Beyond the Booth – Top 10 Countdown – Making the Most of Your Trade Show Experience (Part 2)

This is Part 2, the conclusion, of ‘Beyond the Booth – Top 10 Countdown – Making the Most of Your Trade Show Experience’ 

5. Prepare press releases before AND after the show – This is one of the times you really need to reach out and share your business news and information. Publicity, such as those mentions or articles in magazines, blogs, newspapers, trade publications, are often more credible, believable and profitable than other types of exposure. Before the show it’s important to make sure everyone knows you will be attending, where to find you, and what you have to offer. After the show, it’s time to share the news about your accomplishments and executed deals.

4. Create a promo video – Videos are one of the most powerful and persuasive marketing tools available today. Keep in mind that a moving presentation overview draws in prospective clients, but be sure to share with them with your more detailed follow-up material when it comes to your one-on-one meetings. Try to format your videos for as many different platforms as possible. Videos can be used on booth monitors and on tablets and smartphones for impromptu presentations outside your booth, as well as in online public relations and for social media exposure. If you have a property that lends itself to an interactive demo, then go for it. By giving attendees something to do, it gives you more time to interact and discuss their needs. As you can see, your promotional videos will take on a variety of formats for different purposes. By organizing the goals and needs clearly before creating the videos, you can economize on the development of your materials.

3. Take time away from the booth – This takes preparation because you need the staffing to cover you when you step away, as well as to decide how to use your precious time. Get clear on your priorities so you can visit booths of prime prospects and competitors first. Make friends with your neighbors and take time to attend sessions where your prospects are speaking or might attend. And in general, talk to everyone to meet new people and make new friends. Whether in line for coffee, lunch, the restroom, or sitting at a training session or on the escalator…talk to the people around you. This is really the best way to take full advantage of your networking opportunities. Someone you struck up a conversation with is much more likely to stop when passing your booth on the show floor—and even if they aren’t a prospect, you never know WHO THEY KNOW. Once you have accomplished your goals, definitely take time to roam and get inspired by ideas and connections that hadn’t yet occurred to you.

2. Ask for what you are looking for – While many people might consider it too forward or rude, you will not get what you want if you don’t ask for it. This is what separates the effective business people from the ineffective ones. Write down exactly what it is you want your new contacts to know and what you are asking them to do. Make sure you relay it often and to everyone in a professional way. Again, be assertive, not aggressive. If you are unclear with yourself about what you want others to do, they will not know how to help you even when they are willing. Practice your points until you have them memorized.

1. What do YOU have to offer – This seems like a very obvious instruction, but you would be surprised how few people actually express clearly what they are offering. Remember that industry events, especially trade shows, are jam-packed with influential and busy individuals. You want to talk with everyone you can. Because you never know if they have the means to help your business in a variety of ways. And remember, common courtesy goes a long ways! You may not be as well-known as many of these folks, but you are important too. You need to be very clear about what you have to offer, so that you know exactly what you bring to the relationship. Conversations with high-ranking execs will go must smoother when you know exactly what you have to offer them. It’s important to have a realistic and dynamic vision of what you bring to the table, so that moving forward you aren’t wasting anyone’s time, including your own.

There is still time to register for ‘Marketing Your Art, Characters, Designs & New Brands through Trade Shows,‘ which begins today at 10 a.m. PDT. If you can’t attend today, you will receive an MP3 audio file and 80-page PowerPoint presentation at the conclusion of the class. For more information and to register click here.

Note: This article ran originally in the Licensing Expo Newsletter. All Art Licensing will be available at the Resource Center in the Art + Design zone Booth #C-13 where I will be reporting on deals and events, assisting attendees in navigation of the trade show, providing free expert licensing advice and supporting the Art + Design category exhibitors. Hope to see you there!

Beyond the Booth – Top 10 Countdown – Making the Most of Your Trade Show Experience (Part 1)

This is Part 1 of a 2-part special blog, so watch tomorrow’s to read the conclusion of the countdown.

Once you have your booth design completed, there is a host of other preparations to attend to. Actually preparing for the show and going ‘beyond the booth’ will assure that you have made the most of the time and money you invest in the show.

I know there are many of you who are just starting out or exhibiting for the first time and may not have thought of these, especially numbers #1 and #2 (in tomorrow’s post)! And for those of you who are seasoned veterans, it never hurts to skim and review good tactics.

If you aren’t sure whether you are ready for exhibiting at a trade show, or are exhibiting for the first time, definitely read my article below and seriously consider joining my class tomorrow. ‘Marketing Your Art, Characters, Designs & New Brands Through Trade Shows,’ will help you maximize your investment. This class explains exactly how to make intelligent decisions about whether you are ready (OR NOT) to exhibit at trade shows, as well as how to choose the appropriate shows and what you need to do to go from ‘internal creative concepts’ to ‘creating external income.’

We will cover an invaluable checklist of 25 questions which MUST be answered BEFORE you should invest the time and money in a trade show and how to prepare for and exhibit at the shows and create marketing to drive traffic to your booth. I’m really excited to be offering this class. Even if tomorrow doesn’t work with your schedule you can register, ask your questions, and take the class at your convenience through our MP3 audio file and 80-page PowerPoint presentation. Here’s a link to our course schedule page to register and get more details.

