It's easy to push forward when the path ahead is reasonably smooth, safe, and well-lit. But when the future is dark, dangerous, and utterly unfamiliar, pioneers need more backbone than a reticulated python.

Based on Hussmann Corp.'s road show, which launched amid the murky abyss of the COVID-19 pandemic, the firm's marketers aren't only blessed with serpentine-size backbones – they're also gifted with a practically paranormal ability to forecast the future. For in the face of uncertainty, they didn't just forge ahead. They pioneered what appears to be an entirely new marketing medium, namely a road-show and online-event hybrid. Given the refrigeration giant's enterprising history, however, its recent triumphs appear to be par for the course.

Hussmann was founded in 1906 shortly after Harry Hussmann invented the first meat-display case. Since then, the company has evolved to provide retail merchandising and refrigeration offerings to house dairy, meat, frozen food, and more, as well as innovative solutions including a cloud-based system that remotely monitors equipment to ensure consistent performance. Serving mainly supermarkets and convenience stores, Hussmann dominates 65 percent of the market. Plus, Panasonic Corp. purchased Hussmann in 2016, which further cemented its position as a technology innovator.

A Well-Traveled Road
Going into 2020, Hussmann hoped to educate customers and prospects about its newest offerings, some of which are truly revolutionary. Take the Smart Exchange Locker, a freestanding refrigeration unit with locked compartments for cold, frozen, and/or ambient-temperature food storage. With a typical installation, a grocery store positions the unit outside its retail locale – or on a college campus, at a light-rail depot, outside an apartment complex, etc. After consumers order groceries online, the store delivers and deposits them within the device's secure compartments. At their convenience, buyers visit the locker and input their pins or Quick Response (QR) codes into its touchscreen, which then opens the specific compartments housing their groceries.
While this description alone might captivate buyers, Hussmann understood that to score serious sales, it needed people to experience the locker and its other innovations firsthand. This understanding came courtesy of a mini road show the company launched in 2017. Housed within a 38-foot trailer, the tour delivered hands-on product encounters straight to buyers' office doorsteps. Although this iteration focused on a single display case rather than the nine offerings Hussmann hoped to highlight in 2020, the campaign was hugely successful and served as an impetus for the 2020 endeavor.

In addition to providing in-person presentations, Hussmann wanted to establish and grow relationships with a host of people within each target company. "At a trade show, Hussmann might speak with one or two people from a grocery firm who may or may not be decision-makers," says Steve Randazzo, president of Pro Motion Inc., the creative agency behind the tour. "So even if they love the product, they must win over other stakeholders before the company can make a purchase."

With a road show, Hussmann could potentially speak with everyone involved in a purchasing decision – from CEOs and CFOs to procurement personnel – at the same time. Doing so would help them establish relationships with hard-to-reach C-suite executives and grease the wheels of the purchasing process.

Given these objectives, Hussmann saw value in mobile marketing over and above trade shows. So in mid-2019, the company teamed up with Pro Motion and Gerling and Associates Inc., the latter of which handled the vehicle build, and began planning a 12-week U.S. tour housed within a 53-foot expandable tractor-trailer. Bringing the products to the people, the experience was set to launch in April 2020 – that is, until COVID-19 applied a Jake Brake on both the tour and life as we knew it.

A Hybrid Solution
Come March 2020, Hussmann had a tricked-out truck sitting in a parking lot as the pandemic raged around it. Still, marketers refused to abandon hope completely. "We all realized life would be far from normal for a while," Randazzo says. "Nevertheless, we maintained our focus on Hussmann's customers. If they eventually saw value in a 2020 tour, we were ready to get the show, albeit a pandemic-friendly version, on the road."

Keep in mind, while the world ground to a halt, the grocery industry kept on truckin'. In fact, Hussmann reps sensed that even though most customers' corporate offices had shut down and employees were working from home, their retail stores were still hungry for innovations. That meant launching a 2020 mobile experience wouldn't be a selfish or tone-deaf pandemic response. Instead, it would deliver legitimate value to an audience uniquely impacted by the pandemic.

By late spring, Hussmann decided to test the waters. Sales reps called countless customers and prospects to assess their willingness to venture out of their homes and to their office parking lots for a tractor-trailer-based product showcase. As it turned out, customers and prospects saw huge value in the road show, as it'd give them a first look at innovations that might help boost sales during and after the pandemic. Additionally, the target audience perceived the mobile experience as a goodwill gesture, as Hussmann was connecting customers with fresh ideas and providing the opportunity to safely assemble in small groups – an activity that was particularly welcome at a time when everyone felt utterly isolated.

