Trade show success

When divvying up a company’s marketing spend, practitioners must decide on the right mix and what activities are going to deliver the biggest bang for their buck, and in doing so, consider whether the ubiquitous trade show is really worth it.

While trade shows such as the PC/IT Show and Comdex have fallen by the wayside over the years, others such as Taiwan’s Computex and CeBIT, both in Australia and internationally, have gone from strength to strength.

New forms of marketing such as the Internet have taken over the role of some shows and conferences, but many have also flourished because of it.

Some organisations say they have found that many of their customers are now conducting their product research over the Internet but that, now more than ever, need to attend the shows to meet clients and partners face-to-face and to demonstrate the application
or hardware.

Barry Freeman, principal of Juniper-authorised training company Training IT Professionals, said participation in trade shows should be considered along with any other marketing vehicle.

“Trade shows have to be used in terms of the marketing directory,” Freeman said. “Just like TV ads, print ads, ads on stairways or in airports it is all relevant to the marketing mix that a company wants to use and they all have a place.

“For instance, to someone spending millions on a TV ad to then spend a fraction of that on a booth at a show makes for another valid tool of marketing.”

However, a lot of companies get caught up trying to attend every show and conference, often ending up missing the point at the expense of their marketing budgets.

Maurice Famularo, marketing director at D-Link, Australia & New Zealand, said there are a lot of mixed opinions over the merits of having a significant presence at trade shows.

“In an ideal world we would do every one, but there are too many,” Famularo said. “Some are a waste of time and others you have to be at the right place at the right time – some conferences not appropriate one year could be right the next.

“Then there are other shows such as CeBIT, Wireless World, Media Connect’s Kickstart and a lot of retail conferences and partner conferences. There are so many industry-based conferences that you have to see whether you can fit it in and if you have the resources.
“If you did all of them you would do yourself out of a job which begins at the planning stages and whether you can leverage the eight- or nine-month lead-up campaign to the conference.

“It is often hard to see results from the money spent on the stands, equipment, freight assembling, staffing and putting people on flights and providing accommodation and then collateral costs for printing brochures – this can blow out to thousands just to get
a stand up.

“The problem is that they take up a lot of resources and there are a lot of hidden costs including naming rights, sponsorship and the only people who benefit are the organisers who are there to make money at the end of the day.”
Given the cost, time and logistics of attending conferences and trade shows it is imperative that attendees make sure that it will be relevant for them.

“Some conferences are weird,” said Famularo. “Some conferences have only short breaks at certain intervals. And those attendees are more interested in going to the bathroom or having a cigarette and attending to emails and never have time for you. You are never part of the agenda. You are the coffee break.

“On a positive side if you are in good with the organisers you might get to speak at a conference, in which case you are not just a standby contributor on a stand.”

Famularo said on the plus side attending road shows and some trade shows provides an opportunity for the company to meet their clients, resellers and distributors.

“They enable a lot of mind share and you get to know people who you have dealt with year-on-year and meet the people who are buying your product.”

Matt Bullock, founder/CEO of payment gateway vendor eWay, said his company mostly sells to people over the Internet and that trade shows are an invaluable tool in helping to get to know customers and partners.

“CeBIT is a great way for us to get in front of our existing clients and we have done every CeBIT in Australia and in Germany,” Bullock said.

“CeBIT has changed a lot over the years, with my focus now more about partnerships and around clients or people we do business with such as Salesforce.com.”

Robert Thorne, marketing manager of Hanover Fairs, which runs CeBIT said the show had changed over the years, with more emphasis on the attendees and their ability to network and develop a more sound understanding of what visitors want and expect.

“Over the years the format for CeBIT has changed,” Thorne said. “In the early days it was a straightforward exhibition and was more general, but now we have about 28 show floor categories, such as VoIP broadband etc and categories for the channel.

“In this way our floor has changed and evolved, with more stands more targeted,” he said. “We are also delivering more focused seminars and conferences, which are attracting a high level of cases studies and executives from overseas which is enriching our visitor experience,” he said.

“And we continue to grow our conference program to reflect the number and level of delegates wanting a more networking function for the attendees including business and government users who can connect and do business away from the show floor.

“Visitors can now pick up targeted information and can listen to experts in the field and get the information relative to their business rather than listening to a generic sales pitch,” Thorne said.

“They don’t want the information they can pick up off Google – they want to know how to save money at the conference and enrich their experience from select speakers and that is not something you can buy or look up on the Internet.”

Thorne said that the actual exhibitors at CeBIT had also changed, along with the trend away from products towards companies that have services to sell, such as mobile telephony and service offerings from companies such as Salesforce and Yahoo.

Mark McPherson, manager training and conferences at AusCert, which runs conferences on IT security issues for companies and the public, said that the organisation’s annual conference is a masterpiece in networking in itself.

“What has changed is in the past we focused on particular solutions, but people have demanded more breadth and a one-stop-shop,” McPherson said.

“The three-day main conference streams offering plenary, referee papers, education, specialised papers are all published at our conference and we aim to give vendors a mix of presentations from industry.

“What is covered is business issues such as the dollars and cents of Internet security and to solve problems by getting all the industry minds together at one time,”
he said.

“So the time networking is very important and allows our delegates to discuss how to handle the issue or what is the international solution and issues.

