the super-early adopters. 

These ideas will become more mainstream.  It may take several years, but the model behind these concepts make sense.

As more "organic" events come online, power will shift from professional organizers to community leaders.  Consumers of educational content will be the winners.  "Large fee" events will need to further justify their high costs, with some exceptions (i.e. Gartner & Forrester-type events).

Ignore at your own peril.

MORE:  Just got to reading Sue's link to Dave Taylor on "The Critical Business Value of Attending Conferences". 

Conferences are all about the breaks, the dinners, the bar at the conference hotel after the day's done.

Why? Because the so-called educational aspect of a conference is something you can often receive by simply buying a book or a training DVD. That's not enough to get me to travel to another city. To me, the most important aspect of attending a conference is the opportunity to meet people that I wouldn't have otherwise ever met. It's the random, the chaotic, the unexpected, unplanned discovery.

Dave did note that Om Malik disagreed somewhat, stating that, "A highly networked professional could connect with anyone they want anyway," and that he (Om) wasn't particularly interested in connecting with random people anyway, it was once his circle of trusted experts started talking about someone that he became interested.

On an unrelated note, toward the end of the post, Dave mentions that his conversations with the people he meets at events aren't only about business.  They're about anything that's interesting.

You can call this the "art of small talk", but in fact being able to establish a one-to-one personal connection with other professionals in your field is critical to being a success. They're not customers or vendors, after all, they're people.

I get a kick out going to luncheons and parties and hearing vendors gush, "I just LOVE your show," when they run into an organizer they haven't met yet.  Why people put up with fools trying to ingratiate themselves I'll never know, especially when the vendor doesn't know a freaking thing about your event (other than that it's big) or you (and they just interrupted your their conversation on "anything else" - which in this instance happened to be about favorite recipes). 

Sometimes you just gotta feel for large organizers at our industry conferences.  It's almost like they've got targets painted on them. 

Economy: Next Recession to Start October 17

On the plus side, real estate and financial seminar producers may be in for a boom period for the rest of the year with low-cost seminars on educating homeowners to protect their assets.

For others, hard times are a-comin', according to Dana Blankenhorn of Moore's Law, who opines that the new bankruptcy laws coming in October will lead to a recession.

It's an interesting premise and quite logical. 

If all goes according to Dana's prophecy, here are some areas to watch:
- consumer show attendance on decline, with resulting fewer exhibitors next year
- fewer self-employed people attending B2B seminars
- less personal investment in continuing education
- organizers in bubble real estate markets (CT, MA, CA, NYC) may find it more difficult to recruit

Who knows... we may even start to see population shifts - like people moving back here to Pittsburgh for its quality affordable living!

Looks Like Travel Is Back On

Among the best indicators of travel industry health is attendance at NBTA (National Business Travel Association).  And from the looks of things, they're having a boon year, as this year's conference brought record attendance. 

Since we've been talking about the importance of content and keynotes today, interesting to note who NBTA tapped for their shindig:  Tom Ridge, Deborah Norville and John Major.

The article didn't say which of the keynote sessions was best attended, but I've got to think Major's was a big draw.  Ridge can often be almost unlistenable, although I'd imagine his talk on the registered traveler program was a must-attend.  Norville is nobody's idea of a deep thinker.  But Major - that was a stroke of luck on NBTA's part since Major could put the recent London bombings in context with travel. 

Not that you or I or anyone else wants more incidents like the London bombings.  But you have to think that's what attendees wanted to hear about, which made Major's appearance all the more timely. 

Would be interesting to hear more about Major's talk and attendee reaction to it.  Too bad NBTA has nothing posted on it.  Nor a blog (had to get that in).

On the way to Philly, the news station I was listening to kept harping on Philly International's traffic increasing by 30% or so, mostly due to the presence of Southwest and ATA.  Same is happening here in Pittsburgh since Southwest showed up - it's expected to be the #2 carrier after US Airways, supplanting Delta, once July data is tabulated.

Why Attend? Ask Carl and Joel.

Just commented on a post from Kevin on the importance of the first 10 minutes of your event's opening general session.  Kevin brings up some excellent points regarding excitement and the importance of having "rock star" keynotes if you can afford them.

But I don't know if the rock star treatment works if you don't have someone of Malcolm Gladwell's standing as your keynote.

Which brings us to another article that Sue pointed to.  This one an interview in Chief Marketer with Carl Pugh and Joel Davis on "What Makes a Conference Worth Attending?"

