The results were disappointing. Not a single QR Code hit on all aspects of user-friendly usability. They fell into one of the follow categories: didn’t work at all (1); didn’t scan at all because they were too small, too far away (too high) or looked weird because they were on an uneven surface (temporary tattoos) (about 15 of them); or the URL landing page wasn’t optimized for a smart phone (the remainder).
This year at Expo West I wasn’t as scan-happy, but I did find that many more QR Codes did work, and did exactly what they intended. Not all, but many. Out of about a dozen
codes I scanned, all of them worked (they took me to a landing page), and about half of the landing pages were optimized for viewing in a smart phone.
Some notable examples: Gud, from Burt’s Bees and Ciao Bello (see screen shots). Both had nice looking landing pages, which were easy to navigate, and very inviting. Both accomplished their purposes of providing a good answer to the question: why should I scan this QR Code.
Check out the Kindle version of my QR Code Tradeshow Marketing Guide here (cheap!) if you want to know how to make these puppies work right.
I spent a few moments with Ariel Scott, the Marketing Manager with NextFoods at the GoodBelly booth in Anaheim this past weekend during Expo West 2012. Since I dig their products so much (tasty and good for ya), I gave her a chance to expound on the products. Then I asked her about how GoodBelly uses social media marketing…take a look:
I talked to a handful of exhibitors at Expo West and asked them about how they use the various social media tools available. Here’s a trio of the responses:
After walking the floor at the Natural Products Expo West for a full day, it occurred to me that a number of exhibitors I had met and talked to the past couple of years were not here. Even though it’s huge show with thousands of exhibitors, and it might be easy to overlook them, that’s not the case: I looked them up on the show app and couldn’t find them.
They had vanished. Why? I wondered.
Of course, there are myriad reasons why a company wouldn’t return to a show for a third of fourth year, or even a second year.
It could be that the marketing goals have changed; they don’t have enough money; the company went out of business, there isn’t a market for their product, they can’t establish themselves against their competitors…any number of things would affect the ability of a company to show up at a huge industry tradeshow year after year.
Then I thought of the many companies I’ve seen and met that DO come year after year. When we discuss the show, and the success they’ve had, one common theme threads through the discussion: they all build their company’s success using the tradeshow as a springboard.
Many of those exhibitors that failed had solid social media marketing efforts. They were active in luring visitors to their booth. But even a good social media effort won’t cure the overall problem. What if you get people to your booth and you still fail in execution once they arrive?
If those exhibitors that fail to return to the show are doing things right away from the show, other factors notwithstanding, it really comes down to execution at the tradeshow itself.
There is a continuous chain of preparation and execution that has to happen to ensure the success of the tradeshow marketing effort, and if any one of those links are broken, the whole effort will fail.
Starting with the actual tradeshow booth, on to the pre-show marketing efforts, the show execution, and the follow-up with leads, all cylinders need to be hitting for the full effect: tradeshow marketing success.
While walking the show, I notice things, and one of the most glaring examples I see is staff failure. Many booths seem to have it all going: it’s great looking, the graphics are top-notch, the booth is functional and accommodating…yet the staff appears to be oblivious to visitors. They’re eating, talking on the phone, standing with their backs to the entrance, ignoring visitors…it’s truly astonishing to me that a company will spend tens of thousands of dollars on a booth, travel, booth space rental, advertising, marketing – and yet the whole effort flops because their staff is ill-trained.
There are other, less obvious, failures. For instance, graphics are ill-designed, packed with too much text or not distinguishing themselves from the competition. The photographs and graphics are not catchy enough compared to their neighbor. Or they have a giveaway that’s not capturing a specific, focused group of people (anyone want a new iPad? Yes, everyone does, and that’s the problem: not everyone is a prospect). When you’re competing against thousands of exhibitors trying to catch the eye of someone walking by your booth, you have literally about three seconds to visually grab them. If the graphics are lame or the display is packed with too much verbiage, the visitor won’t respond – they’ll keep on walking. And chances are they won’t be back.
Bottom line: tradeshow marketing can be extremely successful. I see multiple examples and talk to dozens of people that claim tradeshow marketing is their best platform for company growth and expansion. Yet…if a link in the chain is missing, the marketing manager will see the effort crumble, and struggle to identify the problem.
On your next tradeshow marketing effort, do your best to ensure the chain is strong from start to finish.
