Thousands of trade shows happen around the world every year; here’s how to find the right one for your business and make it worth your while.
Trade shows remain a popular way to reach international markets, offering qualified foot traffic in a three-dimensional space. Businesses can also provide experiences for all five senses and interact with potential buyers. However, it’s not enough to set up a booth and fill it with product.
Exhibiting at a trade show involves a significant marketing outlay, so it’s surprising to learn that a lot of businesses don’t know why they are there. Colin Green, managing director of Best of Show, an exhibition strategy consultancy, says exporters should list at least three strong objectives for exhibiting at the show. “You have to be specific—’I want so many leads’ or ‘I want to be sure that so many people got my branding’—so you have the measurement. You also have to be realistic, and accountable for you and your staff as well,” he explains. “When you’re at the other end of the show and you ask ‘was it successful?’ you’ll know.”
Identifying a target market will help exporters choose the most appropriate trade show, and it may be a different market overseas compared with your domestic market. Trade journals, associations, government departments, existing customers, and the internet provide information on upcoming shows so once you have a shortlist, you should compare show demographics with your target market, advises Green.
“Have a look at all the media the show is using to promote itself. Have a look at the target market of those publications so you can make sure the market that is being drawn equates to your target market,” he says. “If they’re not drawing the target market you want, it’s the wrong show.”
Rhonda McSweeney, executive general manager for corporate sales at FCm Travel Solutions, adds that you need to be strategic about the event by thinking of it as an investment. “You need to identify the trade shows that will offer the right audience for your business, have a good profile, attendance and the opportunities to really leverage your spend,” she says. “Decide what level of investment you want to make and focus on the events that will optimise the deliverables of this investment.”
Sponsoring the show could also extend your investment by delivering added benefits. “Sponsorship may give you speaking opportunities, signage or branded merchandise, internet promotions, advertisements and external publicity opportunities,” says McSweeney. “Companies may be able to leverage sponsorship deals to ensure their display booth is located in a prominent position; it may also give you access to the organiser’s database, which you can use to network before, during and after an event.”
Plan, plan, plan
It’s an oft-repeated saying, but if you fail to plan, you plan to fail, and this goes for exhibiting says Lea Rushton, manager for events and exhibition at Austrade. Most businesses plan at least six months out from the event, some up to a year out. The planning period should incorporate everything from the design and production of a booth to allocating resources, organising travel and logistics, and scheduling meetings.
For SMEs in particular, Rushton advises nominating at least one person to do most of the coordination. “If it’s happening in an ad hoc way, something will fall through the cracks. If someone has good organising skills and good attention to detail, take some other tasks away from that person so they can concentrate on project management,” she says.
Another vital part of planning is budgeting. Rushton recommends new exhibitors talk to previous exhibitors about what’s involved to find the ‘hidden’ costs. “It’s not just about booking your space, your flights and accommodation; they’re expensive, but there are many incidental costs,” she explains. “If you’re going to prepare new marketing collateral to fit your audience, there’s a cost for that preparation, design and printing, and the cost of freighting it over.”
Exhibitors also underestimate the cost of hospitality, notes Rushton. “If you’ve encouraged customers to come to the show, you need to talk hospitality: do you have to pay to get them into the exhibit? The cost of taking people out and networking with them can be quite expensive.”
Logistics is a necessity, and this is where many exhibitors make mistakes. One is using a courier instead of a freight forwarder. “Exhibitions have rules around the delivery of freight and some are much tighter than others. If you’re exhibiting in the USA, for example, you generally have to use the freight forwarders they recommend,” explains Rushton. “Some people may want to cut costs and go with a courier, but the courier won’t always be able to deliver within the delivery time window, they might not be allowed on site.”
Reading the exhibition manual is therefore a critical part of logistics planning, she emphasises.
Businesses also often forget about the customs and duties involved in moving material around the world. On behalf of stage and screen specialists Australian Touring Services (ATS Logistics), a brand partner of FCm, McSweeney notes that businesses need to think about what will go to the show—and what will come back.
“Businesses should draft two lists—one for consumables and one for returnables. Consumables include items such as leaflets, t-shirts and anything you would hand out. Returnables are the items you will bring back with you. By doing this, import duty and taxes will only be raised against the consumable items,” she explains.
A ‘carnet’ allows the temporary import of goods into a country, covering returnables such as booth material. To create a carnet, businesses need a description of the freight, serial number or identifying marks, value and country of origin.
