1. Integrated Digital Experience:
Key Tools to Developing Trade Show and
Marketing Communications Strategies

2. Who Am I?
• Christopher Justice
– CEO, Sparksight, Inc.
– Event Design and Technology
– Background in corporate marketing but degree in computer
science.
– Started the company to serve a violently spoken need for the
events industry.

3. Agenda
• Attendee and Industry Snapshot
• Engagement Challenges and Strategies
• Segmentation and Interaction
• Technographic Exhibit Planning
• Technology and Futures
• Designing Digital Media
• Summary and Questions

4. Simple Goals
• Attraction
• Engage
• Capture
• Follow Up
• Score
4

5. Changing Attendee Behavior
• An enhanced communicator with unlimited
power to influence.
• High expectations of user experience and
customer service.
• Accessible and visible with an online persona.
• Attendees are spending fewer days at the
show.

6. Event Marketing Objectives
• Different Tactics Depending on the Exhibit and
Attendee
– Exhibition
– Corporate
– Industry Association
• Marketing Focus Points
– Pre-Event Marketing
– Concurrent Marketing
– Post-Event Marketing

7. Shocking Attendee Behavior
• The average attendee crosses the carpet of 510% of the total exhibits.
• Half of the stops to an exhibit are preplanned.
• Most attendees visiting your exhibit expect
something for free.
• Most paper collateral is discarded as collected.

8. What is working?
• Content-based tactics
• Free
• Experiential
• Entertainment
• Advocacy
• Relationship and dialog

9. New Approaches to Engagement
• Motivate Attendees
– Target a specific audience and target attendee.
• Focused Content
– Filter content so visitors are not bombarded with information overload.
• Immersion
– Engage visitors within a “story”.
• Modularity
– Present smaller themes instead of one larger complex topic.
• Skimmability
– Information should be easy to take in because visitors are often standing and/or
have different levels of education.

10. New Approaches to Engagement (cont.)
• Patterns
– Incorporate traffic patterns and exhibit sequence patterns.
• Capture Curiosity
– Use storytelling techniques to engage visitors.
• Interaction
– Give visitors a “fun” experience and encouraging them to touch your
event/exhibit/conference.
• Integrate Technology
– Technology should enhance visitor’s experience, not detract from it.
• Layer Content
– Present information in a hierarchical manner.

11. Exhibit Attendee Strategy
• Biographical
• Demographic
• Psychographic
• Lifestyle
• Technographic
– based on their ownership, use patterns, and attitudes toward
information, communication and entertainment technologies.

12. Event Technographics
• Consumers
– Seeking information and validation and deep education.
• Buyers
– Refining brand decision and purchase plan.
• Sales and Biz Development
– Promoting and connecting opportunities.
• Media/Press/Critics/Amplifiers
– Reporting and delivering information.
• Spectators
– No intentions but influential in brand reputation.
• Seekers
– Need focused – jobs opportunities, connections, industry education.
• Inactives
– Those bodies that consume space and want the t-shirt.

13. Applying Technographics to
Event Marketing
• The intersection between exhibit marketing and
digital marketing has happened.
– Traditional techniques are still used but have decreased in
reach and increased in cost.
– The event organizer will not provide digital tactics for the
exhibitors. We must lead them.
– The exhibit house and decorator do not yet understand the
integration of digital and environment exhibit elements.

14. Digital Event Media Taxonomy
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Email marketing
Websites
Micro-sites
Touch screen kiosks
Social media
Online video
Webcasts
Mobile Applications
– iPhone/BB/Android
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Blogs
Online advertising
Virtual events
Live broadcasts
SMS/MMS/Text
Online games
RSS and Syndication
Virtual Worlds
RFID

15. Tactics by Utilization
Online video is increasing.
Social media has a place but
requires planning to achieve
results.
Mobile applications will
have segmented appeal.
Source: CEIR Digital + Exhibiting Marketing Insights 2010

16. Tactics by Spend

17. Exhibit Interaction
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Attendance
Exhibit Size
Location
Direction
Display points
Interaction Points

18. Redefining the Event Plan
• Designing for results and experience
– What event elements are for existing customers?
– What experience for the brand ignorant attendees?
– How do you provide continuity from the event to the desktop –
to the device?
– When does the interaction begin?
– How and when do leads get processed?
– Timeliness means getting more real-time.

19. Impact of Digital Marketing
• Exhibits are redesigned with technographics in
mind.
• Exhibitors will ask more from exhibit houses and
decorators to provide digital media strategies.
• Exhibitors should demand more of event
registration and lead management products.
– Pre-event, during and post event access.

20. The Key to Better Exhibits and ROI
• Integrating the exhibit experience with the
registration and lead capture.
• Bar codes, magnetic stripe and other legacy
systems should be retired.
• RFID
– Reduces cost and increase quantifiable metrics from the
event.
– Allows for the integration of attendee information into the
exhibit.

21. Digital Exhibit Design Plan
• Educate
• Validate
• Entertain
• Environmental
– Noise
– Light
– Movement

22. Technographic Exhibit Design

23. Define Better Digital Interactive Points

24. Print on Demand

25. Touchscreen with RFID

26. Touchscreen Kiosk Lead Collection

27. Touchscreen Technologies
• Resistive
– Cost effective, plastic over glass
• Surface Acoustic/Bending Wave
– Cost effective, well established
• Optical
– Cost effective for large sizes, light sensitivity
• Capacitive
– High cost for large sizes, multi-touch capable

28. Digital Kiosks

29. Integrating the Exhibit with Digital Media
• Registration Systems
• Paper and Manual Lead Capture
• Customer Relationship Management
• RFID
• Integration of interactive displays and attendee
data.
• Personalization of exhibit experience to each
attendee.

30. Integrated Stand Alone Lead Capture

31. Setting Event Success Metrics
• Specific and quantifiable:
– Total number of visitors to your booth
– Booth visitors by target audience (by accounts, by industry, by title, etc.)
– One-on-one meetings with key accounts
– Number of qualified leads z Lead quality mix (percent of A, B, C leads, etc.)
– Lead mix by technographic /Lead mix by the day and hour of the show
– Amount of media coverage received
• Every event is a reason to launch….something.
– Percentage increase in your company and/or product awareness
– Numbers of attendees exposed to your demo or live presentation
– Number of questionnaires completed by target audience
– Number and quality of strategic alliances confirmed with other exhibiting companies

32. Summary and Questions