Excerpts:

CARL PUGH:  First and foremost, to get somebody’s attention, an event has to be relevant and important. Someone who reads your promotion for the event has to be able to say, “Wow, those are exactly the issues I’m grappling with right now. I’d love to hear how other people have solved those problems.”

The feeling of credibility comes from who’s producing the event. Is it a magazine I respect? An association of which I’m a member? Who are the keynotes? Are they people I’ve read about in the papers or the trade magazines and whom I’ve long admired from a distance? Those I’d like to hear from up close? Are the people giving the sessions names I recognize?

Probably the most granular form of credibility is who’s attending. Are my peers coming? My competitors?

There's an argument here for a community portal that answers the question of "Who's attending" a particular conference while also showing what other conferences these folks attend.  Think of a TSNN database with a Bloglines networking approach.  John Rice and I spoke briefly about such a concept while at SISO, although he was quick to point out there's no money in it at the moment.  Or next year.  Or probably the year after that.  But when it happens, remember you read about it here first.

If I could program it myself, it would be done already.  Stupid left brain.

JOEL DAVIS:  The first and really foremost critical component for success is getting people’s attention regarding the conference content. On some shows it’s a topic that gets people’s attention; on others it’s the roster of speakers. In travel, for example, the roster of speakers is really most important. On the other hand, when we do our satellite conference, it’s really what people are talking about that’s important. So every industry is different, but basically the point is that content is really what gets the senior-level executives in any industry interested and expected about an event.

But content has to be thought of broadly. Speakers are content. The subject is also content.

Sometimes of additional importance is the networking aspect. Who’s going to be there? Who am I going to meet, and who am I going to rub shoulders with? What types of contacts am I going to make there? We put a lot of emphasis on functions, receptions, parties, whatever can create networking.

And more and more these days there are matchmaking programs enabling people attending a conference to connect in advance and set up appointments. There’s also matchmaking that puts together people with like interests in an informal environment where they can talk with one another. We try to facilitate targeted forums, sponsored forums, or lunch meetings in smaller groups. In those groups you get a little more intimate, you get to know people.

If you, as a show marketer, are not involved with determining your event's conference content, you need to start getting involved yesterday.  For years we've heard that content is the magazine editorial.  It's why you choose to pay $4.95 at the newsstand.

Content is your product.  And so is the packaging of your content.

If you think packaging isn't important, think again.  The packaging is a big factor in why you visit some websites and not others.  If you can't get to what you want when you want to access it, you'll try a different website to find similar content. 

Same thing with conferences - the content is vitally important, but the packaging has to be well executed too.  Make it easy for attendees to connect with precisely the speakers (and exhibitors) they want to meet.  And make sure they get what they want when they sign up to attend.

In other words, add value to their experience of registering by showing them precisely where the content they want is - package it for them.  Then add more value when they attend by directing them to it on site and putting them in contact with others who share their interests.  Then add even more value after the event is over by keeping that content and networking available to them and even offering more.

While show marketing is still a numbers game, it's more and more about fostering relationships and using those relationships to build your numbers.

The (Un)Importance of Creative

An outside link and two comments from SISO led to this post on whether you're paying attention to the most important elements in your job.

First, the SISO comments:  (1) during the session on selling data, Angus Lindsay asked the audience, "Do you know where your data is?".  (2) in talking with Cris Levy on how and what he uses to sift through the incredible amounts of data he churns, he replied, "We outsource."

Second, the link, which is to a new book titled "Radical Careering".

What do these two things have to do with each other? 

Simple.  As a trade show marketer, your career is no longer about creative execution or meeting schedules.  It's about data.  And how to use that data for better attendee marketing.

Last year I lauded VNU's hiring of Michael Ousley from American Express for the purpose of moving toward data-driven marketing.  And if there was one overriding theme at SISO this year, it was how to make money from data.  You could even sense there were some CRM battles being waged between sponsoring organizations. 

Historically indie organizers have focused on the sales force automation (SFA) end of the CRM picture - integrating Goldmine-type apps with floorplans and accounting.  But exhibitor data is really only useful to the organizer (and perhaps to reg companies and others who sell products to exhibitors).  It's the attendee data that has the real value in the open market.

While I haven't seen any recent hires of Ousley's stature recently, there seems to be more energy exerted this year in learning how to capture and manage data, because better use of data = better results.

Well, duh.

