Professional organisation and attendance to market trade fairs and events have become a highly recommended strategy to initiate face-to-face introductions for companies with key publications in Latin America.
At Sherlock Communications, we have an award-winning team based in Latin America and have successfully supported some of the world’s leading brands at multiple events and fairs. Through effective media relations and digital media campaigns, we have generated high-impact press coverage in national, business and trade media publications which has directly led to new leads and business inquiries for our clients.
Here are some tips we suggest to help our clients stand out at market trade fairs:
Plan ahead and make sure you know who is attending the event, define your target audience and get in touch with journalists only with compelling content with bespoke and individual pitches. Don’t spam journalists’ inboxes – just because they are attending the fair, doesn’t necessarily mean that they would like to meet with your company.
Stand out from the noise and make sure you have coverage planned for the days leading up to the event, and on the first day of the event itself. Reach out to your target audiences in advance, introduce yourself and schedule meeting and possible interviews at the event.
Take time to understand the media landscape and preferences in order to deliver concise, personalised and relevant information that incentivises journalists to cover your story. Prepare a genuine news story or insight to share that is relevant to the country you are targeting, not just give out global materials in English.
Latin Americans are amongst the most digitally engaged audiences in the world. Having a specific social media strategy for each event and conference is an absolute must, including hashtags and professional photographers for high-quality content for your social channels.
Incentivise visits to your booth by caring for its visual aspect. Remember to always have a branded backdrop on hand for photos and videos.
Attendees typically pay more attention to booths that offer something to fill their bags. Forget branded pens and notepads and instead give out useful and stand-out gifts that will catch the eye of attendees.
Even after the market trade fair or event is over, there is a lot of work to be done. Draft and issue a shareable listicle/infographic for media to support follow up stories; engage attendees post-event with e-mail thanking them for meeting you and recapping the main takeaways of the event; and include the invitees who couldn’t attend on the day (by uploading overview of the event including pics and a link to the website).
Hosting an event has also become a very effective option for a company to achieve specific and timely results among target audiences. This option can simply set the company apart during major market trade fairs and events while increase the opportunity to establish meet-and-greets.
