IMTS Tips for Exhibitors: Survive and Advance
By Dan Katayama
I’ve been the technical content director at Ivor Andrew for a couple years, but before I took the job, I spent more than two decades in sales and marketing at Enshu, a Japan-based machine tool manufacturer. This means I planned, executed and followed up on 11 IMTS exhibits.
Woof.
According to the IMTS website, the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago is one of the largest industrial trade shows in the world, and I can confirm that’s true. If you want to have an exhibit that’s remembered, you can expect to drop months of your time and hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of your marketing dollars to make it happen.
If you landed on this article, you’re probably wondering how you can create that exhibit that gets people talking in the best way. You might also be wondering how to make the grueling process easier. I’m going to talk about all that in this article. Let’s get to it. These are the things you should be doing to survive another IMTS and give your brand—and even your revenue—a boost.
One more thing. It’s okay. This is all going to be okay. Everything will come together, and eventually, IMTS will be over and your company will be better because of the experience. I know stress can be high and some brutal days and nights are ahead, but you can do this. One thing at a time.
1. FINALIZE THE PRODUCT YOU’RE BRINGING TO IMTS.
We’re publishing this story in February, which means you should know what you’re bringing to the show and the total weight. IMTS needs the weight approximated for their planning purposes.
2. DECIDE ON YOUR BOOTH LAYOUT.
What’s it going to look like this year? Whatever it might be, target the end of February to have a completed booth drawing. Where are the machines going to be? Where will visitors congregate? What is the traffic flow throughout your booth, and what’s the hot corner you want to focus on?
3. DEFINE YOUR THEME
How do you want your attendees to feel when they walk into your booth? How will the design look and what will the copy say? And, most importantly, how will you stand out from your competitors and your IMTS neighbors? The theme you choose, by the way, can be different than it was in previous years. Remember to take advantage of every possible tool to tell your story effectively. Wall space is often under-utilized at the show, and many exhibitors still haven’t harnessed technology effectively in their booths.
In the work we did for Doosan Machine Tools at IMTS 2018, we designed their booth, wrote print ads in the show magazine, integrated website and social content and created a custom map of Chicago from scratch. The entire campaign was focused on the customer and invited them to consider becoming a Doosan Shop.
4. UNDERSTAND YOUR SUB-ENVIRONMENT WITHIN THE SHOW.
I’m still close with my former colleagues at Enshu, and at IMTS 2020, their new booth location was planned to be sandwiched between commodity machine tool builders. So if Enshu didn’t outright show through their theme, marketing pieces and booth layout that they’re a premier Japanese machine tool builder, they might have been confused with a commodity machine.
So for you and your booth, think about how you’re going to stand out, then execute your vision. If your message exists on our IMTS Bingo chart, you aren't standing out.
I’ll be writing more as IMTS gets closer, but know this: If creating a booth (and a brand) that stands out from your competition seems daunting and borderline impossible, you might just need a little help. Talk to us at Ivor Andrew and we’ll help you craft a brand that stands apart, at IMTS and for years into the future.