If you’ve been following my articles on Open To Work Social, you might remember the piece I published on October 5th, titled:
👉 “How COVID, Empty Tradeshows, and 52 Manufacturers Taught Me the True Power of Customer-Centric Marketing.”
(Read it here.)

That story was about how, in the middle of a global shutdown, I decided to grab a camera crew, fly into a ghost-town tradeshow, and start documenting manufacturers who had no audience.

• In four days, we shot 55 videos for 52 brands.
• Each one averaged over 178,000 views.
• We turned a catastrophe into a case study.

And it was from that experiment — a story that started with empathy and a question — that I got a call that would change how tradeshows approach media, forever.


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The Call That Sparked an Industry Shift

Out of the blue, I got a message from Michelle Swayze, who was then with Informa’s TISE — The International Surface Event.

She had seen what I was doing.

And she asked a simple question:
“Hey Joseph, are you sending news reporters to tradeshows?”

My answer?
“Umm, sure. Yes.”

That’s how innovation starts — not with a perfect plan, but with a bold “yes.”

Of course, at the time, there was no formal program. No established model. I was just doing what felt right: helping businesses tell their stories when no one else would.

But when Michelle asked, I realized there was an opportunity to take this further — to make it repeatable, scalable, and profitable.

So, I invented something new: a white-labeled media coverage model for tradeshows.


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But First, A Reality Check — How Tradeshow Coverage Actually Works

Before I explain how this model worked, let’s be clear about something: Tradeshow “news coverage” doesn’t really exist.

Sure, you might see a local news crew pop into a convention center once in a while — they’ll get a quick soundbite, maybe a 30-second live hit about “new home design trends,” and then they’re gone.

They’re not there to support exhibitors.
They’re not there to help generate leads. They’re there to fill airtime between the weather and the sports segment.

Meanwhile, the industry press — the magazines and media companies that attend these tradeshows — aren’t really there for the exhibitors either.

They’re there for themselves.

They’ll conduct interviews, but only with brands that pay for placement.

They’ll post coverage that’s optimized for clicks, not conversions.

They’ll produce content about their media brand, not the actual businesses spending thousands of dollars on booth space.

And then there’s the tradeshow’s so-called “media partners.”

These partnerships are designed to drive attendance and sell booth space — not to actually tell the stories of the people who make these events possible.

The whole ecosystem is transactional.

No empathy.
No collaboration.
No long-tail value.

That’s when it hit me:
The tradeshow industry was missing Customer-Centric Marketing entirely.


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What If There Could Be?

When Michelle asked how my program worked, I knew I had an opportunity to turn this entire system upside down.

So I said:
“Let’s build a white-labeled media coverage solution.”

Here’s what that meant...

👉 The tradeshow wouldn’t pay me a dime.

👉 Instead, I’d provide everything — the reporters, the videographers, the editors, the social team — for free.

👉 In return, the tradeshow would sell branded video coverage to their own exhibitors and sponsors.

👉 Each exhibitor could purchase an interview and video segment, filmed right in their booth, featuring their team, their product, and their story — professionally shot and branded with the tradeshow’s logo (like TISEtv).

👉 I set a white-label fee of $1,200 per video segment.

👉 The tradeshow could charge their exhibitors $2,800.

I made $1,200. They made $1,600.

✓ No upfront cost.
✓ No risk.
✓ No loss.

Just shared reward.


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But Wait — How Is That Customer-Centric Marketing?

At first glance, it sounds like a clever pricing model. But that’s not what made it special.

What made it powerful was how everyone involved had a reason to share it.

Here’s why it worked:
1. The exhibitor got a video feature highlighting their booth and products. They had every reason to post it — to their customers, partners, and social followers.

2. The tradeshow was branded in every video. Every time an exhibitor shared their segment, the show got promoted too.

3. The sponsors were featured in the coverage, meaning they also shared it to their networks.

4. We, as the production team, gained exposure across every participating brand’s audience — compounding reach exponentially.


A single five-minute interview — filmed, edited, and distributed in under an hour — reached hundreds of thousands of people organically.

One video, zero ad spend, 239,000 views on average.

That’s the power of aligned value.


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From News Coverage to Network Effect

Traditional tradeshow media is linear — one brand buys exposure, one brand gets it.

