- Conference Exhibition Space? $4000 Dollars
- Airfare to Conference City? $450 Dollars
- Hotel and Rental Car? $750 Dollars
- Food and Miscellaneous? $400 Dollars
Not hiring pro’s to help with your booth and marketing materials? Pricele—- Wait. That’s not priceless. That’s stupid… and a waste of over six thousand dollars.
The Beauty
Excuse my outdated MasterCard reference, but it seemed fitting. Effectively leveraging such a well-attended and prominent conference such as HIMSS can do beautiful things for a company, whether big or small. It’s an ultimate meeting of the minds; complete with thousands of potential clients all under one roof, all relevant to your industry. In an age where sales and marketing have trended toward the Internet, conferences are a throwback. Besides information sharing, they function as a massive networking and face-to-face sales platform that you simply cannot recreate elsewhere. Play your cards right, and you’ll make that six grand expense back in minutes.
The Beast
“Lucy, you got some splainin to do!”
Play those cards wrong, and… you got some serious ‘splainin’ to do when you get back to the office. The logic behind why many companies skimp on the creative budget seems reasonable at a glance. These conferences are expensive enough as it is. You’re already spending thousands of dollars in fees and logistics; you have to cut the fat somewhere, right?
Don’t do it! That’s like a Miss America contestant spending thousands of hours in preparation and talent, only to show up to the Evening Wear portion in a potato sack. You’re better off not competing at all. In fact, showing up with sloppy, ineffective and unprofessional marketing material can do more harm than had you just stayed home. You want to save money? Forego the Hilton and put your team up in the Roach Motel. You can make it up to them with that fat bonus you’ll get from converting so many valuable prospects into customers, which will be the result when you wow your visitors with an alluring booth and material they actually WANT to look at.
Lucy and Ethel modeling “designer” potato sacks, circa 1956
The Total Package
We’ve talked before about first impressions and the coherence principal, illustrating how ineffective design can decrease retention and impair your message. It often amazes us that many industry professionals think expertise is all that matters. Go back to the Miss America example. Do you want to be another pretty face in the crowd? Or do you want to be the one wearing the crown? When it comes to the psychology of neuro-marketing, being great at what you do only matters after you have their attention. If you want to win, be the total package. Show up in a potato sack and those judges aren’t going to give your talent the attention it deserves.
Luckily, you can have a light creative budget and still receive world-class results. Just in time for HIMSS-13, Bridged is offering marketing and exhibition packages at unheard of rates. Ditch the potato sack and let Bridged Design style you for success. Time is running out, so contact them now!
Source: Bridged Design