I N T E G R A T E D  P R O G R A M
	Exhibitor: Aon Corp. Creative: Slack Barshinger Inc., Chicago, 312-970-5800, www.slackbarshinger.com; Live Marketing, Chicago, 312-787-4800, www.livemarketing.com Production: Monster Media LLC, Orlando, FL, 800-276-2337, www.monstermedia.net; Derse Inc., Milwaukee, 414-257-2000, www.derse.com Show: Risk and Insurance Management Society Annual Conference & Exposition, 2006 Budget: $240,000 Goals: Generate 10 leads from corporate-level attendees. Create an opportunity for RIMS attendees to interact with the Aon brand and messaging. Results: Generated a 1,000-percent increase in sales directly attributed to the show. Collected 256 corporate-level sales leads. Lured 738 attendees to the exhibit. Gave attendees an in-booth experience that related directly to Aon’s core business.

hile one could argue that business is all about taking risks, Chicago-based Aon Corp.’s business is all about minimizing risks instead. The global risk-management, insurance, and consulting firm helps its clients identify potential pitfalls in business around the world, and then helps them find ways to sidestep possible trouble through changes in business practices or through business insurance.

That pragmatic attitude influenced the company’s past exhibit-marketing efforts, which had taken a low-risk approach. Aon had always played it safe, following the standard protocol of the industry, using its booth more as a meeting space than a marketing space, and making sure its salespersons’ dance cards were full of appointments with existing clients before the show began.

But in 2005, Phil Clement, Aon’s first-ever chief marketing officer, changed the company’s trade show focus from meeting and schmoozing with existing clients to an all-out attempt at generating sales leads and attracting new business. Clement’s commitment to face-to-face marketing brought a new enthusiasm for trade shows and what they could accomplish. With the industry’s biggest show, the 2006 Risk and Insurance Management Society Annual Conference and Exhibition (RIMS), a scant six months away, Clement decided to take a risk, abandoning Aon’s old strategy and ordering his staff to approach RIMS as a place to build Aon’s client base.

“We wanted to see if we could use RIMS to meet new people, not just set up meetings with the ones we already knew,” says Cathy Gavin, vice president of U.S. marketing communications at Aon. That meant setting goals and measuring results, something that Gavin had never done at the show.

“Since we had never measured ROI or documented the number of people who visited the booth before, we could have picked a goal out of thin air,” Gavin says. But her unspoken goal was simply to gather enough new leads — roughly 10 quality sales leads — to justify the $240,000 cost of Aon’s new RIMS strategy.

She also hoped to create opportunities for attendees to interact with the Aon brand, improve the industry’s understanding of Aon’s global capabilities and customized solutions, show Aon as up to date with today’s global business environment, and strengthen existing customer relationships.

For a company that had played it safe for so long, this new strategy seemed risky. So Aon embraced its old nemesis and, literally, made Risk part of the solution.

Getting on Board

Gavin contacted Chicago-based Slack Barshinger Inc., an integrated marketing-communications firm led by idea-man Gary Slack, to brainstorm tactics to turn Aon’s presence at RIMS into a lead-generating endeavor.

Slack Barshinger laid out a whole new battle plan for Aon, which meant creating a whole new battlefield, hiring a group of mercenaries, and leaving the competition’s pride wounded.

The cornerstone of the new plan was the classic board game Risk — the Hasbro Inc. strategy game involving armies, dice, and game cards. Slack Barshinger planned to incorporate features of the game into a promotional strategy designed to bring clients into Aon’s booth and keep them coming back.

To Gavin, the idea seemed inspired. After all, RIMS isn’t a consumer show where attendees are dying to try out exhibitors’ products. “RIMS is insurance and risk management, so there’s nothing to taste or touch,” Gavin says. “This gave people a reason to stop by the exhibit.”

Unlike other exhibits in the industry that rely on celebrities or putting greens — sideshows that have nothing to do with insurance or risk management — the Risk game brought ready-made connections to the industry. “It wasn’t gimmicky or silly. It was smart,” Gavin says.

After securing the rights from Hasbro to use the Risk game, the company marched forward with a plan to use the fame of the board game to attract armies of attendees to its booth and teach them about Aon’s place in the industry.

Aon Corp. incorporated elements of the popular war-strategy board game Risk into its exhibit at the 2006 Risk and Insurance Management Society Annual Conference and Exhibition (RIMS). The resulting promotional campaign generated 25 times the number of expected leads.

Waging War

Aon started working on RIMS attendees eight weeks before the show, sending a mini replica of the Risk game box to 1,800 pre-registered attendees. The mailer bombarded recipients with an invitation to the Aon booth, a Risk-style game card that placed each attendee on one of six color-coded teams, small army-figurine game pieces from the Risk board game, and an “Official Aon Risk at RIMS 2006 Manual.” The manual included rules for Aon’s Risk game; a guide to Aon’s in-booth speakers, sessions, and events at RIMS; and a message from new CEO Greg Case. The entire package replicated the look of Risk, including the red Risk name and map art from the game.

