Ruth P. Stevens Articles and Columns: EXPO MagazineApril 2006 Promo Pointers The challenge: Help attendees find their way to the NATPE show situated at the far end of a Las Vegas hotel complex, where multiple events were co-located, and confusion reigned. The audience: The glamorous television industry: 7,500 people from broadcast networks, local stations, and studios; producers, distributors, and talent agents—from 70 countries. The solution: Prominent, eye-catching signage throughout the hotel complex, plus a gaggle of student volunteers armed with lollipop signs to answer questions and guide the way. The strategy: For the last two years, NATPE has been at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas, with an exhibit hall on two floors. Another show for the ski and snowboard industry was in the same area, a huge convention center at the far end of the hotel, next to the Shark Reef attraction. Beth Braen, senior vice president of marketing at NATPE, knew that attendees were going to have trouble finding the exhibit hall, not to mention the registration area. So she placed a series of 8-foot tall banners along the hotel and convention center corridors to guide the traffic. She also recruited 20 or so student interns from broadcasting schools across the country to stand at strategic intersections, wearing brightly colored jackets and holding signs saying, "Follow me to NATPE." Why it works: The signage featured the comic-book theme used across the show promotions, with four different characters representing typical types of attendees: a traditional media guy, a younger, creative type, and two women, one in a business suit and the other more casually dressed. Placed along the corridors like Burma Shave billboards, the signs let attendees follow the path with ease. Braen and her team had walked the corridors during set-up, in order to appreciate the possible problems attendees would face, and be sure a banner—or a student—were strategically placed to solve any directional problems. The results: "No news is good news," reports Braen. "Given the maze of corridors at the Mandalay, we desperately needed a way to avoid directional snafus. I take it as a huge sign of success that I didn’t hear one complaint about the long walk to the show. Not even from Rick Feldman, our president, who would not hold back if he observed a problem." Advice to others: Consider carefully the attendee experience, and make sure you’ve solved as many problems as possible in advance. Because you can always count on other problems cropping up unexpectedly. ........................................................................................... © 2008 Ruth
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