Make a Big Splash without Spending Big Cash
I was in the process of writing this post, and then I got this comment from a reader challenging my last post (particularly, our presence at ad:tech San Francisco.) While John and I likely disagree on management style and approach, we do agree on the right questions to ask (not the way of asking, but the questions themselves). Interestingly enough, we asked ourselves at the Rubicon Project these same questions prior to committing to the event and the launch. So, I have rearranged my post to directly address his remarks.
Here is John’s comment: “A few comments/observations on this disturbing post:1-Sending your entire team is crazy..some of them are very very junior in their experience level. How could they possibly engage with prospects in a meaningful way? Would be better off and save money hiring local booth talent.2-Carpooling in large SUV's with gas over $4.00/gallon? Quite expensive, and what a huge carbon footprint! Please, go hybrid. That is just shameful.3-Visit MarketingSherpa or other similar resources, they all say that trade shows and event marketing will not deliver the biggest bang for your buck. Those marketing dollars can be put to far better use that will deliver much better ROI and build your client base. Gimmicks like this don't.Maybe these things don't matter since you are flush with cash right now or maybe you are stuck in a time warp from one of your former gigs. Two words for you: BURN RATE” - John
Short version: this was by far the most successful event I have been a part of. Net results: 1,800 leads (and reached an estimated 3,000 prospects and 250 ad network partners.) It was a very high ROI event for us.
The only concern that I did have about our presence at ad:tech was that people might have the perception that we spent an excessive amount of money. Despite appearances, we did not. The team did an absolutely amazing job creating a strong presence, a presence that looked a lot more costly than it actually was. However, our budget was not out of the norm for a typical show presence. We spent wisely and were able to squeeze a lot out of the areas that we did invest. We only spent about 10% more on this show than I had with prior companies and we yielded 5X the results. It proved to me that a little extra effort, unique thinking and a passionate team can make a HUGE difference.
Bottom line: The show exceeded our expectations and goals and likely accelerated our business an additional 6 months.
As for John's comments, here are my responses:
“John: A few comments/observations on this disturbing post: 1-Sending your entire team is crazy..some of them are very very junior in their experience level. How could they possibly engage with prospects in a meaningful way? Would be better off and save money hiring local booth talent.”
This is a team that pulled all-nighters for 3 weeks trying to get this release out. So, I wanted them to see the direct results of their hard work. It was a motivator on one hand (they had to be there in front of prospects and stand behind the product they built) and it was rewarding on the other hand.
There is not a single person in this company that I would not (proudly) put in front of a customer. And, I'm happy to say they proved me right. Every single person in the company meaningfully engaged with prospects. They were well trained and knowledgeable. The results speak for themselves. Not only did they do a fantastic job engaging and bringing home a wealth of leads (avg. of 50 per person,) they also learned a lot more about our customers' needs. We say that our customers are our #1 priority. And while we do speak to them on the phone every day, it was very valuable and impactful for our team to meet with them face to face. Even the engineers were able to engage with real customers and prospects about the product, and to see them using it first hand. How often do you see engineers in a booth? That touch point was priceless and the end result will be a better product.
Local booth talent? No way. Never. It’s the worst thing you could possibly do. We do not believe in hiring local booth talent, we believe in engaging with our customers directly. In fact, we received many compliments for doing just that at ad:tech SF and ad:tech NY. Myself included… someone stopped me while I was passing out water bottles in NY and asked what company I was with (assuming I was hired to pass out water bottles), I said, “I'm the CEO”... It resulted in a customer (and set a an example for the rest of the company.) Engaging directly with our customers - that kind of ROI cannot be beat.
“John: 2-Carpooling in large SUV's with gas over $4.00/gallon? Quite expensive, and what a huge carbon footprint! Please, go hybrid. That is just shameful.”
The environment and cash management are very important to us. We carefully considered these factors as well. We do our best to be green, though, admittedly, we could do a better job, but we do the best we can. As an example, we did away with water bottles in the office and instead have glasses and a Rubicon Project re-useable water bottle for everyone on the team (saving thousands of hours of energy every month). In this particular example, the carbon footprint of flying everyone on airplanes was greater than actually driving.
