Exhibitor 2010 Series: Part 2 – Guerilla Marketing

This is the second part of a five part series discussing my recent takeaways for the Exhibitor 2010 Conference in Las Vegas, March 14-18, 2010. View Part 1 – Social Trailblazing.

During mid-morning Monday, I attended an intriguing session with Dax Callner, Using Social Media & Guerilla Marketing to Drive Booth Traffic. The examples and case studies shared opens path of creative exhibit marketing that furthers brand awareness, increases exhibit presence and attendance and pushes the envelope on traditional marketing and creativity.

Callner cited a recent video by Lady Gaga, which has gained a ton of viral attention, that pushes the boundaries on creative expression and integrated sponsorships, and proves that a delivered experience with content merits can be monetized with little detraction of substance value to audiences. An exhibit experience needs to be developed with your brand messaging as the nucleus in a format where creativity and content will rule.

Tossing aside tactics of traditional marketing routines, in signage, graphics, booth personalities and presentations, guerilla marketing for tradeshows extends beyond the philosophical and literal boundaries of your exhibit space. Can your strategy bend the rules and challenge propriety by saturating audiences at the welcome reception or the restaurants that skirt the convention center? Can you hack the system to exploit traditional barriers as simple obstacles that can be evaded? Identify the regulations. Define them. Defy them. But don’t break them.

Audiences feed in to forward actions, and your exhibit, despite size or location, can generate improved traffic and, more importantly, increased perceptions as creative influencers. Guerilla marketing for events needs guidelines for success however:

• Don’t kill ideas as unfeasible – find the feasibility
• Don’t annoy people (unless they are your competitors)
• Develop a game plan that enables flexibility
• Pilot ideas- try stuff out, then abandon it.
• Measure impact
• Have fun

Despite its title, the session didn’t generate many ideas or examples regarding the use of Social Media, in its current form, to generate booth traffic. However, the point was made that events ARE social media. Face to face meetings are the essential core that drives the social engine. The virtual networks and environments that are surrounding us are simply tools to enhance your existing presence in the marrow of interaction.

While many case studies shared related to high profile, technology based exhibitors, a question was posed in regards to guerilla marketing for small business. While no definitive solutions or ideas were presented, I believe an outside the box approach can be implemented despite limitations to budget or booth presence. I also believe that packaging guerilla marketing with proper social media structure can increase the ‘virality’ and audience impact.

What can your exhibit strategy do to extend boundaries and draw attendees? Can you utilize digital messages in locations where physical marketing is restricted? Can you transform attendees into brand surrogates?

For those who attended, what were your takeaways from this session? Can you cite good examples of guerilla marketing that you’ve seen at an event? What are other ways to challenge standards of traditional tradeshow marketing?

Continue to Exhibitor 2010 Series: Part 3 – Virtual Dangers

(image by LiveU4 via Wikipedia Creative Commons License)

1. 

   Christina says:

   March 20, 2010 at 7:46 pm

   Thanks for this. If anything, this session reinforced for me that it’s more than OK to abandon what’s traditional in favor of something new– and being OK if it fails. So many people grab on to what they think works until there are only shreds of it left. I’m fortunate enough to be in a position in my organization where it’s perfectly acceptable to toss out the old ways.

   What resonated with me and what made me want to stand up and cheer was when one attendee asked about employees tweeting and the potential liability. Dax responded (and I paraphrase), that we should just trust our employees. As someone who has spent some time in HR, I can’t support this theory enough. IT WORKS, and not just on Twitter.

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   • 

     Eric Lukazewski says:

     March 20, 2010 at 9:07 pm

     Christina, thanks for posting. It was great seeing your tweets from that session and insightful having another attendee’s perspective.

     I noticed the same theme you mention in the session and in an earlier session I attended, regarding the fact that it’s OK to fail, especially when it comes to pushing the boundaries on tradition. A leader who fails is still a leader, and I don’t believe that any form of forward thinking goes unnoticed.

     I also enjoyed that same very comment regarding trust in employees and had that further reinforced during a webinar session on Thursday where @JeffHurt stated, “You trust your employees on the phone and you trust them with email…Trust them with social media”

     I’m glad that Twitter brought us to connecting. I’ll be looking forward to your tweets and a chance to meet at Exhibitor 2011.

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2. 

   Adriano says:

   March 23, 2010 at 1:27 pm

   Hey Eric,
   This is a great topic as Geurilla marketing had a small but impactful place in our Exhibitor2010 campaign for kubik. You probably saw our puzzle-themed exhbit, but we also had a small background campaign to find the “missing piece”. We planted a large puzzle piece around the hall and nearby areas and followed up with mock “MISSING” posters and a twitter campaign.
   It certainly pushed the envelope of our comfort zone and we had to get a little permission from the show organizers, but in the end, it really augmented the user experience and created more buzz around our otherwise traditional campaign.
   We were worried it may flop, but as an add-on to our main efforts, that was a risk worth taking.

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     Eric Lukazewski says:

     March 23, 2010 at 2:11 pm

     Adriano, thanks for your comment and congratulations on what sounds like a successful campaign at Exhibitor. It’s great to see exhibitors taking those risks because I feel that it can further the marketing dollar, especially for those who may have a small booth space. I think there’s little doubt that the end user and consumers are taking more control of the marketing game and it’s critical to understand the new strategies that they will respond to. It’s time to throw out the playbook and look at tradeshow marketing from a different angle. Well done.

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3. 

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