Shopper Marketing Expo on in Chicago. Are you there?

October 6, 2010 by Dave Haynes

I’ve had a couple of emails from industry friends asking if I was going to be in Chicago this week for the Shopper Marketing Expo.

Nope. But would like to have been. And I wonder why there are not more people from the sector there.

I’ve written before about having a lot of respect for companies who don’t blow their whole marketing budget on an industry-centric show. Those shows are important, but I’ve never quite understood why so few companies that have defined their vertical make the effort to have a presence at the shows for that very specific vertical, ie retail and consumer brands.

The Shopper Marketing Expo is put on by the In-Store Marketing Institute and appears to attract a nice mix of companies, and the exhibitors are reminiscent of those who turn up for GlobalShop.

This week, the only pure-play digital signage software company there with a booth is Stratacache. They are there showing off their QR code integration.

There are lots of merchandising guys and firms that integrate screens into displays, as well as some interesting folks like the neuromarketing people. The exhibitor list is pretty robust, as the people who come to the show are mid to senior level people at major packaged goods brands.

Maybe the show just doesn’t do it for people the way I think it might. Anyone been or have insight? Use the comments.

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