Karin Arden marketing
manager, Ad Tangibles, Tampa, FL
Richard Byrd president,
Fast Forward Marketing, Clearwater, FL
Ron Palfrey director of creative services, The Nissen Group, Winter Haven, FL
Sarah Tildsley
creative director, Roberts Communications, Tampa, FL
hat do you get when you combine a well-designed booth, attentive staffers, and the perfect location on the trade show floor? Not nearly as much as you could have gotten if you’d thrown a thoughtful, effective exhibit promotion into the mix.
While it’s true that booth design, staffing, and location are important factors when it comes to exhibiting, effective exhibit promotions can mean the difference between attendees flocking to your booth and simply walking on by without a second glance.
So to honor the powerful role promotions play in exhibit effectiveness — and to provide readers with proven ideas to inspire their own promotional programs — EXHIBITOR magazine hosts the annual Sizzle Awards competition and devotes its October issue to the competition’s award winners. Now in its 12th year, the Sizzle Awards honor exhibit-promotion strategies that don’t merely look cool, they also happen to generate smokin’ hot results.
Holed up in a Tampa, FL, office in June, this year’s panel of judges — comprising four marketing, promotions, advertising, and design experts — mulled over entries in 10 categories. Their mission was to identify the top five entries that met two critical criteria: 1) The entries had to give them more light-bulb moments than a paparazzi attack on Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and 2) they had to have enough measurable results to prove the programs were more than just fun and games.
By the end of the day, the judges had identified their top five entries, and come to a consensus about what makes for a compelling and effective promotional campaign. According to this year’s judges, “No matter how boring your product might seem or how meager your budget, creativity — both in terms of overall concepts and minute details — can cure almost anything that ails you.”
Meeting the criteria of the competition and the judges, this year’s five winners are certainly light-bulb-popping promotions, including everything from a summer-camp-themed integrated program to a traffic builder for an iron-therapy drug that featured real clothes irons. But what’s more, they also garnered hard-core results, including a 60-percent decrease in cost per lead, more than double the number of leads expected (paired with a 50-percent budget reduction), and a 20-percent increase in theater-presentation participants.
Please join us in congratulating this year’s Sizzle Awards winners listed below. After all, the best way to light your own creative fires is to spark them with a few inspiring, not to mention successful, examples. Here are five to get you started. E
hat do you get when you combine a well-designed booth, attentive staffers, and the perfect location on the trade show floor? Not nearly as much as you could have gotten if you’d thrown a thoughtful, effective exhibit promotion into the mix.