The Best Space Marketing I Saw At Space Symposium and 7 Lessons for SmallSat

At Space Symposium, I was sitting at the Golden Bee, and someone told me they knew who had the best marketing at Space Symposium: The Defense Unicorns. And he pulled out a sticker and showed me the cutest little unicorn.

"The best marketing at the show" is definitely a statement given how much marketing is at Symposium. Massive booths, elaborate displays, parties, sponsorships, and plenty of swag (mostly in the form of stickers – more on that later).

Companies spend serious money to be there, and many spend even more trying to stand out once they arrive. So calling any one company the best marketing at the show was a bold statement.

I had to investigate.

Not long after that conversation, I was heading to a post-show party and spotted a very tall man in the room wearing a Defense Unicorns shirt. Among a sea of aerospace polos, button-downs and corporate logos, a giant unicorn on (dare I say) a burly man, was hard to miss.

Point taken.

But a memorable logo doesn't necessarily equal great marketing. So I made my way to their booth the next day, which was in the elusive Colorado Hall – it took effort to get there and find it. But when I got there, it was packed.

By the end of Symposium, I understood why someone had singled them out. Why they were so busy. And why they are winning. In January Defense Unicorns raised $136 million series B to build the software backbone of the DOW.

And with SmallSat coming up (plus 30+ more shows in 2027), these are the lessons I think aerospace and space marketers (and founders) can learn from what they're doing.

1. Start by Being Memorable and a Smidge Brave

There is something inherently unexpected about the name Defense Unicorns. Defense is serious. Government contracting is serious. National security is serious.

Unicorns are…unicorns. And not necessarily something you’d pair with a military vibe.

Putting those words together creates just enough tension to make you pay attention. In an industry dominated by acronyms, highly technical names and relatively conservative brands, that's powerful.

The lesson is for founders and entrepreneurs naming their companies and products: give people something to remember.

At a show with hundreds of exhibitors competing for attention, blending in is expensive.

2. A Memorable Name Still Needs a Brand Behind It

A clever name could easily have become a gimmick. What makes Defense Unicorns work is that they committed to it and they invested in the design.

I spoke with their head of marketing at Symposium and learned that the team originally designed the unicorn icon themselves. As the company grew and had more resources, they brought in an agency to refine it, add depth, and crystallize the larger brand identity.

You could see that investment throughout the show.

The booth, apparel, logo, printed materials, and swag felt connected. That's the difference between having a logo and having a brand.

And at a trade show (or virtually anywhere else), your brand starts communicating long before anyone on your team has the opportunity to explain what you do.

3. Create a Reason to Engage, Not Just a Reason to Stop

First of all, the Defense Unicorn booth was always busy. One of the biggest reasons? They were giving away a small unicorn pin that everyone wanted.

And how do you get one? Well, it was one of the most clever parts of their booth, but also one of the simplest:

Trade a Problem for a Pin.

Visitors shared a company problem they were facing in exchange for one of the company's unicorn pins. It's a smart activation, but what I liked most was what was happening underneath it.

Defense Unicorns wasn't just giving something away. They were getting people to talk about their problems (that ultimately they could.

That's valuable customer intelligence.

Instead of the standard, "Want to see a demo?" the interaction naturally put the customer's challenge at the center of the conversation. As you think about tradeshows, think beyond “How do we get people into our booth?” and start to think about “What do we want to learn from them once they are there?”

4. Swag Works When People Actually Want It

Most trade show swag is forgettable and ends up in the trash. Defense Unicorns had people lining up for stickers and pins. People wanted the swag because they wanted the design.

The unicorn was interesting enough, and the identity was strong enough that a relatively inexpensive sticker became something visitors actually wanted to put on their laptop or water bottle or whatever people do with stickers.

Swag doesn't have to be expensive to work. But slapping your logo onto another pen probably isn't a strategy.

The best swag extends the brand beyond the booth.

5. Capture the Interaction

Here's something else that shouldn't have stood out to me, but did:

They scanned my badge.

I spoke with a lot of companies at Symposium, and surprisingly few scanned me. Maybe because I work in marketing. Maybe they assumed I wasn't their ICP. Maybe they thought I was going to sell them something (likely).

Defense Unicorns captured the contact anyway. I think that's smart.

People change jobs. They move between programs. They recommend vendors. They introduce colleagues. Someone who isn't your buyer today might work for your dream customer two years from now.

Not every badge scan is a qualified lead, and it shouldn't be treated like one.

But if you've already spent thousands of dollars getting your company to a trade show, why wouldn't you capture the relationships you're building there?

You can qualify later.

6. Have a Plan for What Happens Next

The interaction didn't end when I walked away from the booth. Not long afterward, I received an email thanking me for stopping by. They also had a nicely produced one-pager promoting an upcoming event, giving visitors another opportunity to engage with the company after Symposium.

Again, none of this is revolutionary.

We spend so much time talking about booth design, swag, and sponsorship packages that sometimes the most basic question gets overlooked:

What happens after the show?

Your follow-up strategy should be built before anyone gets on the plane.

Who gets an email?

Who gets a personal follow-up?

Who goes into a nurture campaign?

What's the next thing you're inviting them to?

The show isn't the campaign. It's one moment in the sales funnel (or engagement journey).

7. Make Sure There's Substance Behind the Attention

By this point, I understood why someone walking around Symposium might have told me Defense Unicorns had the best marketing.

The name was memorable. The booth was busy. The swag was desirable. The unicorn was cute and everywhere.

But great event marketing can still fall apart the second someone goes home and Googles you.

So I went to their website.

And this is probably the piece I appreciated most.

Their messaging made the problem they solve clear. I didn't have to dig through layers of technical language to figure out why the company exists. The problem: "Getting Software On Military Systems is a Nightmare."

I'm a big believer in the StoryBrand framework and particularly one of its simplest principles: your company isn't the hero of the story. Your customer is.

Your customer has a problem. Your job is to make it incredibly clear what the problem is and how you help solve it. I have so many clients that don't want to be negative in a problem statement, but if there isn't a problem, then there doesn't need to be a solution. I love how they were brave enough to just put the problem statement out there in plain English.

That sounds obvious. Spend enough time on aerospace and defense websites and you'll discover it isn't.

May founders love leading with capabilities, platforms, architectures, proprietary technology and acronyms. All of those things can matter.

But eventually your prospective customer still needs to understand:

What problem do you solve for me?

If your booth gets someone's attention at SmallSat and your website immediately loses them, you've only done half the job.

The Real Lesson for SmallSat

I don't know whether the person who originally told me Defense Unicorns had the best marketing at Symposium had analyzed any of this.

My guess is they hadn't. They probably saw the unicorn. Then the booth. And remembered them. But that's also kind of the point. What I found when I looked closer was that the memorable brand wasn't operating in isolation.

The name got attention. The identity made it recognizable. The activation started conversations. The swag extended the brand. The badge scan captured the relationship. The follow-up continued it. And the messaging gave all that attention somewhere meaningful to go.

Remember trade show marketing isn't just about what your booth looks like (though that's VERY IMPORTANT). It's the entire journey from the first moment someone spots you across the show floor to what happens when they visit your website a week later.

Defense Unicorns didn't stand out at Space Symposium simply because they had a cute, angry unicorn.

The unicorn made ya look.

Everything behind it is what I’d call good marketing. Because brand isn’t decoration. It’s the foundation for how people recognize you, understand you, remember you and ultimately choose to do business with you. Defense Unicorns built a brand people notice and then built the marketing to make that attention matter.