ESAB
Tradeshow PR support.
Challenge
FABTECH is North America’s largest fabricating tradeshow. The audience is wide – filled with professional fabricators, students, new customers, and loyal ESAB enthusiasts. And the competition to bring an innovative presence is always high. ESAB did not disappoint with a booth full of new product reveals, a fresh creative design, and more demo stations than any other brand there. Our job was to harness our PR expertise to bring as many eyes to the ESAB booth as possible and keep social channels as hot as a welding arc all week long.
Action
We got started before even stepping foot into the tradeshow by creating a robust plan that identified key products, attendees, what we wanted to capture, and what social platform content would live on. Knowing ESAB had recently launched its TikTok channel, we batched out plans to fit both new and seasoned audiences.
We also knew the ESAB team wanted to push the debut of Renegade VOLT™, the first battery-powered welding machine to run on standard rechargeable power tool batteries. To build anticipation around seeing the machine in person for the first time on the tradeshow floor, we wanted to create a lot of noise before the show. Paid, organic, and influencer social posts highlighted the new machine that attendees could demo for the first time at FABTECH.
After all our social seeds were planted, we packed our bags, flew out to Chicago, and really got to work.
Capabilities
Content
We started out with some beauty shots of the booth and then jumped in with both work boots. We filmed product managers giving booth tours, answering machine FAQs, demoing products, and even recreating trending social videos (with a welding twist of course). We asked students about their perception of ESAB and how they see the company playing a role in their future and filmed the reactions of pros as they demoed products. We even brought out an ESAB-yellow tiny mic to ask the crowd a variety of random ESAB/welding questions.
Influencers
We knew some extremely popular Team ESAB influencers would be at FABTECH, like Stephanie Hoffman, Netflix Metal Shop Masters judge, and Ian Johnson, off-road builder. So we coordinated ahead of time to not only capture content with them but also to have them post on their channels from the booth before and after the show to amplify our reach.
Photo opportunities
We mentioned building excitement around VOLT before FABTECH, but we had to get the crowd charged up on the tradeshow floor. So we sourced a custom-made VOLT sculpture that was stationed out front of the ESAB booth. Not only did it serve as a beacon that attendees could see from just about anywhere at the venue, but hundreds of selfies and group photos were snapped.
Giveaways
Inside the booth, we had a VOLT-themed photo booth with a giveaway attached. All you had to do was strike a pose, tag @esabweldingcutting, and use #TheVoltAge on Instagram for a chance to win a Renegade Volt. #Brilliant
Countless other giveaways happened, like awards for welding and cutting challenges. In addition to gaining traction on-site, we were gaining views on social by posting these exciting events and prizes in real time.
Quality control
Aside from providing boots-on-the-ground service in capturing content, we edited all the content, posted to platforms, and did community management with a high volume of posts to make sure any follower questions and comments were addressed and vetted timely.
Results
We planned to post four Reels per day and several in-the-moment feed and Story posts. But the goal wasn’t to just capture for FABTECH, the goal was to get as much content as possible to fuel ESAB’s social media calendar moving forward. And boy did we. Overall, we captured more than 30 additional pieces of content for ESAB to use on social throughout the year.
Just as we had planned, welding sparks and likes on social were flying. For FABTECH alone, in five days, we posted 89 Story slides, 24 In-Feed posts, 19 Reels, and five live streams. Here are the combined results from all platforms.
Across all platforms, we gained more than 500 new followers and generated 354,733 engagements. While our social efforts certainly drew in a lot of foot traffic to the booth, our primary goal was to bring to life ESAB’s FABTECH presence on social media for our loyal fans and followers who could not attend the show. It’s safe to say mission accomplished.
So when’s your next tradeshow?