As many of us know, RSA Conference is the biggest cybersecurity trade show of the year, and RSAC 2024 was no exception, with an estimated 40,000 people in attendance. I’m no stranger to RSAC; in my role as Social Media Manager at Big Valley Marketing, I’ve covered the show from afar for many years – trying to drive traffic to booths, share team photos, and advertise key speaking sessions. But this year, I attended in person for the first time.
With fresh eyes and an open mind, I wanted to see what vendors were doing on the floor and which tactics (both in terms of booth and social media strategies) were successful in engaging security practitioners and decision-makers. Here are the RSAC 2024 highlights:
Surprise and Delight, Without Upfront Sales Pitches
In an era where we are always being sold to, especially online, we’ve gotten very good at tuning out ads, and this extends to real life at events like RSA Conference. This is where encouraging intrigue genuinely wins.
Sure, not every vendor can design a security-themed pastel grocery mart to increase foot traffic like Wiz did. However, I noted that smaller stakes “surprise and delight” booth activations were a great way for booths of all sizes to capture interest – think arcade games, photo ops, mini-performances, and immersive experiences. This worked best when people were allowed to engage first and be sold to second. The booths that gated the activities behind a sales pitch pushed more people away than not, as did booths that tried to have multiple activations going on at once. Keep it simple and interesting, and the rest will follow suit.
Harness Social Media for Both Action & Awareness
Events like RSA Conference are inherently social – so why is social media so often left out of vendors’ booth strategies? There are many ways social media can play a part in making the event a successful one beyond “That’s a wrap!” and “Register for our session” posts.
At a minimum, company handles and brand hashtags should be visible on all booths and collateral, just in case someone wants to learn more about who you are before engaging in a sales pitch. For those who do stop by the booth, thinking through how you can set up opportunities for social activation will help bring more people into the sales funnel. For example, have people follow your page or share a picture of your booth to be entered into a contest for a prize.
Even better, using on-site social creative and campaigns to help drive traffic to your booth genuinely works. We saw this in real time when we created and shared a time-lapse video guiding people through Moscone to a client booth. Another client of ours planned out a scavenger hunt, tweeting out clues leading to branded toys that could – if found – be brought to their booth for a free book.
If brought in early enough, and given room to explore, proper social media activation can truly augment vendor success at events.
Your audience is human
If you’ve never been to one, a show like RSA Conference can quickly lead to people getting tired, hungry, and overwhelmed on the expo floor. With limited options for seating, food and drink, or places to quick get some work done, people are often looking for respite.
The vendors that recognized these human needs won the show, metaphorically speaking. Whether it was robot-made pancakes at Fastly, the soft-as-a-cloud seats at Google Cloud, or portable phone chargers as swag – these sorts of activations made booths a destination throughout the entire event. Beyond that, it also helped to position vendors as a potential resource that could benefit practitioners and decision-makers in the future…and isn’t that the whole point?
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While RSA Conference may be over this year – we’re just getting started. Next up? Black Hat. If you’d like to work with us in preparation or meet with our team at the show, connect with us.
