Exhibiting to the Non-Attendee

The unfortunate product created by combining a struggling economy and face-to-face meetings has been a steady decline at tradeshows over the past 18 months. While this has increased the quality of the attendee, there’s still a large audience that your message is failing to reach. But down attendance is not synonymous with disinterest. In this climate, companies are being forced to send only individuals that are essential to their decision making process to events. Others simply opt out all together to alleviate the pinch. Still, there are a number of ways to market your brand to the face-to-face attendee and extend it to those who are missing.

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  USTREAM's Live Broadcaster App

  Live Updating – With the explosion of Social Media, using Twitter and Facebook are strategic methods to privy the non-attendee to important announcements in real-time. Even better, you can interact with those individuals and offer Q&A that can be supported by pictures and video clips. Plan ahead and send out at least 3 weeks notice to your target audience to allow them to follow you.

• YouTube - When 140 characters simply won’t do, use the power of video to display your product demos, presenters or to do a simple exhibit tour. Set up a playlist specifically for your event and develop pre and post show videos along with your content.

• Blogging – At the end of the day, write a quick summary of your experience; what you displayed, who you met with and give insights into the show to make your non-attendee feel as if they had been a part of it. Open it up to comments and engage with your audience’s questions and feedback.

• Streaming Video - With a little more planning, you can stream LIVE video at your exhibit. With Ustream and their free Live Broadcaster iPhone app, you can give your audience live interviews and product demos as they happen, in a simple and effective manner. Embed the video player on your website or blog and even interact with them by creating in-session polls.

• eNewsletter - At the conclusion of your event, send an email thanking those who attended your exhibit and give an overview of events to those who were unable to be a part of it. Integrate your tweets, comments & videos, along with others, to convey the experience of the exhibition.

Have you implemented any of these strategies? If so, what sort of results did you see?

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   Midori Connolly says:

   December 16, 2009 at 12:02 am

   Brilliant! Do you know what I love the most? You kept it so simple…these are very simple, easily executed steps with just a little careful pre-planning.
   This is a great way to generate interest in your brand and supplement brand identity with user-sourced content.
   Midori Connolly, Chief AVGirl
   Pulse Staging and Events, Inc.
   http://www.twitter.com/GreenA_V

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     Eric Lukazewski says:

     December 16, 2009 at 8:52 am

     Thank you for your comment and for illustrating a valuable point, Midori! It is VERY simple to implement these ideas. There is limitless value to event marketing, much of which, is not always in front of your face. Aside from the task at hand, events offer a platform to network and extend your brand. This era of technology & Social Media seems like a natural fit to accelerate those opportunities.

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