Part I: Trade Show survey reveals current exhibitors Strategies

A recent study by Champion Services focused on the impact the economy has on the Trade Show and Events industry. 
***receive complete trade show listings here.

81% of Exhibiting Companies reduced trade show spend

The companies reduced trade show spend by:

• 56% reduced staffing
• 39% reduced the amount of shows 

With uncertainty in the economy still looming, companies, a slight majority (51%) of them, plan on increasing their trade show participation as the economy recovers.  Top tradeshow goals that companies revealed were:

• 79% collect leads
• 75% creating brand awareness or growing market share
• 33% use trade shows to launch new products

When asked how they measure or value investment, exhibiting companies responded with:

• 74% quality of leads collected 
• 59% booth traffic
• 54% quality of leads collected
• 52% sales from leads collected

Leslie Brand, VP of Marketing for Wheelhouse Solutions said that, "The trade show industry is in a period of transition", (duh- my response).  She also went on to say that, “Exhibitors report that participation in trade shows is not just about selling products or services. As stakeholders in their industries, they are looking for ways to leverage a return on the investment throughout the year and stay connected to others in their industry. Social media technologies can play a role in building community facilitated by show organizers allowing event attendees and exhibitors to engage year round.”(again duh and what?- I did not see "want to engage customers via social media as a top tradeshow goal above).

The survey then stated 57% that value promotion of their event-related activities on social media such as Facebook (34%), Twitter (28%), and LinkedIn (19%). In addition, 45% value year-round online communities populated by event attendee.  In addition, 62% of respondents report that trade show expenditures represent more than a quarter of their marketing budget, including 28% of exhibitors who indicate trade shows represent more than half their marketing budget. While a majority of trade show related budgets will remain the same in 2010 and 2011, a quarter of the companies predict increased spending on future trade shows compared to 2009. 

After reading these statistics and comments, I can clearly understand why companies leave trade shows disappointed, frustrated and wondering what they can do to increase their tradeshow marketing investment.  A good majority of trade show companies just want to sell you equipment and NOT integrated solutions and will never have the ability to move on past this point.  If your trade show budget is 25-50% of your annual marketing budget, you better make sure that you have winning solutions for your trade show investment.  And if you have NO social media strategy in place today, get one NOW!

Part II will focus on down and dirty Trade Show marketing solutions that you should Crave!

The Last Mile of Engagement is not Free

Must Watch quick vid with the Social Master Brian Solis talking about marrying influence with confluence which will ignite the interaction.  "The ROI of social media marketing is connecting with the right individuals where they are and who they are connected with", Brian Solis.

Centenarians using Mobile Devices

According to a recent study, 

8% 

of Centenarians texted in the past year 

out of 84,000 living in the US.

Just hope they were not driving.

Threadless goes Experiential for Summer Tour 2010

To celebrate its 10th Anniversary, T-Shirt crowd sourcing specialist Threadless, has launched a Summer mobile event campaign.  The mobile tour includes a 25-foot Airstream trailer, pulled by a panel van designed for the tour with a collage of the most popular T-shirt designs from Threadless’ decade. 

 What is Threadless, according to Wikipedia, Threadless is a community-centered online apparel store run by skinnyCorp of Chicago, Illinois, since 2000. Co-founders Jake Nickell and Jacob DeHart started the company with $1,000 in seed money after entering an Internet t-shirt design contest.  Members of the Threadless community submit t-shirt designs online; the designs are then put to a public vote. A small percentage of submitted designs are selected for printing and sold through an online store. Creators of the winning designs receive a prize of cash and store credit.  So basically, they are crowd sourcing geniuses along with Digital Savants. 

Back to the tour, the tour launched from Threadleass headquarters in Chicago and heads out west then will head across the country to the East Coast.  Tour Dates/Locations.  Stops will include design shows, music festivals and other high-traffic venues. At the stops the trailer will be open for visitors to engage in art work, music, purchase t-shirts, music, enter contest and hang out. 

The other aspect of this experiential program is the digital/social media mix that includes a micro site, twitter, facebook and location based fun with Gowalla.  The tour will be thoroughly videoed, blogged and tweeted on the Threadless.com social network pages at Facebook, where the company has 132,000 likes, and on Twitter/Threadless, where Threadless has 1.5 million followers.

