We continue to share experiences and real cases of participation in exhibitions and conferences. We already talked about the game-changer , now our most interesting case is next in turn - about the organization of a fake stand-opponent of Megaplan and the subsequent "military operations".

We hope that our experience will be useful to young companies that are trying to come up with something extraordinary to promote their products.

Tasks

Using the standard features of the exhibition, to conduct viral activity, which should ridicule standard approaches to doing business “on paper”, to pose a problem for visitors, the solution of which is Megaplan's products.

And:

• Attract additional audience to the stand;
• Conduct a vivid image promotion => brand recognition;
• Test the new format;

Concept

As part of a brainstorming session on the marketing department, the idea came up to create a fake organization, which is a collection of all the stereotypes of a “standard” approach to business management in Russia and makes fun of them with its grotesque appearance.

They came up with the name “ effective managers ” (as a meme already used) and the designation “E-mana” for the paper-based planning system that these managers use.
It was decided that we are making a special stand for them at RIW, which is as cluttered with papers and other garbage as possible, we hire actors and arrange a “war” with the main Megaplan stand.

Implementation

The concrete implementation was close to the originally conceived concept:

On the first day of the conference, “managers” molested people (and people - to them) with their slogans and manifest (do not use the Internet, the computer will atrophy the brain, etc.). A lot of people gathered around the booth. Among other things, the guys interviewed the participants what planning systems they use (which we already found useful for practical purposes). When the conversation turned to decisions, the “managers” promoted a speech of the approximate content “Anything, just don’t go to the Megaplan stand!”

At the end of the first day from the stage, the “effective” called Megaplan to a public battle.



On the second day, the war became even more obvious, the poster “Megaplan atrophy the brain!” Appeared on the stand, and managers invited the audience to battle on the stage.

The battle took place on the RIW stage in the middle of the day. It consisted in the fact that the effective ones presented their management technique on paper (losing them and getting confused), and your humble servant sat quietly from the laptop in Megaplan, having managed to start all the affairs and tasks that they spoke about during the speech.



On the third day after the lost battle, the managers re-educated, removed the mess at their stand, put a laptop with Megaplan and even helped distribute our leaflets. In general, there was a revolution in consciousness.

results

The action was image-building, so assessing the main effect is rather difficult. But we can mention some points:

• By their actions, the “effective” people were catching up well on the Megaplan stand, especially in the first two days (about half of the entire audience of our stand). In just three days, we spent about 400 communications with potential and current customers.
• Only about 40 people of my acquaintances asked me what it really is, and if it’s not our PR campaign.
• The stand of “effective managers” against the background of the rest of the glamor of the participants has become one of the most striking and prominent on RIW.
• About 200 people gathered to watch the battle on the stage.
• As a support for the action, a mini-site www.e-mana.ru was developed , which was a chaotic pile of comments by managers and visitors themselves. Without any announcements (unless mentioned in FaceBook and Twitter), the site gathered about 500 visitors and about 70 user comments.

Thus, the overall effect of the stock can be considered positive and justified our initial calculation.

Our cost items:

• Organization of participation of the stand in RIW, activities on the stage (as part of a general sponsorship package);
• Stand design, handout, clothing, printing and manufacturing;
• Payment for the work of actors;
• The time of our managers (design, copywriting, organization);
• Minor overhead.

Fails

Not everything was smooth, it was possible to work out more efficiently. Of the shortcomings, there are a couple of points:

• The scenario of the “battle” on the stage was not written in very detail, so it looked a bit strange.) Some viewers did not really understand what it was. Could be made funnier.
• On the third day (when the “managers” stand was already clean, and they started using Megaplan), visitors who were not the first two days simply did not really understand what the stand was about, and what did Megaplan have to do with it.
• The fact that the “managers” is an action was quite obvious, but we tried to disregard (as it was planned) - and this was sometimes hindered by organizational issues that had to be addressed to the actors by Megaplan representatives. So a couple of times a bit asleep =)
• We wanted the managers to defiantly throw Megaplan’s stand with toilet paper (the main carrier of their planning system) in the morning of the second day, but didn’t have time = (

Conclusion

The artificial creation of antagonist projects was not invented by us and has long been used in advertising. Partially, the mechanics are similar to the teaser-plizer advertising mechanism. Creating an antagonist allows you to pose (ridicule, hypertrophy) some kind of problem for the consumer, which the main product will then solve.

It is better to hold such events at events with the maximum number of visitors - everything will be too transparent at narrow industry parties.

If you use actors - be sure to prescribe and rehearse in advance the key points of performances / actions. Yes, and if you do not use it, too.

We tried to implement this approach at the conference (I think that the first in Runet, but I will not give guarantees) - and we liked it.

Other micro ideas on RIW

I decided not to post the description of our other micro-ideas in a separate post, but simply list them at the end of our story. I hope this also leads readers to some of their cool ideas. So, we came up with the following things for RIW-2011:

3D-rollup

Rollup is a small format in which it is difficult to come up with something, but we tried. Instead of printing the logos of our free products, we made them out of paper and attached to the canvas. It turned out pretty.



Become a business shark with Megaplan!



A specially trained Megaplan motorized shark, which entertained the public, was launched into the airspace above the RIV. I want to pay attention that this is not just a balloon, and a radio-controlled contraption that waves its fins and changes the position of the fish vertically (a load is attached at the bottom, which can travel from nose to tail).

Fortune cookies, do not plan on napkins - use Megaplan

During the conference, our “Megaplan stewardesses” handed out visitors cookies with predictions (“It will become easier to work”, “You are almost in the clouds”, etc.) with napkins “Do not plan on napkins, use the megaplan. " They flew instantly + it was a good support for our war with effective managers who conduct all business on paper.



Business gymnastics from Megaplan

In continuation of the topic of getting rid of paperwork, we developed a comic clip “Prevention of paper-report hemorrhoids” , which we played on a plasma next to the stand.



Well, in conclusion - just a photo of one of our beautiful stewardesses

Conclusion

We came up with a lot of things at RIW. Something was excellent, something could be done more efficiently. Overall returns were rated as very positive. We hope that our experience will lead you to various useful thoughts.

We want to thank Svetlana Abzalova for the selection and organization of the work of the actors and other promotional staff. Recommended!

We also remind you that for startups (and any other small companies) we have free SaaS-products for business automation - Task Manager Free and CRM Free . And for private use - a free Miniplane . Enjoy!