Visited a trade show floor in Chicago and it made me question whether live demos are worth the cost

Last month I went to the B2B Marketing Expo in Chicago and walked the floor for two days straight. I must have seen 40 or 50 booths doing live product demos, but only a handful actually had more than two people watching at any time. The rest just had sales reps standing there scrolling on their phones. It got me thinking: are these six-figure trade show investments really pulling their weight, or are we just going because everyone else does? On one hand, a good live demo lets you show value in real time and build trust face to face. On the other hand, I talked to three vendors who said they got more qualified leads from their email campaign the week before than from the entire show. So I'm curious, for those of you who have tracked it, do live demos at conferences actually convert better than digital outreach in your experience?

2 comments

2 Comments

claireo6719d ago

Live demos worked for me but only when we had something people could touch. Had a product people could hold in their hands. Traffic was huge.

joseph52919d ago

Yeah, totally agree with @claireo67. Physical stuff always pulls people in.