Ah, the sweet days of July: when many of us dip our toes in the tide, spy sunsets with loved ones or spend an afternoon lounging by the pool. While summer embodies relaxation and vacations (or staycations), September signifies the flood of tech tradeshows on our calendars, including the Mobile World Congress in Vegas in September. After the Christmas holiday, the tradeshow season swiftly picks up, with CES 24 during the first week of the new year, Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in late February and numerous others. In other words, preparing your event marketing strategy now is indispensable for engaging with the press and analysts, who greatly influence coverage and ultimately drive success. Amid tradeshow season’s hurricane winds, mastering your event marketing strategy is imperative – even if you are savoring margaritas poolside! So, here are some tips if you want to surf the tradeshow wave. Grab that piña colada to-go –let's dive in!
The early bird gets the coverage
Planning ahead is the first step in maximizing visibility at tradeshows, while waiting until the last minute greatly reduces your chances of securing coverage from the right journalists. By preparing at least 8 weeks in advance, you can align on messaging, develop captivating content and devise a strong event marketing strategy.
An added benefit of early planning is the opportunity to schedule pre-briefings with the media. By sharing your news before the event commences, you can enhance brand visibility with journalists and influencers, giving you an advantage over competitors who might be scrambling at the last minute. Speaking of last minute, planning ahead also expedites long approval processes for press releases, especially if it’s a joint release.
For popular events like CES and Mobile World Congress Barcelona, it's recommended to plan 90 days in advance. Smaller companies should aim to get their news out 2-3 weeks before the show to drive traffic and secure coverage in show dailies, ultimately boosting booth traffic.
Align messaging, news and activity to the themes of the event
Messaging is critical in effectively sharing your story at tech events and tradeshows. It's not enough to simply share your story; you need to effectively articulate the value of your products or services in a way that resonates with your audience and sets you apart from your competitors. To achieve this, we recommend thorough research into the key themes and trends that will be discussed at the event. If you’re unsure how to strategically position your brand around these themes, a PR agency can help you captivate audiences and offer them real value. This will leave a lasting impression on attendees, ensuring your message is engaging and impactful.
Stand out from the crowd
With so many tech companies vying for the spotlight, especially at a tradeshow, standing out from the crowd is important. One way to achieve this is by offering engaging visuals, supporting materials and compelling content that effectively showcases your product or service. If you don't have a media resource site, collaborate with your agency to save these assets on a cloud platform like Dropbox for easy access by the media.
Collaborating closely with your PR agency to uncover unique storylines that captivate journalists and influencers is essential to enhancing event visibility, ultimately increasing the chances of generating leads and revenue. So, a seasoned PR agency can play a pivotal role in maximizing the return on your event marketing endeavors.
Create various content that tells your story and makes writing easier for journalists
While most companies often focus on press releases and news leading up to the show, get other materials to support your brand, from infographics demonstrating the market need for your solution to customer quotes, videos and professional product images. We regularly speak with journalists covering different technologies, and we often hear that they consider supporting images before they even consider briefing or writing about the news.
Press releases are valuable for getting your news covered but ensure you’re writing them to make it easy for a reporter to lift information from them. Think about writing press releases as if the reporter will copy information nearly word for word for their own stories. If you're a new company or redefining a market, consider creating a 1-2 page Fast Fact document with specific data about your company and third-party, public resources to validate your market. You can only cram so much into a press release, and press releases should ideally be 600-700 words. If there are more details that a reporter should consider about your company as they are writing, a 1-2 page Fast Fact document allows them to write a more complete story about your company and market.
By following these tips, tech companies can improve their chances of generating interest at upcoming events like the Mobile World Congress in Las Vegas, CES in Las Vegas and the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. By planning ahead, crafting compelling messaging and getting creative with your event marketing strategy, you can ensure your brand gets the attention it deserves.
Plan now if you want to get a leg up and make a splash. However, we know it can be a heavy workload. If you need some help, contact us. In the meantime, enjoy that piña colada!
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