Live Presentations

Celebrating Record Attendance at P&G Booth as Live Events Continue Their Comeback

As we predicted not long ago, live events have come roaring back as Covid restrictions have lifted. Companies and brands are eager to connect with consumers and influencers in person once again, and nowhere was this more evident to us than at the American Academy of Dermatology’s 2023 meeting in New Orleans.

Procter & Gamble’s skin care brands teamed up to host a booth experience educating dermatologists about new products and innovations spanning everything from body wash and facial skin care to hair removal, scalp care and fabric care for patients with sensitive skin.

The centerpiece of the experience was a live presentation, scripted and produced by MPG, featuring four of our premier presenters. They paired up to give back-to-back presentations to audiences who packed our theater and stayed to hear the entire message. You can see a sample here!

The experience was such a success that a record number of attendees came through P&G’s booth, even with an evacuation the last day due to a fire on the trade show floor. Attendance was up 25% over last year’s record—a real testament to the power of live marketing and of live presentations to draw a crowd.

In addition to booth design and fabrication and live presentation production, MPG staffed P&G’s space with brand ambassadors who delivered our trademark excellent and friendly service. It was an exciting and refreshing way to kick off the spring, and proof to us that face-to-face experiences are more valuable than ever.

If you’re looking to get into—or return to—face-to-face marketing, get in touch and let us know how we can help!

Start Now! Tips to Prepare for Returning to Face-to-Face Events

A presenter giving a live presentation to an audience at a trade show

Are you ready?

Ready to connect in-person and reap the ROI that only comes from face-to-face marketing?

Ready to fire up your live presentations, meetings and exhibits with a new focus on safety and efficiency?

The world is ready.

Ready to say goodbye to virtual events. We see a future for them in hybrid models, but as a substitute for in-person marketing, they often fall flat.

– A new study by the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry finds “Exhibitors have a strong preference for live events—networking in particular—and feel digital events currently don’t provide a good ROI.”

– Glitches, screen fatigue, oversaturation and distractions … this Forbes article spotlights why in person events beat virtual events every time.

With COVID vaccinations and rapid testing ramping up, officials predict a return to a more normal-feeling world by summer/early fall. That may seem like a long way off, but when it comes to planning a great live experience, you’ll want to start now.

Get ready to go live!

Great experiences take time to create, especially since you may want to re-envision your approach. As you prepare for a new, safety-conscious world, here are three things to consider:

1. Plan a Presentation. Social distancing means minimizing close encounters, which means your reps may not be able to spend as much one-on-one time with prospects. A live presentation can ensure your visitors get a full, succinct message. Spacing the audience on squares or seats lets you limit capacity and control distancing, while running presentations back-to-back with a double cast lets people who missed one show return for another.

2. Re-think theme and graphics. It’s a new year and new chance to make a splash. Craft something that will make your return to the live events space shine. Be sure to include an inventory of graphics. Which will need to be replaced or refreshed? These often take the longest to plan, design and get approved, so create a production schedule now.

3. Consider a contingency. Could a hybrid model—a live experience with a complementary website/virtual option—help cover you in case a show is canceled? Plan each in tandem so they work together to help achieve your goals.

We’re ready.

MPG is ready to create experiences that connect in new and exciting ways with a focus on safety. We’ll help you get the most out of your investment when live events come roaring back—and the time to get started is now.

Contact us today. Let’s kick off a better, brighter year together.

Innovating for Safety: Returning to Exhibits and Presentations

Stage at the Together Again Expo

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s the importance of flexibility and innovation. As Covid-19 continues to challenge marketers, we’re talking with our clients about how they can adapt to safely exhibit and sponsor events at meetings and conventions once again.

The reality is that Covid will be with us for some time. And while digital events have been a great pivot for these early months, we’ve heard and experienced a “pent-up demand for a return to live events.”

Those were the words used by Cathy Breden, CEO of the Center for Event Industry Research, at the Together Again Expo in Orlando as she described the consumer sentiment surveys she’s been reviewing.

“Exhibitors have told us they’ve lost leads and sales opportunities, not having the ability to build brand awareness they’re accustomed to at live events, and a difficult time in maintaining and building the types of relationships with current customers and prospects (that they could face-to-face). And of course many companies launch new products into the world at live events.”

Every business is different. Companies must make the call whether to attend and/or exhibit at conventions and meetings. In many cases, those decisions are driven by things like travel restrictions to and from destinations, as well as quarantine requirements upon return home.

