July/August 2006
From the Editor: Time to listen?

Last month at the 5th annual Exhibition and Convention Executives Forum (ECEF) in Washington DC, two corporate marketers — Roselle Anderson, Vice President, Corporate Communications, Siemens Medical Solutions USA, and William Pate, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), BellSouth — spoke candidly about their views on trade shows and marketing in general.

Siemens will exhibit in 350 shows this year and BellSouth in about 40 events (with a budget of $15 million to $20 million). Neither one of them has ever spoken to the show managers of these events. How can that be? When are we going to start listening? After three years at this conference, a leading agency executive who represents dozens of major exhibiting companies told the audience that our customers don’t think we listen very well and that we’re being outsold by every other medium.

Last year at ECEF, another CMO said that he was overlooked by shows, despite the fact that his budget doubled every year. He was never asked if he got enough leads or increased sales. He suggested that we invite CMOs to serve on our advisory boards.

When asked what shows need to do to get more marketshare, Anderson said she wants help with coming up with creative ways to reach her target audience. She wants an integrated proposal that offers year-round reach. Pate suggested that we need to be better marketers, and we need to meet with the CMO. “I don’t think the trade show industry has changed that much in the last 20 years,” he said.

Sure, ECEF only attracts about 150-200 association and for-profit executives, but these are leaders of the top trade shows. Not to mention that the industry has been buzzing about this for years. (See What do CMOs want? EXPO, June 2005, and Not your father’s exhibitor, EXPO, June 2004.)

Why are our customers still talking to us about these same issues? Yes, most industries are slow to change, and we’re no different. And we probably won’t be compelled to change until it impacts our profit margins. But we’re certainly leaving money on the table.

In fact, marketers consider in-person events to be the No. 1 marketing tactic to build brand image and the No. 1 marketing tactic to generate qualified leads, according to The Power of In-person Events study, conducted by American Business Media. Yet, corporate marketers are spending more of their marketing dollars online and on marketing communications — which they think are less effective — than on in-person events.

So why the gap between spending and effectiveness? “It’s both our fault,” Pate told the audience. “We need to be educated.” Some may complain that’s not our job to teach marketers how to do their jobs, but that’s not really the point. They only way exhibitors are going to get educated is if we start listening to their questions and concerns — and get a dialogue going.

Danica Tormohlen, Editor
dtormohlen@ascendmedia.com