Trade Show Booth Weekend ‘Rapup
For this post I thought I’d try to highlight noteworthy news in the trade show world. All of our worlds are very busy; we’ll try to do this news review on a regular basis, and hopefully it will help you, at least every once in a while, to capture interesting articles or news that you may have missed.
1) The first bit of news, reported on TSNN’s website, is that the trade show industry has now experienced 7 straight quarters of growth. In this recent article, TSNN (Trade Show News Network) reports “all the metrics, including net square feet, number of exhibitors and real revenues, showed positive trends.” This is good news for for all of us!
Why, you say? Many analysts view the trade show industry as a precursor or predictor for the general economy, because many businesses ramp up their marketing as they see the health of their industries improving. This trend gathers momentum, as more business attend trade shows, their business increases, so they go to more shows, etc.
The same CEIR (Center for Exhibition Industry Research) report was also discussed in an article on the IAEE (International Association of Exhibits and Events) website, “CEIR First Quarter Index Results Report 2.7% Increase for Seven Quarters of Consecutive Growth“. For those who like details, facts, and figures, this version may be more helpful, as it contains specific details about the metrics that were measured, how much they’ve been improving, etc.
2) Next up is a piece of “infotainment” that demonstrates how to combine humor and information into a brief, several minute marketing video. The video, made by an event consulting company named Sparksight, was the focus of a post by Joyce Mckee on ICEEM’s website (International Center for Exhibitor & Event Marketing). This video is titled “Why Sales Hates Tradeshow Leads“, and provides 5 tips for energizing and coordinating your sales and marketing teams for better trade show success. The video is well worth a few minutes to watch it, both for the content of the specific video, but just as much to help us all learn more about the use of infotainment videos in general.
3) Last but not least, for this week’s round-up, is an article on Lead Generation: Targeted event marketing effort leads to 300% ROI, generates 140 qualified leads, found on Marketing Sherpa’s often fascinating website. The article analyzes a company’s plan to improve their ROI at their annual big industry trade show – and proves their method, using a pre-show mailing process that resulted in a 300% return on their investment! How much would you invest in your trade shows and trade show displays if you knew you were going to get a 300% ROI?!