Guest blog post by Michelle Bruno, Bruno Group Signature Events
Many companies rely on marketing and advertising agencies to help them maintain brand consistency and cohesive messaging across various channels including trade show exhibits. Often, exhibitions are just one component of a larger campaign, and the decisions that marketing firms make around graphics, booth design, in-booth activities, and even technology have to fit within some very specific parameters.
A good fit for the audience. As with all marketing initiatives, booth features, especially devices or technologies, have to appeal to the target audience. Something that might be hugely appealing to a hip, tech savvy crowd could easily flop with a more traditional audience. The better bet for marketers is make selections that have broad appeal across different age groups and demographics.
A match for the campaign. Marketing companies are charged with making sure that whatever tactics they choose to employ in a booth reinforce the brand positioning they have developed for their clients. Dan Katz, president of
LA ads based in Los Angeles, describes this requirement as making sure the “idea doesn’t wag the campaign.”
Customizable. Colors, images, and taglines are crucially important to marketers. They look for ways to take standard offerings—booth properties, giveaway items, collateral, games—and customize them to fit the client’s marketing strategy. Before LA ads selected Pixe Social’s social marketing solution for use in their client’s trade show exhibit, they made sure they could insert a custom image into the photos.
On trend. As a rule, marketing firms prefer to stay abreast of trends in design, communication, and technology when advising clients. Fleshing out a lead-generation activity based on selfies and social media, for example, is more forward thinking than handing out compact disks or inviting visitors to spin a roulette wheel for prizes (unless it’s a gaming show).
Cost-effective. Marketing companies are the eyes and ears of the client when it comes to a trade show budget. At the same time, they have to make a profit themselves. One way they reach both of those objectives is to seek out suppliers that offer competitive pricing and offerings that complement the agency’s value-added services of strategy, design, project management, and fulfillment.
Easy-to-use. Trade shows are unique environments. Booth staffers are typically much more focused on selling than they are on managing any non-sales activity in the booth. With that need in mind, marketers look for activations that don’t burden the client unnecessarily. LA ads selected a social photo booth for their client because it was an end-to-end solution.
As intermediaries, marketing agencies play a unique role—to meet specific standards (their clients and their own), demonstrate creativity, and reach campaign objectives. They are constantly on the lookout for solutions that can serve their customers and help them bring all of the pieces of the program together easily, quickly, and cost effectively.
