Fork In The Road Blog

Events: Technology. Design. Strategy.

Marketing Trade Shows as Content: The Sequel

My previous post, Marketing Trade Shows as Content, focused on the concept of using exhibitor-produced content to market a show and build a community. Traci Browne featured the topic on #expochat last week and the discussion yielded some excellent ideas on exactly how exhibition organizers can help exhibitors create and promote good content:

Helmet Cams—It started with disposable cameras. Organizers would hand them out to exhibitors and attendees and ask them to capture the most relevant moments of the trade show. With the advent of Flip cameras, participants were able to grab actual video footage of the event (in addition to still photos) and YouTube came alive with everything from cooking demos to flash mobs. But, as far as we can tell, no one has given exhibitors wearable cameras (dubbed helmet cams by the #expochat group) to chronicle the exhibitors’ experiences first-hand.

Content Marketing Tool Kit—Not everyone understands the difference between shareable content and a sales pitch. Perhaps exhibitors would benefit from training and materials on how to convert press releases, show demos, and YouTube videos into shareable content. The kit would also include advice for exhibitors on how to roll the costs for ebooks, case studies, and research into their trade show budgets.

Exhibitor Concierge—The concierge idea shouldn’t be limited to theater tickets and restaurant reservations. An exhibitor concierge can help match exhibitors with opportunities—made available by the organization—before, during, and after the show to share their content.

Exhibitor Innovation Support—Show organizers from TS2 2010 (co-located with the IAEE Mid-Year Meeting) helped The Expo Group promote their in-booth broadcast studio called the In Zone, “an interactive communications pavilion,” by publishing the In Zone schedule on their website. The live-streamed coverage from the In Zone gained visibility for The Expo Group and attracted attention for the event.

Trade Show TV—Not every exhibitor has the resources to build its own in-booth studio, however, organizers can provide space and/or equipment and resources for a TV station to capture content on site. In 2011, The International Housewares Show organized in-booth interviews with a roving reporter like this one:  Another option is third-party platforms such as the Pulse Network, or TMCnet.

Digital Content Carousel—an updated version of the brochure carousel might be coming to a trade show near you. This example of kiosks in Mexico City that allow citizens to download music, ringtones, audio books, and videos street side is a prime example of the types of support that organizers could offer to exhibitors in the future. Live attendees could obtain digital content—white papers, videos, ebooks—by connecting an external storage device to the kiosk on site and remote participants could access this “one-stop-shop” via the Internet.

Takeaways: Once trade show organizers begin to think about exhibitor offerings as valuable assets, the innovation process can begin. As part of the new rules of marketing, event producers can and should take an active role in supporting the creation and dissemination of exhibitor content.

Marketing Trade Shows as Content

Two recent posts from Midcourse Corrections on leveraging content marketing and face-to-face events as part of a content marketing strategy, helped me visualize trade shows as content. As such, trade show organizers can begin to think about new ways to market their events and build their communities by becoming content curators, viewing their exhibitors as content producers, and positioning the live event as the “product” being offered for sale.

To adopt this line of thinking, exhibition producers must take one very big leap of faith by believing that the distribution of exhibitor content outside the framework of the live trade show will NOT diminish the value of the face-to-face event (the old “why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free” adage) and will, in fact, drive attendance and exhibitor participation at the live event.

In the “tradeshows as content” strategy, exhibitors are reservoirs of content, filled to the brim with product brochures, white papers, product demos, press kits, video tutorials, and sales presentations. Organizers curate, and re-purpose these sales pitches into a continuous flow of solution-generating, idea-sparking, and valuable content that sells registrations.

The concept of exhibition organizers as content curators isn’t new.  A decade ago, trade publications, owned by or in partnership with the exhibition producers, filled the role of curators by pushing exhibitors and attendees to the live event with ads, case studies, and editorial.

