Near the end of March 2020, face-to-face marketing morphed into face-to-screen marketing seemingly overnight. As shows cancelled, countries closed up shop, and humans hunkered down, marketers the world over suddenly had to deliver leads, sales, and awareness with little more than a Wi-Fi signal.

Event marketers, however, are a plucky lot that rarely cowers in the face of calamity. Some quickly concocted their own massive online conferences while others sent out buckshot blasts of comparably less labor-intensive options, e.g., webinars and virtual meet-ups. Maxar Technologies Inc., a space-technology company, took a less harried and decidedly more long-term approach to online exhibiting.

Based in Westminster, CO, Maxar provides satellite imaging for countless commercial, government, and military organizations, delivering everything from data for meteorology and consumer mapping (think Google Maps) to imagery that can aid fishery-regulation enforcement and locate surface-to-air missile systems. Additionally, Maxar creates advanced space technologies such as satellites, robotic arms, propulsion systems, etc.

As one might imagine, the sales cycle on this kind of technology never hits warp speed, which means getting and keeping the attention of commercial and government power buyers is paramount. Trade shows are therefore critical awareness generators for Maxar's newest advancements and capabilities. However, come March 2020, two of Maxar's mission-critical live shows – the Space Symposium and the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation's GEOINT Symposium, which respectively draw roughly 14,000 and 3,500 attendees from academia, government and commercial agencies, and the military – were grounded due to COVID-19.

But rather than panicking and throwing something, anything, at the new face-to-screen landscape, Maxar performed a bit of observational analysis. That is, marketers launched a fact- and innovation-finding mission, ultimately looking for a fresh way to market Maxar not only in the throes of COVID but also for years to come.

Roving Reconnaissance
Maxar's reconnaissance mission began with surveilling the existing scene. Becky Schneider, the firm's senior manager of corporate events, and her team soon discovered sundry webinars, video logs, podcasts, and the like within the industry's orbit. But one option looked much like the other, and Schneider wasn't searching for sameness. "We didn't want to do what everyone else was doing in this new virtual norm," she says. "We had to be different and get out of the box to ensure we'd be heard among the chatter."

The team then considered a full-on conference-like event, but quickly realized such a massive endeavor would demand more human and financial resources than they were ready to spend. Besides, they needed something that was more on par with Maxar's awareness goals, and they hoped to find a solution that allowed them to use existing content and videos as opposed to having to create everything from scratch. Plus, the team figured that something more familiar, perhaps an option that looked like an on-floor stand, would lure in visitors who by this stage in the shutdown were nearly nostalgic about a trip to an exhibit hall.

As Schneider's search continued into mid-April, Maxar's exhibit house, Catalyst Exhibits Inc., approached her with a concept that was new to both firms: ExhibitCast. "Catalyst was debuting a digital experience that was in direct response to the state of the industry," says Roy Drinkwater, marketing manager at Catalyst. "In a nutshell, it allows marketers to quickly transform their existing booth designs into online, interactive, and information-rich experiences." Although the platform also can be used to craft virtual booth concepts from scratch or even create interactive environments unrelated to traditional stands – such as a simulated operating room filled with interactive product demos – Catalyst proposed that they utilize Maxar's existing exhibit for an interactive digital experience. The premise was that in doing so, the team would also recreate much of the same joy of exploration and attendee-driven interaction visitors feel on the show floor.

If Maxar moved forward with ExhibitCast, Catalyst could reuse Maxar's existing booth design, which would save a bit of time and expense straight out of the gate. The online stand also would have several interaction points, or what Catalyst calls hot spots, that would provide additional information in varied forms, much of which Maxar could exhume from its existing content collection. For example, visitors might watch a video at one, pull up a satellite-imaging feed and zoom into a specific locale at another, or peruse a host of product-related videos, blogs, press releases, and more somewhere else.

Additionally, the virtual stand would promote self- exploration as opposed to delivering a forced, guided encounter. "Initially we thought about staffing the booth so visitors could interact with someone during the three weeks we would initially have it live," Schneider says. "But we saw value in allowing people to peruse at their leisure for as long or short as they liked." There would be no set start or stop time (outside of the three-week window) and no pressure to visit this or click that. And unlike a live event, visitors could explore without the typical time pressures of show-hall hours and scheduled appointments elsewhere.

But perhaps best of all, this online booth could be used again and again and easily updated as necessitated by product changes, marketing goals, attendee interests, previous results, and more. Granted, Schneider and her team only planned to use the solution for a few weeks at a time in conjunction with a full-on promotion strategy. That way, they surmised, it wouldn't go stale in the minds of would-be visitors and would instead maintain a sense of newness whenever Maxar employed it again. But Schneider also figured she could pull it out of her back pocket at any time to promote various endeavors or participate in virtual trade shows (linking from landing pages or show floors to the digital exhibit experience). What's more, she could even leverage it to complement a live event by offering an online encounter for attendees that never made a stop at Maxar's booth or for those folks that didn't – or couldn't – travel to the show. ExhibitCast even allowed salespeople to reference it during live or virtual sales calls.

Prelaunch Promotions
Not surprisingly, Maxar bought in to the concept and began designing a digital booth with seven hot spots from which visitors could access a plethora of information. While Maxar had to tweak some content, much of it already existed. The team just needed to carefully curate it to ensure it was the best fit for the audience and the medium.