Customer-Centric Marketing is circular.

When you elevate one participant, they elevate everyone connected to them.

In my model, the exhibitor’s self-promotion became the show’s marketing.

And the show’s branding gave credibility to the exhibitor’s content.

It was symbiotic. Each share created another ripple of discovery.

That’s how we turned a $2,800 in-booth video into a multi-brand visibility engine.

✓ The show made money.
✓ The exhibitor gained exposure.
✓ The sponsors got reach.
✓ And the audience got valuable content.

That’s the difference between “content” and “community.”


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Customer-Centric Marketing in Action

Customer-Centric Marketing isn’t just a theory. It’s a way of rethinking how your business interacts with its audience.

At its core, it’s about empathy — about asking, “What does my customer actually need?” instead of, “What can I sell them next?”

In this case, my customers (the tradeshows) needed a way to generate engagement and value for exhibitors — but without the cost or logistical burden of building a media team.

Their customers (the exhibitors) needed visibility, credibility, and shareable content.

Their audience (the attendees and followers) needed insight, education, and storytelling — something beyond glossy product brochures.

So, rather than sell coverage, I built a model that solved for everyone.

And when every stakeholder benefits, marketing becomes self-propelling.

That’s what makes it Customer-Centric.


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The Compounding Power of Shared Value

Think about how traditional marketing works.

A business pays for exposure. The exposure fades. The money’s gone.

Customer-Centric Marketing flips that equation.

When you create something that everyone involved wants to share — because it benefits them — the content keeps working for you long after the campaign ends.

That’s why our videos had such insane performance metrics.
Each one was shared by:
✓ The exhibitor’s brand account
✓ Their CEO or marketing team
✓ The show’s own channels
✓ Five to seven sponsors
✓ And occasionally, partner distributors and retailers


That’s what happens when you build systems that reward participation.

You don’t have to force engagement — you just design for it.


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Why the Old Model Doesn’t Work Anymore

Let’s be honest. The traditional tradeshow model is broken.

You pay for booth space.
You invest thousands in design, lighting, and logistics.
You send your team halfway across the country.

And then what?

You get three days of exposure, and then it’s gone.

Sure, maybe you collected a few leads. Maybe you shook some hands. But unless you had a camera rolling and a plan for post-event storytelling, all that effort vanishes the moment the booth comes down.

What I built was a way to extend the shelf life of the tradeshow — by giving exhibitors the ability to share their story over and over again, long after the event ended.

That’s the difference between event marketing and ecosystem marketing.

One fades. The other compounds.


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Redefining “Media Partner”

One of the biggest ironies in the tradeshow world is the concept of a “media partner.”

These partnerships aren’t about storytelling — they’re about sales pipelines.

The show trades exposure for database access. The magazine trades content for sponsorship visibility.

There’s no emotional connection. No real collaboration.

My model turned the tradeshow itself into the media partner.

The show didn’t need an external publication to tell its story — it could tell its own, through the voices of the people who make it possible: the exhibitors.

And that’s why it worked. Because it wasn’t about inserting media — it was about enabling people.


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The Bigger Lesson for Every Industry

Here’s what this experiment taught me:
Customer-Centric Marketing isn’t limited to tradeshows.

It can be applied to any business model that involves multiple stakeholders — especially industries that rely on relationships, visibility, and trust.

If you run:
• An awards program, you can feature nominees as contributors and turn them into your PR team.

• A conference, you can give speakers shareable media kits that promote the event every time they post.

• A business network, you can showcase your members’ achievements instead of promoting your brand.


Every time you center your marketing on the people who make your business possible, your reach expands organically.

That’s not magic — it’s human psychology.

People share what celebrates them.

And honestly, that’s what this all comes down to.

When you stop trying to sell people on your brand, and instead give them a platform to celebrate themselves, you don’t have to fight for attention. You earn it.

So, if you host a tradeshow, conference, or event — or even if you’re just looking for a fresh, modern way to create shared value across your brand network — let’s talk.

Reach out through my Open To Work profile or send me a message directly.

Let’s reimagine what marketing looks like when everyone gets to win. Because when you give your customers the spotlight, you don’t just tell a story. You build a movement.