I wonder how many people attending Cris Levy's session actually heard him say that he only reached his level of marketing efficiency through testing and more testing.  To its credit, Reed has been doing marketing testing recently, according to Bob James.  But I'm not aware of many other indie organizer (or association) that takes the time and effort to do true multi-cell testing.

In the direct mail industry, the pecking order of important elements goes like this:

1. List
2. Offer
3. Copy
4. Timing
5. Graphics

Yet our industry still celebrates "Art of the Show" awards.  Sure, data isn't very sexy, but there are hundreds of shows with great brochures that became extinct in the past dozen years.  If you discount IT shows that collapsed from the internet bubble, it's unlikely you'll find a single example of a show that managed its data well doing poorly.

Knowing and managing data for your shows can change the perception of marketing from one of a cost-center to one of a profit-center.  Because it's not only how you use data to promote your show, it's how you package it for use by the rest of the world.

If you can do that well, it should you'll be on track for bigger raises and bonuses.

And if that argument isn't enough to sway you, perhaps this point is:

Your best-looking trade show campaign won't get you hired by a consumer products company or an ad agency.  Nobody "out there" seriously considers trade show promotion as "real marketing".

However, your ability to work data into results is transferrable and will be respected by potential employers, regardless of industry.

So if you're married to the idea of being a creative director as a glamorous profession, have at it and good luck.  After all, tip #97 in "Radical Careering" suggests, "Do What You Are." 

But if instead, you want to be the best damn trade show marketer in the world, it's time to start focusing more on data and less on creative and production.  Reinvent yourself starting now.  And that's where the other 99 tips from Radical Careering come into play.

Contrast: ASAE vs. SISO in the Blog World

Yesterday morning during the blog session Mike Hough asked how blogs would affect growing his attendance.

I just commented to Ted Doyle that what Mike asked might be unanswerable at the moment.  We just don't know.  With the exception of blogging-oriented seminars like Gnomedex or Web 2.0, what all of us in space are conjecturing is simply theory until some non-tech show proves otherwise.

But... if you want to see how blogs can make a difference in how your event is marketed and presented to the "outside" world once attendees themselves are involved as "citizen journalists", ASAE's Xtreme ASAE Blog has done a remarkable job of capturing the content and experience of attending the event in Nashville. 

The core group of bloggers who started this were joined by numerous other participants covering everything from keynotes to comfy footwear to bartenders.  Plus they're using social networking tools like Flickr for photos and del.icio.us for links to expand beyond traditional community boundaries.

Once you've read my posts and Ted's on SISO, compare them with those from the Xtreme ASAE Blog and then you tell us which event seemed more interesting.  Did you have the same opinion of each event as you did a week ago?

SISO: Denise Paccione - Promoting Benefits vs. Features

Denise Paccione of Marketing Design Group led a late Tuesday morning marketing session on graphic design and copy. Denise has done similar sessions at SISO, of which one much-anticipated portion of the session is peer critiques of promo pieces that session attendees have brought with them.

Some of this may appear basic, but it's always good to revisit fundamentals you may have forgotten...

Denise opened with an explanation of “What” vs. “Why”, noting that many in our industry continue to mistakenly promote the What more than Why.

What = features (biggest, most comprehensive, etc.). Why = benefits (find products that will improve your sales, meet the key buyers in your industry). The test on whether something is a benefit is as simple as this: if you can't put “you will...” in front of a bullet point, it's not a benfit.

Example: Denise had been working with SEMA for 23 years on designing their brochures. Both Denise and SEMA thought they had maxed out attendee potential and were relying on feature-oriented messages. One day a new VP of marketing walks in and suggests that they haven't – there were still lots more people out there not attending.

A look at some new potential markets and a change to benefits copy generated a 33% increase in verified attendance the first year of the new campaign and 17% more the second.

Denise's 10 rules to grab attention and create impact:

• use a theme based on on “why” (benefits) message, not “what” (features)

• create exciting covers, both front and back (recipients often look at the mailing label first)

• write benefit-oriented headlines and subheads

• write concise copy, bulleted when possible. Less is more. Get an good editor or become one

• design should lead the reader through the copy, bringing their eyes to the points you want to emphasize

• use color effectively – but don't empty the Crayola box on your brochure

• find photos that your reader can relate to, use “on-the-job” images instead of show floor and conference session photos that look like they could be from any event

• make your mailers unusual shapes or sizes to they stand out in the mail

• include a clear call to action and create urgency – use incentive words (save, free, win)

• be consistent throughout your campaign to build recognition and awareness – studies show most people do really “see” your message until the third time they've received it

Wish I was able to talk more about the critiquing part of the session, but I didn't walk away with samples and didn't have my camera with. You'll just have to imagine.

