November saw the MTM team visit METS – Europe’s largest marine trade exhibition – where we were supporting several of our marine clients. Walking around the show I started thinking about how much potential exhibitions have…when they are done well.
Well-planned exhibitions and trade events can represent a fantastic opportunity to meet relevant people from your industry, develop relationships with organisations around the world, and be the perfect platform to showcase products and services to a global audience.
Many trade shows also offer you the perfect opportunity to meet and influence a large number of professional media. An excellent example of this is the Monaco Yacht Show, another marine exhibition held in September each year, but one which attracts the best publications and media outlets from all around the world. At this year’s show I was able to meet face-to-face with over a dozen journalists and editors in just two days. This not only provides our clients with an excellent opportunity to pitch new ideas, it will also hopefully help secure significant quantities of coverage for the year ahead.
However, all too often we see companies failing to maximise their presence, and their expenditure, arriving at a large exhibition with a few sad looking posters and a pile of brochures. They then sit and wait for the rush…which usually never appears. Nothing upsets us more than poor representation of a brand, so with that in mind, the MTM team had a think and came up with a very long list of tips to make sure you choose the right exhibition and that you maximise your expenditure, prior, during and after the event. Our collective approach gave us a truck load of options but I thought it would be best if I narrowed it down to what we feel are the key areas you need to be thinking about before the exhibition season kicks off again.
So, if you are interested, click on the image below to view and download the MTM pocket guide to maximising your exhibition presence.