How an Industry Titan Generates a “Return on Opportunity” Through Trade Shows
Results Snapshot
ABB Group, a global leader in electrification and automation, participates in 40-50 trade shows annually to engage with a wide range of industries.
Despite the highly competitive environment, ABB has consistently sought innovative ways to stand out and effectively connect with potential customers. A significant development in their approach came with the partnership with Engagify and its founder, Anders Boulanger, in 2021.
Key Insights:
- Anders’ performances attracted substantial crowds, starting from about 10 attendees and swelling to over 40, significantly enhancing booth traffic and engagement levels.
- 32% of all booth leads were attributed to the product display where Anders handed them off to an ABB specialist for further qualification.
- Number of leads generated by Engagify were 3x that of the second highest lead-generating product display.
- The strategic handoff from entertainment to product education not only retained the crowd but also facilitated deeper interactions, which improved lead qualification and conversion.
How do you stand out at a trade show when your products and messaging are indistinguishable from that of your competitors?
The answer to that question is something that Al Colquitt, Events Director at ABB Group (ABB), has to come up with over and over again.
Al has been with the US-based electrification arm of ABB for 10 years. His total time in the industry is approximately 25 years. His role includes overseeing all trade shows, customer events, a traveling road show, and customer experience centers scattered throughout the US.
If you can think of a way to grab attention at a trade show, Al has probably seen it.
About ABB and Its Goal at Trade Shows
ABB prides itself on being at the forefront of electrification and automation. Al’s role involves showcasing the company’s expansive portfolio of products, which covers every aspect of electrification—from the generation of power using nuclear centers, windmills, and solar panels, to transmission, distribution, and final connection in residential homes and commercial buildings.
You could say that ABB, being a global player in the electrical manufacturing landscape, touches every aspect of American life.
Their mission is to bridge the gap between power generation and its end use, ensuring a seamless flow “from source to socket.” They offer a huge list of products and services that cater to a wide array of industries including data centers, utilities, food and beverage, and the electrical contracting world.
Participating in 40 to 50 trade shows annually across various sectors demonstrates ABB’s extensive involvement in different verticals. It also underscores the importance of trade shows for generating leads and gauging market trends.
More specifically, ABB uses trade shows to gain a greater comprehensive reach within their audience. Most contractors are loyal to their clients and expanding market share is fiercely competitive among ABB’s rivals.
Despite the company’s big name and role in electrification across the United States, standing out at trade shows is challenging.
The key to gaining visibility is creativity. Al and his team constantly have to innovate new approaches for the huge host of SKUs, messaging, and different markets at each and every trade show.
For example, Al’s employed the use of a 36-foot curved red and white LED sign above their booth to create a memorable experience. Other examples of trade show strategies include:
- Collaborating with performers from America’s Got Talent
- Showcasing sand artists
- Distributing custom T-shirts
- Displaying Formula E race cars
- Many other tactics aimed at drawing attendees’ attention to ABB’s technological prowess and industry leadership
Al, like most professionals part of the Certified Trade Show Marketer (CTSM) program, have done a lot and seen a lot. He’s skeptical, not easy to impress, but in 2021 Al was introduced to a new possibility for engaging and entertaining trade show attendees.
Why Al Partnered With Engagify
Al was strolling through an exhibitor show (ExhibitorLive) in June of 2021 when he crossed paths with Anders Boulanger.
Not only was Anders able to stop Al “when he didn’t want to be stopped” and talk to him “when he didn’t want to talk,” but Al found himself carrying on conversation with Anders for the better part of an hour.
Al realized the opportunity at hand. If Anders could so thoroughly engage himself—a veteran with a natural skepticism and a wealth of experience—how much more impactful could this approach be on open-minded attendees?
After their initial meeting, in the first quarter of 2022, the memory of speaking with Anders endured and Al hired Engagify for ABB’s next trade show exhibit.
How ABB Consistently Attracts New Potential Customers at Trade Shows
Engagify’s strategy was designed to captivate and educate trade show attendees. Central to this strategy was positioning Anders, Engagify’s charismatic magician, at the heart of ABB’s booth.
After collaborating with Al, they decided on the strategy detailed below for the following:
- Messaging
- Lead generation
- Lead qualification
1. Pre-Show Preparation – Messaging
In preparation for each trade show, Al worked with Anders to curate 3 to 5 products to feature during the performances.
This process included understanding the story behind each product—what it does, who it’s for, how it impacts users’ lives, and what makes it unique.
Armed with this insight, Anders crafted a series of magic tricks, each designed to weave the value propositions of these products into his performance to make messaging engaging as well as informative.