But it can be done. And we are excited about the creativity and commitment to safety shown throughout the industry. When it comes to individual exhibits and presentations, the experts on our team are planning to:

Cut Down on Crowds – Reducing capacity within tradeshow booths is vital, and organizations like the Global Biorisk Advisory Council have issued guidelines to help ensure each person can have 6 feet of space around them at all times. At MPG, we’re reviewing current booth layouts and expectations to determine how best to keep visitor count at the “sweet spot” of reaching as many as possible while maintaining social distancing.

Make Traffic One-Way – MPG has always advocated experiences that have a distinct journey, including a well-defined beginning and end guided by friendly ambassadors who keep things flowing smoothly. Traffic control and pulsing is one of our areas of expertise, and we anticipate utilizing it even more in the coming year.

Design for Distancing – Overt and subtle cues help visitors stay in their own zones. Seats in our presentation theaters will be spaced six feet apart. Furniture can be placed strategically to encourage distancing. And touches like drapes, plants and lighting can help create a warm, welcoming atmosphere.

Go Touchless – At a time when touchscreens, games and other high-touch interactives could help spread disease, live presentations are going to shine. They’re a great way to deliver a complete message and engage your audience safely and succinctly. At the end of the experience, rather than handing out sample bags, consider giving a code visitors can enter digitally to get samples sent to them.

Give Branded Masks and Safety Swag – Our MPG team sees this as an opportunity for our clients to transform their visitors into walking advertisements.

Dividers, Partitions and Shields, Oh My! – In areas where people will be in close contact, we’ll use transparent partitions to provide extra barriers. We also are considering a transparent panel between our presenters and audiences.

Re-imagine Panels and Presentations – Space chairs and podiums six feet apart. Instead of a shared mic, use individual mics or a boom. Participants should wear masks unless they’re speaking. And instead of a large panel, consider pre-recording the conversation on a platform like Zoom, then playing it back live.

Sanitize and Sanitize Again – While each venue should have services and guidelines for disinfecting surfaces and air, plan and stock up for your own cleaning protocols as well. At MPG, we already know we’ll be disinfecting our presentation theaters after every show. It not only reduces germs, it provides an added sense of confidence that we’re taking care of every detail to help keep visitors safe.

For the time being, these are “the new norms of face-to-face engagements.” But with a few modifications, we can still provide a great experience. To discuss how you can create a safer exhibit at your next convention or meeting, contact us.

Why You Need a Tradeshow Presentation in 2020

If your marketing plan includes exhibiting at trade shows, then you need a live presentation.

Why? Here are five reasons a trade show presentation, done right, can be one of your most effective tools for maximizing lead count and building relationships.

#1: It grabs attention – Even the most beautifully designed booth is a snooze-fest without something going on inside. Not everyone will feel up for a game, and touchscreens are so ubiquitous that few people find them exciting anymore. A presentation with an engaging theme, professional talent, and eye-catching visuals brings a little showbiz to your space. Put it in a prominent spot, and it signals to passers-by that you’re worth stopping for.

#2: It captures many eyes at once – Instead of only allowing a few people to participate, a trade show presentation engages a crowd, maximizing the number of people who can be a part of the experience.

#3: It communicates your full message – A good presentation combines storytelling with expert timing to make sure your audience hears and sees everything you want them to hear and see.

#4: It takes the pressure off your staff – With public speaking left to the pros, your people can focus on engaging one-on-one and closing sales. An effective tradeshow presentation helps qualify leads, ensuring that everyone you interact with knows the basics and is ready to go in-depth.

#5: It’s not as expensive as you think! Tradeshow presentations can be as elaborate as your budget allows, with video, multiple presenters—even turntables, flashy lights and musical numbers. But you can be just as effective with a compelling product demo, or a single presenter and some well-done Powerpoint slides.

Our MPG team can help craft just the right approach; contact us to talk about how we can bring the magic of live presentations to your 2020 marketing plan.

Make Magic by Expertly Mixing Education and Entertainment at Your Next Event

MPG hired a magician to help entertain dental hygienists at Crest + Oral-B's annual ADHA breakfast

How do you show 700 dental hygienists you appreciate them at 7:30 a.m.? By putting on a great show!

Crest and Oral-B attend the American Dental Hygienists Association’s annual conference to connect with hygienists and showcase all the ways that the brands support their profession. That’s because hygienists are vital to improving oral health, and they are major recommenders of oral care products.

