We hope so. They must chance before they lose relevance at all.
First things first. Brand fairs are one of the best tools in an effective marketing mix to exchange information and sell products or services – but they can no longer take place in the way we are used to. The restrictions due to the pandemic hit the brand fair industry very hard. There is a need for every branch to find appropriate options to do their business, handle customers and exchange with media representatives, influencer or stakeholders.
An option to offer and distribute relevant information, keeping the sales funnel full by generating leads or to ensure a continuous presence of the brand and their representatives. Furthermore, aspects like increasing the level of (brand) awareness, bringing the most important stakeholders and influencers on board and enable a selected audience to be part in the common conversation about a brand and their products would be necessary. Digital of course. Tailormade for all target groups would be a best case. Sounds easy. It’s not.
In our opinion, the institution trade fair is changing. Must chance. Before it lose relevance at all.
Sales, new customer relations and brand affiliation are a main component of trade fairs. They are a best-case marketing event for making business. Direct marketing flights can be an (digital) option – but they are “off fairs” as well. Virtual exhibitions are expensive and most often do not have the expected success (compared to a live presence).
Diversity, Relevance, Premieres and Inspiration were long regarded as a guarantee for high visitor numbers. In the digital age blogs and social media take this position by presenting yet unrevealed products the forehand of the actual exhibition (which is by the way initiated by the brands itself). No need to spend money or time to collect impressions in a stressful abroad surrounding.
A brief digression based on the recent dfv-survey 2020 “Messegeschäft in Zeiten von Corona”*
67,2%* of marketing decision-makers do not deal with the issue of cancelled brand fairs.
67,3%* already use different market research instruments and tools for competitive monitoring to compensate the brand fair secondary role.
60,0%* already use alternative tools to communicate with third party suppliers and coop partners.
38,9%* are used to work with different recruiting tools to compensate cancelled brand fairs.
37,1%* do expect minor loss of sales.
40,3%* already use direct marketing, online-ads and digital media as alternative options to brand fairs.
The conclusion is obvious. Some brands already draw their digital options to compensate their ”live” activities at brand fairs or exhibitions – cancelled or not. And what about the remaining percentages? For the majority, the development is not yet really foreseeable.
Conferences, workshops, networking and knowledge transfer are very important aspect when it comes to exchange with each other. Future contact restrictions will force everyone to find/attend digital solutions. Guess what? Some brand associations (e.g. ISPO Re.Start Days) already offer several opportunities to exchange or get additional information. As well as the big players in business. They already draw their options for alternative communication options. So again – no need to attend the fair, when you can find all the interesting content online as well.
Missing brand- or product-diversity and the lack of individuality also reduce the relevance. Times are changing – and so do people. Everybody wants to be engaged by infotainment and taken care of ones needs. Consolidating exhibitions or regional focus may be considered as a future option – but no option to emotionally engage visitors. Let’s face it. Youtuber often do a better job in presenting a walk around or when it comes to educational content.
Every single point has its right to exist. Each brand has its own strategy how to deal with brand fairs and the future challenges. Fair enough. I hope so. In the name of diversity. But you can’t deny the change.
At haebmau.engine we have examined this change from another perspective. Our data driven view has shown that it isn’t as bad as it sound. Why? Dice were rolled behind the scenes already. Brand fairs seem to become a more or less show off for the industries. See and be seen. Speak and be discussed. Business is made elsewhere.
But simply digitizing everything will not be successful either
Virtual advantages must be used properly. Experiences from the past years has shown that the much-praised digital world is subject to its own principles of success.
Customer loyalty, lead generation and knowledge transfer can only reach the desired target group by being applied correctly. And with desired content. From the consumers side of view. Be it direct marketing which may be suitable to substitute cancelled exhibitions, if done well and very targeted. Or the virtual fairs (e.g. 3D), which are a nice to have digital option as well – but very cost intensive to realize, not well accepted and with a lack of experiences. Both not yet suitable to engage the desired target group. But worth trying. Volkswagen did. The car manufactors booth at Geneva virtual autoshow looked very advanced. Had a few cool features (limited time only) but never fully loaded on my smartphone. Irrelevant. They did it, learn about the issues and do it better next time I guess.
On the other side, communication with press, influencer and stakeholders as well as workshops and conferences need to follow a tailormade strategy to be accepted and to strengthen the brands opinion leading position. Tailormade workshop strategy? Yes. It’s easy to set up a video conference if you want to have a chat with your best press-buddies. But did you consider that the app is restricted by the firewalls of most media houses in Germany? No? Maybe that’s the reason why only two out of ten showed up.
Let’s face it – Cancelled trade shows face everyone involved with countless challenges that bring a multitude of digital options with them. Based on the feedback of different customers we derive that every brand has specific needs and different goals to achieve. The future will bring a lot of try-and-error and surely no standard solution. Different recommendations for different challenges. A lot of work to do.
But there is hope! Because there is a less notived constant in this game. Brand Communication stays the same – the goals it has to achieve just become more data driven to point out its leading role. Referring to our deep knowledge of how to integrate the audience into the brand-talk, we believe that the future of exchanging best with press, influencer and consumers is only a question of doing it right when it comes to digital solutions.
We make the visitors a part of the communication.
Inspired by the pandemic restrictions and the resulting changes – we developed a concept for an all-digital (and touchless) platform to exchange with the desired audience to make them part of the brand-talk. A data driven, tailormade solution which links the best features of every digital application on one platform – brand specific and performance-oriented. Ok, we don’t sell rocket science – we just offer a contemporary solution by combining strategic thinking with given technologies and passion. Because human curiosity has its own principals. Especially when it comes to digital sources.
Curios? We, are!