 ow do you top a successful year of exhibiting? If you’re Wintech, a retail-, fixture-, and
merchandising-design firm based in Kansas City, MO, you take the one element that characterized your last exhibit, give it a twist, and create an exhibit marketing program around it.
In 2004, Winntech created an exhibit known throughout GlobalShop as “the orange booth.” It featured 1,174 real oranges strung on fishing line and hung vertically from an overhead truss
at the center of its exhibit
(see “Fresh Squeezed,” EXHIBITOR, May 2005).
 Category: Integrated Program
Company: Winntech
Creative/Production Agency : Winntech, Kansas City, MO, 816-241-4002, www.winntech.com
Show: GlobalShop 2005
Budget: $16,000 for
pre- and post-show
promotional materials;
$70,000 for exhibit
Goals:
 Increase booth traffic and leads from previous year.
Tie in design from prior year’s exhibit with new integrated program.
Capture large clients by sending a memorable, themed mailer.
Results:
Doubled leads from 2004 exhibit.
Created fresh, identifiable program. |
Winntech’s goal for GlobalShop 2005 was to be known as more than “the company with the orange exhibit,” while retaining a connection to its 2004 exhibit. So, Winntech decided to invite its prospects inside the orange.
The program began with an advertising campaign in the print and online versions of Visual Merchandising and Store Design (VM+SD) magazine — a publication for retail designers and store-display professionals. Winntech photographed an orange — its slices trapped between Plexiglas — and paired the image with the question “What’s Inside?”.
Winntech then made phone calls to preferred prospects to gauge the effectiveness of the advertisement. Out of 150 phone calls, 70 percent recalled the ad.
“People would call up and say, ‘I see you have this new ad. What’s your booth going to be this year?’ They were actually excited to see what we had come up with for GlobalShop 2005,” says Alastair Tutton, vice president of sales and marketing at Winntech.
Winntech’s 30-by-50-foot exhibit was another extension of the theme. The structure hinted at last year’s exhibit, with orange highlights and a silhouette of an orange outlined by orange carpet. But instead of an open exhibit like the previous year, Winntech created a structure that attendees could walk into.
To continue the “What’s inside?” theme, Winntech juiced the orange — teaming up with Izze Beverage Co., a Boulder, CO,-based bottler, which donated bottles of its Clementine-flavored beverage. Winntech distributed the beverage in its exhibit and also sent it as a post-show mailer, accompanied by a mini-portfolio of its projects.
Winntech capped off its successful GlobalShop campaign with a post-show advertisement. The ad, which ran in VM+SD magazine, was a refreshing reminder of Winntech's theme, with images of an orange peel, an Izze bottle cap, and photos of the booth.
Sizzle judges felt the program demonstrated “the evolution of the brand and a new level of creativity for the company.”
The results show that attendees were impressed as well. Winntech doubled its leads from the previous year, snagging 450 leads at GlobalShop 2005. Thirty-five percent of those leads represent multi-million dollar retailing- and manufacturing-design opportunities, and Winntech is currently discussing projects with a variety of Fortune 500 companies.
This winter, as the retail world slows down, Winn-tech will peel back the layers of its previous campaigns and think of a way to top itself in 2006.  |
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 My Darling Clementine
Winntech worked with Izze Beverage Co. to produce Clementine beverages branded with Winntech’s logo and the image of its CEO that appeared inside the exhibit. It distributed the drinks at the show and mailed them to qualified leads as part of a post-show mailer. |
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All Sliced up
Winntech’s pre-show advertisement featured orange slices between Plexiglas, along with the text, "What’s inside?" The ad had a 70-percent recall rate. |
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Appealing Ad Campaign
The image featured in its post-show advertisement visually summed up Winntech’s exhibit, combining the now iconic orange with the bottle cap from the beverage giveaway. |
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