Wanted: exhibition visitors
The exhibition industry, having tended to attract attendance thus far by ad hoc actionist marketing activity, needs to rethink - in terms of both visitor canvassing and integrating exhibitors into its sales campaigning.
Organising a fair involves more than successfully selling square meterage. Just a few years ago the main thrust lay in canvassing exhibitors, but nowadays organisers are challenged more than ever to focus as well on a pinpointed approach to potential exhibition attendees. While activities to capture new customers are important, more obvious and efficient are bonding measures directed at former trade fair visitors. Organisers still have a long way to go on the latter in particular, though. Marketing executives are well aware that it is far cheaper to retain an existing customer than gain a new one. It is therefore all the more surprising how minor a part customer loyalty campaigns have played so far in the exhibition world. Instead of building up an ongoing dialogue with visitors as a means of keeping interest in an event alive throughout the year, from one exhibition date to another massive and, what is more, budget-intensive activation energy is unleashed in a bid to reach (new) potential attendees.
Yet how easy it would be with the right tools to ensure that the show retains a firm, permanent presence in visitors minds: by issuing a regular print publication for example, a kind of customer magazine. Organisers using this tool to bring news on the fair, informing visitors of plans for special shows or lecture forums, say, and combining this content with interesting, up-to-the-minute industry information, would be guaranteed a high attention level. For those who feel that the budget for a print publication may be too costly, the more economical version, the email newsletter, may be the medium of choice. But here, too, only a healthy mix of exhibition information and industry news will rivet attention on a permanent basis. Of course, both of these options cost money. But before communications officers dismiss them for budget reasons, it is worth considering whether parts of the promotion budget currently devoted to advertising or cold mailings might not better be allocated to this. An obstacle does crop up, though, once organisers start thinking of customer loyalty programmes of this kind: the use of direct and dialogue marketing is predicated on the possession of contact data. Organisers therefore need to know their visitors by name. What is generally no problem with exhibitor target groups turns out to be more difficult when it comes to visitors. By no means all organisers record visitor addresses. Much work remains to be done here in terms of building up and using qualified customer databases. But even where visitor data are available - through convenient internet pre-registration, for instance - a dialogue is often not pursued. On registering, the visitor receives an automatically generated confirmation: "Kindly take this confirmation to the ticket office, where you will be issued with your admission ticket". Little thought is given to making visitors preparations for the fair as convenient as possible. Yet this aspect in particular should not be underestimated.
A survey carried out last autumn by the trade magazine Direkt Marketing revealed dissatisfaction among exhibition visitors with the scant information provided on events. The assistance offered to prospective attendees over the phone is becoming less and less competent, detailed descriptions by post are few and far between, and would-be visitors can but dream of being sent a catalogue of exhibitors. Instead they have to click laboriously from one page to another on the Internet. Particularly in our online age, many exhibition organisers appear to be opting for this more economical route - but does it also hold out greater prospect of success in the long run? Organisers that merely sell stand space, and exhibitors imagining that once they have booked their booth customers and prospects will materialise out of thin air, are barking up the wrong tree. To make a fair worthwhile, commitment is required from all concerned. Exhibitors remain the target group most ardently courted by organisers, and given the turnover generated by exhibiting companies, at first glance this is understandable. But the corporate community must become more aware of the major contribution it, too, has to make to the success of a show. A trade fair is an outstanding contact platform provided for exhibitors. But it is no longer in the power of the organisers alone to ensure that visitors evince interest in any one particular company. Organisers, in turn, can make it easy or difficult for exhibitors to commit to the show. They are well advised to put together attractive promotional packages and renounce the strategy of "cashing in twice". This refers to the widespread practice of charging a lump sum for advertising expenses or for admission vouchers that an exhibitor's customers have used to gain admission to the fair. More than ever, a concept is needed to create a win-win situation for both sides. The organisers of the marketing forum Mailingtage, for example, provide their exhibitors with free promotional material, and these express their gratitude with brisk invitation activity. This "multiplier strategy" works, with the organisers reporting more than half of total attendance in 2005 generated through exhibitor activities - a result that certainly justifies the expenditure on production of the promotion material. Gone are the days in which the number of exhibitors alone acted as an audience magnet. Visitors want to turn their valuable time to good use, seeking new, creative ideas and solutions and profitable contacts. Organisers who wield the cost-cutting axe out of context in their communication activities and their design of tradeshows as an information and contact platform will have difficulty in the long run in capturing attendance - and ultimately exhibitors, too - for their events.
Andrea Brändli, editor-in-chief of the trade magazine Direkt Marketing
m+a report Nr.3 / 2006 vom 28.04.2006
m+a report vom 28. April 2006