0:01

This is Checked In with Splash . Hey

0:05

friends , welcome back to Checked In

0:07

If you're a new listener here . I'm

0:09

Camille White-Stern . I lead experiential

0:12

marketing here at Splash, and I'm deeply

0:14

obsessed with helping other marketers reach

0:16

new heights of success and unlock

0:18

new levels of career growth , all

0:21

by breaking down the keys to impactful

0:23

event marketing and the steps required

0:25

to achieve event-led growth . In

0:28

today's episode , I am sharing

0:30

my keen observations , all

0:32

of my takeaways from the

0:34

Adobe Summit , which happened just

0:36

last month . I'm going to be covering

0:38

some of the best booth activations I saw

0:40

out-of-the-box , wraparound event

0:42

ideas , how to decide

0:44

booth or no booth , and so much more

0:46

. So let's go ahead and get checked in , okay

0:50

. So let's begin with that first major

0:52

question booth or no booth

0:55

? How do you decide what

0:57

to invest in when it comes to third-party

0:59

conferences and trade shows , and what

1:01

are all the factors to consider ? Well

1:03

, something that I think about first and

1:05

foremost is answering the question

1:08

what is the percentage or

1:10

how many people in my ICP

1:12

are going to be attending and or sponsoring

1:14

a particular conference or trade show ? In

1:17

the case of Adobe Summit , adobe is

1:19

one of our customers , so , of course , I

1:21

saw it as an opportunity to engage with

1:23

one of our key accounts . Beyond

1:25

that , I knew that there was going to be a pretty

1:28

good amount of people prospects

1:30

, potential customers and

1:32

other customers that would be on site

1:35

again either attending or sponsoring

1:37

the conference . But when

1:39

I compared it to all the other conferences

1:41

and trade shows that are happening throughout the year and

1:44

looked at my budget which unfortunately

1:46

is not unlimited I know shocker

1:49

wouldn't it be so nice if we all had unlimited

1:51

budgets ? I had to really decide

1:53

what my level of investment was going

1:55

to be here . I think I've talked

1:57

about this before , but we have a tiered

2:00

investment approach and strategy for

2:02

thinking about our conference and trade show presence

2:04

at Splash that I developed , and

2:07

one of the primary factors that

2:09

I really consider here again is what

2:12

is the percentage or what's the concentration

2:14

of our ICP that will be

2:16

in attendance . So in the case of Adobe

2:19

Summit , I decided that our presence was

2:21

going to be what I call a tier

2:23

two presence , so we were going to have

2:25

a boots on the ground team and

2:27

also invest in one or

2:30

two wraparound or ancillary events

2:32

. So that's how I kind of

2:34

generally think about booth or no booth . I

2:36

know there's this pressure and maybe

2:38

a misconception that if you

2:40

don't invest hundreds of thousands of dollars

2:42

into a booth activation , you're

2:44

not going to stand out at a conference , you're not

2:47

going to reach your revenue goals . But

2:49

I vehemently

2:51

disagree with that mindset

2:53

and that way of thinking and

2:55

, honestly , some of the best ROI I've seen

2:57

from third-party events comes from

3:00

the scrappy , almost guerrilla

3:02

style marketing approach to

3:04

showing up and having a really impactful presence

3:07

. So no shade to those

3:09

who do invest in a major booth

3:11

activation . If you have the budget

3:13

and it makes sense for you

3:16

in terms of the ROI that you're going to generate

3:18

, by all means go for it

3:20

. But don't let that thinking hold

3:22

you back . There are really creative

3:24

ways that you can show up to a conference

3:26

and meet your meetings

3:28

goal , meet your op gen goal

3:31

and ultimately see that ARR

3:33

added right . You want to close , win

3:35

revenue from your investment and

3:38

let me tell you , it is possible , even

3:41

if you don't have a mega

3:43

budget , to invest in a

3:45

booth or more traditional

3:47

conference sponsorship package

3:49

. So that's how I think about booth

3:51

or no booth . So let's

3:54

really dive into what I saw at

3:56

Adobe Summit this year . I want to

3:58

get into some of the best booth activations

4:00

and again , this is shout out to the people

4:02

who had the budget and

4:05

they thought really creatively about

4:07

how they were going to utilize that budget

4:09

spend . Selfishly speaking

4:11

, I would say the booth and

4:13

activation that I probably benefited

4:16

from the most was the LinkedIn

4:18

headshot station . I

4:20

don't know how many people can relate to this , but

4:23

it had been probably about five

4:25

plus years since I had gotten

4:27

professional headshots done and

4:30

I had been really dragging my feet

4:32

around scheduling a time

4:34

, getting it done , making sure I looked presentable

4:36

, and probably one or two

4:38

weeks leading up to Adobe Summit , I

4:40

almost caved and opted

4:43

for AI generated headshots , which

4:45

, if that is something you've done again

4:47

, no shade to you . Kudos

4:49

love the scrappiness . But

4:51

I didn't do it , and I arrived

4:53

on site the first day of the conference

4:55

and was so excited

4:58

to see that LinkedIn was

5:00

offering professional headshots . Of

5:02

course , they used Adobe

5:04

to do some beautiful

5:07

headshot editing and

5:10

I got two done , not

5:12

one , but two . Yes , I went back two days in a row

5:14

, so I think that was one of the most effective

5:17

activations that I saw . The

5:19

line was super long each

5:21

day , but it moved efficiently , which

5:23

means they got a ton of engagement . Yes

5:26

, they're collecting emails , they are getting

5:28

leads , essentially , and

5:30

also I got to walk away with

5:32

an item that I will use

5:35

probably for at least the next five years to come

5:37

. Let's be honest so loved the LinkedIn