As for cost, originally, we were going to bring 20 people (sales, marketing, business development) to engage with customers and partners. Flying 20 would have cost about $350 per person (between flights, taxi's and parking,) approximately $7000. The cost of driving 40 people was $6700 (less than the cost of flying 20.) With more than 9,000 people attending ad:tech most of the ad networks that we partner with were going to be there already and thousands of prospects. As a whole, it is a huge cost savings play for us because we don't have to fly to see them individually in their respective cities - having them all in one place is much more efficient. And, because of the efficiency of meeting many of our customers and partners in one place, we were able to reduce our travel budget (to meet with customers and partners) for the rest of the year by at least $5,000 (estimated ten trips times $500/trip including airfare, hotel, taxi and meals).
Further, having teams of 7 in cars together was highly productive. Not only did they bond (great for productivity) but also it was 12 hours (6 hours each way) that the teams had a chance to talk about important business-related issues. Brainstorming led to great ideas being generated during the trip. We believe very strongly in active communication, in fact, I think it has been the largest contributor to why we have been able to do so much, so fast.
Oh, and by the way, even though the carbon impact was less than flying we did purchase carbon offsets to counteract the impact of those vehicles. (Would you believe the carbon offset cost was less than $200 for the whole trip?! I paid for it personally, not with company funds.)
“John: 3-Visit MarketingSherpa or other similar resources, they all say that trade shows and event marketing will not deliver the biggest bang for your buck. Those marketing dollars can be put to far better use that will deliver much better ROI and build your client base. Gimmicks like this don't.”
Interesting. This is the third company in which trade shows have been the single largest source of leads for us. The key is to execute well at these shows, however, I would agree that most companies do not. The key is to measure and metric the success of these shows like you would any other lead generation activity. We had a goal for this show of 500 leads. We brought back 1,800 and probably touched another 3,000 indirectly.
“John: Maybe these things don't matter since you are flush with cash right now or maybe you are stuck in a time warp from one of your former gigs. Two words for you: BURN RATE”
Given that we spent half as much money as our original plan and accomplished twice as much in half the time... We understand this well. We are a highly metrics and ROI driven organization. When we spend, we spend wisely. We consistently exceed our top line targets and have spent less than our plan. But, thank you for the reminder, it is always important to remember.
To summarize…
Things we did to make a big splash without spending big cash:
1. Designed a slick booth --ourselves-- Marwan, our VP of Brand and Creative, literally designed the booth on the back of a postcard at a restaurant in NYC after ad:tech NY. He did an amazing job! (see pictures below)
2. Do NOT hire local booth talent - it is expensive, ineffective and insulting to your brand (see: Why Booth Babes Are a Mistake)
3. We brought 40 people gave them branded clothes - it was like having 40 walking billboards (avg. cost per person: $200)
4. Shared hotel rooms (cut costs in half), stayed at the Holiday Inn (budget hotel), carpooled instead of flying (less expensive)
5. Threw a party, largely sponsored by StrongMail Systems, Clearstone Ventures and Om Records (big impact, low cost) – thank you to our sponsors!
6. Re-used materials (such as the video from our website)
7. Did very little printing (saves trees and cost.) We kept collateral to one half-sheet which featured a “free music” card (which, by the way, the free music was sponsored, no cost to us - thank you to our partner, Om Records!)
8. Focused on the primary goal: get leads (we brought home 1,800 leads in 2 days, almost half of what we acquired in the past 6 months)
9. Trained the team well (our people, engaging with real customers and prospects) - priceless.
Thanks for teeing up this post, John! I was having a hard time getting it started – sometimes it is hard to get motivated to write and finish a post. I appreciate the thoughts and am glad to hear there are other people out there that are passionate about the environment and the success of other businesses.
