Standing out at a tradeshow is tricky, but standing out at a tradeshow for the tradeshow industry is even trickier. When the Stacey Lee Agency came to us for support in planning a booth strategy for Exhibitor 2010 – The World Conference and Exhibition on Tradeshow and Corporate Event Marketing, we were psyched for the challenge.
Established in 1989, the Stacey Lee Agency is widely recognized as a leading source for tradeshow and convention personnel, with services including exhibit booth hosts, spokesmodels, product specialists and demonstrators, interpreters, sales representatives, entertainers, brand ambassadors and more.
The target audience for Exhibitor 2010 consisted of the world’s top tradeshow and convention planners, managers, creative directors, talent bookers, corporate event organizers and other individuals in search of ways to: 1.) Keep their companies and clients on the cutting edge; and 2.) Meet the demands of busy consumers in a competitive convention atmosphere.
On a tradeshow floor, people leapfrog to the next conversation, the next idea, the next booth, and the average attention span is about nine seconds. We had to find a creative way to drive qualified traffic to the Stacey Lee Agency’s booth, to make the booth interactive and to give people a reason to remember the name. The Stacey Lee Agency’s secret sauce for success has always been the human element. In an effort to practice what they preach, we planned an exhibit strategy that would not only spark initial interest, but also would create a lasting emotional connection and generate long-term behavioral changes.
And so the Stacey Lee Agency Three-Ring Circus was born.
Under the 10’ x 20’ “Big Top”, the Stacey Lee Circus Ringmaster, who stood 10 feet tall on stilts, led fascinated onlookers through a 5-minute presentation consisting of three different acts; one in each ring.
Ring Onefeatured a spokesmodel, who enthusiastically performed an "elevator" pitch for Bringing it Home with Laura MacIntosh, an Emmy-nominated show on the ION network. Ring Twofeatured a product demonstrator, who engaged the crowd while showing them how to make the perfect cup of coffee using Melitta's Ready Set Joe. The Center Ring featured a different attention-grabbing performer everyday including an Elvis impersonator, a Jay Leno look-a-like, and a real Las Vegas showgirl. The show concluded with an aerial artist, whose stunt hoop hung 50 feet from the ceiling and 20 feet off the ground.
The Big Top performance was nothing short of jaw dropping. However, while Stacey Lee Agency professionals in business suits didn't stand out as much as the stilt walker and aerial artist, they were just as powerful when it came to generating leads and keeping the attention of potential clients at the show. Using proven sales techniques, the agency’s representatives were able to engage leads on an emotional level in order to convert them to sales.
The daily giveaways were a huge hit as well. Stacey Lee gave away an iPod Touch on the first two days and a Nintendo Wii system on day three. In order to qualify for a chance to win, guests had to have their show badge scanned by a Stacey Lee Agency Sales Representative. Those leads were then qualified and coded in the computer using a number system, making customized follow up a snap.
Photographers were on hand so guests could have their photo taken with the talent. The photos were then uploaded to Facebook using a special application, so people could log in to their own account, enter their own caption for the photo, and post it to their wall to share with all their friends. This strategy significantly increased the number of general impressions, as well as the Stacey Lee Agency Facebook Fan base.
Other marketing initiatives included:
Advertisements: The agency advertised on the Exhibitor Preview Pack, which was mailed to 2,000 registered attendees prior to the show; on the back page of the Exhibitor 2010 show guide, which was given to every registered guest; on the Exhibitor email newsletter, which also went out to registered attendees prior to the show; as well as on the Exhibitor web site, using animated GIFs. The intriguing circus design and creative verbiage teased and encouraged people to stop by SLA’s booth to “come see for themselves.”
The numbers speak for themselves. The Stacey Lee Agency re-launched its brand in a new way, raked in hundreds of new leads and created a memorable and ongoing campaign.
The team’s efforts resulted in 254 new leads at the show (154 percent over goal). The company collected 32 Exhibitor Preview Pack advertisements, which proved a 1.6% response rate for the pre-show mailers, 60% higher than SLA’s goal of 1%. The web banner advertisements received 373 page views and generated 51 click-throughs (13.7%). Since the show, they have received a total of eight RFPs attributed to our efforts at Exhibitor 2010.
The company’s image also improved, even among long-time clients who, armed with new knowledge about SLA’s website capabilities, began tapping the company for a wider range of services. The re-launch has SLA on track to experience an 80 percent growth in annual revenue compared to 2009.