Today, event organizers have transcended print magazines (in many cases) and moved to other more profitable or far-reaching platforms for exhibitor content distribution: virtual trade shows, Webinars, online publications, blogs, and mobile apps. This move has solidified their positions as curators.

Here are some specific ways that exhibition organizers can tap into the vast content resources at their disposal to drive business:

  • Create an online (accessible, searchable) resource library of exhibitor white papers, ebooks, case studies, how-to articles, and video tutorials.
  • Appoint a content marketing officer to sift through exhibitor content and re-shape the resources to meet the needs of the audience.
  • Make all of the content shareable on social media channels.
  • Stop selling the event and start sharing the information.
  • Create a steady (daily) flow of content accessible through one portal—the organization’s blog.
  • Offer excellent content.
  • Ask exhibitors to guest blog.
  • Develop an editorial calendar that covers content from all of the market segments the show covers.
  • Send frequent emails of curated exhibitor content (links back to the show blog) to an opt-in list of recipients.
  • Highlight and promote content that exhibitors have created and posted on their own websites through the show blog.
  • Take the content marketing to the trade show floor, as Jeff Hurt suggests, by asking exhibitors to demonstrate how they are innovators and providing more informal education on site.

With all content marketing initiatives, there are benefits when the program is executed well. Content lives on after the live event concludes. Good content brings good SEO to the organizer’s website. Using exhibitors as resources helps create a pipeline of content that organizers won’t have to develop from scratch. Exhibitors receive additional exposure and niche content positions the event organizer as a central resource for information on a market segment—the Holy Grail for associations and independents. Oh, and it sells more product, i.e., registrations.

The Takeaway: Not all exhibitors and sponsors will have gotten the “share, don’t sell” memo about content. Organizers will have to provide guidance and work with them to convert their traditional sales pitches into desirable content for potential attendees; however, this extra effort can be monetized. That said, organizers have two choices: they can charge exhibitors for the curation service as part of a promotional package and realize some short-term benefit, OR they can go for the long tail (by not charging) and consider it an investment toward consolidating their communities of stakeholders and positioning their organizations at the center of the conversation year round.

Blogging for Booths: One Association’s Bid for Customer Loyalty

One spin around the blogosphere will show you that trade show organizers use blogs to attract new readers and draw attention from search engines. But IAAPA—the association for amusements and attractions—turned to its blog to solidify the association’s relationship with exhibitors/members by using it as the central communication channel for the IAAPA Attractions Expo 2011 Space Allocation.

Exhibitors in the IAAPA show do not select their own booth locations. A committee of 15 people—each dedicated to a specific market segment—assigns space from a “war room” of computer screens projecting the interactive floorplan on screen in real-time via the Internet. The committee makes selections based on seniority rankings and exhibitor requests, but the ultimate goal is to “design the best show possible” for exhibitors and attendees, says Jeremy Schoolfield, senior editor of the association’s magazine and the chief blogger.

The space allocation takes a day and a half. Schoolfield gives regular updates “either every half hour or so,” he says, or “when nice, round numbers are hit, whichever comes first.” Exhibitors follow along knowing their place in line from a pre-published list. Those that want to make a change can email the sales team after their initial assignment is made. This year was the fourth year that the space selection was live blogged. By the end of the second day, the committee had allocated 669 booths on the floor covering 357,000 net square feet—more than 60 exhibitors and 55,000 square feet than the year before.

Live blogging the space draw process came about out of necessity. Before that, exhibitors watching the space assignments online would email the sales team asking when their assignments were coming up. With the running blog account, they can follow along more easily and even get a little excited about an otherwise dull process. “[Space Allocation] has a live auction feel,” Schoolfield says.

Beside the obvious posts like “10 a.m.: Showtime Pictures LLC was just assigned, which means we now have 550 booths on the floor. Getting close now! A little more than a hundred to go,” Schoolfield inserts pictures of the war room, references to other blog posts, discussion about articles in the association magazine, and ad hoc comments from the committee members into his posts. These “extras” give him an opportunity to break up the monotony and get new information to a captive audience.

