Strategy – broader business issues the company is facing
Symantec European Events Marketing division (EMEA) attends and exhibits at a range of B2B exhibitions centred around their core sales objectives. These objectives focus in turn, on the core products of the business sector such as security and data optimisation.
Therefore the client required a solution for their upcoming show Infosecurity Europe 2010 to highlight the outstanding nature of their security solutions compared to that of their competitors. The key to making this a successful show, would be the ability to entice IT Managers onto the stand ready to be engaged by the on-hand sales team and in turn making it the most popular brand/exhibitor.
Objectives of the campaign
The show solution had to make the brand accessible to delegates, give them a reason to visit the stand, give them something to take away that reminded them of Symantec’s products and create a buzz’ that none of the other exhibitors had. Therefore the objectives were distilled to:
- Design and build the physical presence for Symantec at the Show
- Evolve the existing stand construction to represent the campaign “One Breach Is One Too Many”
- Blow the competition out the water’ with the best stand, creativelyand professionally
- Generate business leads for the sales team
The target audience
12,556 IT buyers for small businesses and large corporations over 3 days. These are highly technical, professional individuals who are faced with new technology on a daily basis. Therefore the solution had to appeal but also to stand out as something different and useful.
They were also recognized as customers who do not usually visit the most creative shows in the world, the IT Industry) so to offer them something slightly different would gain the client notoriety.
Media, channels or techniques used
An evolution of a 2009 exhibition stand modified to fit a new, much larger, space and a new campaign objective.
A groundbreaking metal stand was designed to be modular yet look utterly bespoke for each show
Integrated into the stand was technology designed to enhance the consumers’ on-stand experience and to involve them in stand activity via the competition opportunity, a tutor session on the Symantec software available or the digital application download area.
Pre-download of the app and the apps instant online popularity and chart position meant the stand took on a longer life than purely during the exhibition and cemented Symantec’s importance at the show
Timescales of the campaign
- Briefed in Dec 2009 for a response end of Jan 2010
- Idea creation, IA development and information collation – throughout February 2010
- App build – March and April 2010
- Stand construction – March and April 2010
- App launched and promoted – 20th April 2010
- Exhibition April 27th – 29th 2010
- Collation of data from the App – May 2010
- Follow up of sale leads – April 27th to May 2010
Results
App downloads – 22,000 reaching number 4 on iTunes Business downloads during the show versus targeted 2,000
Sales leads generated from the show – 186
AR instant prizes given away (deep engagement with staff) – 2,314
Queue numbers at any one time waiting to get onto Symantec stand – up to 50 constantly for 8 hours a day over 3 days.
Client testimonials
“The emails have come in thick and fast giving nothing but praise for the app, AR and stand. During the show, our stand was the busiest by far and we really showed our competition that a bigger stand doesn’t mean better!The AR was such a crowd pleaser and the app…what can I say 22,000 downloads?” Michelle Bates, Principal Specialist, Enterprise Marketing, United Kingdom
“Every aspect of the show exceeded my expectations and those of the entire UK Symantec staff. You all played an integral role in making this the best InfoSec showing we have ever had. And many thanks for making me and Michelle look like rock stars to our Symantec
brethren!” Chi-Chi Liang, Director UK & Ireland Marketing, EMEA Region