While these five words may signal the end of a romantic relationship, they can also be the beginning of a great relationship between a brand and its consumers.
Too often, we marketers fail to think and act in business as we do in real life. We offer up solutions to problems of our own invention. We obsess over every competitive advantage. We mistakenly think our customers truly care about us.
They don’t. They’re just like you and me – more worried about making it to daycare on time than whether a product on the store shelf is 10 percent better than before. We’re pretty selfish by nature, putting the people, places and things we interact with in terms of our own experiences and emotions. It’s not you, it’s me.
What we really want is universal – to feel proud, powerful, excited, safe, loved, smart, sexy and whole. We want the promise of better tomorrow. These are the benefits we buy again and again.
Whether its complicated medical technology for doctors or tube of toothpaste for moms at Target, we don’t buy claims or jargon written entirely for senior management approval. We don’t buy strategies and tactics that speak more about what the brand is than who we become when we buy, use or flaunt it.
We do buy products that are relevant, that make us feel good. We pay attention when a brand asks us what we think (and will share if you ask nicely). We prefer conversations to monologues. We hate intrusive advertising, especially if it is all about you.
Understanding these simple facts of human nature is the difference between the clearance rack and global dominance, passing notice and brand evangelism. Just ask us. We’re the customer and we’re always right.
Chris Shigas sits down for a Q&A with FWV’s Jack Glasure:
CS. What did FWV do in Miami during the Super Bowl?
JG. FWV attends a number of large-scale events each year to activate fans and showcase our clients. Our first Super Bowl presence was back in the mid 90s. Since then, the Super Bowl has become an important service to our clients every year. This year in Miami, we drove a special event trailer from our Tampa office 30 days before the big game. We established a central location for our mobile office and client hospitality center.
CS. Which clients were you promoting at the Super Bowl?
JG. To name a few: we met with Hall of Fame Quarterback Jim Kelly and worked on his Hunter’s Hope Foundation. We participated in the NFL Celebrity Fishing Classic with Nick Schuyler whose book is being published by Harper Collins. We also served Melitta coffee and met with a prospective client looking to launch a national magazine.
CS. What brands did a good job with guerilla marketing at the Super Bowl?
JG. Tide had a clothesline running down Ocean Boulevard with interesting laundry attached and samples of the brand’s detergent. Pepsi distributed credentials. If you were spotted wearing the credentials, you had an opportunity to win prizes such as concert tickets and VIP party invitations.
Best of all was Bud Light. They rebranded an entire hotel on Collins Avenue as the Bud Light Hotel complete with façade, signage and lighting. They leveraged their investment by allowing key accounts to host parties at the hotel. For example, Hooters restaurant chain hosted their event at the Bud Light Hotel, as did Maxim Magazine and several other well-known brands.
CS. Any thoughts for someone interested in Super Bowl marketing next year?
JG. Arrive early. It will lower your costs as the final weekend approaches. Build relationships with concierges, doormen and service providers in advance for your celebrities and clients. It is also really important to get an early lay of the land and know where to park.
The marriage of NBC and Comcast feel right to me. ESPN has proven that owning sports content rights can be very profitable. Before ESPN, everyone thought sports programming was simply a nice lead-in to network programming or a compliment to news operations. ESPN proved that you can make money at sports and you don't need any other non-sports content to do that. Because markets are efficient, it was inevitable that someone would create a competitive programming and distribution business. Not that NBC-Comcast will be exactly like ESPN, but it will have the opportunity to do what ESPN does - be both global and local at the same time.
As mass markets divided into micro, niche and tribal markets over the last decade or so, ESPN was there to provide the very specific content to those consumers in search. While reaching these niche markets (billiards, bass fishing, NASCAR, high school sports, etc...), lately through multiple channels of distributions, ESPN was also able to pay the rights necessary to own the national/international content that drives large ratings and large revenues. This ability to customize programming to address hundreds of affinity groups while maintaining a national footprint for big events has made ESPN truly unique and powerful. It is good evidence of Al Ries's law of markets that tells us that over time, markets divide rather than converge.