Crest and Oral-B show their love by hosting a breakfast event that has become a “must attend” at the conference. It includes a healthy helping of product information and promotion for the brands’ Hygienist Proud program, but the key to success is an expert mix of education and entertainment. (For highlights, check out our video.)

If you’re hosting a VIP gathering and want to strike the right balance of fun and information, consider these tips:

Craft an Engaging Theme – It grabs peoples’ attention and opens the door for creative approaches to content. Our most recent ADHA breakfast featured a magician, so we created the tagline, “Supporting You and the Magic You Do,” then tied all elements to it.

Hire a Great Act – Taking a break for music, dance, a comedian or other entertainer not only makes the event more enjoyable, it can help with pacing. Have them perform one long set, or several shorter ones as intervals between more serious material.

Get an Experienced Emcee – A professional host can keep things moving, engage the audience, and put everyone from speakers to special guests at ease. Don’t leave this important role to someone on your team, no matter how great they are in front of a crowd. Trust us on this one, you need a pro.

Keep it Crisp – When developing your event script, try to keep the entire production under an hour. Be mindful of how long any single person or group is onstage. You want your audience to leave wanting more, not worrying they’ll be late to their next class or meeting.

Use Great Visuals – Hiring someone to create an event logo, a custom template, and even a few animations will pay off. Strive to keep a good variety of visuals onscreen at all times, from Powerpoint or Keynote slides to IMAG, which can be coordinated with your production company.

Speaking of which, MPG can help you engage, educate and entertain any audience. Contact us to chat about how we can make your next event a “must attend.”

 

<3 Your Audience by Putting a Little Love in Your Presentations

Photo by Obi Onyeador on Unsplash

A presentation is a bit like a first date. You want to be likeable. You want to make a meaningful connection. And you want to leave your audience wanting more. A good presentation can be the start of a beautiful relationship. So whether you’re appearing at a trade show or hosting an in-depth meeting session, try these tips for standing out and helping your audience feel the love.

Make It More About Them, Less About You – Craft your content around what will be meaningful to them. It’s fine if your end goal is sales, but offer something they can’t find anywhere else, too — unique insights, new research, or even just a memorable experience.

Respect Their Time – For a trade show booth, the ideal presentation runs between five to eight minutes. For longer presentations, try to break things up into shorter, sweeter segments. And don’t forget to simply thank people for spending time with you. It’s a simple gesture that goes a long way.

Engage Their Senses – For presentations detailing the science behind shampoo, we’ve passed around vials to smell and hair swatches to feel. We’ve even filled a theater with bubbles. Go beyond visuals, when possible, to craft experiences that feel immersive.

Entertain if You Can – For longer events especially, think about creative ways to deliver your content. Could you involve musicians? Acrobats? Dancers? Presentations of any length can benefit from audience involvement. And a fun theme can make even the most dry content feel fresh.

Make Them Comfortable – Consider the environment overall. If you’re presenting at a trade show, remember your visitors have been on their feet for hours and provide seating. For longer sessions in bigger spaces, make sure it’s easy to see, hear and get involved with the action.

Give Gifts – If your industry allows it, reward your audience with free samples or fun swag.

Follow Up – Don’t ghost them when the event’s over. Ask your audience to opt in for future communication, then send a little something of extra value: Exclusive content or a special offer. Remember, face-to-face marketing is all about building relationships.

Happy Valentine’s Day from MPG. To see if we’re a good match for your brand and message, contact us today.

 

Experiential Marketing White Elephants: Turn Challenges Into Gifts With These Tips

Happy holidays from MPG! As the year comes to an end, many of our clients are creating exciting new marketing experiences for 2019. Most projects, however, come with a few white elephants—challenges and line items that no one really enjoys, but everyone has to make the best of.

If that sounds like your next project, check out these tips for transforming some common live marketing white elephants into gifts your audience will love.

Challenge: Old booth or exhibit that generates little traffic

Transformational Tip: Consider adding a live presentation or live demos. Touchscreens and graphics rarely capture or hold attention. But a live person delivering your message creates instant engagement, plus the impression that your space is a “must visit.” Why be static and dull when you can tell a complete story with a personal touch?

Challenge: Highly technical content with lots of jargon

Transformational Tip: Find a theme that allows you to simplify while engaging your audience’s imagination and emotions. If you’re marketing to an audience of subject matter experts, you don’t want to dumb it down. But a layer of storytelling can bring your message to life and make it more memorable.

