Attend the event. Or be the event.
We get frequent calls from clients who are about to invest substantial dollars in attending international oil & gas trade shows. Their single biggest challenge? Standing out from the crowd. The annual cycle of shows provides a vital shop window for companies to showcase their new technologies or reworked service offerings in response to the industry challenges of the day. Typically there are close to 2000 companies at these events, all with one objective. Attracting attention.
With all these brands clamouring for visibility they resort to all manner of tactics to attract visitors to their stands, gain valuable coverage in the media and ultimately make the right connections to secure that million dollar contract.
Unfortunately the majority of attendees do not invest in the creative thinking to deliver these results. The big players may be able to raffle Harley Davidsons or create stand spaces that outshine a designer apartment but for most it’s a real challenge. Attending these events is a significant investment and companies with smaller budgets need to think smart if they want to make an impact.
Sending an email the week before the show asking people to come and visit them won’t cut it. One of our values at Fifth Ring is ‘Daring to be different’ and we are fortunate to have some clients that trust us to do just that. In an industry averse to doing things differently, pitching these ideas can be risky. The secret is making sure the creative idea, no matter how crazy, ties in to the brand story.
Aberdeen plays host to Europe’s largest oil & gas exhibition, Offshore Europe. We had two of our clients ask for an idea that would get people talking. So we got thinking.
The first is Interwell, a specialist in downhole technologies used in high pressure, high temperature environments. These are tools that need to be reliable in extreme conditions where the cost of failure can be millions of dollars. They develop extreme technologies, in an extreme operating environment, ultimately delivering extreme performance.
At that same time, a young man from Skye in Western Scotland called Danny Macaskill had been making headlines for his skills as a stunt bike rider with some awe-inspiring videos released on YouTube. An idea was born. We would shoot a video of a stunt rider sneaking into Interwell’s facility in Aberdeen, before doing tricks on and around their equipment. We’d call it Extreme Performance.
We couldn’t compete with Red Bull and hire Danny but we got in touch with his close friend - Scottish Champion, Duncan Shaw. We spent a day planning the tricks on site and then shot the whole video the following day.
How does this help their attendance at the show you may ask? We uploaded the video the weekend before Offshore Europe and coupled with a lot of activity on various social channels it managed 3000 hits by the time day the show started. Not a lot by Kardashian standards but in the niche sector of an oil & gas exhibition this was a result. In fact, they had a 2500% increase in post show enquiries. That’s a major result. During the week of the show, we reinforced the theme by staging a live stunt bike show in Aberdeen’s city centre. We also created an exhibition stand in pure white featuring a large screen showing the video and a selection of their latest technologies on show. Simple. And effective.
As an added bonus we were able to capitalise on the intense focus on safety inherent in the oil & gas business. What we did was dangerous, not just creatively, but the message was simple. Let the experts do what they are expert in.
Check out the video here:
Our second foray into creative madness involves a chef, liquid nitrogen and a world record attempt. Louisiana company, Seal-Tite International, have a unique polymer technology that fixes leaks in oil wells. It looks like bubble gum and when injected into the well has the ability to change from a liquid to a solid when it finds a pressure differential.
We hear about a lot of new technologies in our industry, but we thought this one was pretty cool. In fact we called it ‘cool chemistry’. At the time, one of the many celebrity chefs on UK television was showing how to make ice cream with liquid nitrogen. It all started to gel. Our client knew someone who knew a chef who . . . you get the picture. The stand space was outside, with a lot of footfall passing from hall to hall. We needed something to make them pause and pay attention. Something like a world record to make ice cream in less than 10 seconds!
Free ice cream, on a hot day? Who could resist? The chef succeeded in breaking the record four days in a row and we handed out hundreds of tubs of delicious ice cream to a grateful audience.
The results?
The print, broadcast and online reach tipped 1.4 million people. The total number of visitors at the show was 90,000. That’s a result. The ROI worked out at $6:1.
Both these ideas relied on our client’s belief in our knowledge and expertise in B2B marketing communications. There will always be the fear that when you pitch the idea they will think you’ve gone insane. But make sure the idea is truly aligned to the brand story, and you’ve got the difference between attending an event, or being the event.