exhibitors – Page 7 – SHOT Show Blog

An Exhibitor’s Guide to Working with the Media

Each year, the SHOT Show serves as the largest gathering of outdoor media in the world. For many exhibitors, this is the one and only chance they have to connect with an influential media person that could drastically help or hurt the growth of their company.

Here’s a great video featuring Mark Thomas, NSSF’s managing director of marketing communications, on working with the outdoor media. Mark has also put together a written guide as well that’s available on the SHOT Show website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONsN0pksFPQ

Exhibitors: Reserve Your Press Room Bins

A popular new addition to last year’s SHOT Show Press Room were the bins used to display exhibitor press materials.

The bins are back for the 2012 show and can be reserved on a first-come, first-served basis with a maximum of two bins per exhibitor.

The bins are one cubic foot (12 inches in height, width and depth) and will be displayed in alphabetical order by exhibitor name.

There are a limited number of bins, so please be sure to reserve them soon.

The deadline to reserve bins is Jan. 6. To be eligible, you must be either a SHOT Show exhibitor or NSSF member.

Reserve Press Room Bins

Good Things Really Do Come to Those Who Wait

Back in July, we first announced that NSSF would begin to repurpose the SHOT Show exhibit floor. This means that going forward only companies that are involved in our core business — shooting, hunting, outdoor and tactical — will be able to exhibit at the show.

This change clears the way for many companies in our industry that have been on the waitlist to begin exhibiting at the SHOT Show.

As part of that repurposing, we first removed nearly 100 out of 400 waitlist companies that do not meet the criteria of our core business. These companies will be receiving a letter explaining our position. We then sent invitations and applications to exhibit at the 2012 SHOT Show to 128 firearms, ammunition, optics and accessory companies. Just 60 of those companies submitted their application and payment.

This week, we are inviting another 50 companies to join us at the Sands Expo this January. It appears we will be able to accommodate more than 100 new exhibiting companies at the 2012 SHOT Show and have all the remaining 122 companies that meet the criteria of our core business off our waitlist and exhibiting at the 2013 SHOT Show.

We’re glad to be able to make so much progress so quickly, although we realize it wasn’t quick enough for some. I’ll update you on the waitlist situation later this month. Thanks for your patience and understanding. We really are listening.

A Bakers Dozen to Boost Your ROI at the 2012 SHOT Show

After all these years I’m still somewhat surprised at the number of first-time SHOT Show exhibitors who come to the show with the expectation that “If I exhibit, they will come.” But as seasoned trade show veterans know, it’s the work you put in during the months leading up to show that determine your success or failure.

Start by establishing your one or two key objectives or outcomes for your participation in the SHOT Show, such as generate 300 qualified leads for your sales force or write 75 orders for your new product introduction or get your new product featured in six hunting or shooting publications. Once you establish your objectives, use all the tools available exclusively to SHOT Show exhibitors through the Exhibitor Resource Center on the show website.

Here are 13 ways to boost your ROI at the 2012 SHOT Show:

1. Showcase a new product in the New Product Center. Buyers and media alike visit theNewProductCenter to get a feel for industry trends and emerging categories.

2. Offer your customers a SHOT Show-only special—special pricing, special terms, free goods, etc. that they can only get at the SHOT Show.

3. Place an ad in the SHOT Show Directory, SHOT Daily and/or pre-show Tracker to increase your visibility and floor traffic in your booth.

4. Sponsor a visibility amenity at SHOT Show to build brand awareness and create a splash on premises.

5. Post your press releases and new product announcements on the Exhibitor Press Release feature in the media section of the SHOT Show web site.

6. Use the “Invite a Customer” feature by logging into the Exhibitor Dashboard. Use it to connect with attendees about your new product introductions and invite buyers to visit your booth.

7. Rent the SHOT Show media list by logging into the Exhibitor Dashboard and invite press to visit your booth. Offer some story ideas involving your product or service that may interest their readers.

8. Promote your SHOT Show participation on your company’s website and social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and Linkedin.

