Keeping Your Tradeshow Relevant in the Future
The historical tradeshow industry in its traditional form is obsolete. It will never be the central buying marketplace and order writing venue it once was. What are the changes that most be done in order to keep the tradeshow relevant in the future?
"Whatever got you where you are today will not keep you there tomorrow", a lesson learned the hard way by many industries in the last 20 years.
From newspapers, travel agencies, book stores... to music industries, video rentals... many industries were all disrupted by modern technology. Digitalization has almost changed all businesses, recasting the relationships between customers, workers, and employers as the silicon chip’s reach permeates almost everything we do—from buying groceries online to finding a partner on a dating website.
As for the Tradeshow industry, the old saying… time and tide wait for no man… is more true and important today than ever. The trade show world is a rapidly changing world and clinging to the past can and will be fatal.
“By 2020 customer experience is expected to surpass product and pricing as the key business differentiator! So it is critical that companies orient themselves now towards creating and keeping customers for life if they expect to remain competitive. ” —Forbes, Customers for Life
Today, there is a lot of concern about the future and format of trade shows. Clients frequently ask “Are trade shows declining and even dying? Are trade shows even relevant anymore given the explosion of the internet? Is there a future for trade shows and if so what does that future look like?”
Anyone who organizes or provides services trade shows should know that change is coming and it is coming very fast. The big question is: What will those changes be and how do we adapt the business model to take advantage of them? How to keep the tradeshow relevant in the future?
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Today's Challenges - Digital Tech Disruption
President of trade show consultants Time & Place Strategies, Francis Friedman quotes: "Over the next 10 years, the critical battle our industry will engage is between our world of in-person face-to-face marketing and the rapidly emerging world of enhanced digital direct-to-customer marketing...for control of the customer experience and sales success."
Tradeshow no longer the b2b center stage
The tradeshow is no longer the center stage in the b-to-b marketing and selling universe it used to be 35 years ago. Back then, manufacturers exhibited and buyers attended tradeshows for networking, information sharing, product introductions and order placement because...there were no other viable options available.
Time and technology have taken their toll on these once invincible businesses. Large traditional exhibitors are shifting marketing monies from their historical media and tradeshow marketing budgets to new digital customer-centric lead-generating and sales-closing systems and private events.
"The historical tradeshow industry is over. Finished. It will never be the central buying marketplace and order writing venue it once was." - Francis Friedman
Digital platforms replacing Tradeshows by acting as intermediaries
Today, with the advancing digital communication capabilities, the “need” to “have to travel” to meet another person or see a product demonstration is becoming more and more obsolete.
For example, GoToMeeting.com, video conferencing services to the desktop and streaming mobile video eliminate the “need” and expense to “have to” travel to attend an in-person meeting.
Exhibitors bypassing tradeshows and replacing them with new marketing strategies
Marketers, in both the b2c and b2b industries, are using technology and digital platforms to collect customer data, analyze the customer and deliver messages and products specifically customized for individual customers.
Large exhibitors are now implementing advanced in-bound marketing practices that include digital business systems, e-marketing, targeted customer service programming and private events. They are seeking to bypass tradeshows via direct customer order placement and direct management of the customer experience…no tradeshow necessary.
Customers have evolved to become less patient
In the old days of postal mailing, people were “patient” and would wait 2-3 weeks for a letter to arrive. Today’s society will not wait for time or tide. "We want it NOW!"
Time and patience has been re-defined because of the instant speed of the smartphone and the Internet. Today, attendees can easily get what they want on a 24/7 basis through advanced technology and without the need for a tradeshow or a tradeshow “organizer”.
Without the customers attending the show, there are no exhibitors. Thus without attendees, there is no show.
Tradeshows Future - Technology Adoption driving the way
The next 10 years in the digital transformation of marketing, and the increasingly self-directed actions of the large exhibitors and attendees, will continue to re-define the context and focus of the tradeshow industry.
Exhibitors will need sufficient ROI to justify their public tradeshow investment. And they want the organizers to change as fast as they are changing to help them succeed with their new digintal strategies and objectives.
The tradeshow industry must now face, embrace and engage with this new disruptive digital reality if it is not to be left behind.
For the tradeshow industry, winning in the future means:
- Re-thinking the design of the products and services to increase their value
- Engaging and retaining attendees through delivering highvalue, creative and pro-active Customer Experiences
- Transforming the analog logistics management model into a marketing-focused, high-value, digitally-centered management model
Creating Attendees
Without attendees, there are no exhibitors, thus there is no show. Therefore focusing on attendees profitability, in order to attract them, is crucial for tradeshow management to focus on as the industry moves to the future.