Today’s lesson(s):
1. When you spend, spend wisely.
2. Make sure everything has a goal and measure against it.
3. And… do not ever hire anyone that you wouldn’t feel comfortable putting in front of a customer.
Here is John’s comment: “A few comments/observations on this disturbing post:1-Sending your entire team is crazy..some of them are very very junior in their experience level. How could they possibly engage with prospects in a meaningful way? Would be better off and save money hiring local booth talent.2-Carpooling in large SUV's with gas over $4.00/gallon? Quite expensive, and what a huge carbon footprint! Please, go hybrid. That is just shameful.3-Visit MarketingSherpa or other similar resources, they all say that trade shows and event marketing will not deliver the biggest bang for your buck. Those marketing dollars can be put to far better use that will deliver much better ROI and build your client base. Gimmicks like this don't.Maybe these things don't matter since you are flush with cash right now or maybe you are stuck in a time warp from one of your former gigs. Two words for you: BURN RATE” - John
Short version: this was by far the most successful event I have been a part of. Net results: 1,800 leads (and reached an estimated 3,000 prospects and 250 ad network partners.) It was a very high ROI event for us.
The only concern that I did have about our presence at ad:tech was that people might have the perception that we spent an excessive amount of money. Despite appearances, we did not. The team did an absolutely amazing job creating a strong presence, a presence that looked a lot more costly than it actually was. However, our budget was not out of the norm for a typical show presence. We spent wisely and were able to squeeze a lot out of the areas that we did invest. We only spent about 10% more on this show than I had with prior companies and we yielded 5X the results. It proved to me that a little extra effort, unique thinking and a passionate team can make a HUGE difference.
Bottom line: The show exceeded our expectations and goals and likely accelerated our business an additional 6 months.
As for John's comments, here are my responses:
“John: A few comments/observations on this disturbing post: 1-Sending your entire team is crazy..some of them are very very junior in their experience level. How could they possibly engage with prospects in a meaningful way? Would be better off and save money hiring local booth talent.”
This is a team that pulled all-nighters for 3 weeks trying to get this release out. So, I wanted them to see the direct results of their hard work. It was a motivator on one hand (they had to be there in front of prospects and stand behind the product they built) and it was rewarding on the other hand.
There is not a single person in this company that I would not (proudly) put in front of a customer. And, I'm happy to say they proved me right. Every single person in the company meaningfully engaged with prospects. They were well trained and knowledgeable. The results speak for themselves. Not only did they do a fantastic job engaging and bringing home a wealth of leads (avg. of 50 per person,) they also learned a lot more about our customers' needs. We say that our customers are our #1 priority. And while we do speak to them on the phone every day, it was very valuable and impactful for our team to meet with them face to face. Even the engineers were able to engage with real customers and prospects about the product, and to see them using it first hand. How often do you see engineers in a booth? That touch point was priceless and the end result will be a better product.
Local booth talent? No way. Never. It’s the worst thing you could possibly do. We do not believe in hiring local booth talent, we believe in engaging with our customers directly. In fact, we received many compliments for doing just that at ad:tech SF and ad:tech NY. Myself included… someone stopped me while I was passing out water bottles in NY and asked what company I was with (assuming I was hired to pass out water bottles), I said, “I'm the CEO”... It resulted in a customer (and set a an example for the rest of the company.) Engaging directly with our customers - that kind of ROI cannot be beat.
“John: 2-Carpooling in large SUV's with gas over $4.00/gallon? Quite expensive, and what a huge carbon footprint! Please, go hybrid. That is just shameful.”
The environment and cash management are very important to us. We carefully considered these factors as well. We do our best to be green, though, admittedly, we could do a better job, but we do the best we can. As an example, we did away with water bottles in the office and instead have glasses and a Rubicon Project re-useable water bottle for everyone on the team (saving thousands of hours of energy every month). In this particular example, the carbon footprint of flying everyone on airplanes was greater than actually driving.
