Each November GMAE attends the Ohio School Boards Association Capital Conference and Trade Show in Columbus. Months of planning go into this three-day event geared towards K-12 administrators across the state. Our primary goal as an exhibitor is to connect with our existing clients while looking to build new relationships. We do this with a large trade-show booth and our annual evening social event.

In 2019, we executed a multi-faceted campaign centered on a sports theme to attract attendees to our booth. By the time we crossed the finish line, our program used print, video, email, social media, hip socks, stadium blankets, a custom-designed Pop-A-Shot game, green sneakers, referee shirts and a mini high-top logo keychain to connect with our audiences.

Implementing an athletics theme also allowed us to easily link our #teamGMAE hashtag. Messaging such as “step up your game” and “get the ball rolling” were used to express our experience in athletic facility design while giving us a fun, relevant theme to execute our strategies.
For the first time, we decided to submit our campaign to the Society for Marketing Professional Services for consideration of an award under the organization’s Trade Show Marketing category.

We are thrilled to announce our entry was selected as a finalist in the 2020 SMPS Marketing Communications Awards competition. Winners will be announced during the Awards and Recognition program at Build Business, the SMPS annual conference, which takes place Aug 12–14 in Austin, Texas.

“Being recognized as a finalist on a national level is truly an honor in itself,” remarked Kristi Shaner, GMAE marketing coordinator. “I loved planning this event with my team, but this award would truly be the cherry on top of an already amazing ice cream sundae.”