Compelling Attendee Experience
Creating attendee demand means show management must build and deliver compelling attendee value.
Tradeshow managers must deliver on-site engagement and experiences...not generally available at home or in the office...to encourage potential attendees to leave home and travel to a specific time.
The tradeshow industry must recognize that, because of the larger societal “background” levels of digital engagement, the on-site tradeshow experience must equal or exceed the level of neurological stimulation and engagement attendees find elsewhere in their daily lives.
Especially for younger e-involved demographic groups, neurological stimulation is a large part of their measure of engagement. Due to their short attention spans, this group needs continuous re-engagement. Virtual Reality will be an especially important medium to these younger demographic groups.
Tradeshow Design Headed for INFOTAINMENT
Looking to the future, tradeshow design will need to expand its historical conceptual framework to re-think the balance between “business” and “entertainment”. The goal of this re-think is to increase the engagement and appeal of a tradeshow by re-balancing the on-floor/at-site information-entertainment (i.e. infotainment) design ratio of the show.
Many tradeshows have added evening entertainment as extended features and networking opportunities for both exhibitors and attendees. Some shows are adding on-floor entertainment at strategic points in time and locations within a shows schedule.
New Promotion Strategies
The promotion of the show should not be limited to few months before the show, instead a continuous year round effort should be made. A tradeshow industry converted to a community-building focus, and executed on digital marketing platforms, can be seen by marketers as being consistent with their own community-building and digital marketing goals and strategies.
Branding a tradeshow brand will also bring substantial benefits. The tradeshow’s brand increases its visibility, value and importance in both worlds via social and traditional media so the show can succeed across its entire customer universe and on a 24/7 basis.
A physical tradeshow only exists for a few days. A tradeshow brand can exist 365 days a year, year after year.
Looking to the future, the tradeshow industry must see itself as product creators and MARKETERS…not organizers.
Attracting & Keeping Exhibitors
The tradeshow industry has to acknowledge that the exhibitors have spent billions of dollars to date building e-commerce systems to engage customers, capture leads and close sales. Those dollars were not invested in tradeshows.
Large exhibitors have already started completely digitizing the entire customer relations and product sales processes into agile and highly responsive 24/7 systems.
"The next 10 years will witness a footrace between tradeshow owners and large exhibitors to see who will most closely bind themselves and their brands directly to their customers (i.e., attendees), control the Customer Experience....and control the market."
Becoming a Digital Marketing Partner
The show team will need to deliver highvalue, attendee-focused products, services and experiences that large marketers and their customers are going to want to buy.
The tradeshow industry will also need to step up to the emerging challenge of building a compelling and unique “industry position” as an important partner in the evolving world of multi-channel/omni-channel marketing.
Going forward, the tradeshow industry will have to demonstrate to the b-to-b marketing community how it fits as a key partner and community member in the new multi-channel/omni-channel marketing and sales matrix.
Delivery of Qualified Attendees
The tradeshow owner’s challenge in building his/her future business will be the ability to deliver qualified attendees to exhibitors...face-to-face and in person at a tradeshow site.
Exhibitor satisfaction and their continuing tradeshow participation and revenue contribution will ONLY come from the ability of show management to deliver the appropriate target-attendees and in appropriate numbers to justify exhibiting investment ROI.
Erase the Dividing Line Between Organizers and Exhibitors
The modern orgznizers must erase the historical dividing line between the sales/show team and the exhibitors that now says the exhibitors are responsible for their own success and....” we just sell them the space.”
Sales and customer service must increase their efforts and activities to get exhibitors to step up their on-site exhibiting skills and booth presentations and thereby increase their exhibiting results.
Going forward, sales and the entire brand team must become more engaged in the “Exhibitor Success Business”. The “Exhibitor Success Business” means that by erasing the brand team us-them line between the show and the exhibitors, and bends over backwards to help exhibitors succeed…everybody wins.
Conclusion
For tradeshow owners to succeed going forward, attendee demand-creation through creativity and high-quality VALUE delivery...of content and experiences not generally available to attendees anywhere else...will be THE competitive factor that keeps attendees, and therefore large exhibitors, at public tradeshows.
The tradeshow industry must evolve beyond the traditional industry statement of…” We’re in the business of bringing buyer and seller together.” The new and expanded tradeshow industry self-definition should be:
“We are in the business of building communities and marketplaces for ideas and commerce.”
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