Tag: 2015 SHOT Show

Business Growth Expert to Lead SHOT Show University Sessions

Adding to the growing list of expert business leaders lecturing at the 2015 SHOT Show University is professional consultant Larry Mersereau. Mersereau is an engaging and highly respected speaker with more than 20 years experience providing keynote and general session addresses and specialized training in breakout and workshop settings to corporations and associations. Through his consulting enterprise PromoPower, Mersereau has worked with companies such as American Express, Inc. Magazine and Yamaha Motorsports, with a focus on business growth through sale expansion, customer retention, branding and positioning, maximization of marketing returns and leadership growth.

Mersereau will guide two sessions of the 2015 SSU. The first, “Content Marketing in Cyberspace,” will teach attendees how to connect with your “virtual” customers, the ones who are shopping with retailers without actually going to brick-and-mortar establishments. This course will discuss marketing content, execution plans, budgeting, and metrics that allow you to assess your results once your cyberspace marketing plan has been implemented.

In Mersereau’s second session, “Stand Out, Differentiate or Disappear,” retailers will learn how to position their businesses to stand out in a crowd of similar entities as the go-to place in every customer’s mind. Attendees of this session will hear about Mersereau’s “Brand Ladder” that teaches business leaders how to move potential customers into their stores and turn them from one-time shoppers to repeat, loyal customers who, in turn, continue to help spreading the word about your business through social media personal recommendations to friends and family.

SHOT Show University is the premier event for firearms retailers. Seats are limited and this event will sell out, so retailers are urged to sign up now. NSSF Premium Retailers are offered a complimentary ticket to SSU. Additional tickets for both Premium Retail members and all other NSSF members who wish to attend is $250; non-members may attend for $500. To learn more about SSU and its many sessions, click here. To upgrade your membership to the Premium Retail level or to join at NSSF at the level that best serves your business needs, visit nssf.org/join or e-mail membership@nssf.org.

Let NSSF’s Exhibitor Spotlight Come to You at SHOT Show

Video sharing across social media platforms is a top way to get you and your product noticed. At NSSF, we want to help each of our exhibitors experience the results this kind of marketing effort can produce.

For the second consecutive year, NSSF is pleased to offer Exhibitor Spotlight Videos to every exhibitor at the 2015 SHOT Show. With this service, NSSF deploys a professional video crew and on-camera host to your booth during the show, providing you an invaluable opportunity to highlight the products and services you most need to deliver to buyers, media and consumers. Once filming’s completed, our videographers edit the footage and audio, then post to both the SHOT Show and NSSF websites, as well as the NSSF and SHOT Show Facebook and Twitter feeds, all while SHOT Show is taking place. This is real-time advertising for you and your brand—but the promotion doesn’t stop there.

Post-show, your video will be archived on the NSSF and SHOT Show YouTube channels, which experience continued viewing year round. Our exhibitor spotlights from last year garnered up to 20,000 views, providing exceptional coverage for those exhibitors participating in this unique and high-profile marketing tactic. NSSF also emails a post-show roundup to more than 80,000 individuals, complete with links to all SHOT Show Exhibitor Spotlight Videos.

Exhibitor Spotlight reservations are extremely limited, and we encourage those exhibitors interested in taking advantage of this opportunity to contact us now. To download the rate card and order form click here, then click on the Exhibitor Spotlight Video heading. For more information, please contact me directly at ctatulli@nssf.org.

SHOT Show Exhibitor October Deadlines

There are two crucial deadlines SHOT Show exhibitors need to meet in October. Both revolve around the important publication SHOT Show Tracker.

For those unfamiliar with this exhibitor tool, SHOT Show Tracker is a once-a-year publication detailing education sessions and special events being held during the show, show floor plans, travel and logistic information and, most importantly for exhibitors, a full listing of all registered exhibitors and their booth numbers. This publication is mailed, during early winter, to tens of thousands of pre-registered SHOT Show attendees.

