Streamline Exhibit Success

In the dynamic realm of experiential marketing, collaboration is a cornerstone of success. Marketers work with many specialists and subject matter experts to harness innovative ideas and cutting-edge technologies. Within campaigns lies a crucial aspect often overlooked: the symbiotic relationship between marketers and external vendors.

One challenge that marketing teams face in this area is the huge complexity of managing different vendors for each of the elements required to deliver a campaign. Coordinating across multiple vendors exhausts critical staff time, increases costs, and creates ownership ambiguities.

When it comes to experiential marketing, the more this array of vendors can be streamlined, the better. In fact, many marketing and events teams choose to work with a single all-in-one service provider to virtually eliminate miscommunication and logistical inefficiencies while providing the creative, strategic, and technological advantages needed to elevate performance. Let’s take a closer look at the implications of partner selection on experiential marketing success.

For many marketing teams developing experiential marketing campaigns, it’s common to rely on multiple vendors. Historically, it has been challenging to find a single vendor able to deliver strategic guidance, creative vision, manufacturing capabilities, and on-site support. This is not to mention the difficulty in finding vendors that can meet diverse experiential marketing needs across categories such as trade shows, other in-person events, and experiential branding for touchpoints like corporate and retail interiors.

But working with multiple vendors presents a unique set of challenges in terms of organizational dynamics and operational efficiencies. “Customers often face challenges such as coordinating multiple vendors with varying communication styles and timelines, managing logistics, and ensuring consistency across different aspects of their trade show and marketing presence,” says Justin Dworak, President of Star.

The reality of navigating multiple relationships involves critical pain points such as:

Vendor coordination and communication: Communicating with multiple vendors and ensuring smooth coordination between different stakeholders is challenging. Even when things go smoothly, it’s time-consuming for internal teams who are working with external vendors to save time and gain extensible capacity. A change in schedule or a shift in creative vision may need to be communicated to dozens of stakeholders, and there’s always the risk that there’s a lack of shared understanding. In addition, coordinating multiple firms working on complex projects requires negotiating dependencies. One breakdown in communication or missed deadline can completely derail a project, and having several vendors can make it difficult to identify responsibility or proactively source solutions.

Costs: As the costs associated with events and experiential marketing rise, there’s also a concern about managing escalating costs across a wide slate of vendors. Research found that event vendors and event teams have noticed increased baseline costs in categories such as shipping, labor, fabrication, venue fees, and A/V technology. Working with multiple vendors across a fragmented landscape makes it harder to exercise cost controls, prevent duplicate spending, and take advantage of cost discounts.

Lack of strategic and creative direction: Another challenge of working with multiple vendors, on a single project or across your marketing agenda, is delivering a consistent brand experience. Developing a strategic and creative vision is a significant undertaking and ensuring that vendors adhere to that vision in their piece of the project can be difficult. A misunderstanding or different interpretations of critical aspects of a project can result in a trade show exhibit or experiential event that doesn’t speak effectively to customers. Working with multiple vendors requires so much logistical effort that the opportunity for deeper strategic ideation and developing a compelling, cohesive creative vision often takes a back seat or gets overlooked entirely.

Troubleshooting and support: Events are high-stress marketing initiatives even when everything goes smoothly. They’re highly visible, and significant budget and business outcomes are on the line. When an issue arises, fast and efficient responses from your network of vendors are crucial. For example, if a shipping issue occurs and one piece of a trade show booth buildout is going to be late, which vendor is best positioned to solve the issue? As Dworak notes, “When you have one company

With so much at stake, companies are embracing a new way of approaching experiential marketing campaigns by looking for integrated partners. Specifically, they’re seeking partners that have the breadth and depth of expertise and services to deliver all-in-one support.

When a single company has the creative chops, fabrication capabilities, sourcing and shipping relationships, and the staff needed to provide on-site support for an event, the cost and complexity of that business relationship decrease. Communications can be routed through a single point of contact you’ve built a relationship with and who understands your business.

Ultimately, more firms are turning to integrated solutions to streamline operations, enhance efficiency, and amplify their creative outcomes. Some of the key benefits of partnering with a multiple-services provider include:

Cost savings: Brands turning to all-in-one services partners are looking for specific value propositions. One of the most critical is cost savings. CMOs and events teams are willing to invest, but it’s important that resources are effectively stewarded, and that ROI is maximized.

Events are a significant part of the B2B marketing budget, and event budgets are increasing. One report released last year found that projected budgets rose 70% year-over-year and were 9% higher than pre-pandemic levels. However, those budgets are being scrutinized. Research from Exhibitor Live found that 63% of events industry professionals are concerned with rising costs, and 20% of buyers identified this issue as their top concern.

Shifting from working with multiple vendors to one partner can result in significant cost savings. Often, integrated solutions partners have relationships that allow them to negotiate preferred rates on construction components, shipping, and other costs that translate to customer savings. Building budgets
for integrated projects, identifying strategies for reuse, and having access to solutions such as rental options are just a few of the ways that all-in-one services partners help exhibitors save money.

