The Show Daily: Pubs Are Still Hot Commodities
By Rachelle Crum -- Tradeshow Week, 7/11/2005
Conventional wisdom suggests the traditional printed tradeshow daily would seem archaic when matched up against its online version and up-to-the-second news via BlackBerry devices and iPods. Yet these publications may be revered now more than ever.
And even though dozens of other complimentary publications competing for show participants' attention are stacked up outside the exhibit halls of most major tradeshows, the exposure that comes with being featured in the official show daily remains a benefit to exhibitors ¡ª that is, if they can find a way into them.
To be featured in the editorial pages of a large show's daily magazine, exhibitors "almost have to tick off show management," said exhibitor consultant and "Booth Mom" Candy Adams. "You might as well buy a lottery ticket," she joked.
One of Adams' clients, WiFi Alliance, exhibits regularly at Intl. CES and "trying to get into the show daily for CES with a 10¡ä¡Á20¡ä booth is like spitting in the wind," she said.
Another exhibitor consultant, "Tradeshow Coach" Susan Friedmann, said exhibitors have to be extremely savvy to get themselves into a show daily ¡ª and it's worth every effort to do so. "Publicity's publicity," she said, "especially in a crowded market. It gives exhibitors another opportunity to sort of get another bite of the cherry."
E3/Electronic Entertainment Expo exhibitor Agetec's Anti-booth Babes publicity stunt never got a mention on the front page of the E3 show daily ¡ª but its product announcement did, and that's what counted, said Doug Kennedy, vice president of business development for Reverb Communications, Agetec's public relations firm. "It accomplished what we wanted to accomplish," he said. "We think that there was a connection there" between the stunt and the editorial coverage.
Although Adams said show participants still look to the show dailies for showfloor guidance, "time poverty" often keeps them from spending much time with the publications until later. "They read them (show dailies) back in their room when they're done with the show," she said.
Time limitation was an important consideration for Mary Dolaher, vice president of tradeshows and events for E3 owner Entertainment Software Assn. During the event last May at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the firm opted to distribute its show dailies (some as big as 68 pages) on hotel shuttle buses to get a leg up on cornering the attention of some of its 70,000-plus show attendees.
"It was just hugely successful, especially in L.A. traffic ... You're kind of doing your homework," she said of the bus distribution, which encouraged ESA to look at other ways to take advantage of travel time to the LACC. "Next year we'll have registration people on buses maybe."
Even though E3's online show daily (http://www.E3Insider.com) drew a record-breaking number of Web site visitors in its second year, Dolaher said the paper copy could not have been more attractive. Copies of the print version were on the auction block on eBay post-show, and Dolaher's worst dilemma was not having enough copies available.
She noted, "The biggest problem we have with those publications is keeping them full."
The E3 show daily's page count hasn't been affected by its online and print competition, said Rey Ledda, senior director of marketing, events and research for Ziff Davis Media Game Group, producer of the publication.
Partially because of industry consolidation that touched every other element of the tradeshow, the NATPE show daily was MIA for a few years, reappearing at the January 2005 show with a 26- to 34-page count.
Exhibitors are relieved to have the publication back, according to Beth Braen, senior vice president of marketing for show owner Natl. Assn. of Television Program Executives. "It's been great getting it back on," she said.
NATPE exhibitor Anja Bosch agreed. Show dailies like NATPE's are still "the bible for everyone" at tradeshows, said Bosch, manager of creative services for Los Angeles-based production and distribution firm PorchLight Entertainment, which bought a two-page advertising spread in NATPE's first-day show magazine this year.
And exhibitor news in show dailies often leads to "an impulse for the attendee," Friedmann noted. "They may well come by."
NATPE's show daily is also available online, but "in terms of on-the-go, grab-it-and-go, this is still a necessary thing and a great tool," Braen said.
"There is still something about the tangible copy," Friedman said. "There's something about it that makes you want to flip through it."