SHOT Show Tracker provides several important benefits to our exhibitors. First, it lets potential customers know you’ll be at the show and exactly where they can find you, allowing them to schedule meetings with you in advance of the show. This kind of information is, essentially, complimentary advertising for each and every exhibitor, but its availability as a part of pre-show marketing is invaluable.

In addition to the pre-show boost all exhibitors receive from this publication, Tracker also provides a platform for your booth and company to stand out from the crowd through creative advertising opportunities. Exhibitors may purchase a variety of ad space for inclusion in SHOT Show Tracker. These include full- and half-page options, as well as four-color inside and outside front and back covers. So while you’re amping up all your other pre-show marketing plans—mailings and e-newsletters to your own mailing lists, company website updates telling show attendees where you’ll be at SHOT and invitations to special events you’re hosting at SHOT—make sure your show visibility is maximized through SHOT Show Tracker.

Ad space is limited, so it’s important that exhibitors interested in maximizing their presence and visibility at SHOT Show act now to reserve their space. SHOT Show Tracker ad space reservation deadline of Oct. 17 is fast approaching, and all artwork is due by Oct. 31. Materials received after this date will be placed in Tracker at the discretion of NSSF staff and as space allows.

For more information on advertising in SHOT Show Tracker, click here and choose the dropdown box on the SHOT Show Tracker line item. There you’ll find a listing of available spaces, plus a downloadable rate card and a link that details all ad specifications, including acceptable submission formats and sizing. Questions? Email me at djeannette@nssf.org, or my colleague Chris Tatulli, NSSF Director, Exhibitor and Sponsor Sales, at ctatulli@nssf.org.

Dave Jeannette is Senior Director, Sales for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Follow him on Twitter at @DaveJeannette.

Book Your SHOT Show Meeting Rooms Now

SHOT Show does what few other trade shows do, and that is to grow by leaps and bounds year after year. For exhibitors, that means more booth traffic, more customer interaction and, hopefully, more sales. But, with all the hustle and bustle that is the crowd at any booth at SHOT Show, getting the details of those all-important deals hashed out and contracts signed can be a challenge. Solution: your own meeting room.

SHOT Show exhibitors have a variety of meeting room sizes and configurations available to them. Rooms can be rented by the full day or the half-day (either morning or afternoon sessions), during each day of the show plus the Sunday and Monday before the show opens and after show hours for meet-and-greet or cocktail receptions. Podiums and head tables are available, depending on the format of your meeting, and furniture, audio/visual equipment, and catering can be ordered through Freeman (our partner in coordinating SHOT Show at the Sands Expo Center), to fully accommodate any number of anticipated meeting attendees.

Meeting room space is limited and available only on a first-come, first-served basis, so exhibitors are encouraged to place their orders as soon as possible. The SHOT Show meeting room application can be accessed by clicking here. Questions about meeting room availability, pricing, and guidance on what works best for your needs? Contact Chris Tatulli, NSSF Director, Exhibit & Sponsorship Sales at 203-426-1320 x214, or e-mail ctatulli@nssf.org.

First-Time SHOT Exhibitor? We Have the Resources to Help

ERCTrade show exhibition is nearly an art unto itself, especially when it comes to a show as enormous as SHOT Show. Simply put, this isn’t a bigger version of your local gun show with its folding high school cafeteria tables and chairs. Indeed, if you’ve never set up a booth at SHOT before, and even if you’ve attended smaller local or regional outdoor consumer shows, the list of items you need for a successful booth setup may not be obvious nor readily available to you before the show.

We can help. One of the many resources available and just a mouse click away is the Frequently Rented Items checklist. You’ll find this by going to shotshow.org, then clicking on the drop-down Exhibitors tab and clicking on the first item, the Exhibitor Resource Center (ERC). Under this heading you’ll click on the menu for General Information, Deadlines and Contract and find what we’ve affectionately dubbed the First-Timer Cheat Sheet, is an invaluable resource for any exhibitor, but especially those setting up shop for the first time at SHOT Show.

