DIGMA 2013 is the first expo that Gapture has ever participated in. Held in PWTC on March 20 and 21, this expo is also the first of it's kind in Malaysia. This being our maiden expo, it took us extra time and effort to finalize Gapture's theme and strategy. With budget constraints at the back of our minds (yeah, budget is ALWAYS a concern), the team gets really creative to ensure we gain maximum impact while remaining cost effective.
We decided to go the unusual route, theming our booth “Why Digital Marketing is Not For You?”. It left many wondering why a digital agency would ever choose such a contradicting theme. Our reasoning is simple. There is never a 'one size fits all' solution in digital marketing. In fact, some businesses may not reap direct benefit or returns through digital marketing. This is where Gapture comes in to consult and advice businesses on the feasibility, choice of tools and platforms to use. If there is no clear achievable and measurable results, then we'll tell you that digital marketing is not for you.
Our direction for the booth setup is straight forward. Everything was centered around our objective to create ample space for our account servicing team to engage and run quick consultations for visitors who want to find out what digital marketing can do for them. To achieve this, we needed enticing ideas which would cause passerby's to wonder, stop and ask us what we do. Again, tight budget constraints pushed us to be creative in our methods. After all, this is why some clients come to us - for our creative ideas.
We decided to set up a Social Media Photo Booth, Swag Swap Wall (for visitors to exchange a name card for a gift) and a LCD panel. On the LCD panel, we displayed bite-sized information about our services, social media and the internet alongside the consultation area. With social media inspired props, the Social Media Photo Booth is a fun zone for all visitors. Our most crowd attracting feature is the Swag Swap Wall (a creative mash up of business cards exchange, free gifts and lucky draws), where visitors swap their business cards with Gapture cards on the wall to reveal what gift they have drawn. All these attractions became crowd-stoppers and conversation starters.
The preparation and execution of the entire event was mostly carried out internally - from the booth backdrop, to the layout, display panel contents. We also sourced for freebies from our strategic partners and clients such as Google, Yahoo! and XOX. We kept logistics light by packing in smaller packages to ease ferrying of the items. Every Gapturion was fully utilized based on their talents. As a freelance photographer outside work, I was the one manning our photo booth. We consider this expo a success. The team compensated the lack of budget with creativity, resourcefulness and strong team work. Everyone brought their best to the event.