Overview
The most direct form of direct marketing
Conferences and exhibitions put companies face to face with their target audience and enable them to achieve any number of marketing objectives including new product launches, branding, generating awareness, PR, direct sales – the list goes on.
Exhibitions
Exhibitions are generally free to attend, funded by exhibition space and sponsorship sales. There is always a great buzz around an exhibition as organisers continue to innovate each year to make sure they pull in a high number of visitors.
There are 2 main types of exhibition – business and consumer – but both offer a targeted audience of buyers and decision makers.
Some classic well known consumer exhibitions include The London Boat Show, The Ideal Home Show, the British International Motor Show and Clothes Show Live.
Like business magazines, there’s an exhibition for nearly every industry in the UK from Aerospace to Zoology, have a look at www.exhibitions.co.uk for a fairly comprehensive list.
Conferences
Business conferences offer many of the benefits of an exhibition but with a smaller, and generally more senior, paying audience. Delegates attend to learn about their industry, develop their professional skills and network with peers and suppliers.
Not only are delegates taking time out of the office to attend, where conferences differ to exhibitions is that delegate places can cost thousands of pounds just to attend, giving sponsors a motivated audience investing in new ideas to take back to their companies.
Revenue comes from the sale of delegate places and sponsorship packages – some conferences will also have an exhibition area. Entry level positions are usually in the delegate sales team; salespeople with any kind of media experience are often attracted to conference sponsorship sales by very high on target earnings that a lot of organisers offer.
Awards
Most publishing companies have branched out into exhibitions and conferences in some form, but where the publishers really excel is in awards.
The marketing potential of winning an award can be huge so categories are usually competitively fought for amongst entrants, combined with the glitz and glamour that normally accompanies the event, making for a great atmosphere on the night.
Awards ceremonies also attract big sponsorship deals where companies look to associate their brand with excellence in a particular field.
Again there are both consumer awards - The Brits, Mobo or Comedy awards – and industry awards from the generalists like Entrepreneur of the Year to specialist events across every industry sector.
Other Sponsorship Sales
There’s a huge number of consumer events, teams and competitions that secure high profile sponsorship packages.
Opportunities to break into this area of events/sponsorship are rare and you’ll need experience, but what would be cooler than securing a new shirt sponsor for your favourite football team, or perhaps working with a Formula1 team...
The best place to start is in exhibitions or conference sponsorship, read on to find out more.
Read on...
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