What's In Your Brochure?

As I have pointed out before in this space, attendee marketing is now the top challenge for show producers, even more than exhibitor ROI or exhibitor satisfaction issues.

Still, attendance growth has been healthy, jumping a significant 7.6 percent in the second quarter of this year, according to the Tradeshow Week Quarterly Report. There are a number of factors driving the growth, but in markets impacted by the Internet, globalization and uncertainty, attending shows provides a competitive advantage.

Overall, current attendee marketing approaches seem to be working. Nevertheless, some show producers privately express concern about “doing the same thing every year” to reach attendees.

Even with the rise of e-mail and the Web, direct mail and traditional, multi-page brochures remain the workhorses of attendee marketing.

With the goal of summarizing attendee marketing best practices while focusing on brochures, Tradeshow Week research reviewed a random sampling of marketing pieces from a wide range of show producers.

To summarize the findings, the marketing approach is still very informational. Most brochure pages are filled with educational session descriptions, schedules and information on events that take place. In fact, brochures seem even more packed with information than in the past.

There are not as many pictures of crowded showfloors as in the past. Most photos are of speakers, seminar sessions or small groups of people in discussion.

We are also seeing a little more information about cities coming back to brochures. A noticeable example of this is a piece from the American Academy of Ophthamology, which will hold its meeting in New Orleans in November. The piece's headline is “New Orleans Welcomes You Back!” Another headline inside the brochure states, “Come celebrate the city's rebirth.”

The overall design quality has improved, and pieces look contemporary and professional. But the text – and lots of it – still rules. The focus is primarily on selling the educational content and secondarily on the opportunity to interact with exhibitors on the showfloor.

The copy is generally good, but many pieces, even in completely different industries, use similar language and approach. Few stand out in terms of design, theme or writing quality.

For the typical event, the key theme remains that the show is “the industry-leading event” and attendees have a “once-a-year opportunity” to access “world-class content” and see “new offerings to meet your changing needs.” And, of course, every event is a “must-attend.”

We found lots of sponsor and partner logos and more conferences-within-conferences and collocations – but few attendee testimonials. Not much hard research data gets into brochures that might make the case to attend either. A rare exception was a piece from InfoComm 2007 that provided statistics on the types of organizations that should send attendees and why.

One often sees the same approach and language in event marketing pieces, because there are only so many ways to describe the value of a convention or tradeshow. Where many marketing pieces do stand out is in outlining the show's features and benefits.

For example, some of the best marketers focus on alleviating attendee challenges. Gartner's 2007 Symposium/ITxpo piece states in a headline: “You Are in the Driver's Seat. Do You Have the Map?”

What's not seen too often is personalization, target segmentation or a focus on unique value propositions.

Personalization is easier to do with e-mail than direct mail, but personalizing brochures is becoming more common in direct marketing. By segmentation, I mean sending different brochures with unique messages to distinct groups such as alumni vs. new prospects, or other breakdowns such as industry segment or title. Surprisingly, few shows target their marketing as they should.

The more challenging issue relates to focusing on unique value propositions. Consider the following questions about your show:

• What is its reason for being?
• Why do its largest buyers and most influential industry leaders attend?
• What does it provide that's unavailable in any other place or format?
• Can you boil down the unique value proposition to one or two words?

Ask most show managers and marketers these questions and they will say the “show brings buyers and sellers together” and “educates the industry.” If you press them, they may say something like “we are the leading event, you have to be here or you risk sending the message that you're not committed to the industry.”

Admittedly, these are often truthful statements. But what's in it for the attendee who's on the fence about asking her boss to attend the show halfway across the county?

Try to get beyond the easy answers. Go the next step and consider what staying connected and sourcing products really mean. Attendee marketing is too often about reaching faceless “attendees,” but no one considers him or herself an attendee. (On the other side of the business, fewer people all the time hold the title of exhibit manager.)

The challenge with the unique value proposition approach is that, by definition, conventions and tradeshows try to be all things to all people in an industry or niche.

Even if your discussion about the event's unique value proposition doesn't result in new attendee marketing themes, it will still provide value. This discussion can impact your exhibit and sponsor marketing as well.

With the rapid growth of the Internet as a marketing force, will the print brochure become a dinosaur? Probably, but not in the near future. It's interesting that some of the most prolific mailers and best direct marketers are IT event and conference producers.