Research Center >> May 2007

Trade Shows Come of Age
New report reveals face-to-face meetings have overtaken their print counterparts bringing in 36 percent of business revenue.
from AICPA Custom Media Solutions

Often overshadowed by direct mail and print in the budgeting process and by digital in terms of media buzz, trade shows are finally getting a deserved spot in the limelight. A recent American Business Media report found that trade shows accounted for 36 percent of industry revenue, inching past their trade magazine counterparts that came in at 35 percent. “As business media companies continue to move into a multiplatform environment, the industry is experiencing growth in three out of four of its major segments: trade shows, custom media and e-Media,” says Gordon Hughes, CEO and President of American Business Media.

In fact, trade shows are now being touted as the third fastest growing group behind digital and custom media.

What’s Behind This New Surge?

A joint study conducted by ABM and Forrester Research surveyed nearly 900 key marketing decision-makers and found that three in five (60.9%) respondents consider “in-person events” to be the number one marketing tactic used to build brand image, while nearly 63 percent use it to generate leads. Besides raising awareness, another strength executives associate with tradeshows is the ability to interact directly with industry peers.

Shows report exhibitor renewal rates average 75 percent, while 25 percent of exhibitors are new, according to the 137 show organizers who responded to an online survey conducted by Expo Magazine and Exhibit Surveys Inc. A good 32 percent of show organizers report renewal rates increased from 2005 to 2006.

Each year Exhibit Surveys, Inc. releases the latest statistical norms for trade show audience quality, audience activity and exhibit performance indicators. With the focus of corporate management on measuring ROI, companies often think of measurement as only assessing bottom-line results from exhibiting (i.e., message communication, brand enhancement, awareness building, lead generation, sales from leads, PR achieved, etc.). Exhibit attraction is the percentage of an exhibitor's potential audience who remembered visiting the company's exhibit. The function of the physical exhibit is to selectively attract its potential audience from among the total audience at the show. Factors which most often determine success in this regard include: awareness for the company and its products among the audience, pre and at-show promotion, exhibit design and graphics, demos and attention-getting techniques, interest in products or services exhibited, and exhibit size. Over the past several years, exhibitors have been more successful in selectively attracting their audience (from 67% to 77%).

According to Expoweb, shows, as well as individual exhibitors, continue to attract qualified attendees. In 2006, 79 percent of attendees who visited an exhibit had no contact with that company within the previous 12 months (see chart).

(Source: Expoweb)

Among visitors to individual booths, 82 percent are interested in the product or service displayed and 78 percent have buying influence for the exhibitor's product or service.

“Exhibitions and events accelerate the sales process faster than any other media or form of direct marketing. That’s a bold claim, but it’s measurable and therefore provable,” says Skip Cox, CEO/President of Exhibit Surveys. “So wouldn’t it make sense for the exhibitions and events industry to position and market events to take advantage of this unique strength?”

All you B2B trade show exhibitors, it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee!