Yearning – And Preparing For – A Return to In-Person Events

People at an event

Times like these can teach us a lot: What a precious gift good health is, the importance of family, how to be flexible when our work and personal lives are upended. One of the most visceral lessons we’re learning is just how much people need contact with other people.

Not on screens, but in-person, face-to-face, honest-to-goodness physical interaction.

Even our most introverted team members are yearning to get together with friends, barbeque with the neighbors, and shop for non-necessities at a crowded market. Can you imagine how great it will feel to go to a birthday party again, eat at a bustling restaurant, attend a baseball game or see your favorite performer live in concert with fellow fans?

When all is normal, it’s easy to overlook how important these experiences are. When we no longer have them, we realize how much we crave connections—not just looking at each other through the windows of our computers, but looking into each other’s faces without barriers.

It’s this craving that gives us hope, not just personally but professionally, as we look at the future of live events.

For those of us who make our living creating live experiences, our businesses are being challenged in unexpected and unprecedented ways. We went from full schedules and rosy outlooks to cancellations and uncertainty as gathering in large groups has become inadvisable and even prohibited.

We’re exploring ways to weather the storm, helping our clients continue connecting with audiences in all of the ways that are currently possible. And we’re working on ways to evolve once the prohibitions are lifted. Because when we reach the other side, we think live events will have new importance. People will be hungry to connect and learn and share experiences together.

We know things will look and operate differently. We are committed to creatively addressing challenges so attendees can enjoy experiences in ways that are compelling and safe. It’s not just important to our business and our clients, it’s important to us as humans. Because we predict that when in-person events start again, they will be even more meaningful now that we’ve experienced life without them.

For many, the world will never be the same. We send our heartfelt prayers to those who have lost loved ones to Covid-19. We send gratitude to the doctors and nurses who have cared for us and those we care about, to the workers who have helped keep stores stocked and essential services running. And we send love to you.

We hope you stay well, that you find the support you need—mentally, spiritually, financially, or all of the above. And we look forward to emerging from this experience with you, to evolving with our industry, and to serving our clients – and each other – better than ever.

 

Tips for Working From Home – From Our Team to Yours

Woman working from home

The coronavirus outbreak has people making changes most never imagined just a few weeks ago. For many of us, that means suddenly working from home. If you’re not accustomed to working from home, you probably have questions:

“How will I stay focused?”

“How do I avoid raiding my pantry, stuffing my face with snack food?”

“How can I keep from getting restless without human interaction?”

One way MPG has stayed “lean and mean” is by avoiding the overhead costs of a central office. All team members work from home. We collaborate online and by phone. We meet in person when we need to. And we love it!

Working from home can be an adjustment, but we’ve got 10 tips to make it smoother. And you might find you get more done, more efficiently, without the extra time it takes to shuffle to and from meetings, commute, and make small talk with your co-workers. You’ve got this!

#1: Maintain regular hours just like you would at an office. Don’t fall prey to the idea that you should be doing housework on top of your other duties. Save it for “non-work” time.

#2: Find a dedicated space away from distractions. Even better if you can set up an area that’s just for work. Going there will help you make the psychological switch from “home” to “office.”

#3: Dress for success. We know it’s tempting to stay in your bathrobe, but we actually are more productive when we’re dressed for the part.

#4: Start and end your day with a routine. Get in a workout or enjoy a cup of coffee before diving into the day’s tasks. Finish up by answering emails, then try to leave work at “work” and enjoy time with your family.

#5: Set ground rules for family members and friends. Just because you’re home, it doesn’t mean you’re available for every little thing. Unless it’s an emergency, let them know you’re “Do Not Disturb.” Got a partner not working from home who feels all the chores should now be done during the day? Refer them to our first tip. When you’re working, you’re working, not multitasking on laundry, too.

#6: Connect virtually. If you crave social interaction, then video chat and other virtual meeting solutions are the answer. While you’re getting your work-friend fix, you can…

#7: Hold each other accountable. Promise to get a certain number of tasks done, or work a certain number of minutes uninterrupted, before rewarding yourself with some social time or internet surfing.

#8: Plan/prepare meals ahead of time. To avoid grazing, pack your lunch like you would for the office. Also, shop with this new reality in mind. If you know you’ll be tempted with certain treats in the house, then don’t buy them!

#9: Take mandatory “move it” breaks. When you’re not moving around an office, walking to lunch, or taking the stairs in a building, it’s easy to become sedentary. Get out of your chair. Take a walk, stretch… set alarms to remind yourself every hour.

#10: Know you’re doing the right thing. Social distancing is stressful on so many levels, but it’s necessary to help keep each other as healthy as possible and avoid overwhelming our healthcare system. Life will return to normal, and you’ll be able to return to your regular work situation relatively soon. For now, take comfort in knowing you’re doing your part for the good of yourself and those around you.

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.

Trade Show Booth Design Tips: Floorplan First!

You’re investing in a new tradeshow booth, and it has to look stunning, drawing visitors from across a crowded room. It has to tell a story about your brand, products and services. It also has to make relationship building easy. After all, face-to-face marketing is the #1 reason to exhibit at trade shows, right?

Designing a new trade show exhibit can be exciting. But before you look at cool finishes and technologies, you should accomplish one important task that might not feel as fun: You have to get the floorplan right.

It isn’t glamorous. It can be time-consuming. But the payoff is a booth that delivers on your investment by really working for you.

It’s about storytelling. The floorplan lets you plot out how you want visitors to experience your content. Think about building their knowledge and interest as they make their way through your space.

It’s about flow. Design your space so people can move comfortably through it. Avoid bottlenecks, and eliminate confusion with clear entrances and exits. Ensure that gathering areas are big enough to handle peak capacity. Pro tip: Tape out the floorplan in a large room, and physically experience it to see how it feels and find unexpected traffic snarls.

It’s about creating a great experience for your audience. When visitors are comfortable, when they can tell an experience has been well thought-out, they feel taken care of.

It’s about setting your team up for success. Decide how you want your reps to interact with guests, then create spaces that facilitate. If you’re selling, for example, your floorplan might place your team at the end, after guests have had an opportunity to learn about your innovations. Or you might place huddle spaces strategically throughout the booth for one-on-one conversations.

It’s the foundation of a beautiful design. Stunning shapes, impressive tech, beautiful materials… all these will be layered onto of a core experience that can be enabled and enhanced by your designers’ creativity.

At MPG, we tell clients the floorplan is often the hardest part of the process. Once we get it right, our designers are free to work their magic, while we can be confident the final product will not only look amazing, but successfully deliver on our client’s objectives.

To learn more about how MPG can help design your next trade show booth, contact us today.

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.