Tradeagcs

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From the General Manager

Peter Frewin

september 2013

Welcome to the Spring 2013 edition of AGCSATrade. I hope that the information provided in this newsletter is relevant

and worth the read.

Since the last edition there have been some further staff changes at the AGCSA with the position of membership manager being made redundant. We have been working through the membership renewal process and hopefully you have all paid your membership for the current 2013-2014 financial year. If not, perhaps this can serve as a reminder for you to ensure your membership is current. Please feel free to contact the AGCSA office on (03) 9548 8600 or email info@agcsa.com.au and we will arrange an invoice.

In this edition of AGCSATrade we look at the recent 29th Australian Turfgrass Conference Trade Exhibititon at Twin Waters, in particular the results of the trade survey and AGCSA Trade Challenge golf event. Matthew Bywater (4Promote) will give his thoughts on trade shows and how to get the best out of this excellent marketing opportunity for your organisation. We also look ahead to the launch of the 30th Australian Turfgrass Conference Trade Exhibition which takes place on Wednesday, 16 October 2013.

Twin Waters ConferenceThe 29th Australian Turfgrass Conference and Trade Exhibition is now but a distant memory and I trust that anyone who did attend has converted some of the interest into sales. The general feedback from delegates and exhibitors was excellent and later in this editon we will look at the survey results in more detail.

At the Twin Waters event we ran the second AGCSA Trade Challenge golf event and I am pleased to report the event continues to grow. The players on arrival at Twin Waters were greeted by a course in excellent condition and weather to match. It was pleasing to see some new teams participating.

Winners of the AGCSA Trade Challenge teams event was the No.1 team from Globe Growing Solutions. The team made up of

Kevin Booth (NSW), Mark Dougherty (Vic) and Jeff Bowtell (NSW), who are pictured left, posted a very competitive score of 71 points. For their efforts they won $2500 worth of advertising in Australian Turfgrass Management Journal. The Globe team edged out the AGCSA team made up of Andrew Peart, Brett Robinson and new AGCSA Board member Robin Doodson by one point. The individual event was won by Mark Johnson (Toro) with an excellent score of 37 points.

30th Australian Turfgrass Conference Trade Exhibition LaunchThe 2014 event will be launched on Wednesday 16 October, 2013 starting at 2pm at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre for anyone interested in attending. The launch will include a tour of the facility and an information session which should assist in your planning for the event. The AGCSA has negotiated a special rate at The Sofitel on the night of Wednesday, 16 October. To make a booking please call the reservations number - 1800 074 465 and quote AUS161013-001. More details on the launch are included later in the newsletter.

Enjoy the read and again if you have any comments or suggestion please feel free to contact me at any time.

Trade show success

Trade shows can be your cheapest sales call, allowing you to interact with clients who would normally not let you in the door. They also allow

for product demonstrations that would not be possible in another situation.

A study in the US found that trade shows are ranked number one as a leading source of in-depth information. This could be because the attendee can interact with the product vendor - not just read a brochure or website but actually ask in-depth questions.

Why not make your next trade show the best ever? If you plan, budget and execute early in the show year, you will give a great trade show experience to everyone who comes by your booth. And I can guarantee if you do that you will also gain powerful new customer leads in the process.

Presence and appearanceYour presence at a trade show should be a continuation of your company branding. From the look of your booth to the promotional products that you give away, you should be working to enhance your company image. Everything that produces a visual image, including staff, booth, and promotional products, will make an impression on the customer. You want that impression to be positive and lasting. How can you achieve that?

At most trade shows, even if you cannot choose where your booth is located, you can choose the size of your booth and its appearance. This is usually dictated by cost and also by the products that you offer.

Any booth, no matter what the size, can have special lighting with dynamic graphics and appealing colour. If your booth looks ordinary, people walking by assume that your product is ordinary. Be creative in designing your booth and through colour and proportional staging, your booth can stand out from the ordinary booths around it.

Don’t be afraid to be different, but make sure that everything that you put in that booth makes the visitor experience affirm

the viability of your company. Make them remember you as a vibrant, innovative company which wants them as a customer. Much of this appears in the subconscious, but that is where our perceptions are formed. An individual creates their own perception so they tend to believe them.

Part of the look of the booth is the appearance of the employees staffing the booth. Keeping with the theme of your booth, have a uniform designed with your logo that every staff member will wear. That way, there is no mistaking who works for the company and who is simply visiting the booth. Since you only have 20 seconds

to attract someone into the booth, this powerful visual image will subtly impact those who visit or pass by. If your company has several divisions, have a different colored shirt for each division. The logo on each shirt will be the unifying factor.

There is also another aspect to having your staff in uniforms; you want your booth to be a full-service booth, not a self-serve booth. You want your employees to engage with old customers and new leads. Just wearing the shirts presents a unified front to all show visitors and a powerful image for those passing by - we are here for you, our customer!

