Launching a new medtech product or service through a roadshow can highlight its significance for public health and reach new customers from the outset. David Lister, Director of Spinning Clock, explains the benefits to medtech marketing of taking your show on the road.
Roadshows are widely used to launch experiential campaigns, to publicise Government initiatives, and to market new products and services to specific target audiences across multiple locations. But how can medtech companies introduce new technologies through such a journey? This article explains how roadshows can impact on publicity, engage with the community and help to develop business relationships - with quantifiable results.
Reaching the market
The easiest way to understand how a roadshow works is to think of it as a travelling exhibition. It is a series of marketing events that companies and other organisations co-ordinate at various locations to generate interest in something they want to promote on a regional, national or international level.
Roadshows have some unique selling points that make them stand out from their static exhibition cousins. They can penetrate into local communities, enabling the company to take its specific messages out to its chosen audience.
Static exhibitions have a high number of exhibitors, which entails an inevitable fight for visibility among what may be hundreds of competitors. With roadshows, the brand is on its own and has controlled exposure: a far less scattergun and more targeted approach.
Another hindrance with a static exhibition is pressure on space. Locations such as shopping centres generally offer much more space to play with.
The first steps
The travelling exhibitor needs to have in their mind exactly what they hope to achieve. As with any field marketing strategy, an objective must be met and measured in order to reach the goal.
With this, naturally, comes the need to budget so that you can offer realistic outputs. Often a pilot roadshow is an ideal way to test the water before a roll-out. Putting a value on engagement and the leads gained from it is equally important in the first stages of organising a roadshow.
As soon as the company's objective is defined and the budget is agreed, professional advice can be sought to find the right location for a roadshow. The main factor is working out exactly where your audience hangs out, so you can take the roadshow directly to them.
The advantage that a static exhibition has over a roadshow is a captive audience. Delegates have chosen to be at an exhibition, whereas the roadshow organiser has to rely on natural footfall and attendance. If the correct location has not been identified, the people who walk by may not be very receptive to the messages, products or services being portrayed.
As with cold calling, it can be somewhat challenging to convince people to interact with a roadshow. You need to draw potential customers or the general public into contact with what is on display.
Value for money
Even with a low budget (around £5K) for a roadshow, much can be achieved when it the money is effectively allocated. Specialist contractors are not necessary, and equipment can be reused to slash production costs.
Takeaway literature, branded promotional incentives and giveaway merchandise does not have to cost the Earth either - and these items are not always the right fit for every event.
Once the set-up process is sorted, the more the company utilises the roadshow the more value for money will be redeemed - especially if multiple locations are used, as setting up at each location is quite inexpensive.
It is of the upmost importance that organisers prove their worth and are committed to measuring results, demonstrating the ROI by tracking delegates or visitors. It is often easier to do this at roadshows than at static exhibitions: the more interactive the activities onsite are, the easier it is to gain quantitative data on visitor numbers and the results of activities, including feedback.
For example, we have monitored roadshow performance through tracking the various pledges made by children at the Change4Life roadshow in 2009 (see case study 2 below).
Roadshow case studies
Two examples illustrate the potential of a roadshow to raise health awareness and to build successful business relationships. Our NHS Choices roadshow produced highly effective results for the client, whereas Change4Life engaged with the public in a particularly creative way.
1. Tesco and NHS LifeCheck
Spinning Clock was tasked by Iris London with designing and managing a roadshow for Tesco to raise awareness of NHS MidLifeCheck, a free online tool for people aged over forty to monitor the state of their health and make small changes to their lifestyle that can improve their well-being.
The roadshow, aimed at introducing MidLifeCheck to Tesco's staff, visited 10 distribution centres around the UK. This motivated a typically hard-to-reach audience to explore issues surrounding their health, since the roadshow took place in familiar and comfortable surroundings.
The event also provided an opportunity for employees to speak to a healthcare professional and have their blood pressure measured. It encouraged those with potential problems to visit their GP, which they might not have done before. To achieve this, it needed to be unthreatening and accessible to potential visitors, offering privacy for people to input sensitive information.
Individual computer stations were integrated into the stand at which Tesco personnel could easily log on to MidLifeCheck and complete the health quiz. The tool generated advice for users based on their quiz results, setting out a step-by-step plan towards healthier living.
Through the roadshow, Tesco was able to engage with 381 members of staff to raise awareness of the MidLifeCheck tool. 120 of those completed a feedback survey about their experience of the website and their working hours at Tesco. Of those who gave feedback, 50% said that after completing the MidLifeCheck and reading the results, they would implement changes to their lifestyle - and a further 43% said they might do so.
2. Change4Life
Change4Life is a Department of Health campaign aimed at improving public awareness of healthy lifestyles. The Change4Life roadshows of summer 2009 demonstrate the power of such events to successfully communicate a health message via community engagement.
The roadshows took place at 11 community events across London and aimed to promote the benefits of healthy eating and regular exercise, particularly to low-income families, while raising awareness of the Change4Life brand.
The concept centred on a cartoon environment designed to appeal to the whole family. Several interactive elements not only engaged visitors, but also helped to provide quantifiable data for the client. A virtual mountain bike race with motion graphics and touch screens was built into the cartoon kitchen area, allowing children to swap their snacks for healthier alternatives and access information on the importance of 'five a day' and portion sizes.
Those attending were invited to have their photograph taken in a cut-out photo board and make a health pledge. Parents were asked to fill in a questionnaire about the lifestyle of their children.
These elements were designed to encourage maximum interaction with the Change4Life brand and promote the health message, while making it possible to record accurate data.
The interactive elements helped to track movement around the roadshow and provided a precise measure of the number of people taking part in the experience. The health pledges and questionnaire assisted in data capture. Time had been spent in establishing the best events to present the roadshow at, so the data was sourced directly from the campaign's target audience.
The results speak for themselves. Over 25,000 people took part in the experience; 1,900 people competed in the virtual mountain bike race; 1,500 people had their photo taken and made a health pledge; and 1,600 parents completed the 'How are the Kids?' questionnaire.
Trouble shooting
What can go wrong? The regular issues that roadshow organisers can expect to be faced with (but hopefully not phased by) are unpredictable weather conditions, security, power supply and visitor access.
Sometimes internet access, parental permission and health and safety regulations can present challenges as well - but exhibitors need to adapt to the environment given to them on the day, and have back-up plans where possible.
Looking ahead
What does the future hold for roadshows and mobile solutions as ways of promoting new medical technologies? Nowadays there are many exciting IT applications - from touch-screens to 3-D vision - that were not publicly available until a few years ago. However, with increasing pressure on budgets, money will need to be wisely invested with the right professional advice.
How you organise a roadshow depends very much on what audience you are hoping to attract. As a general rule of thumb, we have found that roadshows are ideally suited to the consumer, whereas static exhibitions are well suited to the trade.
But really, the defining point in these kinds of event is that the message is kept clear to the customer and visitor at all times - right from the planning stages to the roadshow itself.
Event specialist agency Spinning Clock is well versed in creating and organising small-to-large scale medical exhibitions and roadshows across the UK. Spinning Clock has secured contracts with the likes of Unilever, Ofsted, NHS Choices, Siemens and the COI, taking the company to the £1m turnover benchmark.
As co-owner and director of Spinning Clock, David Lister has led the way in web-based event organisation with exhibition and roadshow solutions. To contact David, call 0115 943 0777 or visit www.spinningclock.com.
Roadshows have some unique selling points that make them stand out from their static exhibition cousins. They can penetrate into local communities, enabling the company to take its specific messages out to its chosen audience.
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