During this initial go/no-go evaluation period, however, Hussmann also learned that while many companies were on board, a handful of individuals, such as those with underlying health conditions, would opt out. In true trailblazer style, Hussmann turned this potential setback into a successful tour modification. Rather than literally leaving these wary individuals home alone, the marketing team decided to include them in the festivities via Zoom. As some employees went through the vehicle, their at-home cohorts would be able to experience it right alongside them, thanks to various monitors and a camera inside the trailer. In addition to viewing products, online attendees could interact with their peers and vice versa.

While sidestepping this customer-side pothole, Hussmann also widened its vision for employee interactions. Due to COVID-19, only 10 people would be allowed inside the trailer at once. Meeting with the largest number of prospects possible meant limiting the quantity of Hussmann reps in the trailer and out on the tour. Besides, sending a host of employees across the country during a pandemic was ill-advised at best.

"By adding the Zoom component," says Matt Judkins, director of corporate marketing communications at Hussmann, "we could get more of our own experts in front of customers without them having to be on site." Therefore, at each stop Hussmann planned to have at least one online product expert at the ready to handle customer questions via Zoom.

From a staffing standpoint, then, the road show would have three permanent staffers from Pro Motion. Among them, the so-called "director of first impressions" would serve as the initial point of contact and COVID code-enforcement officer, so to speak, outside the trailer. Inside the vehicle, the "experience manager" would lead the tour. Finally, the driver would double as an audiovisual tech. Meanwhile, Hussmann product specialists would join via Zoom, and each stop would be staffed by one to five in-person Hussmann employees, typically including region- or customer-specific sales reps.

Precautionary Measures
In June 2020, Hussmann and Pro Motion began prepping for the August launch. However, the team wasn't driving like bats out of hell. Rather, they put multiple precautions in place and remained ready to tap the brakes. At each stop, Hussmann would employ strict pandemic protocols, such as mandatory social distancing and face masks, frequent hand sanitizing, etc. As people arrived, staff would check their temperatures and ask questions about symptoms, contact with COVID-positive individuals, etc. Along with two tour staffers, up to eight customers would be allowed within the 700-square-foot trailer at a time.
"After every group, we'd wipe down everything and essentially sterilize the trailer and anything people might have touched," Randazzo says. The schedule was built to accommodate this process, as it would require time to apply disinfectant and allow it to dry and achieve full effectiveness. "In some locations, our staff also would go through additional protocols necessitated by the companies we were visiting," Randazzo says. "Sometimes office or medical staff would come out to facilitate a health questionnaire. Other times, we'd go to locales or inside the buildings so staff could check our temperatures." In addition, Hussmann planned to carefully track all visitors. If any participant contracted COVID-19, staff could quickly trace who else might have been exposed.

The protocols also meant that Hussmann had to develop processes to deal with add-on attendees. That is, each stop was carefully crafted so that the maximum number of people experienced the trailer at once. However, if people who hadn't RSVP'd showed up, the team would adjust on the fly to keep from exceeding capacity limits. As a result, buffer time was added to each stop.

Made-to-Order Meets
Safety wasn't the only thing Hussmann didn't leave to chance. Before the program hit the road, the sales and marketing teams executed a promotional and information- gathering blitz. The marketing team began by putting together a series of teaser videos that ran on social media.Meanwhile, salespeople called and emailed prospects starting roughly six to eight weeks before the tour, firming up each company's commitment to a stop at its offices and encouraging specific individuals to RSVP for the experience.

A second barrage of emails went out at the four- to six-week mark, which included the teaser videos along with more requests to RSVP. At the one- to two-week interval, more emails and calls reminded confirmed attendees to save the date and continued to woo those that had yet to commit. Finally, salespeople reached out the day before each stop to generate excitement among attendees.

During all of this digital and audio communication, however, salespeople constantly collected data about everything from who would attend and what they wanted to see to the personalities and interests of individual visitors. Salespeople then passed this data to the Pro Motion team, and together they crafted a custom-tailored event for every stop. "For example, at one locale, our experience manager might spend minimal time on product X and more time on offering Y based on visitors' stated interests," Randazzo says. "Or we might have instructed staff that Mr. Smith would likely ask a ton of questions about condensers and Ms. Banks was kind of a big deal and liked to be treated as such."

Therefore, the road show was a succession of customized encounters instead of being a generic come-one, come-all affair for the masses. This no doubt delighted attendees, but jurors were also thrilled with the concept. "While most companies that pivoted during the pandemic went 100-percent virtual, Hussmann delivered a valuable hybrid event safely and effectively," one juror said. "But even amid all the additional protocols, they segmented their audience and delivered a unique experience at every stop. That's an incredible feat in a radically crazy time."

On the Road Again
On Aug. 26, the Hussmann Shop the Future Roadshow hit the road en route to 25 cities, where marketers planned to host 36 events and engage more than 68 businesses. Customers' corporate-office parking lots comprised the majority of tour stops. However, due to prospects' scheduling requests and Hussmann's desire to leverage on-road time, some stops took place in hotel parking lots.

