How to be Social at a Tradeshow
Proving that creative marketing at events is just as important to the manufacturing world, ESAB North America launched a variety of actions to engage with their attendees at their most recent tradeshow.
ESAB integrated social media into their tradeshow marketing strategy at the FABTECH International & AWS Welding show in Chicago, November 15-18 2009. Their goal was to market effectively while interacting more with attendees in a different manner.
ESAB launched their Social Media campaign by introducing their fan page on Facebook in March of 2009 and following up with their Twitter page shortly after, in May.
“Social Media for us started as a curiosity, which then turned into an opportunity; an opportunity to connect with our customers in a way we never have and allow us to communicate directly with them,” says Carrie Godwin, Web Marketing Analyst at ESAB North America.
ESAB launched their campaign by sending out an e-newsletter in advance of the event, detailing products that would be on display. They also created a dedicated FABTECH event page on their website, which would serve as a portal for a variety of news and video updates throughout the show. In addition, they began posting to Twitter and Facebook a week before the event launch to generate buzz with giveaways and more product previews to followers.
The opening day of FABTECH, ESAB deployed frequent updates detailing product demos and more giveaways. ESAB passed out branded dogtags to visitors who attended the demos and throughout the day, sent “spotters” to award anyone wearing them with ESAB branded products, including welding helmets.
Within their own exhibit, ESAB set up kiosks for attendees to sign up to be a fan on Facebook. During the four day event, ESAB gained over 300 new fans.
Throughout the four day tradeshow, ESAB recorded video updates, including interviews and product demos, which were uploaded to the ESAB YouTube page and fed into the ESAB at FABTECH website. They utilized professional trade show presenter, Emilie Barta, to host the videos and conduct the on-camera interviews. In addition, Barta acted as a liaison to facilitate exhibit tours, product demos, and scheduled presentations, which reached over 1000 visitors during the show.
ESAB also used the power of others, including Barta, to convey their message further on Twitter. Barta, who also has implemented social media into her marketing strategies, used Twitter to convey her experience, promote ESAB’s presentations and product demos and retweet many of ESAB’s own updates. Together, they strategically broadcasted their messages to each individual’s group of followers. In addition, the exhibition organizers were retweeting any FABTECH-related news to create a buzz throughout the show, thus expanding their reach even further.
According to Barta, “ESAB recognizes the value of promotion and the value of students and is dedicated to connecting with them in a manner in which they are most apt to receive.”
Additionally, ESAB created a post-show video, which allowed those not able to attend a feeling of connection with the events that transcribed.
ESAB is extending their Social Media campaign far past tradeshows. They are using Facebook and Twitter on a daily basis to post educational and promotional materials, and more importantly, interact with their customers.
They are also in the works to launch a web video series entitled, “Jay & Jerry,” which will chronicle welding tips and advice by two of ESAB’s own employees.
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It is brilliant to see a post written about a non-tech organization using Social Media technologies to increase their interaction with thei community. Well written Eric!
This is an excellent example of just how easy it can be to create a solid strategy for all tradeshows and events. That is not to say that the execution is easy, but if you are commiteed to the idea, you can make anything happen.
I’ll also venture a guess that their community is stronger as a result fo the outreach and will continue to grow through the year.
Thanks for sharing Eric. Again, it’s a wonderful case study for what can be done.
This was an outstanding example of integrating traditional trade show marketing and social media to create a new and engaging experience for the exhibitor’s prospects. I followed Emilie Barta’s tweets on Twitter and can attest to how successful the marketing was for this event. More exhibitors should embrace these new media techniques as part of their trade show and events marketing programs.
Great post Eric and thank you for helping tear down the notion that SM just won’t work in certain industries.
I am curious if they mentioned how many of their audience (attendees not exhibitors) were using social media before the event?
Great question, Traci. We were pleasantly surprised at the number of our booth attendees who were already using social media personally.
For our Facebook promotion, I’d estimate upwards of 75% of the people we enlisted to sign up to be a Fan of ESAB on Facebook already had personal Facebook accounts. From the student to the seasoned industry veteran, we found that social media seemed to hold no borders.
While we were not expecting this, it contributed hugely to the success we experienced with our social media campaign at FABTECH.
Thank you for your interest.
Carrie Godwin
Web Marketing Analyst
ESAB Welding & Cutting Products
Thank you for the reply Carrie, this is good to know…perhaps there are a few closet tweets out there…more than we know/thought.