Digital Marketing Talent Crisis

There is a Digital Talent Crisis happening according to a recent article by Shane Steele of Yahoo.  Shane discusses if the media and advertising industry is going to fully recover and grow in the future we must invest in talent. That begs the question, where is the talent coming from, particularly with the skills and experience needed to keep up with the radical pace of change in the digital age?

There is new digital education program called Boulder Digital Works (http://bdw.colorado.edu), a school with the ambition to produce the world’s best digital creative, business, and technology talent. BDW was formed by the University of Colorado in partnership with MDC Partners, Microsoft, and a number of other companies to address what its founders saw as a pressing need for digital talent and leadership in their own businesses. Their goal – build a digital boot camp to groom educated workers and leaders who move comfortably and intelligently across the disciplines of technology, creative, and business.

Upon reviewing job posting for digital marketing positions the confusion also lies with hiring agencies, managers and companies.  Digital marketing evolves daily with new technologies and transformations including how customers/prospects utilize and adopt the technologies.  Example would be that of eCommerce how years ago people were skeptical and did not trust this process.  Well, times have changed and the numbers of online sales continues to rise. 

Do current digital marketing professionals know how to build trust, create navigation that leads customers to conversion, or how to even drive customers to their sites and so on...

According to BDW they refer to this type of talent profile as “T-Shaped Talent,” or an “Integrated Digital Thinker.” It means that no matter what your specialty (base of the T), be it copywriting, media planning or flash design, in order to be most effective in the workplace today, employees must complement their subject matter expertise with a broad and holistic understanding of how digital technology impacts their business (top of the T). In other words, today’s talent must be fluent in at least one language but also literate in many.

Proctor & Gamble launches direct to consumers eCommerce store

This comes as No surprise that another manufacturer (P&G) is adopting the direct to consumer business model by launching their own eCommerce store http://www.pgestore.com/   P&G's e-store comes as other package-goods marketers are also ramping up e-commerce efforts.  The store is currently in beta but has a fully integrated marketing campaign that includes a heavy dose of Social Media. 

According to Advertising Age, for the latest venture, P&G is adding touches such as product ratings, shopper feedback forums for users to share tips and links to its Facebook brand fan pages, through which consumers can buy products directly.  Did I just here, Social Shopping?  The e-store is meant to be a "living learning lab" for e-commerce capabilities, the company said in a statement. Online retailing has been a high priority for P&G Chairman-CEO Bob McDonald since he took the company's top job last year.  While P&G today gets less than 1% of sales online, or $500 million, Mr. McDonald has said he sees no reason the company can't increase such sales tenfold.

Manufacturers direct to consumer eCommerce

This business model strategy was attempted during the first big dot.com wave but fizzled out with lack of proper technology platforms and tools in addition to bitterness from retailers/dealers.  But now the wave is back (Increase in number of manufacturers request to WCN Group for eCommerce strategy solutions).  *Interesting to note that manufacturers that I had discussions with several years ago who were resistant to ecommerce are now the ones frantically calling. 

Manufacturers who adopt the eCommerce business model will find success this time around because the tipping point for shopping online has been reached (customers are confident).  Ecommerce platforms are universal and most notably, the social media and social shopping (experience) aspect.  Customer will not have to leave their comfort zone in order to shop and purchase products.  As an example, they can stay on Facebook, ask their friends what to buy and for a review, than click and purchase.  It is that easy!

The King of Social Media, Facebook, Facts & Myths 2010

***Facts, Myths and Images provided by Mashable via onlineschools.org

Facebook and the use of social media is talked about everywhere we go from TV commercials, billboards, Starbucks and even my parents (who are retired).

Did you know that it takes over 10,000 servers to support Facebooks infrastructure!

Digital Marketing spend rising in 2010

According to a survey by digital firm Datran Media, marketers are expecting improved ad revenues and increased digital spending. 

The company's fourth annual report, which examined the marketing and budgeting priorities of digital marketers, found that 73.6% of respondents believe advertising revenues will increase in 2010.
Marketers are also planning to spend more money on online channels, which they see as effective and measurable, according to the study. The survey found that 93.6% of respondents will increase their budget for digital marketing channels this year, and 72.8% will use audience measurement tools to assess the success of their digital efforts.

