1. Exhibition Organizers and Exhibitors –A New ROI Tool for the Industry
Skip Cox, President & CEO, Exhibit Surveys, Inc.

2. ROI Tool Kit Demo – web-based tool Evaluate, plan and measure
Agenda
Why measure
ROI Tool Kit Demo – web-based tool
Evaluate, plan and measure
Use and Benefits

3. Benefits to Exhibitors
Establish the value of the show to assist in show selection and investment decisions
Understand make-up of target audience better to plan more effective exhibits
Identify opportunities for improving performance and generating more leads - improve ROI & ROO
Justify investment in show to management
Compare consistently across shows – develop benchmarks of performance

4. Benefits to Organizers
Reduce attrition rates of exhibitors
Consult /”partner” with exhibitors to identify ways of maximizing their ROI
Identify potential new revenue and cost-cutting opportunities

5. Exhibit Performance Model
POTENTIAL AUDIENCE
EXHIBIT ATTRACTION
Attention-getting Techniques
Awareness/Perception
Products Exhibited
Design/Graphics
Exhibit Size
Promotion
EXHIBIT EFFICIENCY
(Person-to-Person Contact)
No. of Staff
Staff Performance
Profile of Staff
Staff Knowledge
Training
RESULTS
Messaging
Leads
Brand Enhancement
Awareness Building
Sales/Prescribing Habits PR

6. Exhibit Engagement Drives Purchase Intent
Purchase Intent is Sales Validated – Good Predictor of Actual Sales
Total Lift = 34% pts.
Unaware to Active lift range: +7% pts. to +45% pts.

7. Key Drivers of Purchase Intent
There is Both an Emotional and Cognitive Component to Exhibiting that Drives Results
Total Lift = 38% pts.
Total Lift = 66 pts.
Unaware to Aware lift range: +18% pts. to +54% pts.
Unaware to Active lift range: +42 pts. to +132 pts. 7

8. Customer vs. Non Customer: Purchase Intent
Trade shows contribute to both customer retention and customer acquisition.
Total Lift = +24% pts.
Total Lift = +17% pts.
Customer vs. Non Customer numbers for Graph Expo NOT included since this question was not on the Pre / Post.
Companies & Segments Excluded in Analysis of Bases of Less than 10
Customer: Unaware – Base of 5 with 6 companies excluded CES/Microsoft, NRF/IBM, NRF/Oracle,
NRA/Coca-Cola, NRA/PepsiCo, NRA/Sara Lee
Aware – Base of 10 with I company exclude - NRA/Cadbury Schweppes
Non-Customer: Unaware – Base of 8 with 3 companies
excluded CES/Microsoft, NRF/ IBM, NRA/Coco-Cola
Aware – Base of 10 with in company excluded - CES/Microsoft
Passive – Base of 10 with in company excluded - NRF/Dell
Active – Base of 10 with in company excluded - NRF/Cisco
?? Total : Unaware – Base to be excluded - CES/Microsoft
Averages Based On the following numbers of companies by Activity
Unaware - Customer – 5 companies included in average; Non- Customer – 10 companies included in average
Aware Customer – 10 companies included; Non- Customer – 10 companies included
Passive Customer – 11 companies included; Non- Customer – 10 companies included
Active Customer – 11 companies included; Non- Customer – 10 companies included
Unaware to Active lift range:
+9% pts. to +89% pts.
Unaware to Active lift range:
-9% pts. to +42% pts.

9. Less “Active” Engagement Today
Staff Interaction Rate (SIR) (Personal Contact Achieved With Prospects Attracted)
SIR
Industrial %
Medical %
Retail %
Hi Tech %
Source: Exhibit Surveys, Inc.

10. Exhibits Find and Help Convert New Customers
Customers represent the greatest opportunity for sales, but about 1/4 of company purchases and 1/3 of those personally involved in purchasing were from non-customers at the time of the show.
Purchased within days after the show from each company
Company Purchased
Personally Involved in Purchase
All Attendees
27% Avg.
Range = 2% to 51%
15% Avg.
Range = 1% to 27%
Current Customers
20% Avg.
Range = 2% to 38%
10% Avg.
Range = 1% to 26%
New Customers
7% Avg.
Range = 2% to 18%
5% Avg.
Range = 0% to 15%

11. Viral Effect of Exhibiting Extends Reach of Show
Post-show Word of
Mouth Actions:
Customers
Non-Customers
All
Active
Discussed exhibitor's products seen at show with peers
17%
35% 9%
24%
Passed exhibitor's literature collected at show to supervisors
10%
20% 5%
14%
Passed exhibitor's literature collected at show to someone else
16%
Recommended exhibitor's product(s) or technology seen at the show 4%
Exhibiting influences visitors, large numbers of whom also influence their peers, something that advertising or most other marketing vehicles do not do.

