I N T E G R A T E D  P R O G R A M
	Exhibitor: Astellas Pharma US Inc. Creative/Production: Matrex Exhibits, Addison, IL, 630-628-2233, www.matrexexhibits.com; Abelson-Taylor Inc., Chicago, 312-894-5500, www.abelson-taylor.com Show: American Academy of Dermatology, 2007 Budget: $150,000 Goals: Draw 450 attendees to the booth during the show. Force attendees to learn about the company’s products before obtaining a giveaway. Increase the time attendees spend in the booth. Entice at least 250 attendees to participate in one or both of the educational activities. Results: Attracted 2,500 people to the company’s exhibit. Required attendees to participate in the activities to obtain their giveaways. Retained activity participants for an average of 10 minutes each, roughly twice the previous year’s average visit. Enticed 1,500 people to engage in one or both educational activities.

hysicians like freebies. That’s why exhibitors at the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) show often dole out tchotchkes like a Lawn Boy spits out grass clippings. And prior to the February 2007 show, Astellas Pharma US Inc., a pharmaceutical company based in Deerfield, IL, bought in to the freebie frenzy.

While Astellas had been attracting its share of swag-seeking doctors, it hadn’t been qualifying leads nor linking its giveaways to product-related education or activities. It wanted more to show for its efforts — such as an increase in attendees’ knowledge of Astellas’ products.

In 2007, Astellas teamed up with exhibit house Matrex Exhibits and advertising agency Abelson-Taylor Inc. and decided to demand more of attendees before giving up the goods.

Hannibal Rising

Prior to the Washington, DC,-based show, Matrex and Abelson-Taylor brainstormed for ways to meet Astellas’ education-first, freebies-second challenge. They quickly settled on the soon-to-be-launched advertising campaign for Amevive, a psoriasis therapy, as inspiration. The ad campaign used “Natural Killer” characters (actors dressed as a knight, samurai, highlander, and gladiator), to communicate that Amevive enlists the body’s cells to attack psoriasis-causing pathogenic T cells. While the science behind the drug is complex, the costumed characters quickly drove home Astellas’ key message and attached memorable images to the campaign.

The team then wove the Natural Killer characters into every aspect of the integrated campaign. As attendees approached the baggage claim at Dulles International Airport, they were met by 5-by-8-foot graphics featuring the Natural Killer characters, along with text such as “Meet Me Face to Face if You Dare.”

Along the street leading to the convention center, roughly 4-by-2-foot fabric banners, featuring the same gnarly guys and promotional text, hung from light poles. Meanwhile, taxis assigned to the convention-center area sported taxi tops featuring an image of the entire Natural Killers crew, along with the message: “We’ll be waiting for you. Visit the AAD Annual Meeting, February 2-7, Booth 3101.”

Once attendees reached Astellas’ 40-by-50-foot booth, they were greeted by the same samurai warrior that appeared in the ads. The samurai handed them off to a staffer who provided a quick introduction to Amevive and Protopic, an eczema therapy, and gave them tickets that allowed them to participate in the booth’s two main attractions. The activities included enough entertainment to lure a constant stream of people, but provided enough education to ensure that attendees walked away with a better understanding of the drugs.

In-Booth Face Off

The first activity, the Amevive T Cell Face Off featured four kiosks and a host dressed as the highlander from the ad. Attendees stepped up to one of the four touch-screen enabled kiosks and signed their name to activate their kiosk. While attendees played the game, their signatures were sent to a laser engraver elsewhere in the booth, where staffers engraved each participant’s name on a leather journal. “Attendees were lured in by both the educational challenge and the promise of a personalized, sought-after journal, but they needed to complete the activity before they could receive one,” says Jeff Foulk, vice president of business development at Matrex.

Each Face Off participant was represented by one of the Natural Killers on a 50-inch-tall plasma screen. As the host started the game, large blobs representing pathogenic T cells clumped onto each contestant’s warrior to hide him from view. The host then asked questions, and attendees had 10 seconds to touch the correct answer on their screens. After each group of three questions, the host reviewed the answers.

For each correct answer, a weapon — such as a sword, dagger, or ax — flew in seemingly from off screen to kill some of the T-cell clumps. After answering four questions correctly, the winner’s character was revealed. With an animated celebration on screen and a host-led round of applause, that participant was declared victorious.

After completing the game, participants were directed to a salesperson who gathered their contact information, validated their redemption tickets, and answered product questions. Based on this qualification, staffers then directed qualified attendees to the second activity — the Protopic-related challenge — and immediately sent unqualified attendees to redeem their tickets for the personalized journals.

Hide and Seek

The Protopic activity — The Differences You Can See Challenge — used side-by-side, before-and-after comparisons to emphasize Protopic’s benefits. Attendees competed individually on one of four monitors scattered throughout the booth.

In the first part of the activity, participants answered multiple-choice questions about Protopic. For each correct answer, they earned 20 seconds. After five questions, they completed the second part of the activity, where they used their time earned. Here, participants viewed two side-by-side images of a speed-related environment, such as a swim meet. The near-identical images included five subtle differences, which attendees had to locate and touch before their time ran out.

Next came a case study of a real eczema patient. The participant then saw a “before” image of the patient and a photo taken after he or she had used Protopic. With their remaining time, attendees had to identify and touch five differences between the before and after photos on the screen.

After attendees completed the second activity, staffers once again answered product questions and validated tickets, which could be exchanged for personalized luggage tags at a nearby redemption station.

“The second activity demonstrated that Protopic clearly provides results you can see,” says Dave Sherman, Matrex’s creative director. “The differences in the Protopic-treated patients were startling. Compared to the fun, speed-related activity attendees had just completed, the patient’s differences were really easy to spot — thereby emphasizing the product’s speed and efficacy.”

While judges applauded the program’s integration and clever concept, they singled out these two activities as paramount to its success. “The interactive activities not only drew traffic to the booth,” judges said, “but they were solid educational devices — and prerequisites for the giveaways. As people participated in the activities, onlookers no doubt soaked up the knowledge as well. That’s a far cry from simply giving out swag.”

The Aftermath

Pairing homicidal characters with educational activities might not seem like a typical prescription for success, but it was a stellar strategy for Astellas. While the integrated elements and activities drew 2,500 of the show’s 8,253 attendees to the booth — more than five times Astellas’ goal of 450 — a whopping 1,500 of those attendees participated in one or both activities and spent an average of 10 minutes in the booth, roughly twice as long as the previous year.

“You know your program is truly successful,” Sherman says, “when the show closes and the hall lights start to go off, but you’ve still got a line of people in your booth, all waiting to learn about your products.” e