You can say all you like about Trade Shows. In this day and age of connecting to 1000s of customers through social media, it seems like a really expensive way to connect with (relatively) few people that get out of their office to come see you at an exhibition. And, for B2B companies, is this a place where customers buy anyway?
But that's not what its about. Its about putting on a show. Getting face to face with the people that buy your products and showing them just how much they mean to you.
MediaPro 09 held at Old Billingsgate (near Monument in London), was Specle's first ever trade show. We wanted to get out there in a big way. We booked front of house right where we could get traffic from both entrances. We also brought in two fantastic people to run the whole show for us (@MissSCWhite and Elle Bracegirdle, you're awesome). We strategically launched a new product at the show (SpecleSpace which I'll talk about in another entry), and we discounted existing ones for the 2 days.
But most importantly - above everything else just about - we found a great pub, and printed a load of branded drink tokens that we gave to people to exchange for free drinks for 2.5 hours. Silly us thought only 5-10 people would turn up.
As nervous as I was about this show, it went brilliantly. With some clever ideas from Elle & Sam, we did not have to spend a fortune to have an amazing looking stand.
What MediaPro showed the industry is that we were here, and that we were serious. Our stand was busy from beginning to end. And we had around 200 people turn up for the drinks night. It did wonders for our brand awareness, and cost a fraction of what it cost the rest of the show.
From the show, we're bringing on 10 new major publishers, including one that said they never saw the point of our system. We have around 50 new leads. We've had a major spike in interest in our paid products through the number of people that contact us through the site.
In short, I am delighted with how we did. I am very surprised just how effective a trade show can be for your brand.
We are still right at the beginning of our journey. Week by week our community is increasing. We are building our credibility and building our brand as the search resource for ad specifications on the internet and we're securing the support of the major publishers in the UK.
MediaPro 09 brought our brand to a new level - in one hit. It increased our credibility and connected us on a personal and social level with hundreds of people in our community. People we hope will then talk about us to others. Specle is all about offering great service to customers and our industry, and this gave us a great chance to put on a real show for them.
See photos below. If anyone has more photos (especially of the drinks night) then let me know
Pre Show
Giving Demos
In Action
