How to Blow $200,000 On A Booth (IDIS)

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"There's a subconscious message sent to the attendees that's hard to shake"

Is it really that hard to shake? If the booth looks empty, what subconscious message does that give?

Is that 'subconscious message' over 2.5 days worth the $100,000+ premium?

Uniview did this same tactic last year. Were you able to shake it? :)

I tend to agree with Steve, but, to John's point as well, going with a smaller booth and then spending the saved money on direct mail, print advertising, and perhaps an aggressive sales program, probably would have been a more efficient use of their dollars.

I saw IDIS have a similarly large booth at Intersec in Dubai in January. I only remember them because they had a semi-impressive 4k camera display at one corner of their booth, and because I'd never heard of them before that show. The 4k camera itself wasn't that impressive, but the overlay of information and comparison shots was rather cool to look at.

If I were running their marketing organization I'd have gone with a booth half the size, and spent more on other marketing efforts at the show to draw people to the booth. But it's not my company nor my money, so we'll see if their gamble pays off.

Thanks for the input. I felt I was conservative on my number, but better to choose a slightly lower one than be unfair in the criticism.

...floor space, carpet, sign rigging, booth, booth assembly, power, freight inbound/outbound, show freight handling, flights, hotels, dinners, local transportation, marking material, etc. = $300,000 +

Add-in another $50,000 for local, professional looking actors, paid to keep the booth lively; and ask the easy questions... Milling for money.

They may get a discount on the raw floor space. They wouldn't get a discount on booth rental, airfare, hotel, freight, etc.

People for example, you usually have something like:

$150/night hotel

$150/day meals

$600 airfare (domestic, more like $1500 for international).

$100/wk airport parking

$100/wk taxis

Each person can easily cost $2,000+ just to be in Vegas for 4 days.

A booth like that usually has at least 2 marketing support people, 5 SE types, 10 sales people. Then you usually have 4 or 5 from senior management there as well. 2 dozen people easily. That's about 50 grand just for the people.

How is ASIS pronounced correctly?

I've always spelled out the letters: A-S-I-S, ergo I have never made the connection with ISIS.

"after this big booth US will remember"

No. No one develops name recognition from a single big booth even at a big show. Case in point, Uniview who failed with this same tactic at ISC West 2014.

Brands are built over time with numerous interactions with consumers / buyers, ergo my point that they should have spent heavily online to get US industry people familiar with their name and interested in going to the booth.

As it is, since they have near zero North American name recognition, they will overwhelmingly have people rushing by it on their way to companies they do know or briefly looking at the booth, puzzling who the company is.

Unless their sales people or executives have appointments scheduled at the booth...

Well if no one else picks up on that subtle hint Chris, I did... ;)

Booth size has nothing to do with committment to the region. You can spend $200k on a booth and still not have a strong regional support team, sales team, relevant products or long-term strategy.

As an example, many startups spend Millions in their first two years including significant trade-show committments, then disappear just as fast.

You're a few years late for that free lunch!

Well, that statement was from IDIS Public Relations consultant Benjamin Bryant. Also, he said that they were "ready to become a major player in this market."

Though after spending $50,000(?) creating a zipcode deserving booth, they should get their money's worth no?

"if they build it, they will come."

Led by former BRS Labs VP Drummond (left)

The guy on the far right looks even more like Keith Drummond than Keith himself. ;)