PRA Health Sciences

Trade show and event marketing is a multifaceted endeavor, requiring strategic thinking and detailed tactical implementation. While they require long-term planning, more times than not these events are typically implemented with short lead times with unforgiving deadlines. Under these circumstances, it can be difficult identifying the real causes of problems that are keeping the program from being successful or even more successful.

Challenge: Balancing Impact and Cost-Effectiveness in an International Global Trade Show Program

PRA Health Sciences (PRAHS) is a global organization that provides innovative drug development solutions across all trial phases and therapeutic areas.  They approached Stewart with concerns about several key issues:

• Return on investment. PRAHS felt its existing custom exhibit was effective but it was not convinced of its cost-effectiveness.
• Global Exhibition Program Management: Through joint ventures and acquisitions, PRAHS had undergone rapid growth as an international organization. As a result, it required an efficient and cost-effective methodology for its multiple divisions in the US, EU and APAC to use its inventory of exhibits, graphics and accessories.
• Branding: As its share of the clinical research market grew, PRAHS recognized the need to update its branding to better reflect the company’s leadership role.

Solutions

ROI: Cost Effective Design and Production

Stewart input all of PRAS’s operational costs into its Trade Show Planning Guide. This guide provides an overview of all the costs associated with a trade show, regardless of size, location, or the nature of the exhibition. Through the use of the planning guide, PRAHS learned that due to the weight and complexity of their custom exhibit the cost of freight, drayage and labor were excessive.

With a goal of producing a more flexible cost-effective exhibit, Stewart designed and built a “Hybrid” exhibit. Hybrid exhibits combine the modularity and lightweight of systems exhibits with custom components. This ensured that the exhibit architecture delivered the unique look, tone and feel of the corporate brand while delivering products and services messages.

The new exhibit was not only successful in reflecting PRAHS’s identity, image and marketing messages to its existing and potential clients, but also reduced the cost of the freight, drayage and labor for the first year that offset the cost of the new Hybrid exhibit.

International Expansion and Program Management

PRAHS turned to Stewart to be a single point of contact for trade shows in the US, EU, APAC and South America. To meet these responsibilities, Stewart expanded the on-line order entry and inventory system to include the PRAHS users around the world. Through Stewart’s on-line Exhibit Program Management System, PRAHS can access to all the pertinent information to participate in a trade show, from an inventory of all the exhibits, graphics and accessories, to floor plans, renderings and graphic layouts specific to a particular event.

Once an order is placed, a Trade Show Planning Guide is produced that outlines all of the cost estimates associated with that specific trade show. And to ensure that PRAHS exhibit properties are handled appropriately, Stewart’s team assembles and manages a global network of exhibit vendors that provide the exhibits, graphics, accessories and show services required to participate in these international shows. This provides a PRAHS with a single point of contact to manage all of its exhibit properties.

Branding

Updating PRAHS’s brand to better reflect its leadership role involved refining their corporate and product and services messages and design of a new corporate logo. Stewart became a member of the strategic committee that would incorporate these new messages and corporate identity into the PRAHS exhibits and graphics.

Prior to rolling out this identity at the company’s two largest trade shows, in the interest of expedience and cost considerations, Stewart implemented the new look, tone and feel of the new corporate identity using the existing components of the PRAHS Hybrid Exhibit to design new systems and custom exhibit properties. After the success of the new Hybrid exhibit at those shows, Stewart translated this new design into all of the PRAHS exhibit properties in the US, EU, APAC and South America.