Promote, promote, promoteBefore any trade show, you need to do some specialised marketing to create ‘buzz’ about your upcoming trade show. First, you should build a powerful press kit, but keep the hard copy to a minimum. Upload all of your materials onto an custom-branded thumb drive (USB). That thumb drive, an easy give-away, becomes a useful tool for the press and one that they will keep after the show with your brand in their hands regularly. You can also put your customer marketing materials on this same custom-branded thumb drive, for stats show that 94 per cent of all people prefer to take away useful items from a trade show. In our technological world, a thumb drive, especially with your branding on it, is most useful.

Alert your customers to the fact that you will be participating in the trade show. You can post the ‘event’ on Facebook, tweet and blog about it, send emails to your mailing list, and overall, give them some type of compelling reason to attend and visit your booth. Give a great prize away, or samples of your product, or free consulting time, or whatever fits with your branding. You need to stand out from the crowd in order to make your own crowd.

Think about what you will do for your marketing efforts once you are at the show. Start small, but do have a plan. Ideas: continue to tweet about what is happening. You can also live-stream videos, interviews and other interesting things that might be going on. QR codes have become very popular and you will want to design one that has product or company information on it or design it as part of your prize give-away promotion. The trick here is to post the QR code within your booth, so that people will have to come inside to scan it. This way, you are exposed to new people and you are also assured that the information on the QR code will not be distorted if it is scanned from a business card or flyer. Some shows are now making scannable badges for attendees. Scan these badges and add them to your “leads” list, for those are hot leads. They have already shown interest in your product and the trade show.

What will bring people into your booth? Yes, your product is incredible, but people like enticements when they go to a trade show, so what will you be offering? Promotional products are amazing marketing products, for they will produce more customers for less money than any other marketing venue. A promotional product has to be chosen with several objectives in mind:

l The product must fit with the company branding and marketing plan;

l The product needs to be useful to the customer; and

l The product must be of quality construction and in good taste.

A number of professional organisations and universities have studied the effectiveness of promotional products. After receiving a promotional product, over 83 per cent of the recipients could remember the company, and 75 per cent recalled the product or service involved. Then, after receiving a promotional product and after viewing ads (TV and online), consumers were much more likely (21 per cent more) to purchase the product. Baylor University recently found that promotional products can increase customer response rates by up to 75 per cent. Promotional items can make a huge difference to your bottom line.The type of promotional product(s) that your company should consider as giveaways at a trade show are dependent upon the company product and branding.

For example, if a dairy is exhibiting, a clever refrigerator magnet might be a good giveaway - complete with their logo, product and contact information. A construction company might offer a kit of small tools; a psychologist might offer a funny stress reliever ball. The underlying theme here is that no matter what the promotional product is, its purpose is to specifically sell the company and its products to customers and it should be chosen with that in mind.

Post-conferenceThe trade show is over, so you now think you can rest. WRONG! This is another critical part of the trade show, for you need to follow up on all of those leads that you gained during the show. Announce your prize winners, post videos and interviews, and most importantly, send thank you notes. Continue tweeting about different things that may have happened during the show or funny comments that people made. After the dust settles, sit down with your team and review everything that you did for this trade show. What worked? What didn’t? Why did it work or not work? Analyse everything and make copious notes, for next year’s trade show is just a few days away.

Matthew BywaterPromotional Products Strategist

29th australian Turfgrass Trade exhibitionsurvey results

Thanks to all who completed the Trade Exhibition survey following this year’s Twin Waters event. Comments from these surveys

are used when planning future events so your input is vital. This year we had a great response and we thank all those who took the time to complete the survey, in particular those who went to the added effort of providing comments.

While the general consensus regarding Twin Waters was very positive, a venue like this does have some limitations, in particular the size of the property. The other disappointing aspect of the conference was the limited support we had from local organisations. While some did attend the trade show or sent staff to the event, I am sure this number could have been considerably higher. Having discussed this with some of the locals after the event, we may have been victim to the nice weather as many had intended to visit but with the fine weather many took the opportunity to do some long delayed works on their respective facilities.

Survey resultsSome interesting statistics from the survey this year:

l Over 87 per cent of people who completed the survey were happy with overall attendance numbers.

l Over 98 per cent were happy with Twin Waters as a venue.

l Over 86 per cent of those who completed the survey were happy with the business they conducted during the event. This is a great result considering that many would see this type of event as a branding exercise.

l Shown below are the results of the survey regarding questions about venue, floor plan, bump in/out, catering and the social events.

The floor plan for the 2014 event, which is a part of this newsletter, was developed with input from this and previous surveys,

in particular some of the design elements.

