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If the definition of insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting a different outcome, lots of companies at mega-shows like CES, MWC and IFA need serious brand therapy. From Las Vegas to Berlin, they make the same assumptions about what will engage the thousands of people walking right by their huge, expensive booths. Help is here: the same teams that helped brands at shows like these gathered their insights in our newest white paper. They offer counter-intuitive advice on how to break through the clutter by creating a brand experience—not just a branded environment.
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DON’TGOTRADESHOW ** And other counter-intuitive tips to break through the clutter at events like CES, MWC and IFA
TO THE
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: the good, the bad and the very bad 3
No one cares if you’re following brand guidelines 4
No one cares about your products 5
Your technology isn’t working 6
It’s not about you 7
Get off the floor 8
In a nutshell: don’t go to the tradeshow 9
Let’s talk 10
About Jack Morton 11
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INTRODUCTION: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE VERY BADIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The shows were massive, swamped with hundreds of thousands of attendees, teeming with exhibitors, packed with jaw-dropping technologies – and overwhelmed by brands jumping up and down for your attention at every turn of the corner.
That’s how we at Jack Morton felt as we experienced three major tradeshows this year: the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January in Las Vegas; the Mobile World Congress in February in Barcelona; and this month, IFA 2012 in Berlin, the world’s largest show of home appliances and electronics.
It’s the best of times when brands sponsor and create experiences for the right reasons. It’s the worst of times when brands exhibit out of apathy and make the same old assumptions about what will be interesting to the thousands of attendees walking right by their huge, expensive booths.
Breaking through the clutter is easy. Really. If we could distill it down to one phrase, it’s ‘follow your own brand, not tradeshow conventions’. That means not only staying true to your brand and the people you’re trying to reach but also bravely breaking away from the expected.
In that spirit of surprise, we offer the following counter-intuitive insights about how to break through the clutter.
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TakeawayDon’t just create a branded space, designed to the letter of brand guidelines. Design a brand experience design
from the brand values.
NO ONE CARES IF YOU’RE FOLLOWING BRAND GUIDELINES**it’s what you do that counts
By our estimates, 90% of exhibitors at shows like IFA, CES and MWC have the same failed approach. It’s what we call a branded space. Evidently adhering to visual identity guidelines, their common ingredients are big logos and taglines, their ethos that of 3D advertisements. They assume the conventional boxy structure/demo/meeting room format, then simply decide what graphics to apply. The result: low cut-through, skin-deep branding with Identikit experiences.
Brand experiences do more. Brand experiences turn the brand values into verbs – then act on them at every touchpoint. They use the brand vision as a guide not for visual branding, but for every action: from structure, to activity, demonstration, entertainment and beyond. They don’t make assumptions.
They only do what’s right for their brand. That’s why the best feel like their own self-sufficient ecosystems: like separate worlds on the tradeshow floor. That’s why they have superior standout and memorability to the sea of sameness around them. It’s how Ericsson brought their Networked Society vision to life as, yes, an experience that operated like a networked society itself. It explains why AEG’s experience felt like a vision of the designer home, rather than yet another appliance showroom.
It’s not just the big spenders who can pull this off; brand experiences aren’t about huge budgets but rather big ambitions. To promote the speed of their Windows Phone at MWC, Microsoft created a unique rapid (but low-budget) experience to match.
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All of us know from Branding 101 that strongly differentiated brands fare better than those that blend in with competitors. Why then, the sea of sameness on the tradeshow floor? It’s as if marketers who know better have forgotten the lessons of consumer marketing upon entering big shows like CES, IFA and MWC – where the competition and need to differentiate are even starker. Perhaps that’s because the typical exhibitor at these shows is so focused on showcasing products and only builds an environment around those products. On the whole, your audience doesn’t want or need to see the entire product range. Yet at the big shows, we saw thousands of products but few brand visions shining through. Philips, T-Mobile, Google, Ericsson and Dell were welcome exceptions.
NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR PRODUCTS**until they’ve bought into your brand
Takeaway
People buy brands first, products
second. The experience you create
needs to show what your brand stands
for – and project a distinctive image,
message and mode of interaction.
Before you do anything else, ask
“what’s our brand vision?”
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Values like ‘human’, ‘intuitive’ and ‘personal’ are in many brand DNAs. So technology should behave accordingly. We often encourage our clients to empower people to discover their products versus compelling every attendee to go through a step-by-step demo. We do that because what we call the warm glow of self-discovery can have a powerful and positive impact. In our technology-saturated world, people crave experiences that work intuitively and without guidance, as if by magic.
