As a marketing professional heavily involved in the trade show industry, I made it a point to stop one of the best trade shows around, the SXSW trade show. Marketing efforts were out in full force as companies tried to intrigue attendees and coerce them into their booths. After seeing these efforts live and in action from the attendee perspective, I began to wonder about the results certain trade show marketing tactics produced and their overall effectiveness. I’ve decided to rate the tactics that I saw the most based on their cost and potential results, on a scale of 1-5, one being the least effective and five being the most effective.
Tactic #1- Completely Free SWAG
Don’t expect to come out of a trade show like SXSW empty handed. I came away with: 4 reusable bags, 5 t-shirts, 2 koozies, 1 water bottle, 1 power strip, and a whole lot more.
Many marketers will spend a significant amount of their budget on “swag.” As an attendee, I can assure you that free stuff is definitely a great way to attract people to your booth. What is the result though? Brand awareness– people wearing your t-shirt or using your koozie and getting your company name out there. To find the benefit, let’s find the cost of a popular piece of swag, the t-shirt. The average cost of a t-shirt with your printed logo/design is somewhere between $5-$8, if you order in bulk. For a show like SXSW with 60,000 attendees, you’re going to need quite a few shirts. Brand awareness used to be more valuable, but now with so much noise, the value has gone down. The problem also lies in not being able to track the results it can bring. Spending thousands of dollars on your exhibitor spot and then even more of your budget on completely free swag all for brand awareness gives this tactic an effectiveness score of 2.
Tactic #2- SWAG With Stipulations
What do booth vendors love more than giving away free stuff? Giving away free stuff and scanning your badge to get your email address. The same swag that’s given away completely free is also given away with stipulations. There is an obvious problem with this and that is not being able to qualify a lead. Attendees will give you their email address and have absolutely zero interest in your product, all to get that cool koozie. The booth vendors are not fazed by this as sometimes their primary job at a trade show is to get as many leads as they can. The sales team however, might not particularly appreciate this approach. The bucket gets filled up even more, making it harder for the sales team to find the hot leads. It is not entirely negative as this approach does have the benefits of brand awareness and growing your lead bucket/mailing list. The cost is about the same as completely free swag so, the effectiveness score is a 3.
Tactic #3- Marketing Stunts
This is also known as, “Cool things to look at.” There were quite a few vendors trying to get people into their booth by dressing up in some sort of costume or having some other sort of attention-getting attraction at their booth. Here are a few I found…
This is a good tactic when it comes to getting people attracted to your booth (without giving away free stuff). Attendees are asking themselves the questions, “Why is he dressed like that?” or, “What is that thing?” instead of, “How can I get one of those free t-shirts without talking to anyone or giving out my email address?” When an attendee comes up to your booth and inquires about your cool marketing gimmick, they’re already a little interested and a lot more open to hearing what you have to say. These attendees are more valuable than attendees who just want free stuff. Since the cost for this can be pretty low compared to other tactics and the level of interest is higher, it gets an effectiveness score of 4.
Tactic #4- Interaction!
This is my favorite type of exhibitor tactic. Having attendees interact with your product can help your cause in so many ways. First, it is pretty clear that the people interacting with your product are already interested. Secondly, this is a great way to draw a crowd and create some buzz about your brand on the trade show floor. Lastly, there is not much cost! All you have to do is use your product, making the necessity of swag and other gimmicks much lower. Here are a few booths that did a great job at interaction.
Interaction with your product is the best marketing tactic for trade shows and events because of the quality of leads and the low cost. This tactic gets an effectiveness score of 5!
So, the next time you’re brainstorming on how to be effective at a trade show, use these tips. If you have other tips that have proved to be effective for you, share them in the comments section!
Nice article Jessica. I agree with you that actually having people actually use your product if it’s geared to that is best. I wonder if there’s a way to have them use it AND capture their email/contact info. That would be a 5 in my book.
Thanks, Taylor. There definitely is. One of the booths at SXSW was promoting headphones. They had a live band playing in a soundproof booth, but you could only hear the band if you gave your contact info and used their headphones to hear the band. If your product gathers enough attention and enough of a crowd then it can be very easy to require contact info before letting attendees interact.