Prescribing Creativity

By: Michelle Benson and Angela Krzysko

New Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) guidelines took effect in January 2009 prohibiting small gifts, reminder items and logo giveaways by sales representatives and in exhibit spaces.

Mid-year, with a few shows under our belts, how have pharma exhibit managers responded? Aside from no longer having to accommodate the freebee collectors, their guests and their guests’ friends, exhibit managers are faced with a real challenge.

For years’ having the coolest giveaway was one of best ways to generate buzz on the show floor and flood your exhibit with attendees, hoping your target audience was among the crowd.

While visiting several recent medical shows affected by the PhRMA guidelines, we witnessed three different responses from exhibit managers.

1) The defeated. These are the exhibit managers who heard the restrictions and decided they would remove all violations and exhibit with whatever was left. The result? These exhibits lack an experience and draw for attendees. In many instances, the sales reps have not been scripted for the change. Before, they stood at the aisles, drawing in attendees with promises of giveaways. Now, they stand awkward and unsure of what reason to give attendees to visit or how to draw them into the exhibit and a dialog.

2) The players. These exhibit managers understand the regulations and will play along with the guidelines, but will stretch the rules by choosing giveaways that can be deemed as educational tools. They simply made a quick giveaway change to satisfy the PhRMA requirements, but did it meet attendees’ needs?

3) The innovators. This group of exhibit managers understands the original purposes behind giveaways were lead generation and brand building -- and that logo items and prizes are not the only route to achieving those goals. In fact, this group seemed to see the new regulations as an opportunity to challenge their exhibit program and develop cutting-edge strategies and technologies.

With the significant number of trade shows and exhibit managers affected by these new PhRMA guidelines, the more “innovators” that rise up will change this industry and set new benchmarks for other industries to follow on the show floor.

Tighter restrictions can often breed more creativity. This was the case in the 1960s when Disney Imagineers began to expand the park. When building the Haunted Mansion, they were limited by physical space due the train encircling the park. As many have experienced upon entering the Mansion, a cast member closes the door, the lights get dark and the room appears to stretch before you proceed to your “doom buggy” for the rest of the ride. The room doesn’t actually stretch; it is a big elevator that takes guests below the elevation of the train tracks. This effect turned into a trademark of the ride and is now duplicated in other versions even where there are no space constraints.

So, how can exhibit managers move from feeling defeated to become innovators? Especially when already faced with the stress of today’s economic climate? To move forward, you need to take a step back. Go back to the basics and examine the exhibit program’s strategy.

Understand your target audience. What is your audience’s behavior and needs at the show? Are they in meetings all day? Do they walk the exhibit floor on a lengthy tour or just flitting in and out of exhibits? What type of information are they looking for? Once you better understand your strategy and your target, you can determine innovative ways to best draw them into your exhibit.

Some of the following categories are ways an attendee can experience your brand or product that will create as much word-of-mouth on the show floor as a free branded USB drive.

· Provide a service. What does your attendee need? From an internet café to massage station, what service will attendees value the most? Does this service fit well with your brand message? Make sure any service, even catering, offers sales reps the opportunity to interact in brand conversations with attendees.

· Educate your audience. Provide the information an attendee is seeking. For presentations, consider some of the latest technology such as touch-screen plasmas where both the sales rep and the attendee can interact.

· Entertain your audience. You can entertain your target audience while educating them. Consider video game simulations or other games that attendees will want to try their hand at and could draw onlookers at the same time.

Remember to integrate sponsorships, pre-show marketing and on-site marketing into your marketing plan to add your exhibit to the list as attendees plan their show floor stops. Savvy exhibit managers have always known that exhibit marketing was more than just “build it and they will come.” And, the pharmaceutical business has been at the top of the list of industries with the most stringent rules and regulations for some time. These new rules have posed new challenges, but the innovators will rise to the occasion and create exhibits to rival the awe of Disneyland and leave their competition standing in last year’s exhibit looking at the empty fish bowl where the logo pens used to be.

 

Michelle Benson and Angela Krzysko of Momentum Communications are marketing communications specialists with significant exhibit and event marketing experience. Michelle and Angela are members of TSEA’s marketing communications committee. www.createmomentum.com