As an Apple fanboy, I’m immersed in the culture of the brand and pay special attention to not only HOW they effectively market, but its effect on their customers and the feelings that are evoked. Much of their success comes from being able to market an element of mystery. Was the iPhone 4 leak truly a “leak”? Either way, it undoubtedly increased the buzz and viral effect around a product that was nothing more than speculation at the time. Every since the launch, Apple hasn’t been able to keep the new  iPhone 4 on the shelf.

However, there’s a balance in which your message needs to be clear and established. The above image was something I captured while driving by a local fast food chain. Is this message clouded in mystery? Yes. It is clear and established? Absolutely not. It could be anything from a hoagie to that nasty peanut butter and Miracle Whip sandwich that my dad ate. The product has been lost in a vague message, and frankly, I’m just not that curious to find out.

Take a look at your exhibit marketing strategy. Are you selling sandwiches? Has your brand been lost in the marketing purgatory of “check out our exhibit” and “our service is superior” messaging? It’s important to spend time effectively transferring your marketing message to an exhibit environment and ensure that a few things are clearly strategized:

Why are you there?

An elementary question, it may seem, but truly ask yourself and your staff WHY you have elected to exhibit at a specific event. Is it to connect with existing customers or to make new ones? Is it to simply maintain a presence in your industry? Is it to develop partnerships and relationships with other exhibitors and attendees? Identifying the WHY is necessary to addressing the WHAT and HOW for your messaging.

Identify your TRUE audience

Had that sandwich been revealed to me more clearly, there’s still a good chance that I wouldn’t have stopped to explore it. It very well may have been that nasty peanut butter and Miracle Whip sandwich. But there’s also a chance, had it  been conveyed to me properly, that it sounded so good that I risked a barrel role out of my car to try it.

We often mistaken EVERYONE as our audience. It’s important to understand that 30,000 attendees are not all potential customers. When you attempt to mass market, you begin to generalize your message to appeal to a larger amount, when in fact you’ve simply watered it down to those who may be your true audience. Understand that your product or service has a narrow, more specific target, and don’t compromise.

Focus on the Attraction

Creativity is a key component to developing an attractive message for your product or service. But don’t get too cute and sacrifice clarity for an attempt at creating an interest. Focus on what makes it great. Maybe “Try our New Spicy Chicken Sandwich” is a bit more specific, but something like “Free Glass of Milk with our New Spicy Chicken Sandwich” raises the attraction without sacrificing the message.

What examples have you seen, in or outside the exhibit world, that have stood out to you as strong, creative and clear messaging?

Las Vegas Convention attendance rose 3.1% in May, according to a recent report from the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority (LVCA). It marks the third consecutive month of increased traffic even though the overall amount of shows and events continues to decline.

Attendance isn’t the only metric that has experienced a recent uptick. Room rates in Vegas are up 2% to just over $98 per night — still a relative bargain for sin city.

Courtesy of TSNN’s blog, http://www.tsnn.com/blog/?p=2628

I recently had a chance to attend the worlds largest hospitality technology show, I had this opportunity thanks to two of Echelon’s newest clients Cetis, Inc. and Intelity who were exhibiting.  Cetis, Inc. is a leader in hospitality and enterprise phones, you can trace their roots back to 1983 (who doesnt love the 80′s).  Intelity is a fairly new technology company that gives guests of the hotel the capability to order any and all services offered by the property through the use of your iPad, iPhone and other devices.  Simply put, you can order room service, valet service, etc all with one touch on your favorite device.

The Cetis exhibit was a custom rental that we designed to be warm and inviting, a place that you might want to sit down and hang out in.  We accomplished this by including a raised conference/meeting area, using rich colors, large fabric identity sails, an architectural wall and a large product display area.

Intelity is also a custom rental, our goal was to attract attendees to the exhibit with the use large story board graphics and highly visible demo areas.  We provided a overhead hanging sign, a conference space on the interior, and six custom kiosks that were used for product demonstrations and provided excellent space for large graphic murals.

I enjoyed working with both teams and was pleased to hear great feedback about the show in general as attendance was up from the 2009 show.

