Posted by Todd Buckton on Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Incredible ocean photo by David Sifry
RoadBlog recently came across a survey done earlier this year by
B2B Marketer Online, based in the UK, that discussed the state of events in Europe. The survey found that companies are continuing to increase their focus and investment on face-to-face events – despite the downturn and the digital revolution, which many predicted could take over from traditional event marketing strategies. Events take a significant portion of many brands’ budget, with almost 40% of respondents setting aside at least a quarter of their total marketing spend for them.
And why? 40 % of companies surveyed believed that events were a “very good” way of targeting key decision makers in senior management. “Building customer relationships” was the most important reason cited by companies for running events.
These decision makers also looked ahead at what the digital revolution might have in store for face-to-face events. While there is much interest in virtual events, 53% have actually tried them, but few believe that they will supplant face-to-face interaction.
At RoadBlog, we like to see what's going on around the rest of the world. Continuing to keep abreast of global trends helps our clients "Drive The Brand Experience" here in the USA.
Posted by Todd Buckton on Tue, Feb 23, 2010
Today's View from the Cab is from PMG Master Driver Dave who just finished a trip from California to Denver for the next leg of a mobile tour for a valued healthcare client. The photos he took are just west of the Vail pass. Dave said he just missed a huge storm that dumped lots of snow on Denver and the local ski areas.
Not only are these beautiful photos but they are a perfect way to show why mobile tours are a great way to get your product in front of people who want to buy. Multiple large scale gatherings like trade shows continue to fade in importance in the minds of decision makers. Decisions like increased travel costs, better online communication technology, inconvenience to attendees and a general desire to stay closer to home looms large with your core audience. That's why mobile tours are such a great way to break through the clutter. Take your product to where the decision makers are and make it easy for them to be bowled over by your incredible product. Make it easy for them to experience your product and you make it easy for them to buy your product.
Dave left Denver and is now in beautiful Minot, ND showcasing our client's product to prospects and customers who don't have to go far to be impressed by their offering. And at less than 100 miles to the Canadian border, the weather is lots worse in Minot than it is in Denver this time of year, but our client has made it easy for their prospects to experience an excellent product. We battled the elements. We brought it to them. Another great reason to use mobile tours to Drive The Brand Experience.
All photos by PMG Driver Dave Christenson
Posted by Todd Buckton on Fri, Feb 12, 2010
We've looked at the types of vehicles that are available for your mobile tour, now let's look at how these can transform into unique marketing spaces.
If we say that "you are only limited to your imagination" when it comes to customization, you might think that's an overused, hackneyed phrase. But when it comes to mobile event marketing, it's completely true. Once the transport is safely parked at the venue of your choice near your prospects and customers, that's when the fun begins. Set up for a transport can be anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days and these transports can become anything. Here's how they might start:
53' Single Slide Transport
This is referred to as a "single slide" transport. It's indicated as having stairs at the front and the rear of the slide out, but that choice is all yours. The doors can be put on the opposite side, the front, back, wherever it's right for the specific application. The slide allows the transport to get down the road and then opens up onsite to become a roomy, luxurious selling environment. Here's an example of a single slide:
A variation of this transport is the double slide:
53' Double Slide Transport
This transport will allow you to more than double the floor space of a straight 53' transport and give your product or service more than ample room to adequately market your product in a singular environment.
Another variation is a stage area instead of a slide. This makes the 53' transport a natural for live presentations to large audiences.
53' Single Slide/Single Stage Transport
Here's a couple of variations of that same stage concept. One is a retail operation:
This application allowed the manufacturer to sell high-margin accessories while showcasing their latest product offerings.
Here's another variation of the same type of transport. This time, the side opens up to reveal the full-size business jet fuselage. This display was used to presell a new business jet that was being developed and built. Incredibly effective, highly targeted and amazing ROI.
Now we have an idea of what is possible with custom transports. As we said up front, if you can imagine it you can have it. And just to prove our point, we'll leave you with a custom transport built in Australia that turns into...well you just have to see it to believe it. Brilliant. Expect to see the same concept soon here in the states.
Incredible perspective views of custom transports by Derrick Johnson
Sweet Australian Mobile Pub by Truckmania
All other cool photos by Promotional Management Group
Posted by Todd Buckton on Fri, Jan 15, 2010
Straight Frame 53' Transport
One of the best things about mobile event marketing is the amazing number of variables available. There are so many different types of transports it's difficult to keep track of them all. But you've come to the right place here at RoadBlog, because during this series, we'll tell you about all kinds of transports and all of the variations therein. And then we'll get into customization. When we're done, you'll be better prepared to Drive Your Brand Experience. You'll see that your imagination is the only limit to what can be done with a mobile tour. So let's get started.
The most common transport for mobile tours is the 53' transport. It is also the most common transport you see on the highways and byways of America. The Coke truck above is a typical 53' transport. It's called a straight frame because it's a straight box. Notice on the Coke photo how the box is above the wheels and straight. A typical straight frame transport is 53' long, 8.5' wide and 8' high, giving you around 450 square feet of floor space and about 3600 cubic feet of display space. Keep those numbers in mind, because it just gets bigger and better.