Expect 2 Connect - its Social Media, Right?

We now have "Like" buttons every where we visit.  People have social icons on their websites, blogs and social media sites.  Brian Solis unveiled his latest brilliance, "Engage" which as he describes is digital Darwinism.

But wait, what is missing?

The Connection!

People have these social icons everywhere which means "Connect with me" but fail to make the connection.  I have experienced this lately with several people that I read their blog, tweets or LinkedIn post and felt that it would be a good connection (because they have these icons on their site with a follow me, connect with me, ect.) only to have them, not respond at all, "don't know you" (oh, you will!) or send an email saying, "remind me how I know you" - you don't yet, isn't this why you have your "connect with me" social icons on your sites?

The tools are simple - Connect with Me - the next step is to Engage with others.  Yes, I know, the word Engage is the buzz word of the moment for Social Media BUT this is the most important part of the Social Conversation.  How you Engage will be the next post.

Don't be afraid, Let them Speak.

I was first going to title this post, "Do you hear what I hear", but went with the other one because this is what I hear from clients, customers and people in general. One of the main reasons the internet works and was created, is for communication between people! Pure, simple and very effective.

Communication (as defined)

1 : an act or instance of transmitting


2 a : information communicated b : a verbal or written message

3 a : a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior ; also : exchange of information b : personal rapport

As the internet developed and businesses figured out that it was a good platform to inform and sale, they brought with them the same business model of corporate MARCOM that has worked (to a degree) for many years. A one-way model of communication talking at people and utilizing interruption marketing techniques does not work. If you read again the definition of communication there is a disconnect between the definition and business implementation.

In a recent article published by Adage (written by Freddie Laker) he discussed 11 predictions for what Social Media look like in 2012. Most notable was that of how Social Media will require reduced acceptability of privacy concerns (1), Search engines will be different with real time search (3) and Ratings Everywhere (7) businesses will need to accept open communication from consumers on their sites.

Wow, can this all be true. Do we really have to communicate and respond to our customers for all to see? YES!!!!

Now let’s see the new model of Communication:

The new model and most important aspect is the "feedback" to the sender. It is a circular process and one that will be viewed by all. Those companies that do not have this option will run the risk of being viewed as un-authentic and having something to hide. Even our Federal Government will now allow for commentary with a more lenient Social Media policy.

Keys for Social Media success:


• Do not run and do not hide

• Create user friendly accessibility to communicate (via Website & social media platforms)

• Incorporate Google Alerts

• Develop a social media policy

• Engage with your customers - you may actually like them.

Ford integrates Marketing online with American Idol Part I

Ford Motor Company instantly received my attention during American Idol with their commercial featuring Top 12 contestants and the new Ford Fiesta. I usually cringe during the opening segments on American Idol when the contestants perform together in a musical interpretation of different songs that were once cool then cut to a commercial that is like a scene out of a truly corny family movie with the actors vying to see who can do the biggest fake smile. But, this time was different.

I am truly excited about automotive industry and what innovations are on the horizon.

Quick history refresher: the Automotive industry became complacent governed by "the good ole boys mentality" with an outdated business and marketing model. Ford has been leading the charge with the newly minted Automotive gates by having Scott Monty on Twitter and becoming more transparent as a corporation.

Back to the Ford commercial. So, the American Idol commercials are like running your nails on a chalk board with a 1960’s Mickey Mouse ClubHouse theme. Don’t get me wrong, this commercial had that vibe but the content was different. It first garnered my attention but announcing the new Ford Fiesta,which I wanted to seem then took a step further by showing the contestants supposedly painting on the cars. The commercial promoted the Ford Fiesta give away contest and the different designs by the contestants (some where really cool).

A recent article in Market Daily talked with Connie Fontaine, manager, Ford brand content and alliances, who shared that Ford's goal is not to get as much TV screen time as possible, but rather to drive consideration with Web-based elements so that the brand isn't too obtrusive during the actual show. She further explained that, “we thought it was important to seed the idea with a very strong online integration as well, we want everything we do on air to feel relevant, credible and organic.”

See, I told you, they are listening to the seismic-shift in Marketing, from interruption marketing to inclusion marketing.