9. Use the official #shotshow hashtag on all Twitter communications so that anyone following the SHOT Show on Twitter will be exposed to your tweets as well.

10. Film product demonstrations at your booth, post them on YouTube and share them via social networks.

11. Reserve a press kit bin in the NSSF Press Room to make your materials available to the more than 2,000 media members that will attend the 2012 SHOT Show.

12. Include a QR code to your booth signage and promotional materials. Your pre-show ads might include a QR code that invites the reader to visit your booth.

13. Promote a contest/giveaway during the show through Twitter or Facebook. Let’s face it, people love free stuff.

Repurposing the SHOT Show Will Ultimately Position the Industry for Growth

It’s often said that the waiting is the hardest part. Back in the day Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers climbed to the top of the record charts (real vinyl back then) with a catchy tune lamenting the same. And so do more than 300 fledgling and developing companies that are on the wait list to exhibit at the SHOT Show.

Many of the most iconic brands in our industry started out small and likely would have occupied a 10×10 booth at the SHOT Show were they starting out today. Companies like Browning, Colt, Glock, Hornady, Remington, Ruger and Smith & Wesson started out as small one- or two-person operations. Who knows which of these 300 companies will become the next industry leader given the time and opportunity to grow their business.

To that end, we will begin the process of repurposing he SHOT Show beginning with the 2013 edition. That means that we will focus our exhibit floor on those companies that are involved in our core business — shooting, hunting, outdoor and tactical. Those exhibitors that do not represent core shooting, hunting, outdoor and tactical product segments will be informed that they will not be invited to exhibit in 2013. Letters will be going out to those companies affected beginning in September 2011, and should those companies choose not to exhibit in 2012 as a result, we will offer them a full refund, which is contrary to the terms of their 2012 contract, but only fair under the circumstances.

It’s not that we don’t appreciate their past business or their loyalty, but rather that we must refocus the show in order for it to remain relevant and vibrant, and to ensure that our industry continues to grow and prosper.

The resulting open exhibit space will be reallocated to the remaining exhibitors who wish to relocate their booth based on Priority Points and infuse the SHOT Show with new product offerings that will offer retailers new profit opportunities when waitlist companies are welcomed to the 2013 SHOT Show and begin their journeys to becoming the next generation of iconic brands.

How You View Space Assignment Depends on How You View Your Booth Location

Judging from the results of our post-booth assignment survey, how you felt about the process largely depended on whether you were happy with your booth location to begin with. We had said that most exhibitors would remain in the same location and most did. Those that didn’t were split on whether they felt their new location was an improvement. The reasons for the few moves that took place were two-fold: we needed to widen the cross aisles on Level 1 in order to improve navigation, per our post show survey, and a number of new locations opened up when over 6,000 net square feet of exhibit space became available thanks to the eight companies that voluntarily reduced their booth space at our invitation in order to help us widen those aisles and get more companies off our wait list. And let’s not forget that the reason we suspended space selection was to give us the flexibility to improve traffic flow and signage, which we all agreed was lacking.

A number of exhibitors who remain unhappy with their booth location contacted us to request, and in some cases demand, that we return to the traditional space selection, with the belief that doing so would increase their chances of miraculously landing a booth in the center of Level 2. The truth is that Priority Points continue to be the basis for booth selection, or in the case of this past year, space assignment. The companies with the most points occupy the prime locations and will continue to occupy those locations as long as they choose to do so. So the fact that there is no room for movement in reality means that most companies will land right where they were for next year’s show, unless someone with significantly more points vacates their space, making what we once knew as on-site space selection pointless.

No company wants to have unhappy customers and nothing is more frustrating to a company than not being able to supply enough of the right SKUs to their customers. In our case, that product would be a prime location for existing exhibitors and ANY space for the some 300 companies on the wait list. Yup, I said ANY space. I guess it’s all a matter of perspective. Meanwhile those of us at NSSF, Reed Exhibitions, Freeman and Las Vegas Sands who comprise the SHOT Show team will continue to do our best to give our customers what they want.