Trade shows. They're called shows because they are a little stage where you perform for a day or two or a week.
People walk by and look at you standing in your booth space, you look like part of the exhibit, a product, at a busy trade show and you have to quickly decide, prospect or not? If they're a prospect you have to engage them in conversation, get their contact information, deliver your elevator pitch and then move on to try to find more qualified prospects from the passing stream of people.
Tradeshows even borrow terms from the theatre like backdrops, centre stage and upstage. Don't be upstaged by a minor player when your prospect is standing in front of you.
Advertising doesn't sell. Salespeople sell. Advertising is often nowhere near the location of the sales transaction, and is planned that way, so how can advertising sell? This is not to discount advertising but to demonstrate that advertising is a marketing tool and why Sales and Marketing are integrated but separate corporate departments. Sales staff offers prospect insight to the marketing department to develop the key advertising messages based on measurable, trade show results.
There are seminars available in every major centre that teach trade show staff how to effectively work the trade show floor and how to measure their success to determine return on investment.
Trade show expenditures are significant and should be supported in other media in order to gain the most leverage from attending the show. Outdoor, print, earned media, news releases, hospitality suites and last year's show attendee list all offer opportunities for the sophisticated communicator.
Corporate trade show booths and corporate websites share many things in common, the most important of which is the commitment that is required to make the prize worth the effort. Either is a bit like opening a new storefront.
Argon Security Technologies Inc.
10' x 10' pop up exhibit promoting wireless surveillance technology to Law Enforcement.
Photography by Derek Norris and Norman Fournier
Argon Security Technologies Inc.
Roll-up Banners to promote wireless surveillance technology to a Military audience.
Each Roll-up banner is discrete. All three banners are lined up on installation to produce a unified message reading left to right.
Illustrations were completed in Strata 3D CX® and Adobe Photoshop®.
ACR Proposal for 20' x 10' custom exhibit
20' x 10' custom exhibit to promote Data Loggers to distributors. The exhibit was designed over a period of 6 months in collaboration with ACR management.
The exhibit hardware features a "circuit board" design which plays off graphics which ACR uses on their accompanying print materials.