Encourage Technologies is a Japanese software company that offers packaged software focused on risk management for IT system operations, especially risks arising due to human invention and errors.
We spoke with the Director of the Board of Directors Business Development, Mr. Hioki, Ms. Okuda, and Ms. Hirano about their time exhibiting at Interop Tokyo, the leading global business technology event that was held in June at Makuhari Messe, an international convention center nearby Tokyo.
"Up until now, Encourage Technologies has participated in exhibitions using standard package booths.
The type of software we offer is specialized and well-known in certain industries such as finance and telecommunications but may be seen as niche and obscure to the general public, so we often narrow down our targets and exhibit on a smaller scale. Most niche exhibitors who participate often don’t custom-build their exhibits themselves at these types of exhibitions.
In recent years, as we have expanded our business, we have developed products that have also expanded the base of our targets. As such, we also began to participate in comprehensive IT exhibitions such as Interop Tokyo.
We have exhibited at Interop Tokyo twice so far, both times using standard package booths. At Interop, we received favorable attendee feedback and impressions, so we decided to try to invest more going forward and added a bit to our budget.
However, up until this point, we have had no experience custom-building our own booth and exhibiting on a large scale, so we approached many advertising companies and asked their representatives to submit proposals for us".
"We received numerous booth design proposals from each of the companies. A majority of the companies used the corporate colors as a foundation, but they did not have any special characteristics that stood out. If you changed the color, they could be passed off as another company’s booth and didn’t leave much of an impression either.
Encourage Technologies offers a highly specialized software solution targeting very specific needs, so our company awareness to the general IT populace is not high. If attendees see our company name at an exhibition, they wouldn’t even know what kind of company we are.
We explained our stance to each of the companies at the orientation. Having done that, only Bigbeat took what we intended and proposed an icon and catch copy that at one look firmly expressed the concept of our product.
Bigbeat not only designed the booth, but also designed panels and developed giveaways items that effectively grabbed the attention of the attendees that didn’t know us and left an impression on them".
"Due to certain circumstances, the representative handling the event at our company had changed right before the exhibition. However, because Bigbeat had taken the lead on all the work before this, they had all the information and was able to get the new representative up to speed to take over all the responsibilities.
The management of the schedule and tasks were clear and easy to follow, and we were able to hold the exhibition without any major problems at all".
"As we mentioned earlier, there was a change in management right before the exhibition, so the person who created the plan for the project was not on-site.
However, because the Bigbeat Operations Director was on-site to manage the event, we didn’t have a single problem.
The Director made certain to put in place an event infrastructure. For example, the Bigbeat Director handled staff management, from creating sales talk scenarios to training of the booth companions in order to attract guests to the booth, which allowed Encourage employees to focus on attending visitors and introducing our products".
"We will certainly consult with Bigbeat any time we participate in an exhibition.
At the Interop Tokyo exhibition, the biggest takeaway we gained from Bigbeat is the realization of the importance of creating an icon and catch copy as a key message. We are grateful to learn the necessity of having something to be remembered and something for the customers to take home.
We hope to receive Bigbeat’s support in general marketing activities going forward and we look forward to a long and continuous working relationship together".
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