Art of the Show Competition Winners Circle: Show Promotion Website

The IAEE Art of the Show Competition’s Show Promotion Website category evaluates any web site used to promote attendance at a show. Judging criteria includes: overall presentation, visual appeal and creativity; organization of the information presented and ease of navigation/user-friendliness; clarity of pertinent information, value of information presented and content usefulness; performance metrics such as average monthly visits, Google analytics, etc.; and how the website contributed to the overall success of the exhibition and/or event.

In today’s IAEE Art of the Show Competition Winners Circle, we highlight the winners of last year’s Show Promotion Website category:

Under 75,000 nsf
mdg
2017 Atlanta Pet Fair & Conference

The pet grooming and boarding industry is big business – $8 billion big, in fact. Which means that the opportunities are endless to grow a related business and expand its reach. The Atlanta Pet Fair & Conference allows attendees to take their grooming, pet service or retail operation from “good” to “great!” with tools, training, products and networking where new knowledge means power and new products mean profitability.

The Atlanta Pet Fair & Conference website was arguably one of the most important factors in the 2017 show’s performance, both from an attendance and exhibitor standpoint. The website was designed to drive registrations and exhibitor participation by improving the user journey and event positioning with a clean, modern layout and mobile-friendly design. The mdg marketing team sought to increase visual interest in line with current user expectations and the highly visual nature of the target groomer audience.

In line with the campaign concept, which featured an image of a pet with a marker-like black line drawing overlay demonstrating the fun “possibilities” available at Atlanta Pet Fair & Conference, the 2017 website featured a fun animation in the website header. The hero image rotated among different animals, with the black line drawings appearing as the user viewed the page (e.g., a cat with a scuba mask, a dog wearing a top hat and a poodle with a crown). These animations drew attention to the critical website navigation content.

“The education layout was also modified for increased user-friendliness, as education is one of the top features for attendees,” said mdg Vice President Caitlin Fox. “The layout included session boxes with links to speaker bios and other relevant information.”

Ultimately, the website contributed to Atlanta Pet Fair & Conference’s record-breaking attendance, with a 9.45 percent increase in 2017 over the previous year.

Between 75,001 and 200,000 nsf
NTP Events and CSG Creative
DEMA Show 2017

DEMA Show 2017 is the world’s ONLY international trade-only event for diving, action watersports and travel professionals. It showcases the latest innovations and product trends from leading dive equipment manufacturers, travel destinations, watersports apparel, and service providers.

The website created to promote DEMA SHOW 2017 served as a hub for attendee information, exhibitor information, registration tools, and information on all of the show features. The objective of the website was to house exhibitor and attendee registration, create brand awareness, and provide easily accessible show information to prospects to as many potential prospects as possible.

“The DEMA SHOW website was innovative in its visual design,” said NTP Events Marketing Coordinator Timothy Jarocha. “It featured consistent and integrated diving imagery, contrasting colors, and design that made it stand out from websites like it. Its dynamic homepage was complete with an eye catching rotating slider and clean, easy to read text.”

Over the course of nearly six months, the DEMA Show 2017 website generated 140,690 page views and 24,594 active users with an average session duration of 4:08 minutes. It was extremely effective in generating new prospects with 63.5% of users being new visitors, and provided enough engaging and relevant content reflected in a high average session duration time.

Over 200,001 nsf
CSG Creative for Food Processing Supplier Association
2017 PROCESS EXPO

Produced by the Food Processing Suppliers Association (FPSA), PROCESS EXPO is dedicated to bringing the latest technology and integrated solutions to all segments of the food and beverage industry. The industry sectors served include beverage, bakery, dairy (cheese, yogurt, milk, and ice cream), meat, poultry, and seafood, prepared foods (fruits and vegetables), pet food, and confectionery.

Processors partner with 500+ suppliers who demonstrate innovative food processing and packaging technology, machines, and products on the show floor. Both veterans and those new to food and beverage processing get training on food safety, trends, leadership, and more. In addition, there are numerous networking events, an Innovations Showcase, a Virtual Reality Showroom, and unique to PROCESS EXPO, three full working production line demonstrations. The exhibit hall in McCormick Place, Chicago consists of more than 220,000 square feet and hosts 15,000 industry professionals.

“For the 2017 PROCESS EXPO, we created a website featuring a new and modern design,” noted Megan Hall, VP, Creative for CSG Creative. “We also placed an emphasis on easy-to-navigate content.”

Animated sliders highlighted information on the homepage with a place for videos, a section for news updates, blog posts and a twitter feed which helped to position the show and FPSA as content leaders. An interactive floor map was created with animation, video, etc. to highlight the new programs on the show floor.

The website recorded 200% more visitors compared to the same time period for the 2015 campaign. The search engine optimization tactics, the successful Facebook ad campaign, and all of the marketing promotions helped increase awareness. In addition, a lot of traffic came in from ads and promotions via media partners.

The 2018 IAEE Art of the Show Competition is now underway – you have until 14 September 2018 to submit your entries! Check out all the winners from the 2017 competition.