Phone appOne of the interesting things that did come out of the survey was the limited numbers of trade companies that took advantage of the phone app. The AGCSA provided this service free of charge to exhibitors. Of those that completed the survey only 41 per cent of exhibitors downloaded the app. Interestingly, 67 per cent indicated they did not take advantage of app at all, however, 86 per cent said they would use it in future.

What is of more significance is that over 88 per cent of conference delegates that completed the survey downloaded and used the app. The AGCSA membership is going through significant change at present and this type of technology and interaction is very important to our newer members. Hopefully more will take the opportunity at the 2014 event as this form of technology can be a great marketing opportunity.

Thanks again for your input and please don’t hesitate to contact the AGCSA office should you like any additional information.

SIMPLOT PARTNERS WELCOMES

SCOTT MCKAYSIMPLOT PARTNERS is proud to announce that SCOTT MCKAY has taken up the

position of Technical Development Manager. Scott will spearhead our new Simplot

Analytical Services as well as specialty product development, sales and Apex support.

www.simplotpartners.com.au

30th australian Turfgrass Trade exhibition

Planning for the 2014 event, to be held at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre on 24-26 June 2014, is well underway. As

part of this newsletter we detail the floor plan and booth cost. You will note some changes to pricing structure of booths which need to be considered before selecting your preferred location.

In developing the floor plans and pricing structure I have visited or spoken to many AGCSA Trade members; if I have not been in contact with you please accept my apologies as there are only so many hours in the day.

As with the 2013 event we have allowed the AGCSA’s major partners - Toro (Platinum), Jacobsen and Syngenta (both Gold) and Bayer, John Deere and Rain Bird (all Silver) - the opportunity to pre-select their positions on the trade show floor prior to release. The reasoning for this is twofold; it recognises their significant support of the AGCSA, but also allows others that are attending to see where the major players are positioned to allow a decision to be made regarding their booth selection.

All booths (whether they be shell scheme or floor space) have been costed taking into consideration their position on the trade show floor. We have determined that they will be classified as Premium, Intermediate and Budget and are

priced accordingly. The prices have been determined from previous years and we feel that they are reasonable and give exhibitors an option regarding individual spend. As an indication of cost, the 3m x 3m Budget booth is cheaper than those at Twin Waters earlier this year.

All booths, unless marked with **, come with the following inclusions: l 2 x Trade Show meals;l 2 x Presidents Welcome Dinner

(Monday night TBC);l 2 x Farewell Reception (Thur pm TBC);l 2 x Trade Show opening ‘Happy hour’

on the Tuesday evening;l 1 x Team (3 players) in AGCSA Trade

Challenge to be played on Monday, 23 June 2014;

l 1 x A4 insert into conference satchel, CD or USB stick (TBC);

l Company representation on AGCSA phone app

Booths in table below marked with ** delete 2 and replace with 4 (eg 4 x Trade Show meals).

Trade Exhibition Launch - Wednesday, 16 October 2013.2pm: Assemble at Meeting Rooms 10-12 which are located upstairs at the northern end of the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre.2.30pm: Presentation and trade show launch.

3pm Meet the suppliers - Exponet (exhibition build company) and Schenker (AGCSA freight company)3.30pm: Tour of convention centre and local facilities4.30pm - 6pm: Sofitel Hotel - Level 23 for drinks and finger food.

Booth salesAs with previous years booth sales will open on a predetermined timetable that recognises the companies that support the AGCSA and the event.

Wednesday, 16 October 2013Booth sales open to all who attend the 30th Australian Turfgrass Trade Exhibition launch at Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre and AGCSA Bronze partners.

Wednesday, 23 October 2013Booth sales open for AGCSA Trade members and those that exhibited at Twin Waters in 2013.

Wednesday, 30 October 2013Booth sales open to all.

If you want to attend the launch, please reply to peter@agcsa.com.au by close of business Wednesday 9 October, 2013 so we can confirm numbers for catering.

Booth size Rating Number Available Cost3m x 3m shell schemed booth Premium (14 in total) $4,750 inclusive of GST Intermediate (18 in total) $4,250 inclusive of GST Budget (28 in total) $3,750 inclusive of GST

6m x 3m shell schemed booth Premium (5 in total) $6,400 inclusive of GST Intermediate (14 in total) $5,850 inclusive of GST 5m x 5m shell schemed booth Premium (4 in total) $8,300 inclusive of GST Intermediate (2 in total) $7,645 inclusive of GST

6m x 5m floor space only Premium (2 in total) $9,950 inclusive of GST

10m x 5m floor space only** Premium (1 in total) $12,500 inclusive of GST

10m x 6m floor space only** Premium (1 in total) $13,900 inclusive of GST Intermediate (2 in total) $11,900 inclusive of GST 11m x 9m floor space only** Intermediate (1 in total) Price on application

14m x 14m floor space only** (2 in total) Price on application

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