 hat's the difference between an exhibit program that sizzles and one that fizzles? Often, it's all about your promotions. Sure, a booth with more high-tech bells and whistles than an iPhone 4 will probably attract a few passersby to stop and gawk at the action. But if you want to make sure that your target audience not only seeks out your booth but also enters it to talk shop, you need some potent promotional tactics to attract their attention.
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2010 SIZZLE AWARDS JUDGES |
 Jim Dawson, president, Dawson
Marketing Group, Southlake, TX
 Jeannine K. Swan, president and owner, Global Exhibit Management, Fort Worth, TX
 Mike Guillory, manager of worldwide brand and communications, Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas
 David Young, vice president of client services, Slingshot, Dallas
 Stacy Landreth Grau, associate professor of professional practice in marketing, Neely School of Business, Texas Christian Univ., Fort Worth, TX
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That's why EXHIBITOR magazine pays homage to the power of promotional marketing with its annual Sizzle Awards. Now in its 13th year, the competition not only celebrates successful exhibit-marketing promotions; it also provides readers with tested promotional tactics to add to their own exhibit-marketing arsenals.
This year, our panel of judges - comprising five marketing, promotions, and communications experts - met in a Dallas office in June to scrutinize entries in nine categories. While the temperatures soared to nearly 100 degrees outside, jurors coolly and calmly perused the bevy of entries with two overarching criteria in mind. Winning entries needed to: 1) rival a Ted Conference in terms of creative genius, and 2) contain enough measurable results to prove the promotions delivered far more than warm exhibit-marketing fuzzies.
By the end of that blistering day, jurors had established an unconscious preference for inventive concepts paired with impeccable execution, full-program integration, and good, old-fashioned marketing tactics that delivered hard-core results. Take Integrated Program winner MG Design Associates Inc. Judges lauded the company's Fresh Ideas Marketplace theme - which featured an exhibit filled with fresh produce, real grass, yummy fruit smoothies, and of course, fresh exhibit-marketing ideas. In fact, judges praised it as a "near-perfect execution of the theme," which rather than being over the top, was "subtle, sophisticated, and well designed."
Similarly, judges raved about Deckel & Moneypenny Exhibits' entry in the Traffic Builder category. The relatively small exhibit house based in Louisville, KY, created a "Smaller can be Better" theme that featured an ingenious Shrinky Dink-making in-booth activity, all for a miniaturized
$10,000 budget. According to judges, "This program was perfectly on target with the economy, the booth size, the show, and the audience."
So hat's off to this year's Sizzle Award winners. Featuring rock-solid promotional techniques paired with creative ideas and spot-on execution, the 2010 winners offered the perfect combination of sizzle and substance. E
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