Cost savings aren’t just about dollars; there are also the bottom line impacts of greater efficiency, saved staff time, and freeing up internal team members to work on high-value strategic projects. Working with an outside expert does have associated costs. However, their expertise more than pays for itself when achieving both desired results and greater efficiency.

Simplified communication: One significant logistical challenge of managing multiple vendors is communications and coordination. Sharing a change in schedule or a shift in theme with only one point of contact is an easy process to maneuver. An integrated partner can then use their holistic vision of the project plan to determine which elements of the project are impacted and adjust for the change across all the appropriate areas of service.

“A single point of contact that can handle all aspects of a project streamlines communication and coordination, saving our clients time and resources,” says Dworak

Consistent logistics and staffing support: Events and marketing require hundreds of small logistical steps and decisions. Often, these dependencies shape how smoothly the operations and campaigns will run. Shifting to a single point of contact with an integrated partner ensures that in-house coordination across departments is seamless. With the bigger picture immediately available to everyone working on your account, it’s easier to ensure that shipping and staffing decisions are made with your company’s outcomes in mind. Logistics and staffing are built into the overall success plan of your initiatives and managed by one point of contact who deploys those resources in the most efficient way possible. Preshow support, post-show support, and on-site support are all accessible as needed.

Strategic and creative alignment: Bringing together multiple vendors to realize a creative vision can be a challenge. However, an integrated partner that understands your brand and can lend their expertise to the planning process can become a key asset. Not only can they partner with you to ensure the maximum impact of a single project, but they can optimize your investment and customer impact across a series of events or initiatives.

“Working with the right outside partner will provide you with fresh thinking and ideas, lead the process from start to finish, and help you measure ROI,” notes Dworak.

Troubleshooting, emergencies, and adapting to changing needs: Issues arise during events. Consider, for example, that a screen rolling digital footage during an event experiences a technical problem. Solving this issue when there are five vendors involved is complicated. When you’re working with an integrated partner, however, an account manager will have access to a variety of solutions from on-site backup technology to staff who can quickly switch out the technology to minimize the issues

Working with an integrated services partner also gives you the flexibility to quickly address needs on short timelines, without adding another vendor to the mix. When an organization is invited to participate in an event with short notice, an integrated partner can leverage rental inventory quickly and efficiently while delivering a branded experience on a tight timeline.

Customized, iterative ROI programs: The ROI of marketing programs is a top consideration for companies. Working with an integrated partner provides the opportunity to develop customized, iterative ROI programs for events and marketing campaigns. Today, there’s a desire to go beyond the metrics of MQLs generated to measure the success of events and marketing campaigns. An integrated partner can understand other measures that are appropriate for your business and implement strategies to track them. For example, technology can be used to track sentiment and engagement during trade show events. Strategic partners with deep expertise in different aspects of experiential marketing can also offer tips and plans that will help you achieve your target, using best practices, creative design, and technology integrations.

Streamlined procurement and invoicing: An integrated partner helps streamline accounting, administration, and invoicing. The procurement process can be complex, from setting vendors up in your company’s systems to reviewing and approving invoices. Working with multiple vendors adds to your accounting team’s workload and demands oversight and engagement from internal managers to approve invoices, expenses, and more. By consolidating to working with one services partner, the onboarding, payment, and ongoing supplier management processes can be vastly simplified, saving both time and money.

Benefits beyond a single project: While an integrated services partner can deliver a higher level of service and results for a single event, there’s also significant benefits for companies that integrate these partnerships into their larger marketing campaigns. Partners can deliver creative insights and strategic input across your annual program of events, as well as ensure that all customer touchpoints are consistently branded. The deeper synergies that emerge allow the marketing experts to find new creative and strategic directions to achieve those goals, and to more closely align with overarching goals.

3M is an innovation powerhouse that develops audacious solutions to pressing global challenges like climate change and clean energy. That was the marketing problem that 3Mset out to solve at CES 2024, the most powerful tech event on the planet. The 3M team wanted to tell a new brand story through its CES exhibit to help position 3M as a future-focused company that’s solving big global problems.

“We were looking for a fresh and innovative approach to stand out at CES. But we had an extremely tight timeline and a limited budget compared to other companies of our size at CES,” said Collin Hummel, senior manager of brand sponsorships, 3M. “Right from the initial consultation with the Star team, they exhibited a deep understanding of our goals and vision. Their experience in this space helped us quickly realize we were on a path to success.”

