Healthcare marketers are finding that in order to successfully launch products at tradeshows, their exhibits have to soar to new interactive realms. Getting healthcare professionals to cross that carpet barrier into your booth, now more than ever, requires more engaging and interactive tactics that virtual technology is starting to provide.
To hear about some of the innovative tools being used to launch products - touchscreens, "Kinetic Floating Sphere Kiosks," and "Vaso Defenders" - you'd think you were in a scene from "Star Trek: The Next Generation." But in actuality, this futuristic-sounding technology is being used to achieve traditional marketing objectives at trade shows. Since many medical professionals attend trade shows and conventions to obtain continued education, the healthcare marketers' mission is two-fold: to deliver useful educational information and promote products and services.
While the healthcare tradeshow floor can be extremely cluttered, marketers know they are a critical environment for reaching a medical target that cannot be reached effectively by any other means. In fact, up to 31 percent of physicians at medical meetings refuse to see sales representatives in the office, according to research conducted by Jerome P. Mars at Little Silver, N.J.-based Exhibitchek, which monitors the effectiveness of medical exhibits. Therefore, going a few extra marketing miles to capture target attention is crucial to tradeshow survival.
Current technologies, which include virtual reality, touchscreens, 3-D systems, CD-ROM, CD-I, laserdiscs, the Internet, Smart Cards and videoconferencing, are becoming dynamic ways to be seen and heard on the medical convention floor, according to Robert C. Gelardi, executive director of the Atlanta-based Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association.
Seeing Is Believing
Imagine using this technology to take your product message to the outer limits. That's exactly what the Lipitor exhibit did recently at the American College of Cardiology Convention in Anaheim, Calif. To demonstrate how Lipitor, a new cholesterol-lowering drug, was more effective than any of its competitors, co-marketers Parke-Davis and Pfizer enlisted the technological savvy of New York-based CCG MetaMedia. "We had to educate physicians very quickly on how Lipitor reduced LDL-cholesterol by 40-60 percent, something they had been hearing about since February," said Doug Hall, Lipitor's associate product manager.
After working with Parke-Davis and Pfizer for three months, CCG was briefed on Lipitor's marketing objectives and key clinical data. Upon FDA approval, the CCG team breathed life into the Lipitor information with two highly graphic exhibit configurations, 50 x 50 feet and 20 x 20 feet. Taking "seeing is believing" to a whole new interactive level, CCG conceived and designed a "Kinetic Floating Sphere Kiosks" exhibit that featured spheres that rose up to three feet on a pneumatic lift.
"We wanted to create a display that would intrigue physicians who might not otherwise enter the Lipitor booth," said Steve Rothman, CCG's creative director. Instead of delivering a lot of bland data-driven messages, Lipitor's target of cardiologists, general practitioners and other broad range physicians were taken on a 3-D journey that uniquely opened the window of opportunity for sales representatives. To aid in lead generation efforts, CCG created an interactive video display that ran on 35" monitors in the exhibit's three-sided central island. To follow up on the leads that were generated, Parke-Davis and Pfizer reps used the Lipitor Physician Resource Center, which allowed them to fulfill physician inquiries via e-mail. While at the show, sales reps are well-positioned to supplement the interactive exhibit with Lipitor printed marketing literature like brochures and promotional data.
"The [huge kiosk-dominated] presentation is an excellent extension of our campaign message which educates physicians very quickly on our competitive edge," said Hall. The exhibit, which will primarily target shows like the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Diabetes Association, and the American Heart Association, will continue to be evaluated and tweaked to deliver enhanced product information, according to Hall. "The flow of people into the booth is going really well, but we still have a little more work to do to get it where we want it."
For exhibits like this, there are two cost factors: design and fabrication ($150,000 to $300,000) and production of interactive technology and visual media ($100,000 to $200,000), according to Rothman. But for these exhibits to work, Chris Wilson, president and design director of Mostre' Design, Inc. emphasizes that the messages must be substantive and that marketers need to better prep their tradeshow targets. To this end, Wilson, who designs tradeshow exhibits, suggests sending out pre-show mailings and timely follow-up on the leads that are generated. "Lead generation tends to be higher for interactive exhibits," said Wilson, who cautions, "but if demand is so high that you can't fulfill it, your perception will still be negative."
(CCG MetaMedia, Inc., 212/268-2100; Parke-Davis, 201/540-4879; HCEA, 404/252-3663; Exhibitchek, 908/842-7414; Mostre' Design, Inc., 619/554-0212)