The best (and worst) marketing tactics I saw at BETT 2025

Attention. The life blood of marketing. And becoming harder to get all the time.

When I and the Bee Digital Ltd squad landed at the BETT Show our marketing-nerd brains, obviously, started to note the various ways companies tried to get attention.

And like at every BETT ever, some made us joyful, some made us grind our teeth, and some made us yawn (surely the worst marketing sin of all).

Shall we?

Adobe's clever 'theme park' style entrance queue

Adobe created a covered and colourful tunnel into their demonstration demo area that teachers had to queue in, and it snaked around the booth. I thought it was an interesting approach to STOP people wondering onto an open stand, moving people along, and act as a pre-qualification tactic. You wouldn't waste time queuing if you weren't properly interested.

A queue generates FOMO too.

I think Adobe staff were also working the queue, checking in and asking questions. Smart.

(Plus the puffy clouds were fun)

Canva's bag printing

Canva's 'Make a Canva graphic then print it on a tote bag' printing service seemed to me a blessing and a curse.

An on brand promotion idea (personalised swag teachers will want to keep) will get teachers to your stand. But, even with 2 dedicated printing staff, it was hobbled by it being almost operationally impossible to speedily serve all the demand.

So, because each bag took time to print, it ended up crowding the valuable stand space with loitering bag wannabes, like the coffee wait crush at Costa, which looked very unhelpful to staff trying to demo product next door.

But I can't argue that a personalised bag will create conversations back in the staff room and lead to greater affection for the brand.

Juniper's in your face messaging

"Reject compromise" on staff shirts, water bottles, and headline on the stand was a smart way to generate attention.

This copy provoked intrigue, curiosity, and a reason to step into the booth/stand to learn the answer to "Why did they say that?"

By saying something unusual teachers will want to know more, to challenge, and to explore. That's the most vital energy you can try to harness at a show like BETT, where your best hope is not to be forgotten by the time the teacher gets back to their classroom.

Pointless, boring slogans ??

"Every student empowered"

"Empower every classroom"

"Teach your way"

"Education for everyone"

All real stand headlines. There were loads more, I wish I'd made a count.

Juniper's messaging stood in stark contrast to the amount of bland corporate jargon splashed across so many stands, brochures, and display screens.

Copy is important. What you say defines what people think of you.

Why does this sector struggle so much with defining their value proposition in a unique and interesting way? I see it every year. Teachers are as confused and bored by this kind of copy as much as anyone else.

With the amount of empowering going on I'm surprised every teacher didn't fly out of BETT like Ironman.

Want to sell? Say it well.

Interactive entertainment hooks

Is it just me or was there a massive amount of interactive elements at BETT this year?

From photo booths to AI avatar generators to arcade style claw machines to green screen video booths to dedicated spaces for your #Insta, it seemed like a much more "fun" BETT than I've seen before.

It seems companies were seeking new ways to attract and keep people on their stands, which is no bad thing.

Although to be honest, as popular as they were, I'm not convinced they offered very much marketing value. And the poor, hassled stand staff managing the impatient teachers around the 'hook a dog' machine didn't look like this was in their life plan TBH.

(And were have all the mascots gone? I didn't see a single costume character at BETT for the first time ever. I had to high five myself which is far less fun.)

QR codes don’t work if the wireless is flakey

It's almost tradition to cuss the wifi and 4/5G connection at BETT. It's always weak as.

But I noticed lots of follow up mechanisms e.g. a competition entry landing page, were contained behind a QR code printed on the stands.

This is normal practice, but with reception being so poor it meant many, many leads were lost as teachers tried and failed to get to a webpage. Not a big deal if the destination is just a 'more info' style page, but crippling to a form page that needs to load on the spot.

You may as well not bother having any wifi based interaction at BETT, mad as that sounds for an edtech show.

But if you insist, then avoid placing QR codes too low so that they are hidden from view by bodies. QR codes around eye height are far easier to scan.

Branding aesthetics

There was still, even though most people find it a turn off these days, too much corporate vibes.

Some stands were filled with suited / formal attire workers who looked too "business-like" and not as approachable. Causation isn't correlation but they didn't have seem to have many attendees in their stands.

I think it sets a "sales" tone, which is off-putting to educators who are looking to explore and learn more. Also, it makes it quite noticeable when staff are the only ones inside the stand!

Stands which blended into the background conversely made the bright, fun branding really stand out (looking at you Kahoot!).

BETT marketing BETT

Did anyone spot the large BETT merch space? BETT branded Tshirts and various tchotchkes.

Who was this for? I passed it several times. Sometimes it looked closed. And when open I didn't see a soul on it. So odd.

I also noted that my badge had an empty profile picture, ready to be filled by an AI cartoon avatar and re-printed at the badge collection area.

I suspect this was using the Microsoft AI avatar generator software, and MS are always a big sponsor. I didn't bother.

I respect the attempt, but it felt a little infantilising and, by then time I've queued to get my train, queued to get on the DLR, and queued to hand my bag over, the last thing I want to do is queue again to print a weird AI image of myself as a lego character.

Let me customise my own badge, within parameters, on the BETT site.

Finally, I think the food court was a huge missed opportunity to provide a welcoming space where exhibitors could have hosted tables, provided lunchtime entertainment, or give aways.

Instead it gave strong 'town hall in a local emergency' vibes. It was ghastly.

And way too few tables in a giant space meaning lots of attendees had to sit on the dirty floor. Where's the respect?

Less time and money spent on instagrammable spaces, photo booths, and AI avatars and more on attendees quality of experience please.

Or am I just a grumpy old marketer?