When you sign up for a trade show, you will be inundated with faxes and emails wanting you to spend money on various forms of advertising before, during and after the show. These include sponsored emails, video clips, ads in trade show publications, spots on various websites, electronic panel displays, new product showcase, etc. All in all, a dizzying array of possibilities for the show organizers to make more money off of you.
Enough already! Hang onto your hard-earned, limited dollars. Thomas, Mr. Sales and Marketing, has spent a great deal of time reviewing this information and testing out a couple of these ploys with our products, and he has concluded that the only one on which he would spend money again is an ad in the show’s publication that is handed out during the show. It’s a big, glossy magazine that mostly contains ads and articles about new products. Everyone picks one up and at least passively leafs through it, so this publication has the potential top present your product to a pretty wide audience.
I must add a caveat here. We did buy space in a “new product showcase” at our target show, the International Home and Housewares Show, and it may indeed be the one thing that gets us into Real Simple Magazine. It was where they discovered our products, rather than seeing our booth. As with most things in life, rules are better thought of as guidelines.
My personal experience tells me to avoid anything video. These shows resemble an ant farm, and my observation is that no one stands still long enough to actually pay attention to anything video.
I would also stay away from anything to do with broadcast emails to show attendees. Organizers put out so many emails prior to the show that I am sure no one has the time to read them. I end up deleting most of them without opening them.
I have a similar opinion of website advertising. Once I download the manual and get the information I need, I only rarely visit the show’s website again because I simply don’t need to. The site may get lots of hits, but your ad won’t necessarily get noticed.
I received a call the other day from a woman wanting us to spend another $300 putting our fliers in a display rack for buyers to take and to drive traffic to our booth. Since our limited experience points to the fact that buyers do not really utilize this information, we opted out.
We have learned that most buyers spend one day at the show, they know what they are looking for, and they don’t spend a lot of time perusing pieces of information first. They hit the show floor running, booth after booth, dismissing in a millisecond all that is not in their product category, and move on. What’s probably going to catch their attention the most is good, catchy, booth design that allows them to quickly scan and understand your wares and make a decision about your company’s products and ability to deliver the quantities they need.
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