2. Engagify in Action – Lead Generation
Positioned prominently in the center of ABB’s booth along the main aisle, Anders performed 20 to 30-minute shows each hour, regularly drawing crowds of about 10 and growing them to 40+.
Each performance employed various techniques including sleight of hand and 1-to-1 interaction. As the crowd’s size and laughter grew, so did its ability to draw people in through curiosity.
One of Anders’ hallmark tricks, the ring and spring, became a symbol of this engagement—simple yet compelling, offering attendees a tangible piece of the magic to take home, emblazoned with ABB’s brand.
Once Anders had hooked the crowd by demonstrating the magic trick and promising to reveal its secret (and break many other rules of magic), attendees would follow Anders into ABB’s booth. Here attendees would then be handed off to a dedicated ABB specialist to engage with and scan leads.
3. The Hand Off – Lead Qualification
Once inside the booth, attendees were introduced to ABB’s products by specialists who would ask questions to further qualify them. This simple yet powerful transition from entertainment to education allowed ABB to break down the barriers of conventional booth engagement.
Not only did this help ABB reach members of their target audience that would otherwise not engage with them, but it also facilitated a deeper understanding of their own products.
As attendees left ABB’s booth, they did so with the brand’s name attached to a positive and memorable experience.
Al’s Pro Tips for Trade Shows
Drawn from years of experience on both the client and exhibitor sides of trade shows, Al’s #1 point of advice for event directors regarding booth design is to think outside the box and avoid setting up a traditional-looking booth.
Embrace the Unconventional
Al encourages exploring ideas that break the mold—be it through striking graphics, engaging videos, interactive product challenges, or any element that introduces an element of surprise and delight.
The goal is to craft experiences that are not only unique but also memorable. To achieve this, take inspiration from experiences that have grabbed your attention.
For example, Al cited an idea from America’s Got Talent, where a drone show captivated audiences with a dazzling aerial display. This inspired ABB to incorporate a similar concept into an outdoor trade show, creating spectacular illuminated drones that formed the ABB logo in the sky.
Rethink Prime Real Estate
Here’s the prevailing assumption for booth placement to be avoided: the first booth at the entrance is the golden ticket to maximum visibility and engagement.
The erroneous assumption is that catching attendees the moment they step into the venue guarantees an advantage over competitors. However, in Al’s experience, the initial attention of the entrance booth doesn’t hold up past the morning of the first day of an event.
Instead, aim for placement along the main thoroughfare, which is usually 2 to 3 rows back, where you will receive consistent booth tracks east to west and north to south. This area tends to be overlooked in the initial scramble for the best real estate.
Optimize Presence and Engagement With Split Shifts
Al advises against the common practice of scheduling staff to cover full-day shifts.
Trade shows are physically and mentally demanding. Acknowledging this, ABB employs a split-shift strategy. This keeps the team fresh and energized while also maintaining a more professional environment by eliminating the need for lunch breaks inside the booth.
A New Paradigm for Trade Show Success
Al has enlisted Engagify’s services a handful of times, with the most recent engagement taking place in February 2024.
Each occasion has reinforced the value of engaging performances that captivate audiences. However, the true measure of success has been in Engagify’s ability to attract a broader spectrum of attendees with something ABB terms a Return On Opportunity (ROO).
To understand this return, it’s helpful to first realize why measuring ROI is not feasible.
In the high-stakes arena that ABB operates in, products often carry price tags in the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Such prices constitute an exceeding lengthy and nuanced sales cycle that makes gauging an ROI on lead generation through conventional metrics next to impossible.
To establish a more realistic means of measuring lead generation, ABB, under Al’s guidance, has shifted its focus towards measuring the ROO.
This approach acknowledges the long-term benefits of expanding ABB’s visibility and reach beyond the immediate metrics of lead generation. The collaboration with Engagify has successfully introduced new customers into ABB’s database—customers who were previously not in ABB’s system and considered unreachable.
The collaboration between ABB and Engagify, driven by the innovative spirit of Al Colquitt and the performances of Anders, highlights a shift in the dynamics of trade show engagement.
While it’s difficult to explain in words the experience Anders and his team delivers, here it is in Al’s words:
“[Anders’s] ability to attract a crowd on a consistent level… it’s a talent. There’s a huge difference between what Anders is able to provide and our own staff. It takes a very special type of personality to do that.
I’ve been super impressed with the consistency of Anders’ deliverability time and time again regardless of the audience, regardless of the trade show, regardless of what city we were in or what products were promoted… his ability to generate that audience… it’s always funny to me, he’s not giving away thousands of dollars, he’s not giving anything uniquely special, he’s giving away 50 cent ring and spring magic trick, but they stay to the end and they follow him into the booth.”