Matthew Ebenezer
October 21st, 2008, 08:22 PM
We did our first bridal expo a few days ago so here's a few of my thoughts from the experience:
- Audio is relatively ineffective at an expo with all the noise from other vendors plus people walking around talking - and you want to be able to talk easily with couples and not be drowned out by your own music/sound effects etc ... We were the only "audio/visual" stand in our area of the expo so we just had some music tracks playing softly in the background with two 40" LCDs looping photos and video
- We felt we should have included some footage of us shooting in our video loop because people didn't seem to get it with the video. Not necessarily footage of how we get our shots but a little bit of footage showing us interacting with brides and couples, having fun etc ... rather than just a loop of my 'killer' shots.
- There's no way possible to showcase your video work effectively in an expo environment (especially without music) but it's an awesome opportunity to meet and greet people plus let them see your personality and passion for what you do.
- Have clear goals and outcomes for being at the expo - i.e. are you looking to book people on the spot? Or are you wanting to direct people to your website or studio etc ... Our goal for this expo was to meet and chat with people - and then encourage them to check out our website and blog to see more of our work. We're all about getting to know the couples with whom we work so we treated the expo almost like asking someone on a first date. i.e. "Hey, if you like what you see ... let's spend some time together and get to know one another" ... but obviously not in those words :) It wasn't so much about the 'products' that we were selling (photography and video) but more about us ... if that makes sense. Everyone's business is different but it's important to have a clear vision for why you're at the expo in the first place.
- Know your target market and present yourself accordingly. We're pretty selective when it comes to the weddings that we shoot so we didn't set out to book every bride or couple that walked through the door. Out of 400 or 500 people that came past our stand there would only be about 3 or 4 weddings that I'd be really keen to shoot.
- Go all out with your booth if possible. We didn't spend much money on ours but instead thought 'outside the box' for ways to stand out. It really helped to re-inforce our personality and quality. With some creative thought you can come up with something cool that will hopefully help you stand out in the crowd. You can check out some photos of our booth/stand here: Shadowplay Blog Our First Expo! (http://shadowplay.com.au/blog/?p=130) - I found that there was a bit of an attitude from some vendors of "Well, it's just <insert town or city here> and this is our 5th expo this year so we'll just do the same old thing we've always done and it's such a drag being here ..." Because it was our first expo we were super-excited to be there and figured we may as well try something different - and it really showed both in the response from people on the day and the enquiries we've received in the meantime.
- Make it a priority to meet as many of the other vendors as you possibly can. Exchange cards with them and have a chat if possible - after all, they're all in the same industry. We did this towards the end of the day as things quietened down and met some lovely people and made some good connections.
- Don't just rely on your promo video or your booth/stand/display to draw people in. We made sure to have at the ready a handful of flyers or brochures plus an easy smile and a "Hey, how it's going?" or some similar pleasant greeting. Making eye contact and smiling works wonders. The heart-shaped chocolates we handed out didn't hurt either. The funny thing was that right next to our booth was a weight-loss business :)
- Setup the day or night before if possible. It was a great feeling to arrive the morning of the expo and walk up to our finished booth while a lot of the other vendors were racing around getting theirs setup ;)
Anyway, that's my thoughts on the whole experience. I just thought I'd write them out and then post them on here in case they might help anyone.
Cheers,
Matthew.
- Audio is relatively ineffective at an expo with all the noise from other vendors plus people walking around talking - and you want to be able to talk easily with couples and not be drowned out by your own music/sound effects etc ... We were the only "audio/visual" stand in our area of the expo so we just had some music tracks playing softly in the background with two 40" LCDs looping photos and video
- We felt we should have included some footage of us shooting in our video loop because people didn't seem to get it with the video. Not necessarily footage of how we get our shots but a little bit of footage showing us interacting with brides and couples, having fun etc ... rather than just a loop of my 'killer' shots.
- There's no way possible to showcase your video work effectively in an expo environment (especially without music) but it's an awesome opportunity to meet and greet people plus let them see your personality and passion for what you do.
- Have clear goals and outcomes for being at the expo - i.e. are you looking to book people on the spot? Or are you wanting to direct people to your website or studio etc ... Our goal for this expo was to meet and chat with people - and then encourage them to check out our website and blog to see more of our work. We're all about getting to know the couples with whom we work so we treated the expo almost like asking someone on a first date. i.e. "Hey, if you like what you see ... let's spend some time together and get to know one another" ... but obviously not in those words :) It wasn't so much about the 'products' that we were selling (photography and video) but more about us ... if that makes sense. Everyone's business is different but it's important to have a clear vision for why you're at the expo in the first place.
- Know your target market and present yourself accordingly. We're pretty selective when it comes to the weddings that we shoot so we didn't set out to book every bride or couple that walked through the door. Out of 400 or 500 people that came past our stand there would only be about 3 or 4 weddings that I'd be really keen to shoot.
- Go all out with your booth if possible. We didn't spend much money on ours but instead thought 'outside the box' for ways to stand out. It really helped to re-inforce our personality and quality. With some creative thought you can come up with something cool that will hopefully help you stand out in the crowd. You can check out some photos of our booth/stand here: Shadowplay Blog Our First Expo! (http://shadowplay.com.au/blog/?p=130) - I found that there was a bit of an attitude from some vendors of "Well, it's just <insert town or city here> and this is our 5th expo this year so we'll just do the same old thing we've always done and it's such a drag being here ..." Because it was our first expo we were super-excited to be there and figured we may as well try something different - and it really showed both in the response from people on the day and the enquiries we've received in the meantime.
- Make it a priority to meet as many of the other vendors as you possibly can. Exchange cards with them and have a chat if possible - after all, they're all in the same industry. We did this towards the end of the day as things quietened down and met some lovely people and made some good connections.
- Don't just rely on your promo video or your booth/stand/display to draw people in. We made sure to have at the ready a handful of flyers or brochures plus an easy smile and a "Hey, how it's going?" or some similar pleasant greeting. Making eye contact and smiling works wonders. The heart-shaped chocolates we handed out didn't hurt either. The funny thing was that right next to our booth was a weight-loss business :)
- Setup the day or night before if possible. It was a great feeling to arrive the morning of the expo and walk up to our finished booth while a lot of the other vendors were racing around getting theirs setup ;)
Anyway, that's my thoughts on the whole experience. I just thought I'd write them out and then post them on here in case they might help anyone.
Cheers,
Matthew.