Single Drop 53' Transport
After the straight frame comes a single drop. We included a photo of a flatbed transport here because it more easily shows how the transport drops down below the level of the wheels allowing for a taller load. What that drop means for a custom transport is more cubic footage inside the display, and a taller ceiling height for your display and your prospects making for a more comfortable experience.
Double Drop 53' Transport
Now things start to get interesting for Driving The Brand Experience. Here is a double drop 53' transport. Notice how far the floor drops down compared to the single drop. And then compare it to the Coke truck at the top. Now imagine how we can start to create some excitement with a transport this size. The double drop transport without further modification is as big as it gets. But that further modification is exactly what we'll talk about in our next chapter of Which Mobile Tour Transport is Right for You?
Straight Frame Photo via Flickr by Rick
Single Drop Photo via Flickr by alltheengineer
Double Drop Photo by our friends at Featherlite
Posted by Todd Buckton on Wed, Dec 09, 2009
In 1897 Mark Twain wrote "...the report of my death was an exaggeration." In November, RoadBlog wrote that an experiential agency based in Australia had closed. After electronic exchanges with the director of that agency, we are happy to report that Maverick Marketing and Communications is open for business and has just had their best year ever. We regret publishing incorrect information but we're glad that experiential marketing is alive and well in Sydney.
Mark Twain Photo courtesy of: Free Stock Photo
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Posted by Todd Buckton on Tue, Nov 17, 2009
The world of experiential marketing is not good in Australia this week, and I'm afraid that some agency owners might be looking at the trees instead of the forest. 2 experiential agencies have ceased to be. The first, Maverick, shuttered their doors for good to become a new agency, Wonder. Co-founder Glen Condie described the state of experiential marketing down under by saying the entire sector is "utterly devoid of anything interesting". Next, the experiential agency Ignition EM is turning into a consultancy. Founder Nick Callender says that experiential has been co-opted by promo and PR agencies and has become "nothing more than sampling campaigns. I don’t think a lot of clients have an idea about what experiential marketing is.” Strong words from 2 established talents.
While I'm sure that all forms of marketing in Australia are suffering from the same budgetary constraints that we're seeing here in the US, it seems a bit odd that 2 agencies are saying virtually the same thing: that experiential campaigns are droll ways to get consumers to try your product, and that it's tough to make ends meet doing it. I am certainly oversimplifying, but from where I sit, experiential is vibrant, engaging, memorable and, most importantly, sells product at a far lower cost than traditional media and produces positive ROI quicker. Show me something that's fetching that doesn't move product and something workaday that does; I choose the latter every time. But if it's clever, attractive and sells it's even better.
Also, I live in the B2B, not the B2C world. I'm sure that in B2C, sampling programs are a default experiential solution for CPG companies, but there is some great stuff going on there too from what I see. For example, necessity is the mother of invention and so we have pop-up stores. Cool, temporary stores that drive business and create buzz.
It appears that there may be more to the reasoning behind the coincidental nature of the Australian agency closings. Regardless, I think it's foolish to throw an entire channel under the bus as the justification for poor revenues.
Photo by renaissancechambara
Posted by Todd Buckton on Wed, Nov 04, 2009
Here's the top five picks for this week:
1. Max Lenderman commented on a Business Week article about the blur between above and below the line ad spending. Read his blog here. Max is a senior CD for GMR in Chicago and has a great pair of lenses with which to see the world of experiential.
I have not read his latest book, but I can tell you without reservation his previous book "Experience the Message" is worth a buy. Check it out. Both photos from his blog.
2. Who is Jeff Eggen? Once again this week, Ford is getting lots of press on the great experiential promos they're doing to sell cars. I wrote about Ford's Football Sunday Taurus promo here. This time it's a social networking car rally in the new Ford Fusion. Read about it in Wired here. These promos are getting lots of ink for Jeff Eggen, the Ford Experiential Marketing Manager. So either he's got a great in with the Ford PR machine, or his work is selling cars. I'll bet it's the latter. Logo from Ford.
3. Ian McGonnigal works for George P. Johnson and has an excellent blog that I recently started following. His entry this week about the importance of blogging and the entire blogosphere is certainly worth taking the time. Not only for promotion about your firm, but more importantly, how to use social media to effectively promote events. Great reading. Image from his blog.
4. I'm passionate about ROI and ExpM, a new measurement firm opened this week to provide just that. Whether you're an advertiser or an agency wanting more reliable means to determine effectiveness of a promotion this may be an answer. I spent quite a bit of time perusing their website; it's definitely worth a look. I'm going to try and use it in an upcoming tour. Logo from their site.
5. The last item is not necessarily experiential but it is useful; Seth Godin's blog. I find something of value every time I visit. I'll leave you with one that was particularly good this week: "Big ideas are little ideas that no one killed too soon."
Photo from Seth's blog.