As you gear up for the first day of your exhibition, there’s a lot to be excited about.
The booth is set up, your fliers are printed, your sales team is wearing their custom matching polos.
Now you worry about the competition.
What are the other booths going to be like? Who’s going to be next to us? Are they going to be direct competitors?
But the other exhibitors are not your main competition.
What is?
Distraction.
Everyone is staring at their cell phones!
You’d think they’re there to do business, but they’re checking e-mail, posting their selfie in front the show to Instagram, and everything except being attentive to their surroundings.
So what’s the main strategy most exhibitors try?
The direct approach.
“Hey! You! How are you?!”
Then it’s like Star Trek: the attendee’s shields immediately go up!
This can be incredibly frustrating for exhibitors, and lead to a disappointing show.
How, then, do you effectively
1) get people’s attention in a positive way and
2) communicate your value in a clear way?
Let’s look at the exhibitors who are doing it right!
If you walk any trade show floor there’s almost always a booth that is rocking the show.
They’re “that booth.”
There’s always a crowd, the sales team is busy, and they’re getting more leads than they can shake a stick at.
What is it they’re doing?
I can bet you dollars to donuts it’s this:
Experiential Marketing
They’re incorporating some kind of interactive experience that may or may not be directly related to their product or service. (The connection to their industry is not the important part: the fact that it’s interesting to watch and isn’t a hard sell approach.)
The presentation snaps people out of their cellphone daze, and is interesting so they walk over to check it out. Two people leads to five. Five people attracts another five and soon there’s a crowd.
That crowd is now highly engaged, and hears the sales messaging because it’s expertly woven into the fabric of the experience. Now, when they remember back to the fun they had, they can’t help but remember the brand, too.
Now, those cell phones are working for the exhibitor! Everyone is taking video, taking selfies, and posting about “how much fun they had in booth #714 with #YourBrand!”
Takeaway
Where do you start creating an experience that is fun, appropriate, and well suited to generating positive attention & delivering your unique sales messaging in a fun, engaging, and memorable way?
You start by getting in touch with us. Interactive experiential marketing is our forte.
It’s the cutting edge of trade show lead generation, and it can easily lead to getting three or four times as many qualified leads at a show than your current approach is doing for you.
For more details, just drop me a line about your upcoming show, and we’ll take it from there!