5:39

headshot booth . I have to also shout

5:42

out Stencil's sloth giveaway

5:44

that they were doing because it had everybody

5:47

talking about it . I do

5:49

, ironically , think that sloths are

5:51

very funny , but I

5:54

was surprised at how many people

5:56

were really activated

5:58

over getting this little sloth

6:00

stuffed animal . So , stencil , shout

6:03

out to you the sloth is slothing

6:05

, it's working . Another activation

6:07

that I saw that I really liked and pulled

6:09

me in was ObservePoint's

6:11

hat screen printing

6:13

activation that they had at their booth . You

6:16

got to pick the style hat that

6:18

you wanted and they had a few different

6:20

options for things that you could have printed

6:22

on your hat . It was quick , efficient

6:25

, didn't generate a super long line

6:27

, but it's a piece of swag that I would actually wear

6:29

. So , again , I think the best

6:31

giveaways that you can have when it comes

6:34

to swag at a conference

6:36

is something that is going to be useful and

6:38

or get people talking . If

6:40

it's not going to do one or both of those

6:43

things , you're probably wasting your money , because people

6:45

will take the swag whether

6:48

they're interested in it for real or not , and

6:51

then they're likely to leave it in their hotel

6:53

room . I will not say who

6:55

I did this to , but I did

6:57

feel bad for some other booths . I did take their

6:59

swag and I did leave it in the hotel room

7:01

ultimately . So shout out to ObservePoint

7:04

Love the hat activation . Another

7:06

one that I really loved , just because it

7:08

was really fun and creative

7:11

, was Chex Whac-a-Bot . Not

7:14

only was it an innovative way to get people

7:16

engaged because it was a fun game , but

7:18

it was for sure on brand for them

7:20

and their solution and their product and what

7:22

they do for their customers . So

7:25

I believe that this was Joanna Li's

7:27

idea . So , Joanna , kudos to

7:29

you . I loved the Whac-A-Bot . And

7:32

then , finally , this was something really

7:34

interesting PWC

7:36

incorporated a social giveback

7:38

element to their booth activation

7:41

, which it's becoming more

7:43

and more trendy to do this , but I

7:45

think it's okay to hop on a trend

7:47

when you're actually doing

7:50

something positive in the world , right . So

7:52

they had a spin the wheel activation that

7:54

ultimately you pick a

7:57

ball or something and you get to decide

7:59

which charity you're

8:01

going to donate to on behalf of PWC

8:04

. So again , it was out of the box

8:06

, it was creative and people

8:09

love to feel like they're

8:11

having a positive impact in the world . So

8:13

anytime you can incorporate a

8:15

cause for good or some

8:17

social give back aspect

8:20

to your event or your activation

8:22

, I think it's a win-win . So I loved

8:24

that . Okay , now let's

8:26

talk about some of the out of the box wraparound

8:29

event ideas . Going back to my first question

8:31

booth or no booth ? If you don't

8:33

have the budget for a booth , fret not , you

8:35

can still have a massive

8:37

impact and create a lot

8:39

of buzz during a conference

8:42

. I think that shameless

8:44

plug . I think Splash did that . We hosted a private

8:46

event at the Sphere , which

8:48

was so cool . Not only

8:50

is it a new venue , so that was definitely

8:52

a draw for people , but it

8:54

was something that they are likely to

8:56

not be able to experience elsewhere

8:59

, or on their own dime , potentially

9:01

. So we rented out a private

9:03

suite . We had a waitlist going

9:05

. We had so much interest for it . We

9:08

had a full suite at the end of the day and we got

9:10

to enjoy Darren Aronofsky's

9:13

film Postcards from Earth , which was

9:15

super cool . We had food . We had food , we had drinks

9:17

in the suite and it was just a really

9:19

fun time . People stayed all

9:21

the way to the end , which you know , a lot of times with these

9:23

wraparound events , that's not always a guarantee . So

9:25

shout out to Haley and

9:27

Chelly on my team for planning such

9:29

an exceptional experience

9:32

pun intended

9:34

and that was really fun to get to host

9:36

. Similarly , I think

9:38

Sendoso crushed it with

9:40

their real retreat , which they hosted

9:42

in the Venetian Canyon Spa . It

9:44

featured puppies , massages

9:47

, yummy treats and so much more

9:49

, and I mean , who can argue with

9:51

getting a massage when you're on

9:54

site at a conference , you're walking around

9:56

, you maybe got a heavy bag with you . Sometimes

9:59

the thing you want most is just to stop

10:02

and get some pampering , get some

10:04

self-care , and so I thought

10:06

that that was such a creative way for them to

10:08

have a presence without necessarily

10:10

having to invest so much in

10:13

a booth . So shout out to Sendoso

10:15

for that . To

10:20

invest so much in a booth so shout out to Sendoso for that . Now, let's talk beyond the events

10:22

and activations . The reason why you're going to invest

10:24

in a third party event is because you're

10:26

trying to probably generate

10:28

pipeline for your revenue

10:31

team right , and so there

10:33

are some interesting things that I saw

10:36

happening and some things that we did ourselves

10:38

as our team to make that a reality

10:40

. First , I would say , tag

10:43

teaming on a ground strategy with

10:45

a strategic partner . So we hosted

10:47

our wraparound event with one of our partners

10:50

, Vendelux . But beyond

10:52

hosting a wraparound event with them , we

10:54

also partnered up for our

10:56

boots on the ground strategy and

10:58

anytime we were able to make a warm

11:00

intro to one of our contacts

11:03

to Vendelux , or vice versa , it

11:05

was really successful and went

11:07

a long way . Know

11:16

it can sometimes just be a little awkward to go up to someone or go up to a booth and try