Great read from the Institute for Study of Business Markets (ISBM) on the life cycle of a sales lead after it’s generated by a marketing department.  According to their findings, nearly 70% of leads fall into the “black hole” where they’re simply not pursued by the sales force at all.  The reason for this is generally associated with several varying factors competing with sales reps time, ability to cultivate new relationships, etc.

The question you have to ask yourself as a marketer is are your trade show leads getting sucked into a black hole, and if so, why?

Courtesy of AMA’s Marketing Power News.

As a student of fine arts, I’ve been subjected to numerous stylistic lessons on drawing, painting and design. From the basic principles of color to aesthetics of element layouts, I’ve been engrained with ideas to enhance pleasure to the eye. Beyond that, artistic expression, boundaries and interpretation are all defined by its creator and how it’s best served to deliver its message to the viewer.

Despite freedom beyond extraordinary limitations, most of us are still boxed in by tradition and habitual conformity. In one particular exercise, our classroom was given an assignment to produce an outdoor landscape, consisting of fields, grasses and trees. Regardless of artistic talent, regardless of instructional enlightenment and regardless of that expressive freedom, a vast majority of students struggled to articulate beyond the idea that grass was to be depicted by skewed lines, trees were to be depicted by a morphed set of circles and sun light was a shape.

Creating an optimal environment for receiving information must first come with a deconstruction and rebuilding of our own principles and habits for what our audiences need. Despite an increasing palette of tools from which to create this channel, we often design around a vanilla box of standards that our habits have allowed us to fall in love with. It’s time to kill habit and blow up that vanilla box. It’s time to represent our grasses as dancing strokes in wind, illustrate trees as a silhouettes of color and sun light as an array of warmth and shade.

Instead of strictly focusing on the message, the channel for delivery is most critical and its design is what will be the ultimate successor. And in order to properly design this channel, we must identify the medium and palette of tools for which our audiences will be receptive. As a sponge for information, I know that not everything that I see, hear, taste, smell or touch will be retained. However, I know that if that channel or environment has entrenched a memory, the message is likely to endure as well.

Identifying your palette is predicated on your message and your audience. Picasso painted “The Old Guitarist” after the death of a close friend and much of his emotion is expressed through the palette in which he used. That message would be muddied had the painting been a watercolor with bright, warm colors. Understand you message, destroy the habitual, traditional palette of delivery and design a new one that better suits your evolving audience.

I’m a big fan of step taking as a metaphor for building success. I’m also a believer that one way to take steps is to envision yourself at the top and take those steps backward. A new friend of mine, Lisa Petrilli, recently wrote about the importance of identifying your vision before you start building. Instead of starting at the beginning and succumbing to the vanilla box, identify what success looks like in your meeting or exhibit space. What does a satisfied attendee look like? What have they taken away? This is not to be defined by comment cards or surveys…this is your message, idealistic and received effectively and pure. Defining this success is the first step, followed by the backward steps. And with each of those, identify the palette of tools that make it possible.

Yield to the cultured routines for developing your canvas of learning. Put habits inside your vanilla box…then burn it to the ground.

(image by Tony the Misfit via Flickr Creative Commons License)

Average open rates for house email lists are nearly 20 percent, according to a recent findings of the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) 2010 Response Rate Trend Report.  That should come as encouraging news for all of you direct marketers out there.  The findings also found that conversion rates for house lists averaged 3.72 percent, which is considerably higher than prospect lists which average open rate was 1.38 percent.

The numbers don’t across as staggering at first but look at this way and this is just simple math.  Let’s say you email a list of 100,000.  In the time that it takes you to send the email you’ve made 20,000 impressions and if the numbers hold true, 1,000 new customers.

Of course, there is the right way to email marketing, which I don’t claim to know, but usually involves the help of a copy writer, design agency, etc. to ensure your message is on point.  And then there is the wrong way, which usually results in you just alienating yourself from a list of potential customers.  Below is a great visual of this (courtesy of Hubspot).

One final thought from the report, telemarketing is still king when it comes to response rates (6.16 percent), just another reminder that your sales team still has to get out there and pound the phones.

What do you think, are these numbers holding true for your company?  Is email marketing really that effective or do you think that the aging cold calling is still most effective?