One of the better takeaways was during a discussion on how to brand a regional series of shows. Denise thought it important that all events share the same creative treatment, whereas Karen Vogel pointed to an event she did in Philly some years back where she focused on the venue, marketed it to New Yorkers, and talked in “East Coast” language - “Pressed for time? See it all and be home for dinner” all presented in a graphic theme resembling an Amtrak ticket jacket. Attendance increased by 100%.

Cris Levy, in his session later in the day, also noted that his company, Shomex, will go so far as to change an event's name if it make sense for certain markets, even if it's the same exact event its regional brethren.

SISO PM: Chris Levy Talks Marketing Channels

I've seen Cris Levy speak before.  He's one of the very few show marketers I feel I can also learn something from.  Cris is a bit of a data wonk - and in talking to him and looking at some of the tools he's using to analyze data, I know I've got some work to do with my clients to be able to drill down to the types of data nuggets Cris exploits to build attendance.

While much of what Cris presented was similar to last year's show, I sat in again this year so I could share some of his thoughts over here.

Granted that Cris is involved in managing consumer shows for Shomex, most of his ideas are equally valid for trade events.

One thing Cris is fanatical about is capturing data.  He will do whatever it takes to get an opt-in email.  And while your web designer won't appreciate his suggestions, Cris reports a substantial increase in acquiring emails by asking people to subscribe on every single page of his sites, not just the home page or registration. 

The reason for doing this is clear.  More and more people finding shows and conferences from search engines.  When your site comes up on the search, the page they clickthrough to may not be your front door, but one of your other pages.  This person may not be familiar with your event, but now you have them at least for a few seconds - why not ask for information?

Cris is noted for using every media imaginable - print, broadcast, outdoor, online.  He ascribes to a theory that each media has a "sweet spot" - a specific time when ad efforts will be optimized.  For billboards that might be 3 weeks out, for newspapers, one week out, for radio three days out, etc.  He's spent the time and energy to determine, through testing, what the sweet spots are for each medium used for each of his shows in each venue.  That's a lot of variables to measure and track, but Cris is insistent that the data capture and analysis on media has helped him optimize his marketing budgets while increasing attendance.  (If you use a professional media buyer, this is what they're supposed to be doing, but so often don't).

I can't get into all of his tips here, but here are a couple.  He's found that if you're doing radio, you want to cluster your ads so that you "own" the sweet spot for your event.  In Cris's case, he'll often do 15-20 spots a day over a three day period the week before the show, since that's where his sweet spot is. 

He's also found that because of his relationships with his Clear Channel reps, who sell both radio and outdoor, he will often be tipped off about "remnant" billboards where the advertiser has purchased the space but isn't ready with creative (i.e. a behind-schedule movie release) which means Cris may get a $25K billboard for only $5K.

Cris is also a major proponent of "tell a friend" marketing.  But, he advises that you control the system for passalong so that you can control the look, feel and fields you capture.  Just like asking for email addresses, Cris suggests you put "tell a friend" or "send this page" on every page of your site.  If only 5% of your visitors do so, and you have 100,000 site visitors per month, that's another 5,000 outgoing messages for your show each month at no cost to you.

As much as Cris is a data wonk, he also knows that to get the information he wants, he's got to ask for it appropriately.  Which is why his registration forms are typically short.  He'll get only wat he needs, then ask for more info as his relationship with the attendee grows, usually as a quid pro quo - a value add in exchange for more data.

To illustrate this theory he used the Zagat model.  At first viewing Zagat's restaurant reviews was free.  Then one day Zagat asked for some personal information to view the reviews.  But that information was worth it to Cris so he provided it.  Then Zagat began to ask for money.  Again, Cris felt having the reviews was worth the $15 and paid it. 

However, had Zagat asked for the $15 immediately, he may not have paid.  He had to get "hooked" first on the need for the information Zagat provided.  So ask for a little data, get them hooked, ask for more personal data in exchange for content, then ask for more until you have what you need - while never at any time seeming intrusive.