11:18

and spark up an interesting conversation out of the blue , especially

11:21

when they are running the booth

11:23

and they are busy trying to engage with

11:25

their own prospects and customers . So

11:28

having someone to provide

11:30

that warm intro and facilitate

11:32

that connection was a

11:34

pro tip I will absolutely be

11:37

trying to replicate

11:39

in the future . In addition to

11:41

that , my notes on kind of like interesting

11:43

conversations that happened and

11:45

how we were able to make those conversations

11:48

happen . We did

11:50

. I know everyone is a little hesitant

11:53

sometimes to invest in some

11:55

sort of like handout , postcard style

11:57

handout or pamphlet . We

11:59

did do that and I would

12:01

say it was very successful for us . So on

12:04

one side of the postcard we had

12:06

just a free piece of content

12:09

, a valuable resource that

12:11

had a QR code . You scan the QR

12:13

code and it took you to a free

12:15

event ROI calculator that anyone can

12:17

download and start using today . And

12:20

on the other side of that , we had another QR code

12:22

that allowed us to book demos

12:24

live on the spot , which , if

12:26

you know anything about the

12:28

value of a conference and trade show

12:30

strategy , the name of the game

12:32

is not only logging

12:34

and getting those meaningful conversations , those

12:36

meetings on site , but you want to

12:38

get a follow-up meeting right . Especially

12:41

when you work in the SaaS space , you want

12:43

to get a demo booked . So having something

12:45

that we could hand out , have folks easily

12:48

scan and book that meeting , book

12:50

that demo in real time worked

12:53

wonderfully for us . In

12:59

real time worked wonderfully for us . Another interesting observation was

13:01

we weren't only using it as an opportunity to get a demo

13:03

booked . I was on site

13:05

with my team , obviously , and I

13:08

used my conversations to also

13:10

generate partner plays

13:12

right and get those activated . So I

13:15

was not only talking about like , hey

13:17

, how's the booth going , what's your event strategy

13:19

? Like this year , I would ask people

13:21

to interesting questions

13:23

like , well , what's your next conference , what's your next

13:25

trade show ? And if it aligned with my strategy

13:28

. I was kind of planting

13:30

seeds and or kind

13:32

of laying a foundation to then follow

13:34

up with those people and generate partner

13:37

discussions . So , hey , can we partner on

13:39

a wraparound event together ? Or do

13:41

you want to do x , y or z together and

13:44

join what we're doing at the next

13:46

conference or trade show , where there's overlap

13:48

, especially with your ICP ? So , just

13:50

thinking outside of the box , in terms of what

13:53

the value of the conversation is

13:56

, yes , you're trying to

13:58

generate pipeline for your sales team , most

14:00

likely , but you can also be thinking about what

14:03

you can learn from these people to inform

14:05

your future marketing strategy and

14:07

or how it can inform your

14:09

partner marketing strategy . Okay

14:12

, here are my final thoughts , because I'm going

14:15

to wrap it up and keep it short and

14:17

sweet for today . Don't

14:19

forget being on site , being out

14:21

in the world connecting with your prospects and customers

14:23

. It's an opportunity to capture

14:26

content . You

14:28

don't have to invest in a full-on production team . One

14:30

of my onsite team members used her

14:32

iPhone . She shot

14:34

b-roll the whole time and

14:37

then we were able to edit that

14:39

b-roll into a really fun

14:41

, crisp recap video that we posted

14:43

on our socials after . So shout out to Danielle

14:45

for being our content capture

14:47

for the week and then , speaking

14:50

of your onsite team and taking advantage

14:52

of the people on your team who are on

14:54

the ground with you , don't forget

14:57

that this is a really wonderful opportunity

14:59

to bond as a team , especially

15:01

when you're part of a remote workforce

15:04

, right ? So bake in time for

15:06

things like a quick team huddle or

15:08

team lunch , team dinners . Those

15:11

go a long way in not only making