After all of the drama that unfolded over the past three weeks, in my investigation (the meeting with the Russian spy, Mel and Kevin going toe-to-toe, etc.), here are the final results.
Mel White shows us around the booth at Exhibitor 2012:
Thought I’d share a few videos I took on the floor of Exhibitor 2012 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas this week. My two-day stint in the Classic Exhibits booth is over.
Here’s the first video: a compilation of some of the sights and sounds on the floor, along with chat with a few folks:
Yup, it’s here. SocialMediaEventMarketingU.com is officially launched. Yes, we did a soft launch on January 1 with all of the basic training info offered for free. But now that we’ve added a couple of dozen premium videos, finalized the membership price structure, it’s time to make it official. And hey – just in time for Exhibitor 2012!
In fact, as this blog post appears on Monday the 5th, I’ll be appearing at Exhibitor at the Classic Exhibits booth #1645, along with tradeshow expert and aurhor Marlys Arnold. We’ll be there to meet and greet, blog and take photographs and videos, and generally raise havoc and be available for fun, frivolity and yes – if you want – a serious question or two! After all, this is Vegas, this is a tradeshow and we are going to have fun!
We issued the press release last Friday the 2nd announcing the launch of the training site as it coincides with Exhibitor 2012. Feel free to read it here to get all the juicy details, and yes, feel free to check out the intro video.
I blogged about the rising start Pinterest just a couple of weeks ago. I was quite enamored (and still am) of the image-board-pinning service for a couple of reasons. First, it’s growing quickly and is getting raves in the blogosphere and press about how its ability to drive traffic outshines some of the more established social media sharing sites. Secondly, it’s an easy-to-use, good-looking site that has tons of possibilities in both sharing and in promoting your own products, blogs and services. The fact that Pinterest has spawned many imitators is a sure sign of its success even as the question remains: can that success be sustained over the long term?
Yet in spite of its ability to drive more web traffic than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined, Pinterest may have a poison pill lurking within its own Terms of Service. Those Terms of Service clearly state that YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL MATERIAL YOU POST. It appears that they’re looking to dodge any legal responsibility for ANY images that their users may post, and instead are shoving those responsibilities onto their users.
A recent article by a photographer who carefully combed through the Terms of Service, which resulted in her cancelling her account and ‘tearfully’ taking down all of her boards, is a caution sign. The article spawned hundreds of comments (it’s a lot to read, but very engaging), and its made me rethink my interest in Pinterest.
Is this a reason to jump ship like Kirsten Kowalski did after carefully reading the TOS and deciding it was too risky for her? I would hesitate to do that, and until you start to see photographers or other creators aggressively going after users who pin work they don’t own, it’s probably a pretty slim chance that you or I will have any problem. But, like Kirsten thought, someone is probably going to be the first to be sued. And once the lawsuits start to fly, the folks who own Pinterest will have to make a choice on how to handle the copyright or they’ll see the site become a web pariah.
At this point, I’m going to leave my Pinterest account in place, but be more careful and thoughtful about what I pin. I may even go through and delete those high-resolution photos that may be under copyright to someone else.
Still, I think Pinterest is a great place to promote your event or tradeshow appearance. I’ve posted photos of client booths and gotten repins and comments, which means it’s generating interest and moving traffic through the web. Next time I’m at a tradeshow (this coming week I’ll be in Las Vegas at Exhibitor and in Anaheim at Expo West), expect to see many photos that I’ve taken uploaded on PInterest. Since I own the copyright and I’m willing to share those copyright rights
So for the future, I’ll look to upload mainly my own content, though by doing so I’m turning the rights over, at least partially, to Pinterest to do with as they choose. It’s the same as Facebook – when you upload a photo to FB, you are giving them rights to use those images basically forever in whatever way they choose.
I’ll also look to source Creative Commons photos from Flickr and give attribution to the photographer. With Flickr, users have the option of choosing various types of copyright. Many choose to share those images as long as they receive credit.
I doubt this will finish PInterest. But once word spreads – and if a legally aggressive creative-type takes a Pinterest user to court – they may find themselves facing a big hit to their current growth.
Yup, I made one final visit this week to Classic Exhibits to find out the Real Story – the Actual Scoop – when it comes to what their upcoming booth at Exhibitor 2012 in Vegas will be.
