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

Hysterical: A huge booth filled with guys from Korea who most attendees will probably avoid talking to. They'll make a big splash alright...sort of like a burial at.

It's easy to mock, and probably justifiably so. But if you look at it from their POV they are spending money on marketing to buy perceived credibility, brand awareness and recognition. Looking at their web site, I see average yet competent (looking) products that will not differentiate themselves other than through marketing. The trouble in a crowded market is nobody knows you exist unless you make a lot of noise--hopefully in front of the right people. By putting their sign right next to the market leaders there's a subconscious message sent to the attendees that's hard to shake--even among the cynics. Maybe not the best use of marketing dollars, but a legitimate use.

The total booth/participation cost for a 2,800sqft booth to include: 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 +

There is nothing worse than walking by a large empty booth with potentially interesting products. You feel like a target as soon as you step into the booth, 10 bored sales and marketing people standing around and you're the only "fresh target" they've seen in an hour. If you want to casually get a first level exposure to a product it's generally better to stand around and listen in on an existing conversation or demo and then kind of go from there.

Going in alone can be very undesireable, at least for me. At that point I'm not 100% sure what the company is all about (even if they have the usual Korean tactic of moutning every conceivable product they sell to a demo wall), and I'm not 100% what my questions are until I get a better baseline understanding.

Korean goverment, as well as China will pay around 50% of the international costs for exhibitions stands, so the $100,000 is a mear $50,000. Of course it's a gamble on return of investment, maybe a Red or Black wager for 50k would be equally as tangable for a ROI.

Does anybody else offer NVRs with Gigabit POE on their built-in switch?

Though I can't imagine why they would...

"Especially in North America, IDIS is literally unknown, save for the unfortunate similarity to the name of the ISIS terrorist group. " Really? ASIS is also similar :)

I have seen the Revo brand of cameras installed at mom and pop restaurants locally. They appear to be a Q-see, Swann, FLIR type of Costco/Sams Club style kit. That's my only knowledge of this company.

Unless their sales people or executives have appointments scheduled at the booth, their booth size really doesn't matter. If they do, then the large booth could illustrate a commitment to investing in this region. If not, then their traffic will consist of a few tire kickers and the empty booth will be depressing.

1st day of ISC West was generally quite busy, though not for the IDIS booth, with lots of people standing around:

Motivated by the # of comments on IDIS empty booth and marketing effort I did what most of us do first - visit the website. Good graphics and brief marketing videos but no "products" or even detailed "About Us" efforts to put forth a well designed and informative website, just smoke with no fire. Or ask they say in the southern plains region of the U.S. "All hat, and NO cattle".

Update: IDIS has a 1500sqft booth at the front of the ASIS 2015 show floor, not as big as their 2800sqft one at ISC West but still quite large. Evidently, they are still committed to spending heavily at trade shows.