There are other advantages to blogging the space allocation. Besides keeping the process transparent and drawing more attention to the association’s other offerings, it helps members know that the blog exists.  “Our industry is not a ‘behind the computer industry.’ They are more apt to look at a mobile phone than sit down and look at something on the computer, yet we have set a record every year for blog readership,” Schoolfield says.

The Takeaway: By live blogging the booth selection process, IAAPA kept the proceedings accessible, transparent, and orderly. They created a value-added member benefit and placed the control over a process that could be perceived as uncontrollable back into the hands of exhibitors. For some like Kees Albers of Unlimited Snow-Tape My Day from the Netherlands, it was worth staying up all night for. Loyalty like that doesn’t come easy.

The Virtual Rescue Plan for Face-to-Face Events

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If I had a dollar for every time I heard or read the phrase “nothing will replace face-to-face meetings,” I would be rich (er). The sad truth is that in some cases they’ve already been replaced. The recession, green movement, costs to exhibit, travel hassles, generation Y’s social networking predilections (pick one) have opened the door to virtual events with good reason—they save money and environmental resources while attracting a new audience of exhibitors and attendees. Rather than run towards the exits with brains on fire fearing the cannibalization or elimination of live events by virtual platforms, it’s time to take stock of the real opportunities that virtual event platforms offer to stimulate live attendance and grow face-to-face events.

The bad news

At the same time virtual events are on the rise, face-to-face trade show producers are experiencing their share of challenges. Many organizers are struggling to get a handle on how to grow their events in the face of increased competition from new media channels, continued economic volatility, and rising costs. Exhibitors remain irritated by labor practices and the ever-increasing costs to exhibit. The recent uptick in attendance numbers at some shows doesn’t change the general lack of industry growth overall.

The good news

When done well, virtual experiences stimulate immersion, flow, and presence—the primary reasons why virtual games like World of Warcraft (WOW) are so addictive. To a lesser extent, virtual trade shows and conferences perform in the same way. Like every great concert, sporting event, or cocktail party next door, watching and listening to the action from a distance only makes you crave being there when the opportunity comes along. Incidently, BLIZZCON, the live conference for WOW gamers, sells out almost immediately after the dates are announced every year.

The plan

To prevent the further shrinkage of live events, producers must develop a strategy that allows each of the two mediums—face-to-face and virtual events—do what they uniquely do best and treats virtual platforms like any other content strategy that adapts to address the various stages of the sales funnel:

Stage I: Webinars. Bring in live subject matter experts to deliver regularly scheduled, FREE, and interactive presentations to an audience that is both familiar with the live event (jazzed from attending the year before) and entirely new. Content delivered virtually at this stage should create brand awareness, pique the interest of newcomers and reinforce the loyalty of your customer base.

Stage II:  The Virtual Preview. Use your live event speakers and keynote presenters to offer a glimpse of what’s in store at the face-to-face event. However, lest you think you can get away with something brief, commercial-like, and only at 50% power, think again.  This is the point at which you MUST go after potential live attendees with both barrels, offering original content for FREE with the understanding that the virtual attendees are in a buying mode.

Stage III:  The Hybrid Event. Stream content live from the physical trade show and conference to the virtual audience. This is an opportunity to appeal to serious potential participants—remote attendees, exhibitors, and even sponsors—who want to learn about the event with the intention of participating the following year. This is your opportunity to showcase your product in a three-dimensional way. The best way to do that is to not treat the virtual audience as voyeurs or second-class citizens. You have to engage them, give them a voice, allow them to participate, and frustrate them (in a good way) so that they regret not having attended the live event.

Stage IV:  The Live Trade Show and Conference. Reward loyalists who have made the shift from virtual attendee to live attendee with an experience that emulates the online environment but cannot be duplicated online—rich human interaction, unlimited opportunities to engage in small groups and intimate settings, information on demand, and plenty of tactile experiences. The content and engagement delivered by the live event must be so compelling and actionable that it pushes live attendees back into the post-event virtual stream to form the live event’s virtual community.

