Last week I attended International CES in Las Vegas, where 2700 tech exhibitors come and show their stuff to 153,000 people in attendance.  I had never been to CES before and was looking forward to walking the floor.

However, it quickly became apparent to me that I wouldn’t learn so much about technology as I would what (not) to do if you want to stand out at a marketing event.

Clearly state what your company does.  

Sounds obvious, right?  Apparently not so much to the 2700 exhibitors at CES this year.

Talk about good signage!

Cute as your name might be, someone walking a busy conference floor needs a reason to be pulled over.  And unless you have a booth attraction or celebrity (more on that in a bit), you need to be clear about what that reason is.  Let me repeat: there is no time to play coy at crowded events- be direct about what you do and what your message is. For the avoidance of doubt, your company name on a banner alone is not going to cut it 99% of the time.

3D TV- no glasses needed! So… who are they?

As an aside: use common sense.  The example above was a fascinating 3D TV company; their TV required none of those 3D glasses all hate.  Brilliant, right?  Well they put a sign up right next to the tv, but I can’t see the name, and you probably can’t either.  Later I noticed they had hung their name on a banner suspended high on a wall.  I’m gonna go ahead and guess that most of the women and half the international visitors weren’t tall enough to notice it was there.  The name escapes me, so while this was a cool product, I could never repeat it.  Opportunity lost.

Mistake chaos with successful publicity. 

I’d like to draw your attention to the Tosy booth at CES.  Do you know who Tosy is?  I didn’t either.

What I did know, however, was that they had hired Justin Bieber to be at their booth to promote a robot. I was intrigued- what could this robot possibly be?  A few executives I was with were interested as well, so we crossed the entire convention center and arrived at the Tosy booth.  After journeying far and wide, I can tell you this: they had clearly spent their money on hiring the Biebs, not on booth location- they were tucked in a far back row. So was it worth it?

Well, it looked like this when we arrived:

Tosy booth at CES. And the Beliebers.

What do you see?  Do you see a robot? Me neither.

What I saw was mostly a group of women with phones, meaning that they had successfully lured Bieber fans.  But possibly not robot fans.  In fact, I never saw the robot.

Given the throng of Beliebers, I couldn’t even see him.  People were walking up, becoming frustrated with the crowd, snapping a picture of Justin or the mob, and shrugging then leaving.  That is what I call an epic failure.  Sure, we all heard “Tosy”, some of us for the first time, and we associate them with star power, but we have no freaking clue what they promote.  To me, their brand is now “teenybopper, overly interested in razzle dazzle, chaos”.  Probably not what they intended.  If you ask me, that’s a backfire.

Make your booth engaging or this will be the result.

Let one person monopolize your attention or your booth.

Although we weren’t there for video games, some execs and I walked by a booth that was selling rifles for video game play.  The guys I was with were interested and wanted to try it out, intending to buy a few to take home.  But the sales guy didn’t even look up at them; meanwhile, he let two gentlemen hog the accessory for 10 minutes as we just stood there.  Bad booth etiquette.  You are totally hedging your bets on the client in front of you when you haven’t even taken a moment to find out who the other person is – or to acknowledge them.  Not just bad etiquette, but a step toward bad branding.

Block your own signage.

Do I really need to advise you of this? Apparently so.

Sony’s booth was organized by category- good!

Let’s cover this again: You paid for it [your sign], so make sure it is visible!   I noticed, especially toward the end of the conference, some reps getting lazy and leaning back against the wall in conversation. The result was that people walking by (read: me) couldn’t see anything and might as well have walked by a blank booth.

BONUS ROUND: QUICK BOOTH TIPS

If your booth is huge, it may make sense to break it into subsections so people can find what they’re looking for.  Sony did this, and it led to a better flow of traffic than some other spaces.

Canon booth: pretty with room to breathe – good!

Make it pretty. It doesn’t have to be a decor or women’s conference.  If you’re at a technical or medical conference and you have an attractive, well-designed booth, you will stand out, because a lot of people in those industries might make the mistake of thinking you don’t have to care. But you always do.  Look at how Canon used their booth to create a beautiful photo walkway.  It created a tranquil space in the middle of chaos, and focused on “pretty” rather than “psychofuturistictech”.  It stood out.

Be welcoming to everyone; you never know who you’re dealing with.  One gadget company had a beautiful booth with lots of intriguing trinkets – we got closer and one of the businessmen I was with picked one up and examined it.  Out of nowhere, one of the booth attendants lunged at him with: “You have to be careful with it!” Now, little did he know he was talking to the CEO of a tech company.  My friend’s jeans, button-down, and youthful face betrayed him.  (Not that this behavior would be acceptable in any case)  But the point is- you don’t know who you’re talking to, so make sure your booth staff are trained well and represent your company properly.  An additional point would be- um, if you’re that nervous about your product, it doesn’t inspire confidence in a buyer!

And there you have what you really need to know about CES 2012!

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Have a question about what to do/not do at your next marketing event?
Drop me your questions anytime!