3M partnered with Star across every aspect of the project, from strategy development and creative ideation through design, engineering, manufacturing, shipping and show services. Star’s strategy and creative teams helped develop a central storytelling and messaging theme of “Tomorrow tot he Power of 3M” that underscored 3M’s focus on creating bold solutions to difficult challenges. The theme was supported by a distinct “engineer-meets-designer” design that expressed the brand’s personality while elevating 3M’stechnology platforms and partnerships. The exhibit included hands-on experiences, demonstrations, and gamification, creating engaging opportunities for potential business partners. 3M’s own products – including reflective road materials and various films used in TV screens, cellphones, and electric vehicles – were used as building materials throughout the exhibit.

“The Star team unleashed their creative prowess and crafted a visually stunning and immersive exhibit concept that perfectly represented our brand identity, leveraging our own products to bring the space to life. From the lighting, colors, and materials to the layout and interactive elements, every aspect was carefully thought out to create an engaging and memorable experience for our visitors and customers,” said Hummel. Star’s project management team coordinated with vendors, ensuring timely delivery of materials, installations, and technical setup. They maintained constant communication with 3M and were present on-site to manage the entire operation.

3M emerged as a dominant force on the CES trade show floor, with its exhibit attracting a consistently high volume of visitors. The engagement strategies and interactive experiences built into the exhibit translated to meaningful connections with potential clients and partners, and a surge in high-quality leads for 3M.The impact of the partnership with Star also extended beyond CES, as 3M continued to leverage the strategies and insights gained to maintain a leadership position at subsequent events in the competitive trade show landscape. “Star played a pivotal role in transforming 3M’s CES approach into an extraordinary and unforgettable experience – one that not only garnered overwhelming visitor response but also helped us drive business growth,” said Hummel. “From start to finish, Star was the perfect partner, providing us with comprehensive services that encompassed strategy, design, implementation and management.”

Organizations that are looking for an integrated services partner need to consider a number of factors, from the cultural fit of creative vision to logistical capabilities. Star’s customers work with a cohesive team of specialized experts with decades of industry experience and carefully developed systems that enable seamless, fast coordination across all aspects of the business. Some of the most commonly cited unique benefits Star offers include:

Creative and strategic capacity: Star clients routinely cite Star’s commitment to pushing creative boundaries as a major differentiator, enabling unique solutions that make them stand out. Whether the challenge is finding dynamic ways to help a B2B company prominently attract attention at a trade show or develop an integrated experiential marketing initiative that communicates sustainability values at every touchpoint, Star’s creative and strategic offerings help customers be distinctive. “Our commitment to innovation and creativity is inherent in everything we do. While our comprehensive services and seamless execution are critical, it’s our ability to think outside the box and deliver truly memorable experiences that set us apart,” says Dworak.

Seamless transitions between specialized teams: As an integrated partner, it’s important to have the capabilities to deliver on each customer’s creative vision. Star’s creative teams work closely with its engineers, construction, and manufacturing teams to bring that vision to life in a consistent way. Star’s specialized teams have honed their communication and delivery process for seamless transitions. As a result, projects move smoothly with fewer delays and the final results closely align with the creative and strategic vision.

“The engineering team plays a critical role. They’re taking the vision of creative from the creative directors, but they’ve got to figure out the most appropriate, efficient, and productive way to manufacture something,” notes Dworak. Star’s experienced team works tirelessly to get it right every time.

Innovation and technology: Thinking outside the box doesn’t stop with creative concepts. It also involves taking innovative approaches to manufacturing, such as integrating sustainability metrics into a build or finding creative ways to implement technology. Research from EXHIBITORLIVE 2024 recently found that half of firms want to integrate AI into their marketing and events, for example. Star has experience in building custom technology solutions and has invested extensively in a bespoke technology stack that helps organizations better understand their trade show ROI.

Aggressive timelines: The reality of today’s marketing and event landscape is that it moves faster than ever before. Customers come to Star when they need to make big things happen with tight turnaround times. The company’s in-house talent, network of suppliers, and five strategic locations around the country shorten the time it takes to move from concepts to executed campaign. When customers have just weeks to make things happen that used to have months of lead time, they rely on Star’s ability to deliver sophisticated solutions to complex challenges without sacrificing quality or the experience.

True end-to-end support: Many CMOs and event teams are working with lean teams and less-experienced hires. As an integrated service provider, Star’s experienced team offers the extensible capabilities to close the gaps. From on-site support to handling emergencies, Star has the knowledge and people to help solve problems and make big visions a reality.

As organizations increasingly look for ways to scale their events strategies, save on costs, and improve the effectiveness of their experiential marketing, many are looking for more effective approaches. Historically, companies were forced to rely on a network of vendors that were challenging to coordinate and communicate with. Today, all-in-one services partnerships offer greater efficiency, innovation and streamlined coordination that simplifies project management and enhances client outcomes.

Together, these help deliver superior event experiences and foster long-term business relationships. Navigating the world of experience marketing can be challenging, but you don’t have to go it alone. Discover the extensive benefits of a single-source partnership that can address complex needs efficiently and creatively. Investing in this area can help streamline costs and meet aggressive timelines, while taking advantage of Star’s unparalleled service and creativity.