The official manual explained how attendees could earn points for their teams by completing various tasks at the show, including visiting the booth to participate in an interactive-map activity. The instructions also explained that the team that earned the most points at the show would be eligible to win one of several prizes, such as a pair of round-trip airline tickets anywhere in the world and one of 100 GPS locators.

The pre-show blitz didn’t stop there. Aon infiltrated several industry publications with ads that encouraged readers to visit Aon at RIMS. The ads included tear-off corners that could be brought to RIMS to earn additional points for each attendee’s Risk team. The company also set up a RIMS-specific Web site that included the basic information from the manual, show information, and a blog that ran during the show and focused on the Aon exhibit.

Plan of Attack

After registering for Aon’s Risk game by scanning their badges, attendees were given an Aon-branded Risk board game to take home, and a color-coded Risk-themed pin to wear that identified their respective Risk team.

	“RIMS is insurance and risk management, so there’s nothing to taste or touch. This gave people a reason to stop by the exhibit.”

Then, they were greeted by one of four ambassadors in the booth, who were actually mercenaries from Live Marketing. The ambassadors asked each attendee three questions: Are you currently doing business with Aon? Have you ever been an Aon client? What services are you currently interested in?

Gavin says those three qualifying questions tell Aon what it needs to know about each attendee. “If you’re a client, that takes the conversation in a different direction,” Gavin says. “If not, how well do you know us? How come you’re not using us anymore, or what do you need that we can provide?” After qualifying attendees, the ambassadors lead them to the interactive-map activity.

The map was an 8-by-10-foot interactive projection on the floor of Aon’s 20-by-40-foot booth. Created by Monster Media LLC, the motion-activated map featured boxes corresponding to the various regions of the world. By stepping on one of the boxes on the map, attendees activated pop-up messages projected onto the floor that contained risk information about the corresponding region, along with risk-management solutions offered by Aon.

After the map activity, ambassadors escorted attendees to a sales rep who asked additional qualifying questions from the lead form. After the lead form was completed, staffers thanked attendees for visiting the booth and informed them that an Aon rep would follow up with them within 24 to 48 hours.

Battling for Aon’s Goodies

When the show opened, attendees mobbed the Aon exhibit like an invading horde, massing at the registration desk ready to swipe their show badges so they could join the fray — or at least the Risk game — and fire their first salvo in the battle for prizes. “We had a line of people waiting, holding their badges,” Gavin says. “They wanted to see what the map was all about.”

The demand to play Risk and earn points for their teams was so high that attendees who had not received game cards in the mail or had forgotten their cards at home were worried that they wouldn’t be able to participate. But Aon’s plan of conquest included the late-registering attendees and forgetful, who were sorted onto teams, told how to play the game, and qualified along with everyone else who entered the Aon booth.

With airline tickets and GPS locators awaiting the victors, attendees worked hard to earn points for their teams. Getting a badge swiped — the start of the qualification process — earned five points for the team. Talking to a sales rep earned 25 points. Taking part in the interactive-map activity earned 10 points. While these points were awarded automatically once attendees registered at the booth and made their way from the ambassadors to the map and the sales reps, there were other ways attendees could earn points for their teams. And the hunt for points kept attendees focused on Aon and away from the competition.

Aon sponsored the coffee service at several locations around the exhibit hall, and the provided cups featured tear-off tabs (five points). Street teams handed out cards (one point) to attendees walking near the convention center. Attendees redeemed their points by returning the cards and tabs to the Aon booth and dropping them into a color-coded bin that corresponded to their respective teams. The points were counted several times each day, and the updated scores were displayed in the exhibit.

	“I love the interactive map and how attendees can learn from it. It not only links back to the Risk game, it also educates attendees about the company’s products.”

Measuring the Victory

While Aon didn’t take any prisoners, the company did tally 738 attendees who had taken part in the game, nearly one-third of the show’s total audience. Aon also distributed nearly 800 of the branded Risk games to RIMS attendees. Furthermore, the company qualified 256 new corporate-level leads, more than 25 times Gavin’s initial goal. Due to Aon’s lengthy sales cycle, the impact from the show is still being measured, Gavin says, but there’s a very good reason to be optimistic.

“Each piece of business could be anywhere from $50,000 to millions of dollars,” Gavin says. “And we might not see it for years, but the payoff of the show could be many millions of dollars in revenue.”

The Risk game — with its focus on international conquest and the associated risks — gave attendees a fun way to think about the world of Aon’s business. More than 25,000 points were earned by the six teams. All these points, Gavin says, corresponded to actual touch points with attendees and moments when they interacted with the Aon brand.

The clever, and highly successful, connection between the product and the promotion was not lost on Sizzle Awards judges. “The Risk game is a great fit for the company,” said one judge. “I love the interactive map and how attendees can learn from it. It not only links back to the Risk game, it also educates attendees about the company’s products.”

In the end, Aon’s spoils of war included impressive accolades and, for the first time, measurable results that far exceeded expectations, proving that the company’s calculated risk was more than fun and games, it was also good business. e