Challenge: Too much content

Transformational Tip: Spread it out over several mediums. Keeping experiences under five minutes—eight minutes max—keeps people from getting bored. Capture their attention first. Then post content experts nearby, hand out supplemental material, or direct your audience to a website.

Challenge: Too many cooks

Transformational Tip: It’s common to have a lot of stakeholders giving input and approval throughout the creative process. To minimize delays and bottlenecks, create a clear schedule with plenty of time for everyone to weigh in. Then create one point of contact between your internal team and your agencies.

Challenge: Unmotivated team

Transformational Tip: Face-to-face marketing is a specialty. Expecting your sales team to sparkle at a trade show for 8 hours a day may be unrealistic. Professional brand ambassadors, on the other hand, are experts at drawing people in, communicating full messages, and maintaining friendly smiles, even when their feet are killing them.

Do you have a project that could use transforming? Contact us to find out how we can make your message shine.

Presentation Best Practices: Easy Tips for Effective Presentations

Presentation Best Practices

At MPG, we’ve built our business around great presentations. We make them fun. We make them interactive. We make them educational, or thought-provoking, or heartwarming… whatever best tells our clients’ stories. And we make them every day. It’s what we do.

It may not be what you do. But that doesn’t mean you can’t create a presentation that wows. By following a few presentation best practices, you can make your message engaging and memorable, whether you’re giving a talk to co-workers or delivering a keynote address to hundreds.

First, know your audience. What do they want to learn from you? What do they already know (or think they know)? What kind of tone is likely to resonate with them? Are they super serious, or would they enjoy something lighter?

Keep it short. We’ve found that the most effective presentations run about five to eight minutes. Choose no more than three key points, and direct your audience to supplemental materials like a website if they want to learn more.

Keep it simple. Look for a “hook” that captures your main message, then repeat it several times, both visually and in your script. Feel like you’re diving too deep into a topic? Trust that instinct! Better to leave them wanting more, than let them walk away numb from information overload.

Let your visuals do the work (but not all of it). Your audience should be paying attention to you, not trying to read your PowerPoint slides. Choose visuals that complement what you’re saying, rather than repeat it. Think bold single images vs. tons of bullet-points.

Break it up. Hold your audience’s attention by incorporating other voices and infusing freshness wherever possible. If you can weave in video, GIFs or animations, do it! Dual presenters, or an interview format, can help as well.

Involve the audience. Invite them to play a game. Poll them, either with technology or a show of hands. Get them shouting a catch phrase, or out of their seats doing some simple dance moves. People are more likely to remember an experience that engaged vs. a dry lecture.

Practice, practice, practice! Finish your script and polish your visuals with plenty of time to rehearse. We offer presentation coaching to help you be your very best. When you’re at ease, your audience will be more likely to trust you and remember what you’ve shared with them.

Instead of crafting your own presentation, why not let MPG do it? We’re experts at professional interactive, multimedia presentations for events of all sizes. Contact us to chat about how we can help put your message in the spotlight.

Interactive Games for Presentations: Make It Memorable By Making It Fun

Interactive games for presentations

Want to make your next presentation memorable? Then get the audience involved. Tactics as simple as questions that require a show of hands can pull people out of passive-listening mode. But if you really want them engaged with your message, then interactive games could be a winning strategy.

High-tech, low-tech, sophisticated or silly, games give your audience a stake in the experience. To find the right one for your presentation, start with a few questions.

What’s my tone? If your topic is light and your audience is up for a good time, you can be humorous—even zany. Ask yourself how far you can push before it feels like “too much.” Even with a serious subject, games are still a viable option. Go for something like audience polling, and keep the approach more buttoned-up.

What’s my objective? Want to drive home a key message? Try a game that includes trivia or call and response. If you want to collect information from your audience or gauge their knowledge, then surveys or polls are a good bet. And if you just want to infuse a little fun, then go for something that gets them out of their seats, competing, and smiling.

What’s my budget? Audience response systems, touchscreens and other high-tech game interfaces are impressive if you can afford them. If not, there are plenty of options that cost little to nothing.

Once you know your goals and parameters, you’re ready to get gaming. Here are some of MPG’s top interactive games for presentations.

Classic Games – For Crest and Oral-B each year, we’re tasked with engaging people as they wait to get into our convention booth. Our objective is to help pass the time, prep them for what’s coming, and reinforce some key product messages. Dental professionals like to have fun, so we’ve done versions of Family Feud, Pictionary and even “hangman” with a Crest + Oral-B twist.

