Trade Show Savvy

May 2, 2005
Trade Show Savvy
by Deborah Geiger
There are thousands of people wandering around the trade show floor, and a throng of visitors at a booth down the aisle, but no one at yours? What are you doing wrong? This was the lament of one of Pixallure clients recently, so we went to work to produce a trade show presence that got noticed. We developed a booth theme, coordinating handouts, ordered specialty items for give-a-ways, and even created a follow-up direct mail package to send to the top 20 leads that were generated from the show.

The direct mail package won national attention when it was among the top three finalists in the “Best Client Promotional” competition from The Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI), the 20,000-member organization serving the promotional products industry. The ASI Spirit Award competition is open to 17,000 distributors of promotional products in the U.S.

So many companies cut corners when it comes to trade shows, with devastating results. If you want to spend your trade show dollars wisely, consider these strategies:

Theme
  As a way to increase traffic in your booth, establishing a theme can be very effective. Creating a theme that complements your collateral materials and handouts is key. It is also critical that this theme emphasizes the key elements of your brand that you wish your potential customers to walk away with in their minds. A powerful theme becomes an attention-getter at the show, can help stimulate conversation and open the door to a positive relationship building experience. The theme we developed for Hargrove and Associates, around “balancing and juggling” keyed into one direct message for their clients: Hargrove can help plant and facility managers balance the pressures of foreign competition, aging equipment and environmental regulations.

Booth
  There is nothing more important than your graphic presentation at the show. This is your first impression on your potential target market and is one of the only ways you will attract attention and traffic to your booth. Pixallure can help you develop branding messages that reach out and grab the attention of your potential customers. For Hargrove, our booth design included an eye-catching juggler—something seemingly out of place for an engineering trade show This was exactly our intent and partly how we planned to capture the attention of our audience. 

Collateral
  Once you have the attention of your audience, it is critical to fill their need for more information about your unique services and industry approach. The flyer we developed for Hargrove, helped explain the theme and offered more specifics about how this engineering team can make a difference.

Specialties
  To reinforce the theme and add character to your show experience, use specialty items to generate conversation. For an eye-catching approach, use three items as follows:

• An inexpensive item to distribute freely throughout the show. 
• A moderately priced item, with very high perceived value, to give in person to important leads.
• A higher-end item to use as a follow up to mail individually to the top 20 to 30 leads generated from the show.
 

Direct Mail
  Many companies fail to do quality follow up after a show. It is easy to pack the booth up, stick that stack of business cards on your desk and get back to the real work. The problem with that approach is that it makes your trade show investment worthless. Those companies that provide good follow up after a show are the only ones that are truly remembered months later.
• First, let’s drive traffic to your booth. A pre-conference mailer with a teaser item that only a visit to the booth can complete, perhaps a puzzle piece that can win a big prize, a key to a treasure chest, etc. 
• During the show, make contacts and make sure you don’t forget who they are! Collect leads using a card scanning device, actual business cards, or short sign up forms. 
• Organize leads into two groups. Hot leads (to receive specialty gift package, and everyone else. Additionally, if it applies, organize cards into categories of special interests For Hargrove, these included industry associations, building managers, vendors, etc.
• Create mailing lists by special interest for e-news bulletins for that are targeted to their interest.
• Create a follow-up e-mail newsletter to send to all leads from the show that emphasizes a case study or special project accomplishment that reinforces show message and theme. 
• A post mailing to attendees that reinforces your corporate branding message and offers the information they might have missed if they didn’t visit your booth. A comprehensive list of services as a direct mailer is an ideal option. 
• A direct mail package to your top 20 contacts that reinforces the theme. For Hargrove this package included special gift package that contained a smaller version of the booth graphic, a copy of the handout, and a high-quality “balancing” pen that helped reinforce the message of the show.
 

Making the right investment in your trade show experience can lead to great success. Consider the difference between throngs of potential customers and leads at your booth, or the alternative—a wasted investment. Make your efforts count!