12. ROI TOOL KIT

13. ROI Tool Kit
Intended users: primarily for small/medium exhibitors – large exhibitors often have custom measurement in place
Intended use:
Evaluate show potential and value – is exhibiting justified?
Plan to maximize potential and ROI – what level of investment is required and justified?
Measure reach of exhibit and potential for ROI
“Tool”, not an exact science

14. Is Exhibiting Justified?
Factors Exhibitors Consider:
Profile of largest exhibitors
Profile and history of competitors exhibiting
Trends in attendance (health of show)
Geographical distribution of audience
Traffic Density
Size and Value of Potential Audience at Show
Step 5 is the final and most critical step. The major outcomes or decisions expected from the analysis are:
Should you exhibit? In other words, does the size of our potential audience, and the value of this audience in meeting our company’s marketing objectives, justify exhibiting in the show?
If exhibiting is warranted, what level of investment are you justified in making to reach all of your potential audience and to compete effectively with your competition and other exhibitors in the show.
What should our strategy for each event be and what objectives are realistic to set?
The focus of this presentation is on making the first two decisions simply due to time constraints, but it should be kept in mind that you will be collecting a wealth of information that will be of value in determining your event strategy and setting objectives.
The first decision (should we exhibit?) starts with a very basic question to ask yourself. That is, does the size of your total universe justify exhibiting in an event to reach them? If the universe of your market is relatively small, a trade show or other event may not be the best vehicle for reaching them. Or, if your market is very geographically dispersed, and the event or show you are considering is regional in nature, the event may not be able to draw a large enough number of your potential audience to justify exhibiting. This is why it is very important to know the size of your market, or at least have a good sense of whether it is large or small.
Calculating the size of your potential audience is the next step in the process. This is the most important information you have for determining whether exhibiting is justified. As you can see from the calculation in the chart, you are highly dependent upon the information supplied by the show organizer. Thus it is extremely important that the data you collect is as accurate as possible, and that you follow the procedure for collecting the information that was described in Step 4.
It begins with the net attendance. Since it is the basis for all subsequent calculations, it is important that the net attendance is accurate. Later in this section we discuss calculating the Traffic Density for each event. Traffic Density is used to quantify the level of activity on the show floor. It can also be used to test the the attendance figures for accuracy. Unrealistically high densities usually indicate inflated attendance figures which should be adjusted accordingly. Traffic Density will be discussed in more detail later.
The next step in the calculation is to estimate the percentage of the audience who represent your target audience based on the demographics supplied. This could be based on job title/function, type business, geographical distribution of the audience or any other criteria you deem important. Obviously, you are dependent upon what demographics show management can supply. These may or may not be specific enough for your needs, so you may need to extrapolate or approximate the percentage who represent your target audience. For purposes of this example, let’s assume that the net attendance is 10,000 and that you have determined that 20% of the attendees are your target audience. This means that 2,000 represents your total target audience (10,000 x .20).
Based on our experience, it is unrealistic to assume that you will be able to reach all of your target simply because not all of them will be interested in seeing your products or services. To give you a realistic estimate of your true potential audience (number of your target you have a reasonable chance of reaching assuming good performance), you multiply your total target audience times the percentage interested in seeing your products or services. If this percentage is unavailable from show management’s registration or research statistics, you’ll have to estimate this percentage. A good rule of thumb for multi-product companies exhibiting in a show where your products are considered some of the main line products in the show (check show directory) is to use 50% (47% is our actual average). If you are not a main line product, or if you are exhibiting only one or two products, you may want to reduce this estimate to 15% to 30%. For purposes of this example, we’ll use 50% as the product interest percentage which means that your potential audience is 1,000 (2,000 x 0.50). This potential audience figure should be the main criteria for determining whether you should exhibit. As you will see later it is also the basis for determining your level of investment in the show.

