One of the greatest fears of publicly presenting case studies about brands you haven't worked on is that someone attached to the brand will be in the audience and call you out for misrepresenting the facts. So when Theory House's managing partner, Jared Meisel (left), and I were invited to present at last week's national Shopper Marketing Expo in Chicago, we knew that potential existed.
Our presentation was part of a brand new track the Path to Purchase Institute added this year called Small Business Excellence. We focused on four keys to getting a "Bigger Bang for Your Buck" and used lots of examples of great brands who employed innovative techniques to capture new customers. Some of our content highlighted brands we have supported like Chobani and GUNK. But we also featured Airborne, the immune support brand, and Heinz for its Dip & Squeeze ketchup packaging. And wouldn't you know it; folks from both these brands were in the room. As they walked up to introduce themselves at the conclusion of our presentation, a knot instantly formed in my stomach. Oh boy, I thought, what did we get wrong? Turns out my fears were unwarranted. The Airborne folks liked our presentation so much they want to talk more, and the Heinz guy was thrilled that we highlighted a packaging innovation that he helped name. Whew!
As we enjoyed the rest of the Expo, it was rewarding to be approached with compliments by numerous folks who were in our room. If you've ever been to an industry trade show like this, you know the quality of the presentation can be a crap shoot. But we invested lots of time and energy to make ours an informative, entertaining and memorable presentation. And boy am I glad it's over.
