The magic of mobile marketing

By Kathy Watterson
ECN Assistant Editor

ECN recently spoke with Tom Harper, director of sales and marketing for Walled Lake, Mich.-based Kentucky Trailer Technologies.

First, a bit of company history:

R.C. Tway Sr. bought the Dixie Motor Car Company in 1936 and renamed it the Kentucky Manufacturing Company. He soon began manufacturing a wide variety of trailers for the evolving national highway system, including flatbed, livestock, platform, lowboy, logging and grain trailers.

Later, in the 1960s, the name Kentucky Trailer became virtually synonymous with moving vans. The company developed drop-frame trailer systems, which became a staple in the moving industry.

In 2002, Kentucky Trailer acquired Trailer Technologies, Inc., a leading manufacturer of custom transport, exhibit and specialty trailers located in Walled Lake, Mich. In early 2004, the company name was changed to Kentucky Trailer Technologies, which became a division of Kentucky Trailer.

Kentucky Trailer (www.kytrailer.com; 800-521-9701) products are sold through a nationwide network of dealers.

Q & A

ECN: Mobile exhibits are becoming increasingly popular. What marketing pluses do they offer over more traditional methods? What has changed and why?

TH: What’s changed is the greater level of consumer awareness about many facets of technology and the ability to sift through all that information. So there’s a real shift toward market comprehension. Consumers are smarter today. They’re asking, “How might this work for me and affect my life?” So it’s not enough just to have your exhibit seen. It must be remembered.

That’s where mobile exhibits have the advantage. They offer you the ability to deliver your product message directly to your target customer, and in an environment that you control. But with a mobile vehicle, you’re also on the target customer’s turf, which gives you the best of both worlds. You’re in the most fertile environment possible for success.

ECN: A few predictions on the future growth of this niche industry?

TH: If our business is any indication, demand will remain strong. Some clients almost can’t find what they want fast enough.

And they have a lot more choices now. Companies of a certain size have always been able to do first-class tours. In the beginning, it took visionary companies with large budgets to do them and the Fortune 500 were our target market back then. But things have changed. Single expandable trailers and straight trailers are available today for companies with smaller budgets.

Also, the exhibit and advertising houses now recognize the many advantages of mobile tours, and are steering clients with a wide range of budgets in that direction.

ECN: What criteria should a company consider when deciding whether to add a mobile exhibit or multi-vehicle mobile tour to its marketing program?

TH: Once they’ve established that mobile marketing is a viable option for them, they need to be sure they can use these new marketing assets – the mobile marketing vehicles – efficiently. They need to pre-market each area they’re targeting by calling ahead, by issuing invitations to prospects and maybe arranging for their transportation. They really need to let people know they’re coming! Also, it’s important to have an effective system of measurement in place – to ask, “How are we going to measure the success of this tour or exhibit?” We can help with that if needed.

A related point is that companies with established dealer networks may think they don’t need a mobile marketing tour. However, with a mobile tour, you can support that dealer network by creating a buzz about new products and generating excitement.

ECN: Once a company’s marketing department has decided upon a mobile tour, how should it go about selecting a vehicle or vehicles and having them customized? And what kinds of vehicles can you provide?

TH: It’s important to have a vehicle that’s scalable to what’s needed and what the company can afford, and there are lots of choices these days.

We do single- and double-side expandables, as well as skyview expandables that allow for a complete second floor. We do more of the larger vehicles, though: We’re more geared to vehicles going to the tradeshow floor or corporate stops.

We can provide what we call an “Exhibit House Ready” trailer shell, ready for installation of interior exhibit elements, and we can help with as much of the buildout as the client needs, right up to a turnkey system complete with AV, wireless Internet capacity, exhibit elements and interactive kiosks. We also provide and manage graphics design and installation, although we don’t do the printing itself.

ECN: What mistakes do you often see companies make in planning their first mobile display or mobile tour?

TH: One mistake – and I’ve seen it several times – is to underutilize a mobile marketing tour. You can have a beautiful vehicle and exhibit, but it must be on the road and actively hitting your target markets or it won’t be effective.

ECN: What industries could most benefit from adding one or more mobile exhibits, or from taking first steps in that direction?

TH: I actually don’t know one that couldn’t! There’s not an industry out there that couldn’t benefit if the vehicle is scaled properly.