Events are entering a new era, and social media is becoming an increasingly important and visible element in the transformation of events.  As events evolve away from fixed, didactic experiences to more collaborative, fluid, and participatory experiences, social media has become increasingly integral to the event experience.

As this white paper demonstrates, particularly through key case studies, evidence is mounting that social media is having a significant impact on a whole range of event functions.  In fact, social media has become central to the success of a growing number of events, and entire events have been developed around social media.

The experts interviewed for this white paper lend credence to the notion that social media is truly transforming events into more dynamic, enduring, and rewarding experiences for attendees, event producers, speakers, and exhibitors alike.  But they also stress the importance of judiciously applying social media in events to achieve the right impact, and caution against frittering away social media applications in events with haphazard implementation and underdeveloped strategies.

This white paper is designed to offer a broader perspective on the role of social media in events, and highlight key strategies for maximizing the impact of social media in events.

Simply fill out this form to download the nine-page report. Your information will not be used or distributed in any way.

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How many times have you heard someone say or been told that it isn’t that hard to execute an exhibit or trade show event?  If you’re like me, then more than you care to recall.  Well, it’s true.  You don’t have to have to be a genius to be a successful trade show coordinator or marketing manager (or account lead at an exhibit firm); however, you do have to be exceptionally good at two things.  Communication and organization.  For the purpose of this post I’m going to focus on organization.  And when I say organization, I’m talking about thoughtful preparation and attention to details.  If your goal is to manage a successful trade show event or any other marketing event for that matter, you have to the right system in place first.  The following are five steps that will help you along the way.

Image Courtesy of Jeffrey Beall's Flickr Stream

I have to preface the remainder of this blog by acknowledging that mistakes an oversights WILL HAPPEN.  It’s the only consistent rule in this industry.  The goal is here is to be as highly prepared as possible so that you can avoid mistakes and mitigate their impact if needed.

1. Write A Killer Event Marketing Plan: this is your chance to establish goals and objectives for the event.  It will outline your reason for being at the event (key demographics, competitors, etc.) and give you something to measure your overall success after all is said and done.  For help writing your plan, I recommend you start with Allison Saget’s (yes she’s a friend) proven Event BLT methods .
   
2. Get A Handle On Logistics: open up a folder (electronic and physical) to track all event related information.  At Echelon, we call these job bags.  Inside every job bag is all client service orders, graphic layouts, floor plans, etc.  If it relates to your event, the information is added to the job bag.  It’s how we keep track of your info so that a job is successful from start to end.
3. Prepare Yourself for Travel: this requires a little bit of time and effort that will result in a huge payoff in the end.  Reference our top trade show tips.
4. Update Critical Data When Changes Occur: save yourself headaches down the road by making detailed notes to your shipping manifests, packing lists or whatever you want to call it.  There are hundreds of parts and pieces that go into an exhibit property so do yourself a favor and keep track of where everything is stored when its not in use.  There’s nothing more frustrating than having to pull four carpenters away from something productive in order to search for a misplaced set of graphics, hardware, etc.
5. Download Experiences With Your Team: behind every good marketing events professional is an even better support network.  Of course you should you rely on these gifted people for help before and during your event, but it’s equally important that you bring them into the post-event meetings so that they’re apart of your successes and have a complete picture of the project.

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I hate cars. As much as I rely on them to get me around, I despise the care that’s needed to keep them running. I’m automotive illiterate. My dad showed me how to change a tire, change the oil and other basics for car maintenance, but I quickly learned as an adult that opening my wallet keeps my hands clean from dirt and grime. Even still, I tend to avoid an auto mechanic like a pack of rabid raccoons.

Recently, I had been in need of brakes from my car, but as my quest was to avoid the automotive dentist, I put it off and put it off….until I noticed a nasty grinding and squeaking sound from my car. It was unavoidable now. My presence was known for miles with the hideous sound and making the issue an afterthought had now become the first thing attributed with me on the road.

Tradeshow exhibitors often fall vicim to this routine. From exhibit planning, service orders, shipping, graphics and more, there’s a number of items, intentional or not, that are often overlooked. Some exhibitors accept this as part of the process. They sacrifice here to ensure their resources are spent over there. This stigma is simply bogus and the battle for tradeshow sanity can be won if you commit to the battlefront with a proper strategy. Avoid your small oversights and negligence to grow into a nasty representation of your exhibit brand.