As for cost, originally, we were going to bring 20 people (sales, marketing, business development) to engage with customers and partners. Flying 20 would have cost about $350 per person (between flights, taxi's and parking,) approximately $7000. The cost of driving 40 people was $6700 (less than the cost of flying 20.) With more than 9,000 people attending ad:tech most of the ad networks that we partner with were going to be there already and thousands of prospects. As a whole, it is a huge cost savings play for us because we don't have to fly to see them individually in their respective cities - having them all in one place is much more efficient. And, because of the efficiency of meeting many of our customers and partners in one place, we were able to reduce our travel budget (to meet with customers and partners) for the rest of the year by at least $5,000 (estimated ten trips times $500/trip including airfare, hotel, taxi and meals).
Further, having teams of 7 in cars together was highly productive. Not only did they bond (great for productivity) but also it was 12 hours (6 hours each way) that the teams had a chance to talk about important business-related issues. Brainstorming led to great ideas being generated during the trip. We believe very strongly in active communication, in fact, I think it has been the largest contributor to why we have been able to do so much, so fast.
Oh, and by the way, even though the carbon impact was less than flying we did purchase carbon offsets to counteract the impact of those vehicles. (Would you believe the carbon offset cost was less than $200 for the whole trip?! I paid for it personally, not with company funds.)
“John: 3-Visit MarketingSherpa or other similar resources, they all say that trade shows and event marketing will not deliver the biggest bang for your buck. Those marketing dollars can be put to far better use that will deliver much better ROI and build your client base. Gimmicks like this don't.”
Interesting. This is the third company in which trade shows have been the single largest source of leads for us. The key is to execute well at these shows, however, I would agree that most companies do not. The key is to measure and metric the success of these shows like you would any other lead generation activity. We had a goal for this show of 500 leads. We brought back 1,800 and probably touched another 3,000 indirectly.
“John: Maybe these things don't matter since you are flush with cash right now or maybe you are stuck in a time warp from one of your former gigs. Two words for you: BURN RATE”
Given that we spent half as much money as our original plan and accomplished twice as much in half the time... We understand this well. We are a highly metrics and ROI driven organization. When we spend, we spend wisely. We consistently exceed our top line targets and have spent less than our plan. But, thank you for the reminder, it is always important to remember.
To summarize…
Things we did to make a big splash without spending big cash:
1. Designed a slick booth --ourselves-- Marwan, our VP of Brand and Creative, literally designed the booth on the back of a postcard at a restaurant in NYC after ad:tech NY. He did an amazing job! (see pictures below)
2. Do NOT hire local booth talent - it is expensive, ineffective and insulting to your brand (see: Why Booth Babes Are a Mistake)
3. We brought 40 people gave them branded clothes - it was like having 40 walking billboards (avg. cost per person: $200)
4. Shared hotel rooms (cut costs in half), stayed at the Holiday Inn (budget hotel), carpooled instead of flying (less expensive)
5. Threw a party, largely sponsored by StrongMail Systems, Clearstone Ventures and Om Records (big impact, low cost) – thank you to our sponsors!
6. Re-used materials (such as the video from our website)
7. Did very little printing (saves trees and cost.) We kept collateral to one half-sheet which featured a “free music” card (which, by the way, the free music was sponsored, no cost to us - thank you to our partner, Om Records!)
8. Focused on the primary goal: get leads (we brought home 1,800 leads in 2 days, almost half of what we acquired in the past 6 months)
9. Trained the team well (our people, engaging with real customers and prospects) - priceless.
Thanks for teeing up this post, John! I was having a hard time getting it started – sometimes it is hard to get motivated to write and finish a post. I appreciate the thoughts and am glad to hear there are other people out there that are passionate about the environment and the success of other businesses.
Today’s lesson(s):
1. When you spend, spend wisely.
2. Make sure everything has a goal and measure against it.
3. And… do not ever hire anyone that you wouldn’t feel comfortable putting in front of a customer.
Labels: ad:tech, booth, environment
)
Thoughtful post. Thanks for writing it. The marketing folks always get to go off and have all the fun and then just come back and tell everyone about it. It's very meaningful that the entire team got to participate and see first hand what we get so jazzed about.