Part II of this piece will further the discussion of Ford’s inclusion marketing program by moving online.

Marriott Launches Social and Multimedia Hub

A few post ago I wrote about Marriott launching "Spirit of Aloha" experiential marketing tour and commented about what marketing and experiential marketing strategies Marriott should implement with this program. It seems that Marriott corporate has launched a new feature on the corporate website called "Marriott News Center".

With this new social and multimedia hub on Marriott.com, which welcomes 12 million unique visitors a month, there's just one single place to connect for all Marriott online news, photos, videos, blogs, Twitter feeds, and more. Users can share breaking news with their friends and followers.

"The Marriott News Center is a compelling and engaging place for consumers, including hotel guests, journalists and investors, to gather the latest news about Marriott, as well as a global forum to converse and share ideas," says Kathleen Matthews, Executive Vice President of Global Communications and Public Affairs, Marriott International. "The site is intended to transcend generations and communications platforms to reach and engage all audiences."

Did she say "engaging?" After reviewing the post since the official launch, there have been 12 post made with a total of 13 comments. Engaging? I then went to find info on the Marriott Hawaii road show and still could not find any information regarding this experiential marketing campaign. Engaging? Still committed to finding something engaging I clicked on the link Go Courtyard What's the latest buzz on Courtyard by Marriott. This launched into a new window and was in a blog style but the colors were dull and not like the corporate colors, the site had very little if any interactivity. Engaging?

Marriott launches "Spirit of Aloha" experiential marketing tour.

Marriott Hawaii announces the launch of their 2010 mobile event road show set to visit 12 cities called the "Spirit of Aloha". The tour starts in Scottsdale, Arizona which begins the 5,530-mile journey aboard the 45-foot-long tour bus emblazoned with tropical images of Hawaii that will visit 11 additional U.S. cities through February 12. Texas and then to Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, St. Louis, Omaha, Denver and Salt Lake City with a final two-day stop in Los Angeles, Feb. 11-12. Tour partners are Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau and Hawaiian Airlines. This trip follows two successful promotional tours on the U.S. mainland and Japan last year.

The experiential marketing objective is to encourage visits to the islands, the traveling road show will bring the sights and sounds of Hawaii to the mainland. Traveling on the bus will be Marriott Resorts Hawaii leaders, including general managers and directors of sales and marketing from each of its resort hotels, who will visit with travel partners, groups and media, while performers from the Polynesian Cultural Center will provide Hawaiian entertainment at each stop. Traveling on the bus will be Marriott Resorts Hawaii leaders, including general managers and directors of sales and marketing from each of its resort hotels, who will visit with travel partners, groups and media. Performers from the Polynesian Cultural Center will provide Hawaiian entertainment at each stop.

Marriott Resorts Hawaii will provide continuous updates from the road on Twitter and Facebook and a blog on the Marriott Hawaii Web site. "Our aim is to encourage folks to travel to the Hawaiian Islands in the coming year and stay at one of our beautiful Marriott Resorts on Kauai, Oahu, Maui and Hawaii's Big Island," said Chris Tatum, vice president of Marriott International -- North Asia, Hawaii and South Pacific, in a statement. "Hawaii is already popular across the U.S. -- our goal is simply to raise the level of awareness and give people the extra nudge to come see us." This is the third bus tour Marriott has conducted in the U.S. The company also conducted a similar tour last October in Japan. Despite these efforts, Hawaii's tourism has declined, sorely affecting the state's economy.

Excited about visiting the tour when it comes to Los Angeles I could not find exact tour stops after visiting Marriott's corporate website, Facebook fanpage and Twitter. I also noticed others requesting information with no response back from Marriott as of this posting. The Twitter updates are not conversational in context just updates as they stated.

Recommendations: (These are just a few Conversation Marketing strategies that can be developed when you engage in an experiential marketing tour).

• Create a separate page on the website (with links to Facebook Fanpage and Twitter) for this mobile road show including tour stop exact locations, promotion announcements and VIP Marriott rewards program participant tours.


• Video - create a Youtube channel and create spots.


• Pre-marketing email campaign focused on tour stops. As a Marriott Rewards program participant I did not receive any marketing on this tour.
• Invite selected tour stop participants to Twitter, Facebook and blog about their experience.

What would you suggest?