Other notes on data capture:
- assign unique URLs to everything - ads, emails, radio, etc.
- measure, measure, measure
- view your web analytics reports regularly to see where traffic is coming from and figure out why (Cris views his daily) 
- know your ROI for each medium and each marketing impression
- know your audience's media habits
- analyze your audience's behavior - once they've found you online, where do they go next?  Who's visiting what content and how can you extrapolate that information to boost site visits and attendance?

Cris noted that some exhibitors are sophisticated enough to ask questions on web analytics, including one who recently told Shomex: "Unless you can show me that people from these companies are coming to your website, you're not targeting my audience."

Cris showed him the reports with the relevant URLs from the target companies and got the sale.

He wrapped up by noting that translating the data points into action is where the rubber meets the road.  All the data in the world is worthless if it is not acted upon.  Show managers must be willing to take risks and change - remembering that no decision is itself a decision.

To Cris, all the energy, effort and cost of data capture and analysis is worth it for Shomex.  Says Cris, "Results are the price you will have to pay for the big rewards."

SISO Tuesday AM: Blogging with FuelDog

Tom Maher and Ted Doyle of FuelDog moderated the session on blogs and RSS.  The session started with FuelDog showing their Flash tutorial for the first five minutes or so.  Then Ted took the audience through FuelDog's Syndicator blog and IDG's Wireless Sensing Expo blog (a FuelDog client) to show the various features offered by blog and RSS platforms that are not available via garden-variety web sites.

Ted's panelists include Doug Gold of IDG, Prescott Shibles, and Dave LaPage.

The first audience question was basically, "Talk to me on my level, how does this bring attendees to my show?"

While I can follow along easily, I can sense the discomfort of those around me as the explanations come from the panel.

This discomfort was exemplified by the very next question: "You keep talking about RSS and blogs as though we all understand this.  What's the difference and can you do one without the other?"

Right about now I'm actually feeling empathy for Ted.

Which brings up the difficulty of talking about blogs to an audience like SISO's which is generally not conversant on blog/RSS/search terminology like FuelDog or myself may be - so I'm sensing issues that our IAEM panel will need to address, specifically how to convey information in language accessible to the audience.

Kevin will be happy to know that the XtremeASAE Blog was shown - although there wasn't much of an accompanying discussion on the value of what the ASAE bloggers are achieving through their efforts.

We then took a look at the Siggraph blog - so far all tech shows, other than ASAE. 

The questions continued: "Is the only revenue stream available through blogs sponsor revenue?"  To which Prescott noted that one of his show blogs sold a $10,000 blog sponsorship, but also commented that there are no standards since blogs are relatively new.  Ted then added that since few people understand blogs, they are appropriate for packaging as part of overall "brand enhancement". 

Ted noted that Expophile is getting about 50 unique hits per day and pointed out that anyone who is in the audience who wants to sell to show organizers should be pretty happy with 50 "almost no-cost" leads every single day.  Prescott noted that the Siggraph blog is doing about 3,000 unique hits a day.

Uh, oh... now we're getting into podcasting.  Thankfully, after some promotion and explanation of the concept, particularly the benefit that podcasts can be played back at the listener's leisure (like you want to hear about trade shows in your car?), Prescott took the session back to reality with his comment: "You need adoption of blogs and RSS before you can really consider podcasting.  Plus, if you think it's difficult to regularly produce compelling content for a blog, it's much more difficult to compelling audio for podcasts."

Winding down... valiant effort, but it'll be interesting to learn what the evals were here..

At SISO: Tuesday AM

Got into Philly late - caught up with Jon Berton of ARSystems in the Wyndham lobby and we hopped over for the last 25 minutes or so of the opening reception. 

Although our appearance at the reception was little more than a drive-by, got to chat breifly with Carl Pugh, Tony Calanca, Jim Boney, Brian Sullivan and Karen Vogel.  Saw Dawn Jeffrey of JDEvents for first time in a decade.  She still looks like she did 10 years ago... me?  Not even close.  I'm mentioning Dawn specifically because she said last time I included her in a post it was the #3 result for her on Google... let's see where this one goes.

I registered on site this morning.  So I go into the NetworkingMatch with my registration info and lo and behold - I can't use the feature.  The database isn't linked with onsite registrations.  That sort of takes some of the sheen off of this for me.  Unless SISO simply didn't think to do it... best practices and all, y'know.

Will give some updates on the marketing sessions later in the day.

Unfortunately left my camera in the hotel... promise we'll get some photos tonight.