Classic games are great because nearly everyone is familiar with them. So you spend less time explaining and more time having fun.

A few tips:

– Most classic games can be adapted to fit your presentation theme. Choose one based on how it engages the audience, then tweak the name, visuals and other elements.

– Most classic games require audience members to answer questions in order to score or advance. So they’re great for driving home key messages and providing jump-off points for deeper dives.

– Some classic game templates are available in Powerpoint, or they’re easy to create. For a game as simple as tic tac toe, all you need is a dry erase board.

Audience Response:  These work well in more structured presentations. And with a range of technologies and costs, it’s not hard to find one that fits your budget. You can take polls or ask the audience survey questions. You can even get segments of the audience competing against each-other. Challenge yourself to be creative and make it fun.

Interactive games for presentations

Low-Tech, High-Impact: No money for bells and whistles? These games require little more than a good presenter and a willing audience.

– Elimination: Have everyone in the audience stand, then ask segments to sit based on criteria such as years in their profession. The last people standing should represent an achievement or point of view that your presenter can elaborate on or celebrate.

– Word of the Day: Audience members vote, by show of hands or applause, on a word or phrase that the presenter must weave into his or her remarks.

– Call and Response: Whenever the presenter says a certain word or phrase, the audience must respond with their own phrase and/or action.

– Singalong: Re-write the lyrics to a popular song, put it onscreen, then invite the audience to help sing it. For extra fun, add some choreography.

Not sure whether a game is the right approach for your next presentation? Chat with MPG. We’ll craft a strategy guaranteed to connect with your audience, then execute with excellence.

 

 

Trade Show Trends: Our Top Takeaways from CES and ExhibitorLive

Live presentations draw crowds at Trade Shows

When you spend your days crafting concepts that inspire and engage others, you need a little inspiration yourself. That’s why MPG makes CES and ExhibitorLive must-sees at the start of every new year. We go to the consumer technology megashow and the exhibiting industry’s premier expo to experience new technologies and get a feel for the trends and themes that have the potential to resonate with our audiences.

We saw a lot that excited us this year. We also saw things that underwhelmed. And much of it confirmed our core beliefs about what works in the unique face-to-face marketing environment of a trade show.

Here are our top takeaways:

Booths Are Going Next Level

Everywhere we looked we saw multi-story booths. Two and even three levels are almost commonplace, providing intimate places for conversation above the hubbub, or even a bird’s eye view of the show floor. This approach definitely helps solve space challenges, but accessibility can be an issue.

People Don’t Always Think With Their Stomachs

Food and beverage themes have been big for several years, with booths featuring bartenders, chefs and other delectables. But at this year’s Exhibitor show, most of these were sparsely attended unless they provided something active and visually appealing, such as an “artist” rolling toppings into slab ice cream. To stand out, today’s F&B-themed experiences need to be extra-clever and eye-catching.

Live Presentations Draw Crowds

We see it every year. Big booths with lots of touchscreens stand empty, while 10X20s with magicians and other performers are crowded with people. Call them cheesy or hucksterish, but they’re getting something right. Using a professional to deliver messages in an engaging way is a surefire strategy to get people to stop, listen and interact.

Timing Is Everything

For maximum crowd-draw, presentations should happen back to back. We saw one exhibitor with a cool fashion week theme, models in amazing outfits, and an empty red carpet. They were only doing their presentation a few times an hour, which meant… you guessed it, no one in the booth. If you’re going live, then double cast so that your booth is always full.

Immersive trade show booth at CES

Technology Is Still Scaling Up

Virtual reality, touchscreen games, and many other new technologies are still either one-person activities or able to engage just a handful of attendees at once. Balance these out with demos and experiences that engage bigger audiences. You’ll vastly increase the number of people who walk away with your full message.

Immersion Works

Some booths almost made us forget we were at a tradeshow. They plunged us into stories and environments that reminded us how powerful a good theme can be. In sessions at Exhibitor, we heard about how younger audiences want experiences that take them outside of themselves. More and more, we think they’ll be demanding exhibits that are truly unique.

Face to Face is Still Best

People attend trade shows so they can connect with real people and experience brand benefits for themselves. So make sure you’re providing something they can’t get online. One quote from an Exhibitor session stood out: “If what you’re considering can be done better with a website, then come up with something else.”

At MPG, we believe meaningful interaction with real people is the key to trade show success. If you want to ensure your booth is packed and your visitors are fully engaged, then drop us a line. We’d love to chat.