By Nanette Collins
The scene at United Terminal at SFO was a madhouse March 3 as a database glitch prevented travelers from getting to their flights on time. As the line for an agent grew but didn’t move, my eyes were transfixed on a colorful TV screen-sized ad promoting Silvaco’s TCAD solution. Promoting simulation at the airport isn’t something I see when traveling, except when arriving to the host city of an EDA trade show.
We’re already well into the month of March, which means trade show season for our industry is well underway as well. Companies in the semiconductor and EDA market segments have long lists of events to pick from to showcase themselves and demonstrate their products. They start at the end of January and run throughout the year.
As the former publicity chair for the Design Automation Conference, I learned quite a bit about trade show promotion. I still marvel at the way in which companies market and promote themselves before, during and after the conference … or not. What often eludes many a marketing manager is the potent opportunity an event like this has to offer. It’s a unique selling opportunity where potential customers and business partners get to see a company in action, meet the team and hear well-targeted pitches. But these people need to know about the company and be curious or incentivized to stop by the exhibit to meet with the company.
More than once I was dismayed to realize that many exhibitors sign up for a conference such as DAC and think their promotional work is done. Somehow, there’s a mistaken impression that DAC should be responsible for marketing and promoting the conference to get attendees there and onto the exhibit floor.
Readers may disagree, but I believe a conference provides the venue and companies exhibiting must do their share to market and promote themselves before during and after the conference. And, they have plenty of cost-effective ways to reach attendees through a variety of communication vehicles, some familiar and some becoming useful promotional tools. A billboard at the airport is only one, though it’s costly.
Trade show planning starts with … a plan. I learned long ago that companies need to write down why they attend a show and what they hope to accomplish. If it’s leads generation, for example, then it should be articulated, along with a goal of how many leads the company wants to collect and how it will be done.
A promotional plan develops from there. For many years, events like DAC were the immovable deadline within a company for a product launch or some other big milestone. It’s still true, though the emphasis on a pre-DAC product rollout may not be quite as strong. With or without an announcement, a company should do a few promotional activities.
Since DAC is about two months out, let’s use it as an example and look at a few Public Relations opportunities because PR is often described as the most cost-effective program a Marketing Department could employ.
A media alert is a way for the company to announce it will be at DAC. The media alert template includes who, what, when, where with a why paragraph to explain why the company will attend. It could be sent a week or two prior to DAC. Some distribution services will issue the media alert and send a reminder shortly before DAC begins. Presumably, the distribution service – Businesswire, PR Newswire and so on – will get the media alert to the appropriate online databases and RSS feeds will find it.
A major pre-DAC announcement would warrant a full-blown news release. While the level of newsworthiness will determine how far in advance it should be issued, and the earlier the better, two to three weeks prior to DAC probably is acceptable. Along with a news release, the marketing team should have accompanying material that could include datasheet, whitepaper, presentation, illustrations and digital photos of the company spokesperson. Some influencers would welcome informative videos, but no talking heads.
Ready for more? Almost all of our industry communications channels need fresh content and are on the lookout for contributed articles that range from viewpoints to customer case studies and technical articles. Check the website to see what’s posted to get an idea about style and length. Some have guidelines clearly posted. If not, contact an editor for more information.
Check out partners blogs as well. Often partners welcome guest blog posts from a partner or customer.
Armed with this information, the marketing team from the exhibiting company can write a piece or two that helps increase visibility prior to DAC. Or, contact Bryon Moyer; he and I have worked together on a variety of technical articles and I highly recommend him. He’s knowledgeable and his work is quite readable. And, did I mention clever?
One piece of advice that most savvy marketing managers will already know: Do not write a blatant product pitch and try to pass it off as a technical article. Viewpoints can describe a company’s vision of the industry or market segment, but no self-aggrandizing. In either case, the piece will never be placed without a massive rewrite.
Any one of these items can be repurposed into an email blast through Constant Contact, with a cover paragraph with details on the company’s participation at DAC. Additionally, they can be posted on the company’s Facebook page and Tweeted about. Linkedin is another channel.
DAC is in early June in San Francisco this year and coming quickly. While it’s not too late to start developing a promotional plan, don’t delay. It could make the difference between a humdrum three days of exhibiting or a huge success. It’s up to you.
If you are interested in learning more, drop me a line* and let’s talk.
*If you don’t have my contact info, use the “Contact” link on Bryon’s site and he can get the message to me.