Walked into a trade show booth last week that had zero printed materials

I was at this B2B marketing conference in Cleveland and stopped by a booth that had nothing but a QR code on the wall. No brochures, no business cards, no nothing. The rep just stood there with a tablet and said "everything is digital now." I get the whole paperless trend but it felt weird standing there trying to pull up their site on my phone while the wifi was crawling. I mean maybe it's just me but I remember when trade shows were all about grabbing a dozen pamphlets and flipping through them on the plane ride home. Does anyone else feel like we've swung too far into digital where it actually hurts the connection part of marketing? What's your take on having zero physical stuff at a booth?

2 comments

2 Comments

james_butler21d ago

Question whether it’s really that serious - a QR code on a wall is basically just a fancy business card, not some huge statement on the death of marketing. You could’ve snapped a pic and moved on in ten seconds instead of standing there stewing about it.

mark_smith5922d ago

Everything is digital now" is a bit of a stretch though. I mean, you're right that it felt weird, but calling it "swung too far into digital" might miss that QR codes have been around since way before smartphones took over everything. They were kind of a flop back then for a reason. I actually don't mind grabbing a brochure if it's well designed, but I think the problem is more about the wifi being garbage at the show than the booth itself. Digital can work fine, but it needs to actually, you know, be reliable first.