John Vertin, Special Projects Manager, Skouts Honor Pet Supply
“Last night was… not exactly legal,” read a sticker placed in the restroom at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, featuring dogs getting chased by a police car down the Las Vegas Strip. Right outside of the pet supply trade show SuperZoo 2024, it was part of a provocative sponsorship campaign by Skout’s Honor Pet Supply Co., an Oceanside, CA-based brand that likes to shake things up in the corporate world of pet supplies, and does it all with the fun and flair of its surf-loving team.
EM caught up with John Vertin, special projects manager, overseeing the brand’s trade show program and other marketing activities, to talk about the brand’s new booth, and the cat nip that inspires their campaigns at SuperZoo.
Event Marketer: It’s not often that we see attendees inspired to take selfies with stickers in the restrooms. How did this idea come about?
John Vertin: We wanted to make fun of each other, our competitors and our partners. People who wanted rage because they’re in Vegas, but they still have to go to work in the morning. So the idea was the front, big sign—you in the morning; and the smaller ones inside on the mirrors—how much fun you had. Ultimately, this town will eat you up, but it’s so worth it. Let’s work together and kill it in this industry.
We used Midjourney with some post-production refining to generate the images and also did portraits of our team, including our founder. It was a fun experiment and it worked. We actually created this sponsorship a while back, so every year we strive to make everyone wonder what we will do next.
Your booth is very different from the heavily corporate presence on the show floor. What’s the thought process behind it and how did you achieve that?
We started with a 10×10, and this one, at 20×30, is our biggest booth yet. A lot of us come from surf retail. I was with Billabong, our founder worked for a sunscreen company. So we wanted to create a retail environment that was very inviting, very pop-style. As a leader in the natural products space, we wanted greenery and an airy flow. Many booths at this show are enclosed, but we wanted people walking down the aisle to be able to see inside.
This booth is new this year. Our previous was an island exhibit where anyone could walk in from any point and hover and not get help. For this one, we wanted it to be like a retail environment where you come in through an entrance, learn about our products, place your order, and have a beer in the back. We’re famous for our happy hour.
If you’re buying for a shop, you’re kicking yourself that your store doesn’t look this good. And you want it to look this good and it could look this good, right? That’s why our booth looks very shoppable.
How do you measure your trade show success?
We do a SWOT analysis after each show and gauge the number of attendees to our booth against the stats provided by the World Pet Association that owns the show. Of course, we track the number of giveaways and orders. If it has been a big show with a lot of people in our booth at the same time, we know we won. It doesn’t matter about orders. We’re here to show people we’re here.
How do you see this show, and the industry in general, evolving?
When I came on board about five years ago, the show had a very simple vibe. Many exhibits were carpeted spaces with guys in suits. We’re definitely raising the bar. Now you’ll see people bringing a race car or doing a full-on tiki bar.
This year, we’re surprised to see such a large number of exhibit contractors coming by to try to win our business for the next booth. We’re very happy with our existing fabricator, Wise Owl Productions. It must be a very competitive environment right now.
Overall, it’s hard to nail it, but if you create an environment and you make retailers and buyers love you, they’re going to order from you. We love their pets and their people and we want to encourage that life together with your pet. I think we embody that because we have fun.
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This story appeared in the Fall 2024 issue
