If the definition of insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting a different outcome, lots of companies at mega-shows like CES, MWC and IFA need serious brand therapy. From Las Vegas to Berlin, they make the same assumptions about what will engage the thousands of people walking right by their huge, expensive booths. Help is here: the same teams that helped brands at shows like these gathered their insights in our newest white paper. They offer counter-intuitive advice on how to break through the clutter by creating a brand experience—not just a branded environment.

1. DON’T
GO THE
TO
TRADESHOW *
* And other counter-intuitive tips to break through
the clutter at events like CES, MWC and IFA

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: the good, the bad and the very bad 3
No one cares if you’re following brand guidelines 4
No one cares about your products 5
Your technology isn’t working 6
It’s not about you 7
Get off the floor 8
In a nutshell: don’t go to the tradeshow 9
Let’s talk 10
About Jack Morton 11
DON’T GO TO THE TRADESHOW /2

3. INTRODUCTION:
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE VERY BAD
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The shows
were massive, swamped with hundreds of thousands of
attendees, teeming with exhibitors, packed with jaw-dropping
technologies – and overwhelmed by brands jumping up and
down for your attention at every turn of the corner.
That’s how we at Jack Morton felt as we experienced three
major tradeshows this year: the Consumer Electronics Show
(CES) in January in Las Vegas; the Mobile World Congress in
February in Barcelona; and this month, IFA 2012 in Berlin, the
world’s largest show of home appliances and electronics.
It’s the best of times when brands sponsor and create
experiences for the right reasons. It’s the worst of times
when brands exhibit out of apathy and make the same old
assumptions about what will be interesting to the thousands of
attendees walking right by their huge, expensive booths.
Breaking through the clutter is easy. Really. If we could
distill it down to one phrase, it’s ‘follow your own brand,
not tradeshow conventions’. That means not only staying
true to your brand and the people you’re trying to reach
but also bravely breaking away from the expected.
In that spirit of surprise, we offer the following counter-intuitive
insights about how to break through the clutter.
DON’T GO TO THE TRADESHOW /3

4. NO ONE CARES IF YOU’RE
FOLLOWING BRAND GUIDELINES*
*it’s what you do that counts
By our estimates, 90% of exhibitors at shows like IFA, CES They only do what’s right for their brand. That’s why the best
and MWC have the same failed approach. It’s what we call a feel like their own self-sufficient ecosystems: like separate worlds
branded space. Evidently adhering to visual identity guidelines, on the tradeshow floor. That’s why they have superior standout
their common ingredients are big logos and taglines, their and memorability to the sea of sameness around them. It’s how
ethos that of 3D advertisements. They assume the conventional Ericsson brought their Networked Society vision to life as, yes,
boxy structure/demo/meeting room format, then simply decide an experience that operated like a networked society itself.
what graphics to apply. The result: low cut-through, skin-deep It explains why AEG’s experience felt like a vision of the
branding with Identikit experiences. designer home, rather than yet another appliance showroom.
Brand experiences do more. Brand experiences turn the brand It’s not just the big spenders who can pull this off; brand
values into verbs – then act on them at every touchpoint. experiences aren’t about huge budgets but rather big
They use the brand vision as a guide not for visual branding, ambitions. To promote the speed of their Windows Phone
but for every action: from structure, to activity, demonstration, at MWC, Microsoft created a unique rapid (but low-budget)
entertainment and beyond. They don’t make assumptions. experience to match.
Takea
way
Don’t ju
st crea
design te a br
ed to th anded
e letter space,
of bran
d guid
Design elines.
a bran
from th d expe
e bran rience
d value design
s.
DON’T GO TO THE TRADESHOW /4

5. NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR PRODUCTS*
*until they’ve bought into your brand
All of us know from Branding 101 that strongly differentiated
brands fare better than those that blend in with competitors.
Why then, the sea of sameness on the tradeshow floor? It’s
as if marketers who know better have forgotten the lessons of
consumer marketing upon entering big shows like CES, IFA
and MWC – where the competition and need to differentiate
are even starker. Perhaps that’s because the typical exhibitor
at these shows is so focused on showcasing products and only
builds an environment around those products. On the whole,
your audience doesn’t want or need to see the entire product
range. Yet at the big shows, we saw thousands of products but
few brand visions shining through. Philips, T-Mobile, Google,
Ericsson and Dell were welcome exceptions.
Takeaway
ducts
st, pro
a nds fir eate
buy br you cr
People e rience tands
he exp rand s
sec ond. T hat your b age,
show w tive im
ne eds to distinc
ject a on.
nd pro e of in
teracti
for – a mod ask
ge and g else,
messa a nythin
you do n?”
Before d visio
s ou r bran
“what’
DON’T GO TO THE TRADESHOW /5