The NBC-Comcast deal is good for consumers and for sports content providers. Robert Wussler, formerly head of CBS Sports and CBS Networks, used to tell me that nothing will ever be more important than the content. He told me, "be in the content business and you will always have programming partners." Neal Pilson, who followed Wussler at CBS Sports, commented recently that this was, "the biggest thing that has happened in my 40 years in broadcasting." With Comcast's regional sports networks and NBC's cable networks and national system, the new holdings company will have the flexibility to shift on demand to meet the customer demands of local and national audiences - creating the ability for marketers to target consumers efficiently in the process. This also very good news for the content providers. In order to continue to grow television revenues, leagues and content generators were all forced to consider the creation of their own networks. With two or three programmers possessing the wherewithal to pay those rights fees, that trend will likely slow or perhaps even end for now.
When we started brainstorming ideas for a press release with our client Coats and Bennett, a leading intellectual property law firm in the Southeast, the FWV team had just watched a moving YouTube video from Matt Nadeau of Rock Art Brewery in Vermont.
Nadeau faced a trademark dispute with the maker of Monster energy drinks over his “Vermonster” beer. Corporate giant Hansen Beverage Co. demanded that the small brewery stop selling, promoting and advertising their beer because of trademark issues. Specifically, Hansen Beverage claimed that the brewer’s use of “monster” as part of its trademark would confuse consumers into thinking their beer originated from or was somehow affiliated with Hansen Beverage. This situation is increasingly common as more companies aggressively protect their perceived intellectual property rights. The resulting high cost of legal battles can bankrupt a small company. Check out the YouTube video with the brewery’s side of the story:
The case provides a reminder to start thinking about the intellectual property aspects of a brand before it is introduced to market. I met with Anthony Biller, an attorney and member of Coats and Bennett who leads the firm’s litigation practice and chairs the Trademark Litigation committee of the American Bar Association’s Intellectual Property law section, to get his take on the issue. He explained that the firm “often sees marketers and business owners who may not fully appreciate the intellectual property implications of the creative choices behind adopting and marketing their brand.”
“Business owners can easily find themselves fending off brand bullies who want to challenge their right to use words, images and even colors in their marketing. In other cases, business owners walk face first into legitimate trademark infringement claims because they failed to take the necessary precautions up front,” Biller continued.
The concept of “Brand Bullies” resonated with our team. We worked with the firm on a press release outlining the consequences businesses could face with this situation and some important questions to consider:
What to do at the concept stage? Who really owns the content? How strong is this brand? How can I protect myself against brand bullies?
In the end, the small Vermont brewery was able to keep its Vermonster brand by broadcasting the injustice of Hansen Beverage’s demands via YouTube, brewery blogs and news coverage. Consumers and stores then began boycotting the Monster drink and a settlement agreement was quickly reached. This case was a remarkable victory for the little guy, but the vast majority of infringement disputes are resolved through expensive litigation, not publicity. What many businesses don’t realize is the cost of avoiding those fights at the initial stage of brand formation is a fraction of what it costs to resolve a charge of infringement.
Email is the most common form of electronic communication in the world today. It’s also a growing marketing tool used by corporations all over to send promotions, coupons, and product news and updates to their consumers. With so much traffic in your inbox, which emails do you decide to open?
Did you know?
In 2008, the estimated number of emails sent per day was approximately 210 billion (Statistics, extrapolations and counting by Radicati Group from August 2008).
More than 2 million emails are sent every second.
About 70 percent to 72 percent of emails might be spam and/or viruses.
The genuine emails are sent by around 1.3 billion email users.
Marketing messages are starting to lose their flare. Consumers are looking for email attempts that are genuine in their approach to reach them. Using a consumer’s first name to “hook” them to open is now being viewed as a fake attempt by many.
In a recent blog posted by MarketingProfs, DJ Waldow discusses a company called Spreadshirt. It caught his attention with a twist on the usual personalization email. Instead of using his name, Spreadshirt referenced his former place of residence with the subject line, “Durham Rocks!”
Inside, the copy reads, "You know that your hometown is awesome. But does everyone else? Now you can create your own customized hometown t-shirt and wear it proudly for the whole world to see."
According to Waldow, the email did two things well:
The subject line intrigued him. "Why?" he notes. "Because—even though I don't still live there—I love Durham. It does rock."
The copy got him to read the entire message. It was catchy, had a clear call-to-action and offered four ways to connect with the company on various social networks.
Aside from recognizing a few design issues, Waldow had only one minor criticism: He doesn't expect Spreadshirt to know he moved four months ago, but he does notice that an occasional email inviting subscribers to update preferences might have made the subject line even more relevant by mentioning his current location.
