Right kind of people

You can imagine the scenario. You have spent months preparing your exhibit for yet another marketing event and you arrive with a diary packed full of meetings with potential clients. Yet within hours, it becomes apparent that many of those key decision-makers whose hands you needed to shake to stand any chance of joining their supplier list will not be there. A last-minute emergency in their office, or a realisation that this is one conference or exhibition they can afford to miss, means a junior manager has been sent instead and – “if it is okay with you” – they will attend the meeting and report back.

Miffed by minions

There are few things more frustrating for an exhibitor than discovering that many conference delegates are not in a position to buy their services or, worse still, not even in their target market. The response by exhibitors in recent months has been to issue a warning to event organisers that, as the calendar of marketing conferences and exhibitions becomes increasingly crowded, they will be as selective about which events they attend as the board directors and marketing managers they criticise for staying away. Marketing communications agency Perspectives Red Cell now selects its events extremely carefully after years of being approached by organisers who, according to associate director Peter Young, encourage a client’s junior staff to attend simply to boost visitor numbers or to justify a conference’s existence.

This year, the company has only attended the Direct Marketing Management Forum, which was organised by Forum Events in February and August. Young says: “At some events it is clear the clients attending are not looking for new agency business and the organisers want to demonstrate the presence of a particular client company rather than the status of the people attending.”

He suggests that marketing events should consider charging clients a nominal fee to attend, as a way of assessing how serious they are about talking to agency exhibitors. “Alternatively we should be allowed to talk to potential visitors beforehand to discuss their possible requirements,” he says. One organisation addressing the need for better information on the quality of visitors is the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). It audits 221 exhibitions under its Certification of Attendance scheme, including at least nine marketing shows such as the International Confex, the International Direct Marketing Fair, Total Marketing Solutions and the In-Store Marketing Show.

Counting who counts

The ABC is 70 years old, but it has only been monitoring the exhibition and conference industry since the early Nineties. It estimates that 560 trade events take place in the UK each year and it currently audits 33 per cent of them. It audits 55 per cent of all magazines.

“Everyone targeting the business-to-business market wants reliable information on the quality of visitors attending events. They are, after all, being asked to spend a lot of money to exhibit. The number of shows paying for an independent audit has risen by 26 per cent in two years, which indicates how seriously the conference industry is taking the issue,” says ABC director of business to business Jan Pitt.

The ABC operates two schemes for events. The Standard package provides exhibitors with basic audited attendance figures and the more in-depth Profile service breaks down the numbers into demographic and geographic categories, including each visitor’s job title and function. About 40 per cent of trade show customers use the Profile scheme.

Much of the growth in event auditing has come about since members of the Association of Exhibition Organisers (AEO) agreed it should be a condition of membership that all indoor shows of more than 2,000sq ft and outdoor events exceeding 8,000sq ft provide an ABC certificate. AEO deputy director Austen Hawkins says: “The industry has grown up without auditing, but shows are part of the marketing industry alongside radio, magazines and TV and the sector is becoming more competitive. Clients’ marketing budgets are being squeezed and organisers recognise the need for an independent measure.”

Selling by numbers

One marketing event using the ABC Profile service is International Confex, organised by CMP Europe (formerly United Business Media). It is held in February at Earls Court and targets marketing managers in the incentive travel and conferences sector. Almost 15,000 people, including 5,464 exhibiting personnel, attended the 2001 event. Companies considering booking a stand at the 2002 show have been sent a copy of the audit certificate as part of CMP’s direct marketing campaign. The data revealed that almost 30 per cent of visitors had management roles, 15.4 per cent were directors and 14.7 per cent where chairmen, managing directors or owners of the company they worked for. The audit also revealed that 39.9 per cent (3,731) of visitors made purchasing decisions while another 29.4 per cent claimed to influence those decisions.

International Confex event marketing executive Helen Simms says: “We are under no illusions about how important it is to get the right people to a marketing event. The visitor’s exact role in a company is the key question we ask in the registration questionnaire.”

