Hiatus in Writing
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Hello All-
My apologies for the extended hiatus in writing. Busy times here at Mariner and unfortunately my time management skills leave little to be desired.
Since the inner workings of a software company is the focus of this blog, I wanted to share a particular predicament we have upon the horizon. Macworld Expo 2007 is approaching (early January) fast and there is always the internal debate this time of year over whether we should exhibit or not. In the Apple sandbox that we, Mariner, currently play in, Macworld is _the_ tradeshow to attend if you want exposure. But what is exposure worth? We have been exhibiting at the show the last few years and each year grows more and more expensive to attend. How expensive? Let’s break it down...
-Booth space - 10 x 20 = $10,000
-Creating materials for the show - $5,000
-Tchatkies (I never remember how to spell this word!) - $500
-Shipping materials - $800
-Hotel - $3,000
-Airfare - $1,500
-Miscellaneous (taxi, food, stuff) - $1,000
Almost $22,000.
Now, as you can probably guess, we aren’t the biggest company in the world and our annual marketing budget would probably equate to an hour’s worth at Microsoft, so you can probably see why we wrestle with this every year. Sure we can sell product off the show floor and recoup some of the cost, but the reality is that that only covers a small portion of the overall expense.
How about the intangibles?
-Having a booth at Macworld gives a company credibility and reinforces the brand to those that attend.
Well, yeah, but how do you put a price tag on that?
-Having a booth at Macworld gives a company the opportunity to meet up with existing partners and even network with potential partners.
True. Meeting face-to-face with partners is always better than via email or over the phone.
-Having a booth at Macworld lets a company “put their finger on the pulse“ of what customers are wanting.
Absolutely. Of all the intangibles, this would be the most important.
I suspect we’ll end up going but I have to admit, I’m looking forward to the day when Macworld becomes a virtual show!
Mike
My apologies for the extended hiatus in writing. Busy times here at Mariner and unfortunately my time management skills leave little to be desired.
Since the inner workings of a software company is the focus of this blog, I wanted to share a particular predicament we have upon the horizon. Macworld Expo 2007 is approaching (early January) fast and there is always the internal debate this time of year over whether we should exhibit or not. In the Apple sandbox that we, Mariner, currently play in, Macworld is _the_ tradeshow to attend if you want exposure. But what is exposure worth? We have been exhibiting at the show the last few years and each year grows more and more expensive to attend. How expensive? Let’s break it down...
-Booth space - 10 x 20 = $10,000
-Creating materials for the show - $5,000
-Tchatkies (I never remember how to spell this word!) - $500
-Shipping materials - $800
-Hotel - $3,000
-Airfare - $1,500
-Miscellaneous (taxi, food, stuff) - $1,000
Almost $22,000.
Now, as you can probably guess, we aren’t the biggest company in the world and our annual marketing budget would probably equate to an hour’s worth at Microsoft, so you can probably see why we wrestle with this every year. Sure we can sell product off the show floor and recoup some of the cost, but the reality is that that only covers a small portion of the overall expense.
How about the intangibles?
-Having a booth at Macworld gives a company credibility and reinforces the brand to those that attend.
Well, yeah, but how do you put a price tag on that?
-Having a booth at Macworld gives a company the opportunity to meet up with existing partners and even network with potential partners.
True. Meeting face-to-face with partners is always better than via email or over the phone.
-Having a booth at Macworld lets a company “put their finger on the pulse“ of what customers are wanting.
Absolutely. Of all the intangibles, this would be the most important.
I suspect we’ll end up going but I have to admit, I’m looking forward to the day when Macworld becomes a virtual show!
Mike
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posted by
Michael Wray
at
2:24 PM
9 Comments:
Wow - how many people is that based on?
Markus
Hi Markus-
5 or so, probably.
Mike
I have worked many shows with a manufacture, I feel for ya! It is always tough to decide on what to do. I have gone to many Mac worlds but alas no longer. I pretty much limit myself to NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) which is held in Los Vegas in April every year...and that I go only every other year.
I have seen in my travels many venders pool together and share booth expenses. You may want to consider that.
You may want to consider, doing several smaller, regional shows, targetted to various audiences.
You may also want to do seminars to regional groups...especially with Montage.
Just some ideas...that I have found effective.
Good Luck.
Seasons Greetings Mariner:
You know, there's a park across the street from the Javits Convention Center here in the the Big Apple where more and more you find smaller exhibitors camping out among the hot dog and pretezel vendors hawking their wares instead of paying the outrageous convention parking fees -- and they get traffic! I'd personally be more impressed by a company doing this to sink better money into R&D than have a carpet and roof over their heads.
James Greenidge
Hi All-
Thanks for the note. Well, we ultimately bit the bullet and paid for floor space. Let me tell you, that was a painful check to write! :-)
Mike
So, how did the Macworld Expo go?
The guys at Rogue Amoeba just posted a similar post. Not quite as expensive as your numbers (smaller booth, maybe less people), but still, not cheap!
http://www.rogueamoeba.com/utm/posts/Article/MWSF-Costs-2007-01-16-09-00#comments
What is "Tschtkies"? A restaurant? If so, shouldn't that just be wrapped up in the Miscellaneous category?
Are you planning on posting a follow up to see if attending the expo is ultimately worth it?
Hey Chad-
Wow - the Rogue guys really broke it down. Very impressive and pretty damn accurate. My .02 on the worth of Macworld is similar to the theirs, depends on how big of a company you are. For smaller shareware companies, it's not worth it. For smaller to medium sized companies, yes, it probably is. The trouble with assocating a value with MW is that much of the value comes with intangibles. Networking, meetings, strengthening parterships, creating mind share, these are all the things that can really make or break a show for a company, yet are tough to put a price tag on. In our case, I'd say it probably was. The expense sucks but it's the cost of doing business.
Tchatchkies = giveaways
I have no idea on how to spell this word! :-)
Perhaps "swag" would have been a better term. Goodies to attract the attendees. Kind of like a career fair, need to bring the fun toys.
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