It's happening now, isn't it. Marketing and Finance have joined hands to come up with a special offer, the Graphic Design department have the added task of producing posters and stand dressing, the bulk branded packets of jelly beans have just arrived and are sitting under your desk and you are using every ounce of your strength not to eat them. Yep, it’s that time of year again – trade show time!
Before you go through the motions, stop and consider your trade show attendee. They are bombarded with information, they are limited by what they are willing to take in – your stand needs to grab their attention and be immediately worth their while for them to take the time to find out more.
Not long ago, I worked for a Telco which was rather out of the ordinary in that it served a niche market but behaved like a bull in a china shop. At each trade show, we splashed the place with our signature colour, we hired amazing promotional staff to roam the show giving out branded goodies and competition forms which drew people back to our stand (an effective way of spreading further than your standard 6 x 4 confine!) and we served fairy floss – yes fairy floss! – to all and sundry. Apart from being able to add the skill of Fairy Floss Extraordinaire to my resume, I can also add that whenever there was an award for best stand (and there were), we won (6 out of 6!)
The important thing is that the buzz we created sent people to our stand in droves, where our expert sales team then converted them into orders, with few exceptions. I’ll go into more detail in later blogs, but start by knowing what your target audience will respond to and draw them in - think outside the box (or stand!) Give them what they initially want, get them excited about your brand and make them want more of your product…rather like how you feel about those jelly beans under your desk!
