Archive for August, 2008

New Report from CEIR: Trade Shows Still A Great Idea

Monday, August 25th, 2008

The Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) recently published a report that urges exhibitors to provide special attention and programs for attendes from key client/prospect companies. The report found that these influential attendees are responsible for large orders and for generating buzz around the event itself. CEIR recommends that meetings and initiatives aimed at C-level attendees become the domain of senior management from exhibiting companies.

One idea, suggests the author of the report, is that loyalty programs be put in place for key customers and prospects. Discounted admission, networking opportunities, VIP airport transportation and other initiatives that not only make the attendees feel valued but also facilitate the trade show experience are recommended.

Among other key findings of CEIR’s research are:

  • Trade shows attract new prospects: CEIR found that there are many ‘hidden prospects’ unknown to exhibitors until they meet on the show floor. In most industries, 77% of qualified attendees were found to be new prospects, while in medical the number jumps to 80% and falls in retail and high-tech to 61%–still a significant number.
  • 82% of trade show attendees have influence over their companies’ purchasing decisions: 39% have final authority, 26% are specifiers, 51% recommend purchases. (CEIR acknowledges the total of these percentages is more than 100%; net values were used.)
  • 65% of trade show attendees attend more than one show annually, while more than one third attend only one show per year.
  • Attendees average 8.3 hours on the show floor over 2.3 days. Retail attendees spend 10.5 hours over 2.4 days, while tech visitors are on the floor 9.2 hours over 2.2 days. Medical attendees visit the floor approximately 6.5 hours over 2.6 days.
  • On average, one third of the attendees at a trade show are attending for the first time.

The author of this CEIR study was Michelle Bruno at The Bruno Group.

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GGE Can Help Make Those Shrinking Budgets Go Farther

Friday, August 22nd, 2008
Study: Marketers’ Budgets Likely To Plunge Further
by Sarah Mahoney, Friday, Aug 22, 2008 5:00 AM ET
A new survey finds that 53% of major marketers expect their ad budgets will be reduced within the next six months because of the spiraling economy. And 87% say they have already made cutbacks in their marketing and ad plans. The poll, fielded by the Association of National Advertisers, also finds that while the majority of marketers (53%) expect additional cuts to be modest–ranging from 1% to 10%–27% expect cutbacks to be more substantial, in the 11% to 20% range. A smaller group–about 10% of the respondents–are expecting that their budgets will be gutted, with decreases of 30% or more.

The ANA also asked its respondents–100 marketing executives from a wide range of industries–what kinds of spending would most likely be cut or eliminated. About 69% say that they expect to reduce media budgets, 63% expect to trim ad production budgets, 63% anticipate travel and expense restrictions in their department, and 61% say they will either drop or delay new projects. And 63% also plan to put more pressure on their ad agencies to identify cost reductions.

“Effective marketing spending during economic downturns is not about how much you spend but how you spend it,” the trade association says in its release. “Marketers must assess how consumers and customer behavior can be positively influenced during tough times. If it can, then marketers should give increased consideration to more spending rather than cutting.”

 

 

 

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I Think We Already Knew This, But It’s Always Good to See It Again

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

Overall attendance increased at 62 percent of annual tradeshow events in 2007, according to the results of the fifth annual AttendTrends study, conducted by international marketing research company Jacobs, Jenner & Kent and marketing agency Frost Miller Group. Also up were organizations’ marketing budgets, which the study suggests is more causal than coincidental.

The 2007 AttendTrends study, conducted in November 2007 via phone interviews with 450 North American event organizers, reveals that among organizations that increased their event marketing budgets, 64 percent reported growth in tradeshow attendees. Meanwhile, among those who cut their event marketing budgets, 58 percent reported a decline in attendees. Finally, among organizations who kept their event marketing budgets the same, 62 percent reported that event attendance also remained the same.

“While the natural tendency for some show organizers may be to cut back on spending when the economy is soft, this research shows that it is likely to lead to revenue loss,” Kevin Miller, president of Frost Miller Group, said in a statement. “A better approach would be to become more strategic in developing databases and more creative in executing marketing materials.”

Among event marketers who were polled for the AttendTrends study, 35 percent said their top challenge is knowing how to communicate in today’s environment; 32 percent said it is communicating events’ value to new audiences. To that end, 80 percent of AttendTrends respondents reported increasing their use of e-mail marketing, blasting e-mail messages to potential attendees five or more times per tradeshow.

“Event organizers are experimenting with technologies such as e-mail and Web 2.0 tools not only to attract potential attendees to their events, but to interact with them between events,” Miller continued. “Blogs, social networking pages and online videos increase audience participation.”

For more information about the AttendTrends study, and to view the full report, visit www.frostmiller.com.

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What is the new ‘business as usual’?

Monday, August 18th, 2008

Trade shows are not disappearing but their shapes are shifting. Industry headlines have told of cancellations in expansion and building of new convention facilities, predictions of the impact of airline woes are dire, and hotels claim low occupancy.

Yet no less a convention city than Las Vegas, one of those places where facility expansion has come to a halt, reports:

even though the number of conventions in Las Vegas was down 2.8 percent [in June, 2008] compared with the same month a year earlier, convention attendance was up 1.9 percent. Even the economic impact was up 0.8 percent, despite the fact the average room rate in June, $113.48 per night, was 16 percent lower than in June 2007.

What we can surmise at this point is that people still go to trade shows. They go to fewer shows, but the medium is still critical to doing business because trade shows are one of the few opportunities to interact face to face.

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