The overall goal was to re-focus the National Dog Show experience to integrate a Pro Plan experience. The way to do this was to immerse tradeshow visitors in the brand and to highlight the key messages — The Difference is Real—Real Meat, Real Experts, and Real Commitment — and to drive at least 400 attendees to participate in the show plan promotion at their trade show booth.

By using a theater backed Live, interactive, experiential trade show presentations add a dynamic dimension to your trade show booth, attracting crowds to your company’s products and services. There’s an added benefit of having your audience participate in and become advocates of your products during and after the trade show. It is, however, important to keep on-message when you have a live theater presentation at your exhibit. A finely tuned message is the key to your success, ensuring you meet your company’s marketing goals and objectives. Keep this in mind when you engage your next trade show presentation company.

According to Elaine Cohen, Founder/President of Live Marketing in Chicago, studies show that if live professional presentations at trade shows focus on answering the marketing objectives of the company, the company is better able to deliver on those objectives. The objective of the presentation may be to have trade show visitors become actively involved by taking a quiz or survey, to have them learn about the product in-depth from experts who can truly educate them, or become committed to endorsing a charity in their industry, in addition to writing an order.

When the objective is to increase sales, a company is wise to hire a crowd gatherer to get people to its booth. Once there, attendees need to experience the product first-hand. There also needs to be a follow-up way to have your trade show guests experience the product once the event is over. A good idea to extend the marketing of your custom trade show exhibit is to offer redeemable coupons to attendees that they can use once the trade show is over.
Cohen sites an example of a live presentation campaign that produced highly successful results for Purina Pro Plan® at the National Dog Show in Philadelphia in 2005. The trade show live presentation was so successful it was repeated at Philadelphia’s National Dog Show in 2006, the 2006 Chicago Dog Show, and the Detroit Kennel Club Show.

The campaign began with identifying what key message Purina Pro Plan had for the dog trade show goers and what the company hoped to achieve at the trade show exhibit.

The message focus was that, nutritionally, Pro Plan is an exceptional product. Among top breeders and show-dog owners, Pro Plan is the #1 pet food brand, but many consumers are unaware of this. In the specialty market, unaided awareness of the Pro Plan brand is only 5%, and Pro Plan market share is about 6%. The challenge of the Pro Plan Consumer Experiential Marketing Program was to generate awareness of, create a preference for, and drive sales of Pro Plan foods.
For starters, the trade show had the right audience—approximately 18,000 dog-loving consumers in attendance. Most of these consumers either had dogs, attended the trade show to help make the decision about what breed to purchase, or attended to find a breeder to purchase from. They were of all ages, genders, and ethnicities, and all of them were decision-makers or influencers of dog food purchases.

The overall goal was to re-focus the National Dog Show experience to integrate a Pro Plan experience. The way to do this was to immerse trade show visitors in the brand and highlight the key messages—The Difference is Real—Real Meat, Real Experts, and Real Commitment—and to drive at least 400 attendees to participate in the show plan promotion at their trad eshow booth.

By using a theater backed by content-specific interactive exhibit areas, they were able to communicate the key messages:
• At the Real Meat area, a computerized Pro Plan Product Selector was used to find the right Pro Plan product for each visitor’s dog while communicating that the #1 ingredient of Pro Plan is Real Meat.
• At the Real Commitment area, visitors learned about the animal rescue programs Purina supports and were given the opportunity to help support the cause.
• In the Real Experts area, trade show guests spoke with breeders and/or a nutritionist to learn how to tell if their dogs were the right weight and get answers to other canine nutrition questions.

Attendees also completed a Pro Plan Show Plan quiz and survey, and, closing the loop, trade show booth staff gave away samples and coupons to drive visitors to purchase at the show and in the future. The solution was a totally integrated trade show exhibit marketing program that leveraged a live theater and activities to attract and educate consumers.

By content-specific interactive exhibit areas, they were able to communicate the key messages:

• At the Real Meat area, a computerized Pro Plan Product Selector was used to find the right Pro Plan product for each trade show visitor’s own dog while communicating that the #1 ingredient of Pro Plan is Real Meat.
• At the Real Commitment area, visitors learned about the animal rescue programs Purina supports and were given the opportunity to help support the cause.
• In the Real Experts area, tradeshow guests spoke with breeders and/or a nutritionist to learn how to tell if their dog is the right weight and get answers to other canine nutrition questions.

They also had attendees complete a Pro Plan Show Plan quiz and survey and, closing the loop, trade show booth staff gave away samples and coupons to drive visitors to purchase now and in the future. The solution was a totally integrated tradeshow exhibit marketing program that leveraged a live theatre and activities to attract and educate consumers.