Reprinted with permission from Pixallure Design LLC. Visit original article post: http://www.pixallure.com/articles_pr_20050502.asp

 

A Successful Restaurant Launch – More than Meets the Eye

November 23, 2004
A Successful Restaurant Launch – More than Meets the Eye
by Team Pixallure
When you walked in the front door of Roussos new seafood restaurant at the Eastern Shore Centre last Wednesday, it was a feast for the eyes. As the bright sunlight shined in the floor to ceiling windows, new tables and booths were set ready to welcome their new guests. Mementos and memorabilia from their long-time downtown Mobile location looked fresh as they occupied space in the brand new building. New menus, brightly colored jelly fish-shaped lights, attractive signage, table tents and much more worked together to make an inviting atmosphere.

The launch was by any account extremely successful. Ever since the opening hour Wednesday, November 17, there was never an open seat and at typical meal times, guests waited an hour or more for the delectable seafood and Greek-style entrees that awaited them inside.

Owner, Georgia Roussos, heard many positive comments over the opening weekend:
• “Guests would come in and say, ‘I want to know every option you have that is Greek on the menu’, which made us feel good—and glad we paid extra attention to incorporating our Greek heritage into our restaurant.
• “Our crawfish-shaped beepers were extremely popular! We ordered 30 thinking we would never have that many people waiting, but at each lunch and dinner through our first five days open we had more than 50 people waiting. We’re planning on ordering more,” she said.
• “So many people are just crazy about our jelly fish lights, they love them!” she said.

The success is a tremendous tribute to the planning and effort that went into every detail of the launch and the entire Pixallure team pitched in to pull it off successfully.

The first task was organizing our priority list of items that needed to be addressed. A successful launch required the careful coordination of every single detail, from the silverware and fixtures to the marketing and signage. Planning began as early as 8 months prior to the launch and full-scale efforts began in July.

We organized our to-do list by category:

Corporate Identity:
 This included everything from outside signage to printed literature, and included exterior signs, interior banners and posters, the neon sign for the “Jelly Fish” bar, menu inserts and logo clothing for staff. We also had to plan ahead to meet State regulations for Interstate signs and plan for other large-scale signs advertising “Shrimps Eat Free” and “Gift Card” opportunities. Anything that with the Roussos brand on it fell in this category.
Packaging:
 With a successful catering business, large entrees that often require “take home” containers, and big plans for new “To Go” service, we had to pay special attention to packaging and order everything we might need from bags and labels to catering napkins.
Interior Touches:
 Everywhere we could, we planned to incorporate the theme of “Greek-style seafood.” From seafood themed decorations, Greek music piped into the bathrooms and so many other options, we strived to make each and every detail one that matched the new theme. Aside from the printed materials, we also planned for on-hold phone messages, decorations, seating plans, dinnerware, and dining room layouts. We also couldn’t forget the “Crawfish-shaped” beepers for those anticipated long waiting lines.
Advertising/Marketing:
 No launch is complete without getting the word out to the media. Roussos participated in the Media events organized by the center in addition to pitching feature stories and making photos available to the media. Information sheets about the family’s history, the restaurant menu and catering services were developed. 
Web site:
 Launching the Web site simultaneously with the restaurant also included a lot of planning and development. A special shopping area for the purchase of Gift Cards was created, a photo shoot captured the essence of many of their specialty entrees, information for prospective guests was organized, including a list of local attractions and special sections for tour buses. Photos and family history were added to the site and photos uploaded as they became available.

Through it all, there were still more details that we couldn’t possibly list here. And even a few surprises. Georgia mentioned that they are selling much more seafood than they did in their downtown Mobile location. Another surprise? They have been so busy they can’t keep enough silverware rolled up for new guests and they didn’t anticipate the amount of toilet paper that they would need! All in all, the problems were minor and are easily resolved.

Georgia put it best when she said, “We are overwhelmed by our success and so full of thankfulness. We are exhausted, but it is a wonderful exhaustion!”

Reprinted with permission from Pixallure Design LLC. Visit original article post: http://www.pixallure.com/articles_pr_20041123.asp