Consumers understand how corporations use their email addresses. If you are going to customize personal emails, use a detail in your subject line that subscribers aren’t expecting to see. Finally, reel them in with an appealing point that hooks them.
Finally, some good news… while we aren’t out of the woods yet, we are taking the first tentative steps along the path of economic recovery. The GDP rose to 3.5 percent last quarter, reversing the trend of the past four quarters. Stock prices are beginning to rise and 401-K’s recover. New unemployment claims are dropping, albeit slightly.
As many companies head into 2010 planning, the sun seems to be shining a bit brighter. While bottom-line performance metrics and profitability are more important than ever, this is an ideal time to create a roadmap, not just for the recovery, but a longer-term global economy that has changed before our very eyes.
- Decide where you want to go. Without a clear objective or definition for success, you will invariably risk wandering around lost until you eventually starve to death. Sure, you might luck out and stumble upon a really good idea, but that isn’t a sustainable way to do business.
- Decide what you do best then build an honest brand and communications around that. People can sense a fake, so this may involve not just repositioning your current brand, but creating a new service, product offering or way of doing business.
- After you decide what it is your brand does best, do some market and competitive research to identify shortcuts and look for road signs others in the same area might have missed. Borrow best practices other industries, reshaping them for your sector.
- Especially in this economy, most companies and brands simply don’t have the resources to appeal to everyone all of the time. Smart marketers know is always better to speak really well to a few people than say nothing at all to everyone. While you never want to disenfranchise or ignore someone willing to buy your product, speak most persuasively and frequently to those most critical to reaching your goal.
- Create an actionable map. While it is easy to get endlessly caught up in the vision and deciding where you want to go, if you don’t put one foot in front of the next you will never get anywhere. Brainstorm what steps need to happen and then rank them, prioritizing actions that impact or will delay others and look for small ways to start creating revenue. Assign mini-goals and check-points along the way.
- Keep checking behind you. Don’t be afraid of obstacles in your path or use setbacks as an excuse to abandon your vision. Learn from them, creating the skills and tools you need to more easily avoid or get around them in the future.
Business may never again be as easy as it was during the recent economic bubbles, so now is the time to create a clear vision, be realistic about the terrain and aim your company and brand toward the bright future that is returning to the horizon.
I am constantly asked by associates, friends and even family, “What is the key to being a good brand marketing consultant?” My simple answer is… Traditional Planning, Culturally Relevant Creativity, and Street-credible Activation.
Whether a Fortune 50 corporation, a top national brand, a niche market sports property or a lifestyle destination, our clients expect three basic things from FWV: 1) Understand my business like you have been here for years; 2) bring us ideas that we would never think of ourselves or that our corporate structure might suppress; and 3) activate a culturally relevant program – perfectly – that creates buzz and generates meaningful results. Traditional planning, culturally relevant creativity and flawless grassroots activation… Simple as that.
While promoting the Southern sweetness of Gold Peak Tea to sophisticated homemakers, selling a soulful experience to the grown-and-sexy of the CIAA Tournament, getting adventurous males to try Bulleit Bourbon or communicating Americana values to the mainstream Wrangler customer, FWV marketing programs combine solid planning with creative executions – delivering results that are more than promised and meaningful beyond initial expectations. People will forever consume products and services – especially those that are integral, and even enhancing, to their lifestyle – and when brand messaging is delivered smartly, it is seen as informative and welcomed, not intrusive and obnoxious.
Sounds easy, right? Sure, if you have the educational foundation, creative intuition, an understanding of all possible marketing tools and mediums, the ability to listen, the moxie to be held accountable and the work ethic to finish what you start. Oh yeah, and your brain needs to be constantly churning ideas and solutions. And, you can never rest!
Established in 1989, the Stacey Lee Agency is widely recognized as a leading source for tradeshow and convention personnel, with services including exhibit booth hosts, spokesmodels, product specialists and demonstrators, interpreters, sales representatives, entertainers, brand ambassadors and more.
Under the 10’ x 20’ “Big Top”, the Stacey Lee Circus Ringmaster, who stood 10 feet tall on stilts, led fascinated onlookers through a 5-minute presentation consisting of three different acts; one in each ring.
Best of all was Bud Light. They rebranded an entire hotel on Collins Avenue as the Bud Light Hotel complete with façade, signage and lighting. They leveraged their investment by allowing key accounts to host parties at the hotel. For example, Hooters restaurant chain hosted their event at the Bud Light Hotel, as did Maxim Magazine and several other well-known brands.
