Exhibiting at the right trade shows requires research and knowing your goals. Once you’ve determined your expectations, it’s important to be realistic about which shows can provide the best opportunities for the greatest return on your investment
It’s also very important to research the Media that has attended in previous years and to understand the influence they have on your industry. This aspect of Trade Show PR will have great impact on your ROI and the return on your objectives (ROO)
Here are six Trade Show PR objectives to measure your success:
- The creation of business value through Brand Building leading to other business opportunities.
- Reputation building which develops other relationships and partnerships.
- Social opportunities such as future speaking opportunities through name recognition.
- Expertise is defined to a broad audience.
- Lead generation through name recognition.
- National and international media exposure.
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How effective is trade show PR? Well consider this from your own experience.
Which companies do you remember from the last show you attended? Which products had life after the Show? They’re the ones that you continue to read about and hear about because those companies recognized the strategic importance PR plays in business development.
Busy Trade Shows attract not only industry Media, but consumer and business Press from around the world. They also attract TV reporters and freelance journalists looking for a great story.
Depending on the Show’s producers to promote your company and tell your business story is just not realistic. They can attract the Media’s attendance, but it is up to you to attract them to your company and products–and your booth.
So be aware that Trade Show PR is not only about increasing sales. It’s also about Brand building and reputation enhancement while it leverages your other marketing efforts and enhances your competitive edge.
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Thoughtful commenting on blog posts and real news stories adds to the tenor and depth of an issue. It advances the story and makes you want more Except when you have an agenda.
Case in point.
Political commenting is a new form of commentary that in its vituperation can bring you up short. Call it talk radio in print, or the Jerry Springer show gone political. Americans are angry and they don’t care who knows it, particularly if they can spout anonymously. It’s ugly and well, surprising.
The national sparring between presidential candidates broadcast on networks is tame by comparison. So where is this coming from, when reports say that Americans only want civil discourse?
Consider this. Grassroots campaigning is clogging the blogging of serious journalists when pointed, rude and insulting commenting tries to affect the effect of the story being told. In other words, partisan commenting is clearly in play and might very well be orchestrated.
So the next time you hear a media report about the reaction in the blogosphere to John McCain saying or doing whatever, think twice before you believe it. This form of citizen PR, may just be professionally strategized and carefully conceived by his opponents.
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If you’re a trade show virgin, make your first time count. Don’t just send two company representatives to staff your booth at the International Esthetics, Cosmetics & Spa Conference when last year’s Trade Show delivered 50,000 attendees, as we were so glibly told last week. Perhaps if those are the only employees you can spare, you’d best sit this one out.
It’s clearly impossible to accomplish anything with the numbers stacked so seriously against you. I can almost hear the collective Duh! Why not try a much smaller show that 
limited personnel can handle?
Lead generation, as well as sales, are primary goals. If your pre-show strategy is effective and prospects make a bee-line for your booth, inadequate staff numbers will surely kill any efforts, not to mention the preparation needed to be effective when they arrive.
Sometimes you get lucky and the Media just happens by your booth. Will they be noticed? Will they be acknowledged and given the attention they deserve to get your company the type of media exposure that can make you an industry player and have your sales soar? .
Let’s put this into perspective. A one page ad in an important Cosmetic industry trade magazine costs $1700 with a recommendation of six ads for full effectiveness. A one-time, full page top consumer fashion and beauty magazine ad for this market is billed at $105,920. Can you afford to miss this Trade Show PR chance?
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It was a surprising turn of events on NBC, Sunday April 6, 2008. This prolonged Media Moment we were led to believe had been put to rest.
‘It’s NBC, Bitch’ might have been the title of this Dateline Episode, so apparently in need of ratings against CBS’s 60 Minutes that they resurrected the not yet cold history of what has been labeled the Britney Spears meltdown. No publicist could have prevented this story’s resurrection, no carefully pitched alternative would have worked. No high powered PR firm could have protected Spears from having her sad tale revisited—and rehashed.
She’d made the cover of TV Guide for her recent TV appearance on CBS’s How I Met Your Mother. This well-received performance left the more prurient entertainment shows to become part of the well-wishing masses that were thrilled to see her life being put back together again.
And yet, the very serious Dateline devoted an entire hour to clucking over the well-oiled media machine that had made a fortune off of her personal tragedy. Detail after detail they salaciously reiterated, every not so nuanced example of a privacy being very publicly violated. This PR nightmare was an unstoppable train wreck that every facet of the media participated in, twitting and teasing the public’s appetite for gossip and celebrity intrusion.
It seemed to be over, with other public figure’s private foibles the fodder of morning and late night exposes. The collective sigh of relief was almost audible. We’re just wondering why Dateline didn’t hear it.
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Developing a Trade Show PR Strategy keeps you in charge of your publicity outcome. Your Media Exposure should deliver the desired results if you first understand the unique aspects of your featured products and build a great story around their development.
You’ll need to tie the product development into the corporate picture. Why did you create this most amazing product? How does it complement your other wonderful products? This important step allows you to stay in touch with the same Media you may have encountered in previous years, who have been interested before and may have chosen not to write about your company.
This time they will, because you have focused information that presents a story that their readers will want to know. This is different from marketing information that sells the Buyer on product characteristics that will enrich their bottom line.
Your product story must be compelling, engaging and yes–newsworthy. So brush up on the news of the industry, who else is attending and what products will be intoduced and write accordingly. This part of your Trade Show PR strategy creates corporate interest and keeps your Media Options open for years to come.
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Should she stay or should she go has been the hue and cry. Will she or won’t she? Perhaps only her hairdresser knows for sure.
Of course the Media Moment du jour involves presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, guilty of being a hairdo flip-flopper in the Clinton presidential nineties. But this time her mind is made up, no matter how many other politicos are getting face time on broadcast networks and in headline making print and internet stories, she’s in the race until the end.
The fact of the matter is, the Obama campaign is advancing his story, by advancing the ‘it’s time to go Hillary’ mantra. He is looking benevolent when he encourages her to stay in the race, despite other senators calling for her to leave for the good of the Democratic Party. Chapter 2 was begun Tuesday morning with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seemingly backing away from code phrases suggesting she endorsed the Obama view of super delegates when questioned by Robin Roberts on Good Morning America.
These very smart PR campaign tactics take the interest away from religious affiliations and their leaders and put the onus squarely on Hillary, the presumptive spoiler of the Democratic Party.
The question remains, as with all Media/PR stories, what effect will it have on readers and listeners? In this case the Primary Polls, rather than the Nielsens, will give the overnights.
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