Posted by
Nicole |
9:36 AM
Absolutely. It was amazing to have the whole team there. Everyone has worked so hard, and is so proud of the company that it wouldn’t have seemed right any other way. Plus, the personal touch of having all of us working the booth was perfect. People were blown away when the Rubicon Project women could actually speak intelligently and articulately about the company, the product, and the industry. The impact was amazing!
Posted by
Amber |
10:09 AM
Thanks, Frank. It was such a great bonding experience for the team, and a highly productive one. Everyone came back rejuvenated, inspired by our customers and our partners, and ready to keep delivering on our promise. What an awesome event!
Posted by
Mallory |
10:14 AM
As one of the younger members of the Rubicon Project, I was very excited to attend Ad:Tech and get the opportunity to do business face to face. It was a great experience.
Posted by
Charlie |
10:33 AM
Witnessing the presence that our booth and team garnered at ad:tech was such a rewarding and encouraging experience. As someone who is very junior in their experience level, I felt prepared to be there and lucky to be able to learn from such a great team!
Posted by
christen |
10:41 AM
The marketing team did a great job of training everyone and putting together presentation materials, and everyone in the company understands our value proposition and is fully equipped to engage prospects. In many cases customers actually appreciate the opportunity to speak with the people who built the product and understand in detail how it works.
This was the highest quality trade show presence I've ever been part of, and I don't think it would have been possible without the entire team.
Posted by
Eric |
10:48 AM
Great post Frank!!!
It was great to get away with the whole team, especially after a successful product release.
Posted by
Matt |
10:56 AM
As one of the engineers on the 3-weeks-of-all-nighters, I can say that it was definitely worth going to Ad:Tech.
I had the opportunity to meet some ad networks we already work with, discuss our product with new ad networks, learn more about the industry itself and learn how other companies do their business, and to see the satisfaction of the team as a whole launch an awesome product.
We were mixed as a team (engineers and non-engineers) to "bond" as Frank called it, and also discuss aspects of the new product ... I even pulled out the laptop and connected the cell phone for Internet access to work on some enhancements on the drive up and back based on feedback discussed en route.
Hey Frank, pop quiz: which company's CEO quizzed us all for days and days on the core competencies of our business, and held a full-team meeting to discuss what we'd be doing (and not doing) in San Francisco to prepare us to meet our publishers and ad network reps?
Thanks for a great time up north!
Posted by
Ian |
10:57 AM
Bill Belichick gave a speech on leadership and was asked the question of how he knows his team is prepared for a game. His answer “When everyone on the team knows exactly what to do”. How did we know that everyone on our team at Rubicon was prepared for AdTech? Frank’s pop quizzes, 12 hours on the road, and team training sessions guaranteed that we all knew exactly what to do. Intuit is a big believer in user driven development, and it works. Having engineers, operations, sales, and marketing all interacting with our users at the booth translated into actionable feedback across the board.
Bottom Line: If you want to interact with your customers, build esprit de corps, and show the world a great product then get a convoy together and send your whole team to adtech. Thanks Frank.
Posted by
rdrang |
11:00 AM
Our approach to Ad Tech was high energy and it created big results. It was exciting to talk to customers and partners, both existing and potential, and see their excitement and engagement about what we're doing. And what I loved best was that our engineers got to see this excitement. They work so hard to build our product, but rarely get to see the fruit of their labors. It was great to have them at the show, experiencing the buzz with the rest of us!
Posted by
Jeremy |
11:01 AM
This was my first time at ad:tech and am glad I was able to attend. I loved being able to experience the energy between the team and at the show, especially at our booth. All the visitors kept it buzzing! Having all of us there and the team building that came out of it was an invaluable experience. Thank you Frank, it was well worth it in many ways.
Posted by
Dahlia |
11:13 AM
I have great respect for any company that takes the extra time to train an entire staff to communicate effectively about its products and services. That level of involvement and education is indicative of a successful organization that truly believes in each of its employees. I’ve worked at companies that rely on the “booth babe” approach and I don’t agree with it. In the end it’s about making new connections and if the people representing you can’t address that, how much of an impact have you truly made? I’m proud to work at a company that isn’t ashamed or scared to put every single one of their employees in front of potential clients.