The Takeaway: This virtual rescue plan forces live events to differentiate themselves from virtual platforms by offering a level of engagement that virtual events cannot deliver. The richness of the live experience drives attendance. The online content (unique information delivered by live speakers, not archived presentations) recognizes where virtual attendees are in the buying (attending) cycle and delivers content commensurate with that stage of the sales funnel. It allows potential participants—attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors—to jump into and out of the content stream all year long. Yes, this is a long-term approach. Yes, it requires deviation from conventional growth strategies and a level of investment on the part of the event organizer. But, some would argue, the only way forward for the live event industry is not to look back.

Is this Seat Taken?—Expanding the Concept of Event Social Networking Beyond Online Platforms

In case you haven’t noticed, social networking is a movement, and where Tunisia and Egypt are concerned, it sparked an actual revolution. In the meetings industry, the experimentation with Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and LinkedIn is training our attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, media and nearly everyone in the event ecosystem to expect MORE—more content, more information, more engagement—before, during, after, online, and offline. In response, developers have come up with some interesting ideas to help event planners expand their notion of “social networking” beyond online platforms.

Planely

Why wait for the conference to begin before starting to network with other participants? A new service from developers in Denmark allows users to start getting to know each other in the airport and on the airplane. Planely asks users to sign up using Facebook or email addresses plus their first and last names. It then matches up travelers on the same flight to the same destination. “Why should the networking opportunity around an event start and finish at the venue? What a wasted opportunity before and after traveling,” says Nick Martin, Planely’s CEO and Founder.

Planely has touched on a pain point according to Martin. “Flying is a real time drain on busy professional people. Anything to make that moment more productive seems to be a real need,” he adds. For events, Martin’s firm has worked out a sponsorship opportunity that includes a custom landing page, timed sponsor messages, and metrics reporting. Event organizers get “the good feeling from their participants, some really interesting metrics to analyze after the event, an extra marketing channel for their sponsors, and that all important life juice of an event—buzz,” Martin says.

SpaceShare

What began as green way for conference attendees to share rides (carpools, taxis) to/from an event has blossomed into an important social experience—an outcome that was not entirely an accident. “My personal motivation behind SpaceShare was primarily environmental, but I never saw that as more than one of a number of reasons why people would use it,” says Stephen Cataldo, SpaceShare’s Founder.

Today SpaceShare has become a practical, low-cost pre-conference networking experience as evidenced by the comments on their Website and a telling video of two women who met by sharing a cab to a conference, attended the conference together, and plan to attend the same conference “together” the following year. “Our feedback emails are full of connections, very often the most important connection someone makes at a conference is the person they share their travels with,” Cataldo says.

GUMPstir

Everybody’s gotta eat, right? As the brainchild of restaurant software developer (Philip Tulin) and event industry entrepreneur (Jeff Nussdorf), GUMPstir is the first social dining network. Trade show attendees register with the service before they arrive in Las Vegas (the first city to launch the network). They play games to win points that translate into discounts and freebies at local area restaurants. The de facto community of visitors attending the same trade show can network online, “meetup” for dinner, share photos, challenge others in game play, and find out where other community members are dining.

An element of the GUMPstir platform allows trade show exhibitors to participate in the gaming by offering promotional codes (also good for dining points) to attendees who visit their booths. The entire program works like “Facebook meets Foursquare with a twist of SCVNGR,” using dinner, discounts and a chance to make new connections as the rewards for playing.

The Takeaway: There are nooks and crannies of every event that event organizers should pay attention to. Planners can facilitate the engagement that services like Planely, SpaceShare, GUMPstir, and others offer by bringing them into the light of day or even participating through sponsorships. When done well, attendees will see the subtle facilitation as a thoughtful way to enrich the experience of participants and take social networking beyond 140 characters.

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