15:13

sure you're successful on site during the

15:15

week , during the conference , but you're building

15:17

relationships with people that you might not see in

15:19

person every day , and that's also

15:21

going to go a long way for future

15:24

team success . To go a long way for future team success . My

15:27

final things to think about tips

15:29

, observations , especially

15:32

for a market or a city like Las

15:34

Vegas , where Adobe Summit was hosted

15:36

, if

15:43

you're planning any wraparound or ancillary events or activations , try to keep them

15:46

as close to the conference venue as you can . It is definitely much

15:48

harder to get someone to show up to

15:50

a venue that is even a

15:52

five or 10 minute drive away than

15:55

it is to get them to do a five minute

15:57

walk within the same casino

15:59

or resort , and with that

16:01

in mind , I would also say plan ahead

16:03

, because sometimes the venue holds

16:05

. Those options that you have within

16:07

the near vicinity of where the conference

16:10

is happening , get booked up way

16:12

far in advance . So if you are

16:14

thinking about being a little bit more scrappy

16:16

with your budget , a little bit more strategic with

16:18

your conference and trade show strategy and planning

16:20

a wraparound or ancillary event instead

16:23

of or in addition to your booth

16:25

activation event

16:29

instead of or in addition to your booth activation , definitely put

16:31

that hold , get that deposit down on the best venue that is closest

16:33

to the conference venue as possible

16:35

, and you will be setting yourself

16:37

up for success in terms of not

16:40

only driving registration but getting

16:42

people to actually show up , which we know is

16:44

one of the keys of driving

16:47

event ROI . All

16:50

right , friends , I rambled a

16:52

lot , but

16:54

hopefully you got some fun nuggets

16:56

and takeaways Again . These

16:59

are my observations and

17:01

thoughts on the Adobe Summit . Our

17:03

team had a great time . We hit

17:05

122% of our meetings goal

17:08

team . We were

17:10

able to hit our OpGen goal

17:12

and we're about 30 days post-conference

17:15

and we're starting to see that

17:17

come through in terms of pipeline

17:19

generated and I'm really confident that we'll

17:21

be able to close , wind a lot of that pipeline

17:24

and be able to mark this as

17:26

a super successful and worthwhile

17:29

investment on our part . If

17:31

you have any questions about what

17:33

I covered today in this episode

17:35

, or anything that I didn't cover , you

17:37

can always reach out to me . I am an open book

17:40

. Anyone who knows me knows I love to share

17:42

. I love to collaborate , co-create

17:44

, brainstorm with other marketers . You

17:46

can find me on LinkedIn Search

17:48

for my name , Camille White-Stern , or

17:51

you can always email us through

17:53

the podcast , and you can email us at

17:55

podcast@ splashthat . com

17:58

. If you enjoyed this episode

18:00

, go ahead and like

18:02

it . Give us a rating , tell

18:04

a friend to tell a friend . Share this with your marketing

18:07

team if you're thinking about how to stand

18:09

out at your next conference or trade show or how

18:11

to think about your third party event strategy

18:13

in general . And

18:15

until next time , take care . All

18:19

right , folks . That's it for today . If

18:21

you enjoyed today's episode or are a fan

18:23

of the podcast in general , please let us know

18:25

. Support this show by subscribing

18:27

on your preferred podcast platform and

18:30

, while you're at it , leave us a rating . We

18:32

so appreciate feedback we receive about

18:34

the show . So if you ever want to get in

18:36

touch , you can email us at podcast

18:39

at splash thatcom or

18:42

, better yet , join our Slack community

18:44

where you can message me directly . Last

18:47

but certainly not least , if you're a marketer

18:49

using events to help your business grow and

18:51

want to learn how Splash's platform can take

18:53

your events to the next level , like we have for

18:55

MongoDB , UCLA , Okta

18:58

, Zendesk or even Sweetgreen , visit

19:01

our website at www . splashthat . com

19:04

. Until next time , take

19:06

care .