Having never been to Pittcon before, I didn’t quite know what to expect but when I arrived in New Orleans with my colleagues to join over 16,000 delegates at the world’s largest annual event for laboratory science it was clear it was going to be one exciting trip! After four busy days of media interviews, new business meetings, booth visits (and a few Hurricanes along the way!) we came away buzzing from the experience and eager to follow up on the conversations we had had.
The most interesting observation for us was the type of conversations we were having with both existing and prospective customers. The Scott Partnership has been attending Pittcon for over 16 years and the solutions clients are looking for have changed significantly over that time. Rather than just wanting PR programmes to raise brand awareness and promote their attendance at an event or launch their latest product; clients now require solutions to more complex challenges.
Sales and marketing teams are under increasing pressure to generate measurable leads, effectively engage with potential customers and demonstrate return on investment for their marketing activities. Traditional tactics alone are no longer delivering the results they need and the integrated sales and marketing tactics we employ for our clients here at The Scott Partnership are designed to help overcome these challenges. Marketing automation and lead generation proved to be the buzzwords that really got people’s attention and it’s not hard to see why. While these solutions can be initially complex and time consuming to implement, the results delivered have a real impact on a businesses bottom line – generating new names to enter into a database, nurturing those leads and then converting them into a sale.
3-D booth graphics on the LECO booth at Pittcon
It was also really inspiring to see new tactics being used by exhibitors to attract visitors to their booth. Faced with row upon row of exhibitors, pretty pictures and a free mint just don’t cut it anymore when it comes to generating traffic to a booth. Marketing teams increasingly have to justify their presence at trade shows so it has become more important than ever to be able to demonstrate return on investment. From fun 3-D graphics on the booth floor to videos and dedicated hashtags for visitor engagement on social media, it was clear that if you want to be successful at a trade show you need more than an attractive booth.
So if you want to find out how to maximise your presence at your next trade show or to find out how we can help you solve your sales and marketing challenge contact us via [email protected]
You can also watch our winning LabTube video at www.labtube.tv.
Holly Jobbins, Account Manager at The Scott Partnership