Yes, there are occasions when having an ambassador explain your product is absolutely right; if you’re showing technology that’s unfamiliar or in early-stage development, it’s likely that you’ll need the gentle guidance of a skilled brand ambassador to ensure people get to understand it and love it. At times like that, your product really does merit interpretation. But in most other instances, people want to be able to pick up a product, press a button and find it does exactly what they asked it to.
YOUR TECHNOLOGY ISN’T WORKING**if your audience can’t work it out for themselves
TakeawayCreate experiences that enable
your products to live as they do
in the real world. And make that
action as foolproof and magical to
discover as possible.
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Lots of brands talk about the power of interacting with customers. Yet most exhibitors don’t act on it and activities are more likely to be focused on one-way product demos with an old fashioned “features and benefits” approach. One-way “shows” that grab attention yet ultimately alienate are another recurring feature. Just like consumers, B2B audiences assume that their interest must be earned. They expect entertainment and a bit of surprise. They love competition and that’s why “gamification” has been such a buzzword for the past few years. But mime artists and aloof models are just as off-putting today as they’ve always been (but more embarrassing).
Why? The goal is not impressing, it’s involving your audience. In a digital-dominated world, they also expect experiences to be relevant to how they use your brand and better still, help them interact with your brand. And that’s surely true of the most successful “attractors”—those activations that pull people into your exhibit instead of causing them to walk away. The best invite people to participate in something relevant, useful and real. To put it another way, if you have a vacuum cleaner, let people suck up dirt.
IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU**it’s about your audience
Takeaway
Interactive = attractive.
Ask how you can empower
your audience to interact
with the brand.
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TakeawayGo where your brand is best served, whether the trade floor
or somewhere else entirely.
Some of the most successful experiences at major events like CES, MWC and IFA aren’t even on the tradeshow floor. A few brave brands (actually, a tiny minority) create off-site experiences that avoid the noise by “exhibiting without an exhibit”.
It’s a simple idea that brands can address through mobile apps, targeted meetings, interventions at transit points, guerilla marketing, mini-conferences or entirely autonomous off-site brand experiences that look and act like tradeshows—just away from the noise and distraction of all the competitors. It’s not an oversight that Apple doesn’t even show up at shows like MWC. Why create a physical, fixed experience at all? Why not a service or mobile experience?
GET OFF THE FLOOR**if your experience will work better elsewhere
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First of all, make sure you should be at the tradeshow at all. Have a good strategic reason to go: check it’s the best way to reach the right people and achieve your business objectives. With so many brands competing so mightily for attendees’ attention when it comes to shows like CES, MWC and IFA, it should go without saying that “just showing up” won’t cut it. Yet a surprising number of exhibitors rationalize their participation with phrases like “We were here last year,” “We have to come” or “My boss likes this show” and fail to activate aggressively once there.
Make sure you have the resources – time , money and imagination – to activate in truly different and engaging ways.
If you’re going…
Don’t create a branded spaceEssentially a superficially branded experience, visually branded, product showroom with few unique brand activities. An experience without a clear reason for being.
Create a brand experienceIgnore tradeshow conventions. Instead, treat your brand values as verbs. Build an experience that’s true to your brand inside and out, and in behavior – not just appearance.
That’s an experience that cuts through. That’s an experience that works.
IN A NUTSHELL: DON’T GO TO THE TRADESHOW**just for the sake of showing up
CONTACT
Liz Bigham
[email protected]+1 212 401 7212
LET’S TALK
READ ON Read our blog at blog.jackmorton.com
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Visit us online at jackmorton.com
Read what we had to say about CES click here
© Jack Morton Worldwide 2012
JACK MORTON WORLDWIDE IS A GLOBAL BRAND EXPERIENCE AGENCY WITH OFFICES ON FIVE CONTINENTS. OUR AGENCY CULTURE PROMOTES BREAKTHROUGH IDEAS ABOUT HOW EXPERIENCES CONNECT BRANDS AND PEOPLE—IN PERSON, ONLINE, AT RETAIL AND THROUGH THE POWER OF DIGITAL AND WORD OF MOUTH INFLUENCE. WE WORK WITH BOTH BTOC AND BTOB CLIENTS TO CREATE POWERFUL AND EFFECTIVE EXPERIENCES THAT ENGAGE CUSTOMERS AND CONSUMERS, LAUNCH PRODUCTS, ALIGN EMPLOYEES AND BUILD STRONG EXPERIENCE BRANDS. RANKED AT THE TOP OF OUR FIELD, WE EARNED OVER 50 AWARDS FOR CREATIVITY, EXECUTION AND EFFECTIVENESS LAST YEAR. JACK MORTON IS PART OF THE INTERPUBLIC GROUP OF COMPANIES, INC. (NYSE: IPG).
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