Small Business Enterprise, Transitvue Makes A Name For Themselves At Key Industry Expo
Every three years the American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) Annual Meeting, Expo is held for the fast-growing public transportation industry. With three years between each expo, and major industry players always shining with large-scale exhibits, Transitvue worked with K2 Design and Fabrication in Southern California to execute its exhibit with an experiential marketing strategy.
Maria Rivera, Director of Marketing at Transitvue
The communications systems manufacturer and integrator based in Chino, CA started working with Carol Bjorn, Account Executive, at K2, armed with many ideas but a limited budget. “K2 took our ideas and allowed them to materialized and advised how to put in displays and make things flow better. It was wonderful,” exclaimed Maria Rivera, Director of Marketing at Transitvue.
Transitvue needed to think about the audience that is unfamiliar with their name or their capabilities. Unlike some competitors at the show, Transitvue and K2 strategized to do this without bringing in actual transportation industry equipment, such as buses and railway cars, which would significantly increase the budget. The vision was to have booth visitors experience the full scope of Transitvue’s offerings in 300 square feet or a 10’x30’ tradeshow booth.
A Walk Through the Transit Experience
Transitvue’s primary goal was to show that they offer not just one product, but several advanced integrated communications systems for the public transportation industry. Whereas some public transportation company manufacturers only offer products, Transitvue provides systems integration of the Passenger Information Systems, Intrusion Detection and Pedestrian Alert Notification; and the Security Systems and Operations Consoles.
Working with K2, the Transitvue team envisioned and executed an experiential marketing strategy that successfully showed the scope of the company as a systems integrator responsible for the safe operations of public transportation networks. The exhibit made it immediately obvious to the prospect in the aisle the areas that Transitvue provided expertise. A logical flow from digital signage in a cutaway of a train module, life-like backdrop of a station including custom flooring with fully operational digital signage, security cameras, and sensor mat activation; and finally a cutaway of an operations center where live cameras capture station activity.
Engagements and Conversions Provide Positive ROI
“Everything flowed perfectly,” Rivera said. The Transitvue team was able to walk prospects through the space from start to finish in only a few minutes, answer questions and allow people to directly engage with products and services. The expo is full of industry experts, consultants, and transportation company buyers and engineers. By activating and managing a highly interactive space, Transitvue showed it is not a small, single-service operation; but, instead a comprehensive company able to fulfill large multi-faceted contracts.
Further, the team at Transitvue felt the company stood out in a sense of that they didn’t just show a bunch of products, but told a story. “People stayed longer and we could show one system and could pull them into another topic,” explains Rivera. “Our elevator pitch was very easy to do within the space!”
From the expo, Transitvue was able to establish key contacts, receive invitations for proposals and meet with key industry influencers. Since the sales cycle for the industry is one to three years, establishing these relationships is critical as is continual reinforcement during the time leading up the expo and at the expo itself. “K2 made it happen,” concluded Rivera.
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