ECN: Can a company with a mobile display vehicle easily determine ROI? Or are there too many variables to compute ROI in any meaningful sense?

TH: I’ve had companies achieve 100 percent ROI with a mobile exhibit in under six months. I have heard a few people say it’s a difficult thing to measure, but we do our best to steer people in the right direction. They need to know how effective this marketing initiative is. Again, we can help with this.

ECN: What are the biggest challenges to boosting market share in the mobile exhibit industry?

TH: Delivery. Time to market, that’s the key. Typically, you first spend a lot of time with managers and they get excited about the idea of putting a marketing campaign on the road. They want to know, “How quickly can I have this? Can I have it for such-and-such an event?” They’re ready to commit. But things tend to slow down while the concept is reviewed by CFOs and CEOs. After they approve, speed picks up again.

ECN: What are some of the engineering challenges in the mobile exhibit industry and how well is your company meeting those challenges?

TH: Reducing trailer weight to increase the payload for the interior and exhibit elements is very important. The real key is reducing that weight without compromising durability. We’ve developed very robust chassis systems as well as thin, very lightweight aluminum upper structures.

ECN: Speaking of the weight issue, we’ve read that your company has been working on developing new composite materials to reduce trailer weight and give other advantages. Without giving away valuable proprietary info, can you tell us a bit about how this research is coming along and how it will benefit future clients?

TH: We do have some government-funded projects of that nature that I can’t discuss in any detail, but those projects are coming along well and their results will be filtering down to our commercial clients in the next few years. The benefits will include higher payloads and more rugged design. 

ECN: What are some new trends and technologies in the mobile exhibit industry?

TH: One of the most exciting is the ability to control exhibit elements with wireless technology and integrate that aspect into the consumer experience.

Another is enhanced satellite technology and the ability to provide much higher data transfer rates than were previously possible on a mobile platform. It all comes down to bandwidth, and the technology is really evolving. Someone at the home office can now generate new marketing content like streaming video, Power Point or Macromedia Flash and then send it to the vehicle wirelessly via satellite. Brand new marketing content, custom-tailored to a specific client or event, can literally be playing in the mobile marketing trailer within minutes.

ECN: If a company typically exhibits a number of times per year at various tradeshows around the country, will it save money by sending a self-contained mobile exhibit to the shows rather than shipping an exhibit each time? If so, what types of savings will benefit that company's bottom line the most?

TH: There are considerable savings in drayage, warehousing and on-site labor.

There are also big savings in terms of time. For example, with our own mobile exhibit that we’re taking to EXHIBITOR2007, we do pay a small spotting fee, but our show trailer, which is nearly 22 feet wide and 53 feet long, can be up and running on the tradeshow floor in about three hours. By the time it’s expanded and draped with skirting around the perimeter of the undercarriage, it looks like a semi-permanent structure.

We typically design interior elements for minimal tear down and ease of storage. Most elements ride in-position, further reducing set-up/tear-down time. The key to this is our custom folding floor systems, which allow for variable configurations.

ECN: What are some common misconceptions concerning mobile displays?

TH: The biggest misconception is that they’re too expensive. In my experience, a company can’t afford not to have one. More than one of our clients is now on its second or more mobile exhibit vehicles. Often the initial trailer is so successful that when its intended tour is scheduled to end, clients find that they simply can’t afford to take it off the road – even to refurbish it. So they order a second one.

ECN: So can we talk – in general terms – about pricing for various-sized projects?

TH: I usually tell clients to spend as much as it takes to represent their brand in the way they’d like to be perceived by their target markets. Some companies do very nice things from $80,000 up to a few hundred thousand dollars. Then there are those who start with a small pull-behind-style trailer that costs around $15,000 or $20,000 for the shell.

Add to that hired or in-house resources to finish out the interior and exhibit elements, and they’re on the road making an impact. So, as with most things, there are a wide range of possibilities and there’s a vehicle to fit every company’s specific situation. You can go from the most basic $20,000 to $30,000 pop-up exhibit to a fully funded, million-dollar, double-expandable mobile marketing tour. When properly implemented, any of these can be highly effective marketing tools that create not only “marketing impressions,” but the more ideal outcome that I call “marketing comprehension.” Make an impression that ensures prospects will remember your brand. That’s the magic of mobile marketing!

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