n 2004, Yankelovich Inc. took a poll that confirmed every business’s darkest fear: We are becoming immune, even resentful, to marketing. Nearly 60 percent of consumers surveyed by the Chapel Hill, NC,-based research firm expressed a more intensely negative opinion of marketing than they did a few years ago, and
69 percent craved ways to block out marketing altogether. Other marketing research shows that about 70 to 80 percent of all products are perceived as bland “this-gray-box is the same as that-gray box” commodities.

It’s an ugly picture for most companies, but not for Canon USA Inc. The Lake Success, NY, maker of consumer and industrial electronics teamed up with MJM of New York to entice thousands of customers to see its wares and to supersoak them with its branding messages for several hours at a time.

Every five years, Canon holds the Canon EXPO, an invitation-only event that ranks as one of the largest proprietary events of its kind in the United States. The Canon EXPO targets the company’s main customer segments, offers dozens of hands-on demonstrations for them, and massages them with a gee-whiz, World of Tomorrow-like look at what Canon technologies will bring to the future.

VITAL STATISTICS
Canon EXPO 2005 coincided with the 50th anniversary of Canon USA and took place Sept. 14-16 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York. The event was spread over a 120,000-square-foot section of the facility. It was produced by MJM, a marketing and communications agency specializing in live events, exhibits, and trade shows.

CORPORATE OBJECTIVE
While the overall objective was to showcase the range of Canon technologies, innovations, and partnerships, there were more specific messages Canon wanted to communicate. For example, it wanted to draw attention to its role as a technology leader in medical imaging, life sciences, and semi-conductor manufacturing.

CORPORATE OBJECTIVE
“With an event of this magnitude,” says Steven Phillips, senior vice president creative at MJM, “the advantages of face- to-face marketing, which allows direct interaction between a brand and its audience, are critical to ensure the message does not get lost in the enormity of the event.”

Canon felt an invitation-only event would maximize the impact of its message with a smaller but more select and receptive audience, ranging from channel partners to premiere consumer customers. The all-Canon-all-the-time event would also demonstrate future technologies and innovations, such as organic light-emitting diodes and miniaturized hydrogen fuel cells — whetting attendees’ technological appetites like concept cars at auto shows.

EVENT THEME
The expo’s “iLeverage” theme referred to how customers can leverage Canon’s technologies to increase productivity in the office and enrich their personal-digital experience. The theme cut across all its audience segments, from the largest industrial user of Canon products to the individual photography buff.

TARGET AUDIENCE
Canon’s target audience included channel partners, business and trade press, industry and finance analysts, key customers, end users, and prosumers. (Canon’s consumer-imaging group targeted a rapidly growing and influential group known as “prosumers,” defined by the lexicographical Web site Word Spy as a “consumer amateur in a particular field, but who is knowledgeable enough to require equipment that has some professional features.”)

Individual customers were invited by different means, depending on which particular customer segment they fell into. For example, the Canon sales force invited channel partners during their regular sales calls.

EVENT TACTICS
TACTIC #1: A Grand Entrance
Canon used a two-stop funnel approach for all audience segments. Attendees entered the Vision Theater at a single entrance. The first stop was at a 360-degree theater showing off the big biceps of Canon research, product development, and manufacturing. The second stop included a high-definition video screen in a semi-domed theater. Canon ran a video demonstrating the company’s vision for the future.

TACTIC #2: An Open Floor Plan
When the presentation finished, the theater opened into the exhibit hall, where attendees could stream to the areas they were most interested in. But Canon felt most people would only look for the products they personally buy or use, which would isolate them from a large portion of what the company offers, and forfeit Canon’s chance to show how all of its technologies fit together seamlessly. Thus, Canon did not use partitions or in any way try to segregate one area from another.

Instead, it arranged open exhibits so that attendees would first pass through the Business Imaging & Workflow Management section, which displayed high-end production-level copiers, print devices, and information-technology and management software, and which acted as a transition point to two other main areas, Consumer Imaging and Industry and Environmental Technologies. This left attendees with an impression of the scope of Canon products. But just as importantly, it encouraged attendees to encounter other products outside their comfort zones and experience the advanced capabilities that are a common denominator of Canon’s products.

TACTIC 3: Interactive Demonstrations
A demonstration was built around virtually every item, from the humblest camera to the most complex medical imaging device. The demos not only sponged up hours of attendees’ time, but also created an environment where all of Canon’s products came across as user-friendly and cutting edge.

To illustrate the wide range of features in its cameras, Canon arranged a live photo shoot with professional photographers snapping pictures of fashion models. Attendees could step up and receive advice from the experts on how to take professional-quality shots. Canon hung model planes from the exhibit-hall ceiling and dangled mannequins from the rafters so attendees could test the zoom features of its SLR cameras and television broadcast-quality lenses. After they zoomed and shot the photos, they printed the images — on high-quality Canon printers, of course.

Guests test drove a number of digital-camera innovations, including Smile Shot, which automatically snaps a picture the instant it “sees” the subject smile. Attendees tried to outwit the software by grimacing or grinning just a fraction. Canon also spotlighted the
cameras’ coming-soon wireless features. Pictures taken with the new PowerShot digital cameras were wirelessly transmitted to a Canon printer, where they were printed out almost instantly.

Canon pitted its SED (Surface-conductive, Electron-emitter Display) technology against upscale plasma and LCD competitors and let attendees evaluate the picture quality for themselves, without sales hype or marketing hoopla.

Finally, to drive home the quality of its printing/imaging technologies, Canon constructed a New York-style art gallery in the center of the floor. Inside it hung nearly 80 photographs, ranging in size from 8-by-10 inches to 5-by-10 feet, all shot with digital, high-definition Canon cameras and printed using Canon printers.

PHOTO FINISH
When it comes to results, Canon is as tight-lipped as the CIA, but it did reveal that approximately 300 press and industry analysts attended the expo. The result was a whopping 70 stories and articles within one month of the event. Just as impressive was the hive-like buzz Canon set off in cyberspace: A search for “Canon EXPO 2005” on Google, just two months after the expo, trawled in almost 45,000 hits. When it comes to strategic events that make an impact, this company is truly more of a
howitzer than a cannon.