Marshall Yard:

This week, the buzz around the office is all about the RSNA show (the Radialogical Society of North America’s annual meeting & expo). We have a multitude of outstanding clients at the RSNA’s. They range from Imaging on Call, who has a 20 ft. x 20 ft. custom rental booth, to the other extreme, Siemens, with a whopping 110 ft. x 220 ft. exhibit. Building a miniature “village” of different structures in a matter of a few days is fun to watch.

Word on the street (perception) is that trade shows will have fewer exhibitors in 2009, taking up less convention hall space, and with smaller exhibits, as the broader economy heads into recession. I think that’s true, by and large, but there are individual companies that are exceptions to this rule. Which side of the coin is your company on?

Tails:

Revenue is declining, profits are tighter (or in the red), and the marketing budget has a large “blip” that is “Trade Shows/Events.” In order to survive, your company decides to cut back everything, and the exposure and opportunity that a well executed trade show can offer gets thrown out with the “bathwater.” Hopefully these companies do not own their trade show exhibits - else they are wasting big marketing dollars that were invested when the economy was more favorable. In addition, there is a continuing expense of storing their exhibit property. This is a reality many companies are facing. Either scale down, or kill the program entirely.

Heads:

Your company has continued gobbling up market share, or may even be consuming competitors’ businesses via acquisition or attrition. I have a number of clients who are in this position: They are GROWING their tradeshow presence in order to undertake some major corporate agendie- Rebranding, launching new products (perhaps integrating their new acquisitions’ product line), or merely establishing their role as industry leaders. Sometimes they’re doing preventive work on potential misconceptions of who is struggling, and who is surviving, in the new economy. An effective trade show exhibit can allow a company to accomplish all of these goals in one space. A custom rental booth can be designed for each individual trade show, to ensure that the message that is conveyed is timely and precise for todays trade show audience, not last year’s.

Heads or tails, it seems like the company that rents their exhibit is better off. If you can’t afford to exhibit, you can cross off that expense for FY09. If you can afford to exhibit, you can do exactly what you want for 2009’s exhibition (e.g. - Siemens and Imaging On Call can build totally different designs for every show). It depends on what the reality is for your company, but at least you get to decide on how you’ll be perceived.

Somewhere else in the blogosphere, I’ve heard some interesting ruminations about what should and should not be driving forces behind why a company should undertake a trade show effort. One of these rules struck a nerve with me as pertaining to the present credit crisis and rampant recessionary fears.

Reason #3: To correct a misconception.

In a business environment where everyone thinks everyone is at risk of going totally Lehman, what a better way to cure that paranoia than through your exhibit booth at your next trade show. Of course, if you own an expensive custom trade show property, you might lack the flexibility to actually change your design to accomplish any particular change in directive. Hopefully 2006’s business plan will keep working for the next 2 years while you amortize your custom built booth. Even better, maybe your company’s just too big to fail.

Meanwhile, your competitor has a new look, is effectively launching their new product, adapting to the product life cycle of their existing product, and reinforcing the belief that they are constantly growing their market share. Oh, and surely this sort of thing never happens in industries other than ours.

One more thing: I’ve picked up on two ways in which companies have tried to combat wild speculations about their fiscal strength in moments of extreme doubt- Press releases and employment solicitations. If we’re offering jobs, and telling the press that things are GREAT despite headlines to the contrary, then everything’s supposedly “all good.” Apparently, people are starting to see through this sort of rubbish…

A new Costco opened near my house this past weekend. Imagine how surprised I was that humongous bags of rice are for sale in unlimited quantities. I remember hysterical stories about the famines we should expect due to big box stores rationing such food staples earlier in ‘08. Since popular opinion has it that the sky is falling, I should have piled as many bags as would fit in my sedan, and crawled into my nifty nuclear bunker. Instead I bought socks - shades of olive, green, and brown.

For the past year or so, writing about “marketing in a recession” was all the rage. Everyone agrees that we’re in a recession, except for the rule of thumb on recessions. The rule of thumb guy is still giving me a thumbs up. Not enthusiastically, but still… I don’t know if I trust that guy anymore.

So what are people writing about now? In the ever changing one-upmanship that is online news, the hip search term for your business article is now “marketing in a DEPRESSION.” To be more precise, marketers are strategizing over marketing in a “pre-depression” (this is the beginning of the beginning of a depression). Hopefully, when this depression sets in, your company will be a-ok, and all due to your wise marketing department decisions. Depression becomes a career-advancer, and your true character will shine through (due to your having read a “snarky” blog post about it…). You’ll be the new CEO once this whole mess blows over. Sure you will.

Marketing in a depression seems to be a tough burden to undertake. My guess is, your company either has enough cash reserves, or it doesn’t. If they have the reserves, your job will be intact, and your task of conveying the company’s message in a competitive, rapidly evolving marketplace will continue. The market changes, but the task remains constant. But guessing whether this is a recession or a depression is probably NOT a part of your job. It isn’t mine, I’m pretty sure. What are your real options?

Option A: You guess depression, you advocate that the marketing budget gets gutted, BUT the economy goes all “fast and loose” on us. Then you will play catch up during the coming expansion, as competitors gobbled up your market share. Option B: If you guess depression and it’s a depression, you might be vindicated, but you will essentially be doing what you’re always supposed to do: Making wise decisions with your marketing dollars. What the heck were you doing before this looming recession or depression? 

If you think it’s a prudent time to stock up on rice, while all the fools buy socks and wide-screens, that’s fine. But bursting into your boss’s office telling him or her about the expected course of the business cycle - is that really a good idea? Understanding how to market in a different business cycle is important, but being the first to yell fire is something you’d be well served to avoid.

One of my coworkers (a sales guy) decided to tap into a competitor’s client base because he’d heard - from reliable sources, I might add - that this particular vendor was going down. What better time to swoop than when the nest is falling apart? Anyway, he called one of the largest clients, gave him the pitch and was met not only with disinterest but outright nastiness…”What! That’s not true! Who do you think you are?” Needless to say, the pot had been stirred. The client freaked out (which you can’t really blame him for) and questioned the vendor (obviously). The vendor, like a toddler who’s dropped all his sweets, is now trying to punish our company. Lawsuit this, slander that. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Was my coworker disreputable? Should he have rested on his haunches and waited for the baby birds to flail from the nest before going in for the kill? It’s a dirty game, folks. Yes, it’s unfortunate that the business is suffering. But if you’re not honest with your clients, chances are someone else will be.

AstraZeneca

44th ASCO Annual Meeting
5/31 – 6/2, 2008
Chicago, Illinois 

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is the leading advocate for oncology professionals worldwide. ASCO’s self-titled annual event – held in Chicago, IL – is stomping ground to elite organizations and more than 29,000 attendees dedicated solely to the research and development of superlative cancer care.

The Catalyst team – spearheaded by Deb Pflaster (Account Manager) and Jimmy Bastille (Senior Account Executive) proved themselves, yet again, with 6800 total square feet of exhibit space with AstraZeneca.

AstraZeneca – an International organization at the forefront of medicinal innovation – certainly commanded attention, dominating the show floor. Catalyst’s design objective was to create a striking, strategically-branded environment that allowed for fluent direction of attendees through the space. 

The client couldn’t thank us enough for the amazing job Catalyst had done. She said “the team at Catalyst was, by far, the most professional and responsive I’ve ever worked with.” Deb Pflaster, in particular, did an incredible job making this event happen. Immense challenges are inevitable when bringing a client of AstraZeneca’s stature in-house…but the exhibit indeed stood as a testament to all the hard work that was involved.