Glittering prizes
By presenting awards, trade fairs raise their profile and give exhibitors an opportunity to sell themselves better in the industry.
Awards and prizes are like haemorrhoids. Sooner or later everyone gets them," American director Billy Wilder once said at an Oscar award ceremony. And indeed, awards have since become so numerous on the German exhibition scene too that one might be forgiven for believing there is not an exhibitor who leaves their event without a trophy. Messe Düsseldorf alone has some 25 award ceremonies in its programme of events, and neighbouring Cologne will hardly be far behind. To the south of Germany, 16 awards are presented at twelve exhibitions in Nürnberg Messe, and at the just-closed ispo in Munich alone 13 award winners will smile at the cameras this year.
Awards and exhibitions seem firmly cemented together. "An entire sector showcases itself at the international leader fairs and is eager to highlight the new products in the innovation cycle at its industry event. An excellent way of doing so is to present an award," is how Werner Matthias Dornscheidt explains the phenomenon. Messe Düsseldorf's chief executive sees exhibitors as the most interested party: "The industry has a powerful need to disseminate information, particularly to its own clients, and it seeks to satisfy this through multipliers. An award ceremony is a good way of doing that; after all they can't stage a separate press conference for each innovation."
But exhibitors are not the only ones to benefit, exhibitions can also score points: "The brand value of an exhibition increases if important awards are presented there," Dornscheidt says. More than ever before, individual shows are perceived as brands in their specific segment - and to position that brand, to portray its values and communicate them to the industry, marketing strategists are increasingly focusing on awards. Michael Peters, Messe Frankfurt managing director, uses the tool for his consumer flagship Ambiente. Now Peters has succeeded in capturing the German Design Award for Ambiente on a long-term basis. In this way the exhibition chief can give his event a distinct gloss as a design show. Peters summarises his strategy for Design Plus in three points: "First we arouse attention. The international interest in the competition is very high - on the part of designers, manufacturers, the distributive trade and the media.
Second, we create confidence through continuity and hone our profile as a competent design location. Given the consistently high quality of the winning products and the independence of the jury, Design Plus is a guarantee of good design.
Third we further develop the community with our global partners and strengthen valuable connections."
The Koelnmesse strategists take a similar approach at the furniture fair imm Cologne, which has just closed. Like Ambiente, the people in Cologne concentrate clearly on design, with the Interior Innovation Award and the competition for young talent Inspired by Cologne as the foremost tools used to underscore this exhibition profile. And like the exhibition organisers in Frankfurt, Cologne is also aiming for "sustained bonding effects", as Udo Traeger, chief divisional manager of imm Cologne, puts it.
Two things in particular have emerged from the competition for young talent, Traeger says: "Some past award winners have established themselves internationally. This means we were on the right track, which enhances the importance of the award." What is more, the designers who have captured awards in Cologne keep coming back to "where they won their first laurels". "As a result a network has been built up over the years. We have created a community, and the event is part of that community."
The value attached to the Interior Innovation Award is underscored by the huge number of contestants, 300 meanwhile. Wolfgang Kranz, managing director in charge at Koelnmesse: "Recently I was particularly pleased to see an item dating from 2004 in a furniture shop bearing the label ‘Winner of Interior Innovation Award Imm Cologne 2004'."
This is presumably also a sentiment familiar to Claus Rättich, member of the management and chief divisional manager Own Events II at NürnbergMesse. For years at the BioFach expo Rättich offered the "Product of the Year" prize in Nuremberg. To communicate the award, and with it the exhibition, more powerfully to the distributive trade, he had a logo created that looks amazingly like the BioFach symbol. "We wanted to demonstrate greater visibility for the innovations at our exhibition and show the public that organic products are more than just spelt cookies and muesli bars." So in addition to the logo, which they were permitted to use for promotional purposes, the prize-winners were also given a little marketing package, including a virtual press folder.
At the same time Rättich reserved the most conspicuous place for the award that a trade fair has to offer in public relations terms, integrating the award ceremony into the opening festivities before an audience of up to 1,000 hand-picked guests - and, of course, a bevy of media representatives. What is more, agriculture minister Renate Künast regularly presented the award. In spite of the high standing that the "Product of the Year" achieved in the industry, at the BioFach 2005 Rättich replaced it with the "Moneyspinner of the Year". He believes the idea of awarding a prize to an organic product because it looks and tastes like a conventional article is obsolete. The "Moneyspinner of the Year" is now designed as a mark of distinction for organic products that have sold particularly well. Markus Ridder
m+a report Nr.1 / 2006 vom 13.02.2006
m+a report vom 13. Februar 2006