"Sometimes we needed to host one customer in the morning and another in the afternoon," Randazzo says. "And given teardown, setup, and sanitization timing, it was mathematically impossible to do it all in one day. By utilizing a hotel parking lot roughly halfway between the two customers' offices, we could make the timing and location work for all involved." Regardless of the location, most attendees drove to the experience in their own vehicles and discovered the 53-foot single-expandable trailer in the parking lot.

Provided by Independents Graphic and Display LLC, exterior graphics featured the "Hussmann Shop the Future" tagline atop a corporate-blue background along with imagery of grocery-store customers and Hussmann display cases. While the back end of the trailer included a stairway and a double-door entrance, the right side featured a retractable awning and a 72-inch embedded monitor beneath it. A draped reception desk served as the point of contact between guests and the director of first impressions, who welcomed and checked in visitors.

After completing COVID protocols, the outdoor host directed visitors' attention to the monitor for a welcome video (produced by Third Son Media) from Hussmann's CEO, Tim Figge. Next, she led the group through the back of the trailer and handed them off to the experience manager.

Following contact-free greetings, he introduced visitors to the Zoom participants, which always included at least one Hussmann rep and sometimes a few attendees joining from home. While each walk-through was customized, the experience manager frequently led visitors through the trailer's nine stations either in the order of visitors' choosing or based on the products' positioning within the space.

At each station, visitors interacted with the product as the host touted its benefits and answered questions. Seven flatscreen monitors throughout the trailer also offered promotional videos showing user benefits and depicting the solution at work in its intended environment. At one station, for example, attendees learned about the then soon-to-be-released Insight Reach-In display, a frozen-food unit that maximizes merchandising abilities. Meanwhile, at another station, they explored four of Hussmann's eco-friendly solutions, including its natural refrigerants and water-cooled MicroDS system. As expected, the new Smart Exchange Locker took up prime real estate as did a station devoted to StoreConnect, a software-as-a-service solution that leverages the Internet of Things to connect equipment to cloud environments, analyze data, and provide insights to improve service.

Throughout the encounter, Zoom-based participants appeared via the monitors, and staff captured questions and comments from in-person attendees via a portable camera. To help focus guests' attention on the station at hand, Pro Motion also incorporated host-controlled lighting. As the group moved from one product to another, staff switched accent lights and monitors off and on accordingly.

All told, visitors engaged with the tour for 60 to 90 minutes, most of which were spent in the trailer. After exiting the vehicle, they moved to a branded tent to continue discussions and schedule follow-ups with Hussmann reps. Meanwhile, staff inside the trailer began the disinfection process in anticipation of the next participants.

Where the Rubber Meets the Road
While Hussmann remained ready to park the road show if COVID-19 conditions warranted, it stayed on the gas for the entire 12-week duration. Making stops everywhere from the offices of Festival Foods in Janesville, WI, to Dallas-based 7-Eleven Inc., the program racked up not only 9,000 miles but also killer results.

Hussmann hoped to host 300 customers during the experience, but the tour actually attracted 350. Among them, marketers discovered they'd reached 42 percent more decision-makers than anticipated. In addition, staff handled a considerable amount of "walk-up" traffic.

"Seven percent of visitors didn't RSVP for the experience; they just showed up with their colleagues," Judkins says. "That speaks to the level of engagement and suggests that the program generated buzz once it hit the road."

What's more, the tractor-trailer racked up 1.2 million visual impressions, social-media efforts generated 35,000 impressions, and Hussmann scored two sizable RFPs it feels were influenced by or were a direct result of the tour. As such, Hussmann marketers expect the tour's ultimate return on investment will surpass their ambitions. But let's not forget about Hussmann's relationship-building efforts, which deserve a tick in the "win" column as well. "Customers really appreciated Hussmann's efforts," Randazzo says. "They told us time and again that they felt valued – as if, despite the pandemic, Hussmann considered their needs and provided a safe encounter that exceeded their unique expectations."

Due to this success, marketers are hard at work on the 2021 iteration. Predictably, the hybrid components – i.e., the integration between in-person and online customers and staff – will continue as well. "The hybrid concept is a huge evolution of our road show experience, and it'll be part of what we do moving forward," Judkins says. "Looking out five years from now when the pandemic is in our rear-view mirror, I can definitely see it still being a major part of our strategy."

Powering through a pandemic safely and inventing a whole new marketing medium are further testaments to Hussmann's pioneering spirit. However, Judkins offers an apropos sports analogy that puts this success into context: "If you win a championship by 7 points, it's a great victory. That's what this tour would have been minus COVID-19. But given the pandemic, we won the title by a 24-point spread – and to us and likely to the entire industry, that's nothing short of a rout." E