6. YOUR TECHNOLOGY ISN’T WORKING*
*if your audience can’t work it out for themselves
Values like ‘human’, ‘intuitive’ and ‘personal’ are in many
brand DNAs. So technology should behave accordingly.
We often encourage our clients to empower people to discover
Take
their products versus compelling every attendee to go through a
step-by-step demo. We do that because what we call the warm
Crea
away
glow of self-discovery can have a powerful and positive impact. te ex
your perie
prod nces
that e
In our technology-saturated world, people crave experiences in the ucts t
o live nable
real as th
that work intuitively and without guidance, as if by magic. actio world ey do
n as . And
disco foolp make
ver a roof that
s pos and
sible magi
cal to
Yes, there are occasions when having an ambassador explain .
your product is absolutely right; if you’re showing technology
that’s unfamiliar or in early-stage development, it’s likely that
you’ll need the gentle guidance of a skilled brand ambassador
to ensure people get to understand it and love it. At times like
that, your product really does merit interpretation. But in most
other instances, people want to be able to pick up a product,
press a button and find it does exactly what they asked it to.
DON’T GO TO THE TRADESHOW /6

7. IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU*
*it’s about your audience
Lots of brands talk about the power of interacting with Why? The goal is not impressing, it’s involving your audience.
customers. Yet most exhibitors don’t act on it and activities are In a digital-dominated world, they also expect experiences to
more likely to be focused on one-way product demos with an be relevant to how they use your brand and better still, help
old fashioned “features and benefits” approach. One-way them interact with your brand. And that’s surely true of the most
“shows” that grab attention yet ultimately alienate are another successful “attractors”—those activations that pull people into
recurring feature. Just like consumers, B2B audiences assume your exhibit instead of causing them to walk away. The best
that their interest must be earned. They expect entertainment invite people to participate in something relevant, useful and
and a bit of surprise. They love competition and that’s why real. To put it another way, if you have a vacuum cleaner, let
“gamification” has been such a buzzword for the past few people suck up dirt.
years. But mime artists and aloof models are just as off-putting
today as they’ve always been (but more embarrassing).
akeaway
T ractiv
e.
e= att
Int e ractiv n em
powe
r
u ca ract
w yo o inte
A sk ho nce t
e
audi
your bran
d.
wi th the
DON’T GO TO THE TRADESHOW /7

8. GET OFF THE FLOOR*
*if your experience will work better elsewhere
Some of the most successful experiences at major events
like CES, MWC and IFA aren’t even on the tradeshow floor.
A few brave brands (actually, a tiny minority) create off-site
experiences that avoid the noise by “exhibiting without
an exhibit”.
It’s a simple idea that brands can address through mobile
apps, targeted meetings, interventions at transit points, guerilla
marketing, mini-conferences or entirely autonomous off-site
brand experiences that look and act like tradeshows—just
away from the noise and distraction of all the competitors.
It’s not an oversight that Apple doesn’t even show up at shows
like MWC. Why create a physical, fixed experience at all?
Why not a service or mobile experience?
Takeaw
Go whe
ay
re your
ser ved, brand is
whethe best
or some r the tra
where e de floo
lse enti r
rely.
DON’T GO TO THE TRADESHOW /8

9. IN A NUTSHELL: DON’T GO TO THE TRADESHOW*
*just for the sake of showing up
First of all, make sure you should be at the tradeshow at all. Have
a good strategic reason to go: check it’s the best way to reach
the right people and achieve your business objectives. With so
many brands competing so mightily for attendees’ attention when
it comes to shows like CES, MWC and IFA, it should go without
saying that “just showing up” won’t cut it. Yet a surprising number
of exhibitors rationalize their participation with phrases like
“We were here last year,” “We have to come” or “My boss likes
this show” and fail to activate aggressively once there.
Make sure you have the resources – time , money and
imagination – to activate in truly different and engaging ways.
If you’re going…
Don’t create a branded space
Essentially a superficially branded experience, visually
branded, product showroom with few unique brand activities.
An experience without a clear reason for being.
Create a brand experience
Ignore tradeshow conventions. Instead, treat your brand
values as verbs. Build an experience that’s true to your brand
inside and out, and in behavior – not just appearance.
That’s an experience that cuts through.
That’s an experience that works.
DON’T GO TO THE TRADESHOW /9

10. LET’S TALK
CONTACT
Liz Bigham
liz_bigham@jackmorton.com
+1 212 401 7212
READ ON
Read our blog at blog.jackmorton.com
Follow us on Twitter @jackmorton
Visit us online at jackmorton.com
Read what we had to say about CES
click here

11. ABOUT
JACK MORTON
JACK MORTON WORLDWIDE IS A GLOBAL BRAND EXPERIENCE
AGENCY WITH OFFICES ON FIVE CONTINENTS. OUR AGENCY
CULTURE PROMOTES BREAKTHROUGH IDEAS ABOUT HOW
EXPERIENCES CONNECT BRANDS AND PEOPLE—IN PERSON,
ONLINE, AT RETAIL AND THROUGH THE POWER OF DIGITAL
AND WORD OF MOUTH INFLUENCE. WE WORK WITH BOTH
BTOC AND BTOB CLIENTS TO CREATE POWERFUL AND EFFECTIVE
EXPERIENCES THAT ENGAGE CUSTOMERS AND CONSUMERS,
LAUNCH PRODUCTS, ALIGN EMPLOYEES AND BUILD STRONG
EXPERIENCE BRANDS. RANKED AT THE TOP OF OUR FIELD, WE
EARNED OVER 50 AWARDS FOR CREATIVITY, EXECUTION AND
EFFECTIVENESS LAST YEAR. JACK MORTON IS PART OF THE
INTERPUBLIC GROUP OF COMPANIES, INC. (NYSE: IPG).
© Jack Morton Worldwide 2012