15. Is Exhibiting Justified?
Estimating Size of Potential Audience at Show:
Net Attendance
Target Audience (demographics from reg. data)
x % Interested x (product interest from survey)
= Potential Audience
3,781a
1,701b
.40c
680
Step 5 is the final and most critical step. The major outcomes or decisions expected from the analysis are:
Should you exhibit? In other words, does the size of our potential audience, and the value of this audience in meeting our company’s marketing objectives, justify exhibiting in the show?
If exhibiting is warranted, what level of investment are you justified in making to reach all of your potential audience and to compete effectively with your competition and other exhibitors in the show.
What should our strategy for each event be and what objectives are realistic to set?
The focus of this presentation is on making the first two decisions simply due to time constraints, but it should be kept in mind that you will be collecting a wealth of information that will be of value in determining your event strategy and setting objectives.
The first decision (should we exhibit?) starts with a very basic question to ask yourself. That is, does the size of your total universe justify exhibiting in an event to reach them? If the universe of your market is relatively small, a trade show or other event may not be the best vehicle for reaching them. Or, if your market is very geographically dispersed, and the event or show you are considering is regional in nature, the event may not be able to draw a large enough number of your potential audience to justify exhibiting. This is why it is very important to know the size of your market, or at least have a good sense of whether it is large or small.
Calculating the size of your potential audience is the next step in the process. This is the most important information you have for determining whether exhibiting is justified. As you can see from the calculation in the chart, you are highly dependent upon the information supplied by the show organizer. Thus it is extremely important that the data you collect is as accurate as possible, and that you follow the procedure for collecting the information that was described in Step 4.
It begins with the net attendance. Since it is the basis for all subsequent calculations, it is important that the net attendance is accurate. Later in this section we discuss calculating the Traffic Density for each event. Traffic Density is used to quantify the level of activity on the show floor. It can also be used to test the the attendance figures for accuracy. Unrealistically high densities usually indicate inflated attendance figures which should be adjusted accordingly. Traffic Density will be discussed in more detail later.
The next step in the calculation is to estimate the percentage of the audience who represent your target audience based on the demographics supplied. This could be based on job title/function, type business, geographical distribution of the audience or any other criteria you deem important. Obviously, you are dependent upon what demographics show management can supply. These may or may not be specific enough for your needs, so you may need to extrapolate or approximate the percentage who represent your target audience. For purposes of this example, let’s assume that the net attendance is 10,000 and that you have determined that 20% of the attendees are your target audience. This means that 2,000 represents your total target audience (10,000 x .20).
Based on our experience, it is unrealistic to assume that you will be able to reach all of your target simply because not all of them will be interested in seeing your products or services. To give you a realistic estimate of your true potential audience (number of your target you have a reasonable chance of reaching assuming good performance), you multiply your total target audience times the percentage interested in seeing your products or services. If this percentage is unavailable from show management’s registration or research statistics, you’ll have to estimate this percentage. A good rule of thumb for multi-product companies exhibiting in a show where your products are considered some of the main line products in the show (check show directory) is to use 50% (47% is our actual average). If you are not a main line product, or if you are exhibiting only one or two products, you may want to reduce this estimate to 15% to 30%. For purposes of this example, we’ll use 50% as the product interest percentage which means that your potential audience is 1,000 (2,000 x 0.50). This potential audience figure should be the main criteria for determining whether you should exhibit. As you will see later it is also the basis for determining your level of investment in the show.
Net Linux World audited attendance excluding exhibitor personnel
45% are targeted businesses and job titles
Used 40% interest in servers and server management software