Simms is aware that organisers need to do more to bring in high-level visitors but says exhibitors have an important role too: “We distribute 250 complimentary visitor tickets to all exhibitors so they can invite their customers’ key decision-makers, but often they do not send these out.”

Individual direct mail?

Advertising agency River Advertising is advising CMP on how to market its events more creatively and as brands in their own right. Following River’s advice, CMP has increased the use of online marketing for next February’s International Confex. The agency has suggested that CMP tailor direct mail and e-mail messages depending on who the invitation is aimed at, whether managing or marketing director.

River managing director Howard Barkley says: “Organisers must grasp the importance of standing out in a cluttered market and they need to use existing media better. Many have not even tested whether press advertising or direct mail works better for them in attracting high-calibre visitors. They should utilise other disciplines, such as field marketing, to reach their target audience. We always emphasise the importance of researching why people who have registered fail to attend.”

Reed Marketing Group ensures that all its events are audited and it has taken action to avoid exhibitor disquiet over who is actually attending its shows. It has created an umbrella brand – The Marketing Expo 2002 – to attract more decision-makers to the International Direct Marketing Fair, New Media Marketing, TelecommercExpo and Marketing IT, which are taking place at ExCeL in March.

Why should I come?

Exhibition director Tim Huckstep says the conference and exhibition industry realises people need a good reason to justify coming to a show for one or two days, and exhibitors are right to demand both quantity and quality when it comes to visitor numbers.

He says: “The creation of Marketing Expo means brand managers can come to one venue and move freely around four events. Exhibitors should remember, however, that anyone who has any level of input into buying decisions is a valuable visitor even if they do not have a management title.” This year’s International Direct Marketing Fair had more than 11,300 visitors, of which almost ten per cent – the highest figure for any visitor category – were chief executives and managing directors. Some nine per cent were marketing directors or managers, while 9.4 per cent registered as marketing, sales or account executive assistants.

Huckstep has also confirmed that Reed is rebranding its conferences for next year’s event, renaming them High Level Business Briefings. “These will mainly be question and answer sessions and the conferences will only cover topics which we know are keeping marketers awake at night,” he says.

Can’t get away from the office

Business information provider Dun & Bradstreet exhibits at the International Direct Marketing Fair and senior analyst Philip Mellor sympathises with organisers who are facing pressure from exhibitors. He says: “People are less prepared to spend time away from the office than they were five or ten years ago and the way people treat trade shows has changed. Now they tend to keep in touch with suppliers and industry trends on a daily and global basis via the Internet and e-mail.” For their part, exhibitors are demanding a return on their investment in attending shows and are open to new ideas that develop the traditional role of the conference or exhibition – which is to network with existing and potential clients.

Rebecca George, associate director at full service communications consultancy August.One Communications, says there is a move towards niche events to encourage quality attendees. She advises her clients to run events – such as workshops – with more customer interaction. August.One has organised a series of customer and industry seminars for computer company Dell. George says: “Attendees know that Dell has taken time to think about their interests and concerns because it has tailored the seminar accordingly. They get to hear a guest speaker and can have informal chats with Dell and with their peers.”

Another alternative to the traditional exhibition is to invite clients to watch a presentation from the comfort of their own office, via a live webcast. Creative Digital Products can organise online events where a number of speakers from the company, plus industry experts, present for between 20 and 30 minutes each. “Companies are cutting back on exhibiting and ploughing some of the money saved into new areas such as webcasts. These bring relevant information direct to the desktop of the senior people they need to reach,” says CDP managing director Bryan Lewis.

Senior client managers and exhibitors are unlikely to desert traditional trade shows completely because the reasons for meeting and greeting are as relevant today as they always were. Both parties have genuine concerns and until acceptable solutions are found, exhibitors must continue to second-guess which events their target audience will attend, and prepare to be disappointed.