One of the most important and unchanging elements in any marketing plan for professionals is all the trade shows they attend, either as exhibitors or delegates.
It’s important to be seen at all the key events, to maintain brand reputation, generate leads and get to know the industry better. They’ve been the mainstay of many industries and professions for years, creating tangible evidence and personal contact where otherwise there was none.
Many of the larger brands have their own events for their suppliers, clients and partners – jamborees that everyone looked forward to, apart from the organising events team for whom it was an annual nightmare of deadlines and raised expectations!
At least, that was the case.
Now, it seems likely that online shows, of one sort or another, have taken over. I think everyone hopes that this will just be for the time being, however, who knows, with Coronavirus. And it’s just possible that people will be happy without these shows – it’ll certainly save a lot of time and money, for everyone.
A trade show at which a client of ours exhibits is Oceanology International, where they take over the whole of Excel every second year. It was due in the spring of 2020 but eventually happened in December – online. It’s a gamble they were prepared to take, the alternative being massive refunds to all the exhibitors and with it, no doubt, bankruptcy.
In the end it wasn’t a fraction of its normal size, in terms of delegates (over 2,800, they claimed) as well as ‘exhibitors’ – who were each given a webinar platform. However, those that took the trouble were all happy with the event and said that they would do it again, and anecdotally, some good business was done, as is usually the case.
Morag Cuddeford-Jones, Editor of CIM’s Catalyst publication, writes (https://exchange.cim.co.uk/):
One of the defining elements of B2B marketing is the criss-crossing of oceans to take part in a hectic schedule of industry events and company get-togethers. Naturally, the moratorium on travel put paid to all of that overnight. Literally, in Adobe’s case. Its showcase annual event, due to be held in front of 23,000 people in Las Vegas at the very start of the Western part of the pandemic, was cancelled with days to go.
Instead, the company moved its whole event online with all speakers, including company leaders, coming to audiences from their sitting rooms, meaning 130 videos went live simultaneously. With the change in location also came a change in tone. Las Vegas demands all the bells and whistles. It’s the home of showmanship. Alex Amado, VP of Adobe’s Experience Marketing says they considered green screens and bringing the pizzazz but then realised it didn’t chime with the ‘all in this together’ vibe.
“Given people were just starting to work from home, authenticity and vulnerability was the pivotal decision and one we had the most anxiety about but many rallied to it and commented on how real and authentic it made everything.”
Will this nix the Vegas show in the future? Amado doesn’t think so, but it won’t be the end of the virtual conference by a long chalk. “This will forever change how we think about our in-person events. We will always have a much bigger focus on the digital footprint – the reach, scale and opportunity. Having built this platform and invested time and energy, with much more to come we are going to be looking for great ways [to communicate].”
There’s a lot of optimism in the industry, with the likes of Oceanology International already and bullishly promoting 2022 as the biggest ever. Even if we are still constrained in what we can do, online events offer something that you can’t get in normal trading circumstances. And people will get used to new ways of doing things – they have no choice!
A lot depends on how well we are able to control and manage Coronavirus. At the moment I wouldn’t like to speculate, but I think that even if things do get back to normal, it won’t be the same ‘normal’: you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube!
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