The National Confectioners Association (NCA) had long encouraged exhibitors at its Sweets & Snacks Expo (formerly the All Candy Expo) to invite their contacts to the show. Organizers had even implemented an in-house-designed program that provided exhibitors with a unique URL to send to contacts interested in registering. But NCA never saw significant results in attendance numbers from exhibitors’ efforts until last year, when the organization implemented a third-party e-mail invitation system for exhibitors.

After implementing the new Exhibitor Invites program, NCA enjoyed a significant increase in attendance numbers and contacts with new prospects for its show in Chicago last May. Through the Exhibitor Invites system, 1,602 registered for the expo, and 56 percent of those weren’t previously in the NCA database.

“The best thing Exhibitor Invites brought to our show was new attendees,” says Jenn Ellek, Director of Trade Marketing and Communications for NCA. “Before, I think exhibitors were hesitant to share their customer lists with us directly. But this way, exhibitors could upload their customer list to a third-party system that nobody can access. Because of that, we were able to garner many new attendees.”

The third-party system is more than just a private contact database. At no cost to exhibitors, the program lets them upload their contact lists with a third-party, bonded e-mail distribution service, and send out up to three customdesigned invitations to their customers and prospects, says Evan Shubin, President of Results.Now, Inc. and Exhibitor Invites, LLC.

“Within 20 to 30 minutes, exhibitors have a complete marketing campaign,” Ellek says of the service. “While we already had our own exhibitor invitation program, we liked the idea of a turnkey e-mail campaign.”

NCA had considered using its in-house exhibitor invitation program again in 2009, but decided to try the thirdparty system because it was more robust than what it could do in-house and also offered tracking abilities, such as reporting how many e-mails were opened and how many click-throughs were generated.

While NCA leaders liked what they saw, they knew the new program wouldn’t work unless they could get exhibitors on board. The association sent out e-mail promotions to exhibitors about the system, and Shubin conducted Webinars to walk them through the process. Part of the Exhibitor Invites program involves a phone call to each exhibitor to explain the program and encourage them to use it. If exhibitors chose to use the system, Shubin’s staff could even input their information and create their e-mail messages for them, so exhibitors only had to send them out.

The cost of the Exhibitor Invites program is based on a show’s total number of exhibitors. Shubin says the 2010 rate is $40 per exhibitor for shows with less than 500 exhibitors.

Of the more than 400 exhibitors at the NCA show, 105 participated in Exhibitor Invites, representing 25 percent of the exhibitor community. Those companies sent out more than 60,000 e-mail invitations to 19,865 of their own contacts, 75 percent of whom weren’t previously in the NCA database.

Exhibitor Invites was also able to meet NCA’s goal to open the invitation system before the regular registration link opened, allowing exhibitors to offer contacts a “sneak preview” and the ability to register before the general public, which Ellek believes added to the program’s success.

Although NCA didn’t set specific benchmarks for its first year using the program, it was pleased with the results. “We just wanted it to do better than our own program,” Ellek says. “And we know it did that. It is a great tool to empower exhibitors and get key buyers onto your list.”

NCA’s Strategy

GOAL: To increase attendance and to build relationships with new prospective attendees.

STRATEGY: Offer a third-party program that provides each exhibitor with a private, turnkey system to invite their own contacts to the show.

RESULTS: Using Exhibitor Invites, 105 exhibiting companies sent more than 60,000 outbound e-mails to 19,865 unique e-mail addresses, and 75 percent of those weren’t previously in the house file. More than 1,600 people registered through the Exhibitor Invites system, 56 percent of whom weren’t previously in the house file.