“Our shows and panels and executive track tackle not only the business issues that need to be discussed but also brings people together to talk about what are huge problems for a major company and the corporate environment and get to really hard core global stuff.”
McPherson said that the conference is held at a golf resort in Queensland every year so as to facilitate lots of networking opportunities, with delegates able to get together at the bars and restaurants or on the golf green.

“People want to have the opportunity to network and share knowledge and that is a really big drawcard for our audience,” McPherson said. “There is real value in the networking so even as we have grown we have not moved from a hotel to a dedicated conference area because the layout and position are very conducive to network and that is a significant aim of the conference.

“We believe we are getting every sector in the community together with experts and business so they can talk to clients and the conference itself may not necessarily be the aim of the program but it is providing a social environment that is equally important.”

While some companies see merits in flying the corporate banner or pushing awareness of a particular brand, Anthony Toope, marketing manager of Samsung Electronics Australia, said success will always boil down to return on investment.

“I think in all marketing initiatives you have to target the right business and while portraying the right image is important by attending these shows, additional marketing money is not increasing,” he said.

“The use of the Internet is taking over and spending budgets on these types of international shows runs into the millions of dollars and how do you measure ROI from that particular event?

“What you put into an event and what you get out of it depends on return on shows and those activities can be quite difficult to gauge.”

Toope said that rather than participating in one big show a month it is probably better to focus on smaller activities with distribution partners.

“We use these activities to talk to our end customers and we would have a major event every quarter,” he said. “Meanwhile we do recognise branding and brand value and product display and our investment in those is significant.

“You have to think about the audience you want to reach and who is the customer and whether they attend those events or if those customers are the ones you want to get on board in the long term.
“We have a review structure and present back to the MD in terms of results achieved and while everyone is euphoric at the event they are not so in reporting back the results which may not be as much as thought.

“You must set a budget at the outset and set out what you want to achieve in terms of customers and making sure that everything delivers result.

“It is all important for bigger companies and small. Everyone has to get ROI and wants a slice of the marketing dollar.”

Many say, however, still the dominant reason for continued success at trade shows has been in
generating leads.

“The ROI dollar value of converted leads is what really makes or breaks a show,” Freeman said. “You have to make sure a database of leads is generated from it and make sure you can get back to contacts made and keep abreast of who buys from that list.

“The number of people talked to doesn’t necessarily get you sales and while some companies spend on development of brand I always believe a call to action must have results.”

Famularo said that the result is not necessarily immediate, but is all in the follow up.

“In a month or so after the event, I would say it is not worth it,” he said. “But it takes a long time to come through and what we have done is grabbed a delegate’s details and put them into CRM and see how many sales we made this year.

“You can generate leads in the follow up, which is harder than without the show. If you do the follow up right you can be successful.

“Most people don’t get that the result is from getting the leads and following them up. They can take up to two years to go ahead.”

Nadia Rosato, marketing manager, Siemens Enterprise Communications said big, generalist shows such as CeBIT are certainly useful from a branding and awareness perspective, but the event also offers considerable ROI.

“It should ideally be a mix of branding/awareness and leads,” Rosato said. “One of the most important aspects, however, is following through.

“You can generate lots of leads and not do anything with them. Preparation before, during and after the event is critical to a successful event and ROI,” she said.

“Organisations looking for pure lead generation might be disappointed, but those who take a more strategic approach, and build an integrated marketing campaign around the event, are better positioned to get more ‘bang for their buck,” Rosato said.

Rosato said that the key to success is preparation.

“It easy to underestimate how much time, effort and co-ordination is involved in preparing for an event such as CeBIT. It may sound obvious, but assign a project leader who is organised to take ownership,” she said.

Rosato offers three top tips to a successful show. Number one, she said, is planning for an event such as CeBIT should start six months out.

She said that equally important is to build relationships.

“By investing in building relationships with the event organisers and key suppliers you will maximise the opportunity,” she said. “You must also brief staff effectively.

“Schedule an event pre-briefing with the team so everyone is clear on roles and responsibilities. Then promote the event.

“Let your customers, prospects and partners know you’re going to be at the event and invite them down.”

She also said that the design of a stand is imperative.

“Make sure you have lots of storage, particularly if you’re going to have a lot of equipment on the stand and staff or channel partners flying in from interstate, ensure there is a secure and out-of-sight place for laptops, suitcases etc.”

Freeman said that in his experience sex still sells. He said bright colours and having plenty of things happening at a stand are still eclipsed by the power of sexy women.

“It is still the classic marketing number one: to get noticed!” If you don’t get noticed at a trade show it will be wasted. You don’t have to have the biggest stand but gimmicks will encourage and get people interested.”

The ROI dollar value of converted leads comes from making sure you have a database of leads coming from the show and make sure you can get back to contacts made and who buys from that list.

Thorne from Hanover Fairs said the main course for CeBIT is all about lead generation and the conference repeat booking rate grows every year.

“As an exhibitor must have good presence at the show they need to understand their own products and how to generate leads and face to face such as Salesforce’s CRM package,” Thorne said.

“They should have a quick briefing to generate the lead and take down details for a possible one-on-one meeting outside CeBIT.

“And that is how exhibitors qualify their investment in terms of leads and managing a sales pipeline and converting into a sale. For instance, if you have 200 hot leads with an average sale price of $50,000, you are looking at pretty large pipeline.”