16. What Investment is Justified?
Number of personnel needed:
Potential Audience ( ) Avg. No. of Vis./Hour ( ) = Total Show Hours ( )
680 34 20
Once you have made your decision to exhibit, the next step is to determine the level of investment that is justified. If you think about it, your investment is dictated by two key factors – the number of personnel you bring to the show to staff the exhibit and the size of your exhibit. The number of personnel controls T & E expenses while direct costs of exhibiting correlate pretty closely to the size of the exhibit.
The first step in determining the number of personnel needed is to calculate the average hourly booth traffic you would have to attract in order to reach all of your potential audience. This is done by dividing your potential audience (calculated earlier) by the total number of hours the show is open. If we assume in our example a show that is open for 20 hours, and if we continue with our example earlier where we calculated potential audience to be 1,000 attendees, the exhibit would have to attract an average of about 50 visitors per hour (1,000 / 20).
The number of booth staff needed to reach 50 visitors per hour is calculated by dividing the average number of visitors you need to attract per hour by the average number of visitors each booth staff person can handle per hour. The average number of visitors each staff person can handle per hour will vary considerably from one company to the next depending primarily upon the technical nature of the products being exhibited. Our average for all types of companies is 10 visitors per staff person per hour. Companies with technical products or solutions may talk to considerably less than this average (perhaps 5 to 7 visitors per hour). Also keep in mind that this average factors in that each booth staff person often handles/talks to more than one visitor at a time. If we continue with our example and assume that each booth staff person can handle 10 visitors per hour, the total number of personnel needed on duty at any one time is 5 (50 / 10).
It is important to realize that this calculation is an average. During peak traffic periods you may need 7 or 8 personnel on duty and during slow traffic periods 2 or 3 personnel may be enough.
The number of personnel needed to staff the exhibit is calculated by dividing the
Avg. No. of Vis./Hr. ( ) No. of Pers. Needed ( ) = Salespersons Rate/Hr. ( ) 34 5 7

17. Less Face to Face Interaction
Staff Interaction Rate (SIR) (Personal Contact Achieved With Prospects Attracted)
SIR
Industrial %
Medical %
Retail %
Hi Tech %
Source: Exhibit Surveys, Inc.

18. What Investment is Justified?
Amount of exhibit space needed:
Open Space ( ) = No. of Personnel ( ) x 50 sq. ft.
Total Space ( ) = Open Space ( ) +
Occupied Space ( )
The first step in calculating the total amount of exhibit space needed is to calculate the amount of open or working space needed to accommodate booth staff and all visitors. Our research indicates that each booth staff person on duty needs 50 sq. ft. of exhibit space (see rationale for this rule of thumb on next chart). The total amount of open or working space needed is calculated by multiplying the number of personnel needed (5 in our example) by 50 sq. ft. The total open space needed in our example, therefore, is 250 sq. ft.
To calculate the total space needed you simply estimate how much space will be needed for inanimate objects in the exhibit such as booth properties, demo stations, storage, etc., and add it to the open space calculation. If in our example we estimate that 150 sq. ft. is needed for booth properties, etc., the total space needed is 400 sq. ft. (250 sq. ft sq. ft.).
This space calculation is a starting point. First of all, you have to determine if your budget will support 400 sq. ft.. If not, and you decide to reduce the amount of space, you should reduce your expectations accordingly in terms of the results that you can expect to obtain. This space calculation is what is required to reach all of your potential audience. If you reduce your space you should decrease proportionately the number of your potential audience that you can expect to reach. Also, there are other factors that need to be considered that will be discussed later.

19. Ideal Traffic Density in Exhibit
10’
10’
10’
10’
Td = 6.0
Td = 4.0
= Booth Personnel
= Visitors

20. What Investment is Justified?
Amount of exhibit space needed:
Open Space ( ) = No. of Personnel ( ) x 50 sq. ft.
Total Space ( ) = Open Space ( ) + Occup. Space ( )
250 5
400
The first step in calculating the total amount of exhibit space needed is to calculate the amount of open or working space needed to accommodate booth staff and all visitors. Our research indicates that each booth staff person on duty needs 50 sq. ft. of exhibit space (see rationale for this rule of thumb on next chart). The total amount of open or working space needed is calculated by multiplying the number of personnel needed (5 in our example) by 50 sq. ft. The total open space needed in our example, therefore, is 250 sq. ft.
To calculate the total space needed you simply estimate how much space will be needed for inanimate objects in the exhibit such as booth properties, demo stations, storage, etc., and add it to the open space calculation. If in our example we estimate that 150 sq. ft. is needed for booth properties, etc., the total space needed is 400 sq. ft. (250 sq. ft sq. ft.).
This space calculation is a starting point. First of all, you have to determine if your budget will support 400 sq. ft.. If not, and you decide to reduce the amount of space, you should reduce your expectations accordingly in terms of the results that you can expect to obtain. This space calculation is what is required to reach all of your potential audience. If you reduce your space you should decrease proportionately the number of your potential audience that you can expect to reach. Also, there are other factors that need to be considered that will be discussed later.

21. ROI Tool Kit Demo

22. Q&A