Have a Service Team – If you’re a event marketer for your company, nothing would be better of your time than to do that. The saddest thing to see is a marketing strategy that has been killed because of the hours a company has spent simply getting to an event. Enlist members from your company to handle the logistics and services, while you can focus on making your event a success.

Exhaust your Resources - Are you working with an exhibit company? If so, let them take some of the pressure from you and your team. Many exhibit companies will coordinate service logistics and many have ties to best management practices. Is your event in New York but you live in Phoenix? Ask your exhibit company to assist with recommendations for carriers and local labor if you’re in unfamiliar territory. Often times their knowledge and relationships with these service providers means cost savings for you.

Detail your Shipments – There’s one undebatable waste of dollars – Time. Your time, employee’s time, laborer’s time is not meant to be utilized tracking down your newly printed set of brochures on a floor of crates a boxes. Take the time to itemize every box as to its content, and develop a system to easily identify items for quick and easy access. If you’re missing a critical component for your exhibit success, that success may take a vacation.

Don’t Sacrifice Quality for Quantity - Be wise with your budget. Having a large 50×50 island is nice, but does little good if you’ve sacrificed accurate brand representation to get in that space. Instead, construct a vision for your brand and identify it through all levels of representation; exhibit structure, graphics, colors, lighting, etc. Let your brand dictate the space and not the other way around.

Chances are, you’ve been successful in building an image, a brand around your company. People associate your company’s name with an identity, be it quality, service, professionalism, etc. Afterthoughts are little gremlins who  attack those attributes and even the littlest one can overshadow the most firm strategy. Destroy those gremlins with proper planning and systematic execution.

As marketers, we must embrace the task of also being educators to our clients. We must first give our customers what they expect; delivery of services and goods. But much of what ‘sells’ somebody is beyond your baseline of services. What you offer beyond expectations is what garnishes trust and establishment as an industry leader.

The Social Deficiency

It’s been interesting to watch the changing tone of Social Media conversations. “Isn’t this shiny object great?!” has changed to “Hey, this shiny object can help your business!” to now starting to identify ”here’s how you can use the shiny object.” Even still, I shutter to think that the majority of our customers are listening, let alone looking for us. The tone of the conversation is that of throwing darts in the dark.

Our customers and audiences need to be grown and harvested. We understand that attention is needed for this to happen, but have you found the right seeds? Are you laying the soil and preparing the area for these customers to grow? Without giving them a foundation, and understanding of the landscape of which they are to receive your messaging and nourishment, there’s nothing to establish roots.

Heidi Thorne, promotion products marketing expert, accurately points out that by staying “ahead of the curve” and running towards new strategies, we risk leaving our customers behind. What good does it do you to learn a new language that nobody speaks?

The emergence of Social Media has been a bit of a rat race. Much of its utilization from business has been to “stay ahead of the curve.” While there is certainly value in keeping an edge in your industry and establishing a thought leader role, who is aware of it if you’re alienating your customers in the process?

If a Social Media strategy grows in a forest and nobody is there to notice, does it ever make a sound?

Guidance = Maturation

Education goes beyond Social Media. Some customers know what they want and they simply want the fastest, most efficient and most economic way of getting it. But some simply think they know what they want. There are often opportunities of guidance for our customers that go beyond any immediate benefits of “upcharges” or added services. In fact, the quicker you can identify the problem and generate a solution, the faster you can incorporate its resolution into your baseline.

Nobody wants to be oversold on an idea beyond their original expectations. But providing a premium service when expectations are for a standard service is invaluable to your customer, and eventually, you.

You might be an Alienator….

If you incorporate a project strategy to benefit your needs and overshadow your customer needs….you might be an Alienator.

If your primary goals are to exceed competition….you might be an Alienator.

If your objectives differ from your customers…you might be an Alienator.

If your social audience consists of industry professionals, but little of your customers…you might be an Alienator.

If you listen more to the “next big trend” instead of listening to customer needs…you might be an Alienator.

What have you done to keep from alienating customers? What benefits have you seen from being an educator on top of your service to them?

(image by Phillie Casablanca via Flickr Creative Commons license)