Posted by
Kate |
11:22 AM
Awesome post Frank! Ad Tech was a great learning experience for me. Not to mention it was great to see the interest people have in our product.
Posted by
Mel |
12:33 PM
This was my fifth ad:tech, but the most successful I have ever participated in. Being able to reach out and meet your clients and prospective clients is an invaluable experience. Thanks Frank for making it happen.
Posted by
Erin |
12:48 PM
We do everything focused on achieving metrics driven results. For ad tech, everyone - from CEO to Marketing to Biz Dev to Engineers - was aware of our key metrics: quantifiable leads from customers and partners. Everyone was trained and knowledgeable on how to interact with a new customer or partner… on point with Rubicon’s main message and well equipped to handle any direction the conversation would take. This translated into a huge success for us on the partnership side…. hardest part now is quantifying and absorbing all the opportunities with new partners.
Posted by
Raleigh |
12:51 PM
Taking extra time to think of and work out the details to make something looks seamless and to make the previously unseen synergies shine is something that this company does time and time again.
This attention to detail is evident in their product and in their ad:tech appearance.
Posted by
peety |
1:09 PM
I am so glad to have been included in this amazing event. Being part of the product development team I’ve never had the opportunity to directly interact with potential customers. I was a little nervous at first but with all the internal conversations and training I got the hang of it pretty quickly and came out of my “engineering” shell. Matter of fact most people were surprised to learn that real Rubicon Project engineers were in the booth, a rarity at any tradeshow. I heard more than once that they appreciated being able to talk with a behind-the-scenes person. That's what I'm talking about baby! Working as a team to make it happen.
I think it was a fantastic idea to bring the whole team. No one else could have delivered our product better than the talented and passionate group of people we have. Much thanks to the Marketing team for preparing us so well. I definitely came back revived and excited about what we are doing.
Posted by
Daisy |
3:04 PM
I think Kara summed it up after the event when she said "I can't believe I get to hang out with you people and call it my job." From meeting dozens of publishers and potential network partners at our booth, to being whisked away after the conference everyday by our Rubicon Swat Team, to our shabu-shabu team dinner, to working by day in our hotel conference room, I had such an amazing time. Thanks everyone!
Posted by
Lisa |
5:30 PM
This was my first time at ad:tech and I'm glad my first experience was with The Rubicon Project. It was great to get away and bond with the entire team. It was great to see all Rubicon employees meeting and discussing our product with current and potential clients at our booth and best of all having fun while doing it. Thanks everyone for making my first ad:tech experience a positive one.
Posted by
Steve |
5:56 PM
Frank
Great posts on your big event. I'm curious, did you or anyone from Rubicon speak at the show?
I did an expensive show 2 years ago (over $40K just for the 10ft booth space!) and supplemented it with a podcast/email marketing campaign.
As a result of the podcast (just a simple recording of our session presentation) we were able to bring down the cost-per-lead. How did we do this? The podcast was sent out to all the tradeshow attendees after the show, our internal prospect database promoted as a download offer on our site and in PPC campaigns. All in all, we brought in$700,000 in new revenue as a result of the campaign and our largest customer to date!
MarketingSherpa wrote it up in an article if you'd like more details: How to Turn a Trade Show Speech Into a Podcast That Becomes a Lead Machine
I noticed you are doing some videos; so a similar podcast/vidcast campaign could be something you'd want to try. I'm quite sure it would silence any negativity from the skeptics out there...and further maximize your investment in these big events.
-Michael W.
Posted by
Sensible Marketing Blog |
7:05 PM
I wasn't able to attend Ad Tech with the team, but I was there in spirit! It was great hearing that all of the hard work and dedication paid off and made a very successful event. Congrats everyone!
Posted by
Shanon |
2:13 PM
Michael W - great thoughts! We'll definitely check out the podcast idea.
Frank
Posted by
Frank Addante |
5:42 PM