Also consider freight scheduling to make sure your shipment reaches the show on time. A freight forwarder will help you negotiate government bureaucracy in getting your property in and out of the country.
There and back again
Given that either you and/or your staff will more than likely be in attendance at the show, you also need to plan what will happen to your business while you are away. “You have to consider the trade show in the context of what other things are going on in your business at the time. If it’s a critical time for your business, you need to factor that in,” says Rushton.
Generally you will require a few days before the show to prepare your booth and perhaps hold some preliminary meetings with existing or potential clients. It is a good idea to choose a hotel with good dining options to entertain clients, says McSweeney.
Book your accommodation well in advance to ensure that you are either close to the exhibition location or close to where key people network, which may not be the same location. Occasionally you may be able to find packages of travel and accommodation, which are easier on the budget. Staying a few days after the event may also give you valuable time to follow up on leads while they are still fresh.
McSweeney notes that it’s often good to leverage the trip in other ways. “If a company has global representatives converging in the one area for a trade event, use the time to host a company meeting,” she suggests. “You can also use the event as a channel to communicate major company announcements.”
In the pavilion, it goes without saying that you need to make your booth as attractive as possible. Secure the best position you can afford and invest in the best booth and marketing material your budget will allow. Remember that trade shows allow you to take advantage of the five senses; if you can demonstrate your product, or give something of value away, it makes your product and brand more memorable.
Unistraw International, makers of the Sipahh flavoured straw, had their big international break after giving away over 20,000 sample straws at Anuga, a biennial food fair in Cologne, Germany. Michael Connolly, Unistraw’s global sales and licensing director, says they chose Anuga for its reputation. “Anuga is one of the top food and beverage trade shows globally. We wanted to find partners to represent our Sipahh brand globally, partners who would be responsible for the importation, sales, marketing and distribution of our product,” he says.
The company achieved their objective: they received written interest from more than 300 companies and now have distribution in more than 100 countries.
While Unistraw was happy to give out product samples, it was still important to keep some things private. “We have invested heavily in the research and development of our products, and the relevant intellectual property protection, so when we exhibit at the shows we need to ensure we are protected until we sign on the dotted line with distributors,” says Peter Baron, Unistraw founder and director. “Unistraw particularly relies on non-disclosure agreements with potential distributors to ensure valuable commercial information isn’t leaked into the marketplace.”
Service exhibitionists have a much greater reliance on verbal communication through the staff in the booth and the marketing collateral they give away. “They have to be very good at articulating their service,” says Rushton. “It’s really about good marketing collateral that people can take away. Not too much, because people do bin a lot of it. The material really needs to be well written with strong messages to attract people in.”
Finally, after you’ve taken down the booth, remember to follow up on your leads. “Eighty-three percent of leads are never followed up,” says Green. “Consider when you get back to your office and you’ve been away for a week, there’s a lot of stuff to catch up on. So what do you do first? You follow your leads up or they get to be an embarrassment.”
—With Philip Noonan
Show, don’t tell
It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of a trade show when you have worked hard to have your product ready to show the world. However, without adequate intellectual property protection, you may be putting your work at risk before you secure the first buyer.
Tal Williams, partner at Australian Business Lawyers offers these practical tips:
1. Seek provisional patent protection before you exhibit. If you disclose your idea before you protect, you will invalidate your claim to a patent as the technology will not be deemed ‘new and inventive’ once revealed publicly.
2. If the product is highly confidential, consider closed booths by appointment only and confidentiality agreements.
3. Speak in general terms. You may be proud of how innovative your product is, but it is best to keep the details to yourself. If someone is interested, speak with them at a later stage.
4. Visibly list your patents, copyright and trademark information in English and the language of the country you are visiting, as well as your customs notifications.
5. Consider showing ‘first design copies’ or copies that have a small defect to throw IP pirates off the scent.
6. Keep a record of who is inspecting your product.
7. Beware of IP spies. Mobile technology makes it easier for spies to take photos and videos surreptitiously.
If in doubt about your IP, see a trademark or patent attorney. Also, check out international IP protection information on IP Australia’s website www.ipaustralia.gov.au/ippassport
—Philip Noonan, director general of IP Australia
Funding an exhibition
You may be eligible to have part of your trade show costs reimbursed through Austrade’s Export Market Development Grants scheme. For more information see: www.austrade.gov.au/exportgrants
Also check with you state or territory government to see if there are grants or other types of assistance available for your business.
You may also be interested in joining an Austrade-coordinated Australian National Stand, which means you exhibit with other Australian companies under one pavilion.