In this sheet you’ll find rates for the most common booth setup help, like electrical labor, freight and materials handling, end of show dismantling services, and post-show hours cleaning services. Then there are the smaller things, the trash cans, chairs, tables, table skirting and carpet, that one might assume are automatically provided at a show and would be woefully surprised to find they’re not (i.e., finding out you have nothing to sit on for four days would ruin almost anyone’s show experience).

One of the most important booth items you’ll find on this sheet are the listings for CompuLEAD services. CompuLEAD is a computerized sales/client lead retrieval system designed specifically for use at trade shows. You simply scan the show badge of each attendee you contact at the show, and CompuLEAD automatically collates that person’s full contact information, along with all the demographic information provided in the registration process, including job title, primary business interests and buying power, far more information than most business cards will contain.

This system not only eliminates the hassle of combing through stacks of business cards when you get home, trying to decipher all those illegible notes and numbers written on the back, you can append any prospect’s contact information and edit on the spot with notes, action codes and surveys, even run analysis reports. The setup is available for desktop and mobile use, as well as in a smartphone app.

Advanced rates on these exhibitor items and more are available until Dec. 26 (deadline for CompuLEAD products is Dec. 19), so plan now, get your orders in, and avoid a last-minute scramble to organize your booth during the winter holidays and in the last days before the show. For more information about CompuLead, click here, or call CompuSystem’s Heidi Marecek at 708-786-5565, ext. 312; Heidi.Marecek@csireg.com. If contacting CompuSystem, be sure to tell them you’re an NSSF member and SHOT Show exhibitor.

Quick Tip—Click on “Show All” at the top of the ERC page so you can easily view all forms and information within the ERC without having to go through each one individually.

Diedra Cauley is the director of exhibitions and conferences for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Follow her on Twitter at @dcauley.

The Place to Be Seen—New Products Directory

One of the most important things SHOT Show provides for exhibitors, buyers, and media alike is a stage for the unveiling of new products. But, with thousands of exhibitors vying for the attention of thousands more show goers, by the end of the first day, everything seems to wear a little placard that says “New Product.” Talk about getting lost in the shuffle.

There are numerous ways to have your new product stand out in the crowd, but perhaps the best ways to do that in a trade show with the kind of square footage and attendance as SHOT Show, is to focus your efforts on the New Product Center and New Product Directory.

As the name implies, the New Product Center is a pivotal location for displaying fresh merchandise your company has introduced within the last year. Positioned prominently on the main SHOT Show floor (level 1) that all attendees will see as they enter—more than 80 percent of show attendees visit the Center. The Center also serves as a gathering place for buyers and media whose days at the show are a spent in back to back meetings and have little time to walk the floor. It also acts as a way to “cut to the chase” for show attendees who only have one or two days to spend at the show. Visitors to the center get to first appraise your product in a focused atmosphere, while your company name and booth number will easily direct them where to go for more detailed information. Finally, by highlighting your product away from the hustle and bustle of the show floor, it automatically stands out—and that’s what every exhibitor wants.

Attendees also have the ability to scan each individual product they are interested in, and have information about those products emailed directly to them when they are done.  This not only helps them better aggregate the products they find, but also map out their route for navigating the show floor.  An added benefit to exhibitors…those participating will receive an email after the show that includes all the attendees that scanned your products.  Valuable leads of buyers indicating they like your product…right to your email inbox!

New for the 2015 SHOT Show, all New Product Center entries will automatically receive a listing in the softcover-bound New Product Directory, complete with a photo of your product. Your product and company information will also be listed in NSSF’s new online New Product Gallery, to be featured on shotshow.org for maximum visibility.

Two display showcases plus a custom option are available for merchants wishing to have their products highlighted in the 2015 New Product Center. Directory-only sponsorships are also available. For more information, click here and click the drop-down menu for New Product Center Application/Directory.

Dave Jeannette is Senior Director, Sales for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Follow him on Twitter at @DaveJeannette.