"We didn't want to rush into this and throw something digital out there just because everyone else was doing it," Schneider says. "We took about five to six weeks to make sure the hot-spot content was appropriate."

While culling the content, Schneider and her team also developed a promotional strategy to drive people to the digital stand. Ultimately, they deployed a comprehensive campaign that included paid-search purchases; targeted organic and paid social-media efforts via Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook; an email campaign sent to customers and prospects from its internal database; and an outreach program coordinated with Maxar's internal sales reps.

During this initial planning and promotion stage, Maxar also implemented a key tracking mechanism as part of the online encounter. While all visitors to the exhibit would need to provide basic contact information, Catalyst and Maxar's internal teams added UTM codes (i.e., identifiers attached to URLs to track sources, mediums, or campaigns) to all hot spots. This way, they could use Google Analytics to measure a deluge of hot-spot data such as the number of clicks each received, time spent on each one, repeat visits, etc.

Main Engine Start
With all systems go, Maxar's online exhibit lifted off on June 8, 2020. Drawn by the promotional campaign, visitors to the site first filled out a lead form to access the content. Next, a navigational key popped up that quickly explained the handful of icons visitors would encounter, which would allow them to view videos, pan the scene, zoom in and out, return to the home screen, and more.

Once attendees closed the key, they witnessed their first full-on view of Maxar's booth. The virtual replica of the firm's 30-by-50-foot stand featured three massive gray arches bearing the Maxar logo and a wall at the back with images of the firm's technology. Navigational arrows on the left and right of the exhibit allowed visitors to change the screen view to a left- or right-side perspective, just as if they'd walked around to one side of the booth or the other. Represented by navigational arrows, hot spots were positioned atop kiosks, each of which was "staffed" by an inanimate avatar of a Maxar rep to add a human element. By hovering over the arrows, visitors revealed the names of the activations, including Space Robotics, Explore Geospatial, Maxar Overview, Worldview Legion, Explore Space, Defense and Intel Overview, and Learn More.

From the home screen, a click on any arrow zoomed in to that specific station, giving visitors a bit more insight into what they might learn. For example, when they clicked on the Space Robotics arrow, they obtained a close-up view of a robotic arm atop a table. Within each zoomed view, attendees could click a yellow circle to access the content.

At the Space Robotics, Defense and Intel Overview, and Maxar Overview hot spots, attendees could view engaging videos that explained the company's capabilities and latest advancements. However, at the front-and-center Explore Space station, visitors took an interactive and partially animated journey through Maxar's past, present, and future endeavors in space technology. Finally, a yellow telescope in a bottom corner of the Explore Space station featured the words "Explore Maxar." Clicking here revealed links taking visitors to either the firm's blog or Maxar's company profile.

At the Explore Geospatial hot spot, attendees could witness satellite mapping in action and zoom from one global location to another. For example, they could sample Maxar's panchromatic imagery of Barcelona and then zoom out of Spain and into the Fiery Cross Reef, a China-controlled militarized reef in the South China Sea. Here they could click through images from 2014 to 2018 showing the area's evolution from a natural reef to a full-on military installation.

Each hot spot offered its own unique experience, allowing visitors to obtain a brief overview and/or a deeper dive into content. While visitors could meander through the exhibit any way they chose, many ended their journeys at the Learn More hot spot, which directed them to the Maxar website for an even more in-depth investigation.

Not-So-Nebulous Results
Schneider and internal stakeholders were delighted with the results from their virtual exhibit's three-week debut. First off, the program's social-media campaign netted more than 8 million impressions, and the exhibit attracted more than 1,000 visitors, stats that exceeded Maxar's goals. The booth also bested Maxar's benchmark for repeat visitors, as more than 10 percent of initial viewers came back at least one more time. Similarly, Schneider was hoping everyone would spend at least one minute perusing the content, but visits actually averaged 2.5 minutes. What's more, she hoped 1 percent of visitors would end up on Maxar's website; in reality 15 percent did.

Since Maxar's goals were centered around awareness as opposed to closing sales, return on investment isn't really a fair evaluation metric. However, there's insight to be gained from comparing the costs of a live versus virtual exhibit. Schneider estimates that a typical 30-by-50-foot stand for her industry can easily cost $300,000 to $400,000 per show including booth space, convention services, shipping, promotions, etc. But approximate costs for the online stand were in the $25,000 to $50,000 range, including promotional expenses.

Whether you perceive this outlay to be wildly expensive or bargain- basement cheap, also consider that Maxar plans to use the booth at other endeavors. For example, it recently participated in a virtual show that gave each exhibitor two links from its landing page on the show's platform. Whereas many exhibitors linked to two other static landing pages, Maxar used one link to drive people to the far more visually stimulating virtual exhibit, where they could discover information in an interactive and engaging manner.

Schneider also intends to trot out the stand for upcoming campaigns, promotions, etc. In doing so, she can easily make content updates – perhaps changing out videos or entire hot spots that secured fewer clicks or garnered less attendee viewing time – since the digital nature of the stand allows her to continually update and improve the exhibit and, in turn, the company's results.

While ExhibitCast is a proprietary option offered by Catalyst, other exhibit houses and virtual-platform providers have rolled out similar endeavors to suit myriad objectives. And while no single solution is right for everyone, in this case, a stand-alone virtual exhibit helped Maxar not only develop an interactive, familiar encounter that scored serious results but also delivered a galaxy of data to help fuel future digital explorations. E