Signify at Light + Building 2018
This was a very special Light+Building trade show attendance for Signify/Philips Lighting.
The assignment from the Leadership was to announce the new company name Signify to the lighting industry and position Signify as the global lighting leader in connected LED lighting. And build reputation as the lighting company in the Internet of Things by use cases and also reveal the new IoT software platform – Interact. Two big launches in one trade show, without having any strategy, plan and content available at the start of the project. Executed by a small project team that signed an NDA to keep the new company name a secret until the announcement at the opening day of the show in March 2018.
The concept was to reveal the new company name as overarching story and deliver a unique experience via real-day, live demonstrations of the IoT software platforms, apps, applications and services interacting with an IoT ready lighting infrastructure. Furtermore offer more quality focus for customers, with deep dive engagement. The stand of 1,200 m2 with two decks had only one entrance and was closed on all sides, a complete city was designed to mimic real environment from a building, shop, bridge, stadium, home, industry, public space, architecture and more. On the first floor there was a complete hospitality area for business meetings and also the press conference was hosted here. And in the back of the stand we created a closed innovation center for invited VIPs only via guided tours. With over 45,000 visitors, strong NPS increase, 900 business meetings, 750 guided tours, and large exposure via online and social media the trade show was a big success.
The challenges: the whole organization of this show was one big challenge with the many new launches, the secret of the new company name to be revealed at the show, the many visitors, the crowd management challenges of having only one entrance, the different tours over a crowded stand, managing the special closed innovations rooms for VIPs only, the hospitality area, the press conference in the booth for about 100 journalists and motivating a staff over 300 persons that only knew the new company name one day before opening