Now…in two parts: Beyond the Booth – Top 10 Countdown – Making the Most of Your Trade Show Experience

10. Make the most of your time – This takes planning and organization before the show. Create a list of goals to be completed before the end of the event. It should include people you want to see, booths you want to visit and educational sessions that are important to attend. Think about your overall goals and the people who can help you achieve them. Then I recommend looking at the exhibitor’s list for those who could be potential strategic partners, affiliates or licensees, as well as gathering information on your biggest competition.

9. Schedule appointments before the show – You will need to cull your existing lead list, as well as review the prior and current exhibitors lists for the show you are attending. If you know of companies important to building your business then find their contact information. It never hurts to introduce yourself and ask if they are attending the show. It is essential to prioritize the lead lists, so that you can request and schedule appointments with the companies which are most important to you.

8. Create specific goals for your meetings – In addition to your overall goals, you should prepare specific goals for each of your individual meetings so you will be well prepared to make the most of them. I strongly suggest if possible to research the businesses and people prior to each meeting and customizing the presentation when appropriate.

7. Prepare your content – Once you have created a compelling booth that tells a story, make sure you have the content—the ‘goods’—to back it up. Have collections, stories, scripts, designs, images that are immediately licensable. If you are a ‘concept booth,’ prepare as much content (television scripts, book manuscript, style guide imagery, etc.) as you can to show prospective licensees what they would be licensing from you and why a partnership will be profitable.

6. Take the conversations as far as they can go – Make sure that your homework includes writing down and practicing the questions which will move deals forward. This is especially important for the meetings with people you have already met with or spoken to prior to the show, and are now renewing or continuing the conversations. For the new contacts, most trade show attendees will usually give you 5 minutes or less of their time. Create and be prepared to share a VERY brief presentation, and then listen (DO NOT TALK YOURSELF OUT OF THE SALE)! As a rule of thumb, let them lead the discussion—be present and assertive, never aggressive. Then…you can ask questions to move things forward and make sure, as your potential customer leaves the booth that you have defined and agreed upon the next steps.

Note: The countdown continues tomorrow with the top 5 ways to make the most of your trade show experience.

5 Mistakes that Character Creators Often Make

Do you have an idea for a new character? Do you think your new character would be an ideal fit for television, books, apps, games, toys or comics? Well, that is a great start. But to fully develop a character that you can sell or license as a larger media property, you’ll need to know that character from the inside out. And you’ll need to be able to communicate the nuances of the character to your audience, quickly and expertly.

If you have created and developed a character and are wanting to build a property, with media and licensing, then consider the following advice. Take these five common mistakes and create your own check-list of things ‘not to do’ when it comes to building your own character or character brand:

1. Create vague characters. This is a no-no. Your characters can’t look like or behave like everyone else’s’ dog, cat or whatever. Your characters need to be distinguishable with specific traits, style, and purpose. Develop the detailed background and dreams for your characters, including answering the questions: who, what, when where, why and how.
2. Think that ‘everyone’ is your target audience. Instead, find a niche audience where you can gain some impact and create impressions before broadening your scope. Try to figure out where your target audience lives, works and plays…and most importantly…how they prefer to get their entertainment and information. Eventually you can adapt your content to expand the audience. But don’t ever think that ‘everyone’ is your target audience.
3. Assume people will immediately ‘get’ your characters the way you do. Don’t be naive. You need to mentally put yourself in your audiences’ chair to adequately understand their perspective. This is a powerful internal tool to develop. You can then create your character’s personality and mannerisms, so your audience can ‘see’ just how funny, ironic, sweet, improbable, dumb, charismatic, sarcastic, ill-at-ease, or whatever your characters really are! It is up to you to develop these traits, as well as create exposure through media, products and other channels.
4. Attend trade shows ill-prepared. Creator’s frequently exhibit at trade shows too early in the development of their characters. In addition, they fail to design the proper materials to actually sell producers, publishers, manufacturers and retailers on doing a deal. Without the right marketing materials and content, these potential partners can’t distribute your characters to their biggest potential audience and help build the brand. Be sure you are ready and get the help you need to do it right.
5. Develop non-sustainable characters. Do your characters appeal to a large target audience, or one at least big enough to support your creations and accomplish your goals? Do they fulfill a long-lasting need in the marketplace, which means they could become ‘evergreen’ characters? Or are they a flash on the horizon of trends? Be careful not to put your time and energy into characters, unless they have the audience potential to match and sustain your ideas and dreams.

Hammy from the ‘Over the Hedge’ Movie

All of these mistakes can be avoided with the proper training. I have two excellent classes which elaborate on these specific problems. One class, in which I collaborated with Michael Fry, creator of ‘Over the Hedge’ (DreamWorks) and ‘The Odd Squad –Bully Bait’ (Disney-Hyperion) is called ‘Building Character – How to Cash In On Your Characters Without Losing Your Soul.’

Or you may be planning to attend a trade show and interested in: ‘Marketing Your Art, Characters, Designs and New Brands Through Trade Shows’. Each of these can be purchased and downloaded through our website. The next FREE Ask J’net Q&A is open to everyone who wants to ask questions about characters and character licensing next week, Thursday, February 5th from 12:00-1:00 p.m. PST / 3:00-4:00 p.m. EST. The registration form includes a place at the bottom for your questions, and you will be sent the Dial-In Number and Access Code for the session the evening of February 4th. Register here.