Managers Take the ROI Lead

By Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 5/17/2004

Since the economy went sour, there's been more talk than ever about measurement. While information technology organizations have led the charge for independently audited tradeshow statistics, exhibitor associations have been busy teaching members how to gauge their own performance at shows. Now there's a third movement afoot that, if it gains traction, could prompt show managers to help key customers measure their return – or even do it for them.

In a white paper on measuring exhibit results, Exhibit Surveys President Skip Cox points out that analyzing leads is generally the first step of any exhibit measurement program. He said that most CFOs are primarily interested in the amount of revenue generated from an investment made in a tradeshow exhibit.

The best and most cost-effective method for measuring sales resulting from leads is a closed-loop, lead management system, Cox said. For those who can't use a lead tracking system, sales conversion surveys can be used to measure the bottom line.

But these days, having a fancy machine that scans buyers' badges, automatically downloads them into a company's database, and links them to sales made three years in the future isn't enough.

Ann Pennino, exhibit manager for Praxair and a TSEA board director, said professionals like herself are asked more than ever to provide concrete results from their participation in tradeshows, whether they be return on investment or objective. "Whether the results are determined by measuring only ROI or only ROO or a combination of both, the measurements must be assigned," she said.

Cox, who has made a career of tradeshow measurement, has developed a number of ways to determine how well an exhibitor has done at a show – all of them based on the company's own objectives. There's lead analysis, in-booth visitor surveys, pre- and post-show attendee surveys, sales conversion surveys, lead tracking and press coverage analysis. Using anywhere from one to all of these methods, combined with data analysis of varying depths, exhibitors can spell out in black and white what they wanted to accomplish by being in a show and whether they succeeded.

Up to now, the burden of gathering and examining information fell on the exhibitors themselves – or hired guns like Exhibit Surveys. But Cox said that over the last few years he's seen the tip of what may be an iceberg: show managers taking it on themselves to measure their exhibitors' performance. For example, MediaLive Intl., owner and manager of COMDEX and NetWorld+Interop, has for a few years now had Exhibit Surveys measure the return of a couple dozen of its largest exhibitors. Cox just completed a similar project for an auto-industry association that took a sophisticated look at the performance of a handful of its tradeshow anchors. And Intl. CES, the mega-exhibition for consumer electronics, has been known to track the performance of its top 100 or so exhibitors for years.

But if exhibitors are still learning the importance of measuring their own performance, why would show managers want to do it for them? Precisely because exhibitors don't do it for themselves, according to Cox. "Sometimes they question the ROI or ROO they're getting from a show, but aren't really measuring it," he said. Then, exhibit managers use anecdotal evidence to evaluate a show, pointing out how much traffic there was, or relying on the feedback of inexperienced booth staff. Bringing hard data to a conversation with an exhibit manager helps a show manager combat this subjective view.

Also, it's important to know what's going on with a show's largest and longest-standing exhibitors. The anchors not only set the mood at an expo, they also reflect what's going on in their industry.

But the most important reason show managers should consider tracking their exhibitors' accomplishments, according to Cox, is that it allows them to establish a strategic partnership with their clients. As exhibitors take a keener interest in the usefulness of exhibiting, it behooves show management to help them get what they need from a show.

"We don't see much in the way of show managers working with companies strategically," Cox said. "The organizer, if he is doing measurement, can look at what they've learned from a show and how they can make it better for their companies in the future, based on facts and figures, rather than just pulling it out of thin air."

With quantitative and qualitative data on their customers' objectives, he added, show managers can also help themselves. Knowing target market objectives, for instance, can help an organizer grow attendance in ways that will attract more exhibitors.

Tradeshow exhibit consultant Candy Adams said she would welcome such data in determining both whether to exhibit in a show and what can be accomplished at a show – but only if it were provided by an independent third party. She said exhibit managers have been lied to about show performance for so long that they're wary of any statistical information coming from show managers.

In fact, Cox said that exhibit performance data is useless to a show manager without accurate attendance data. "You can't do one without the other," he said. "As an example, you can't calculate cost per visitor reached without knowing how many visitors were actually at the show."

And, Adams conceded, exhibit managers could use show managers' help. "We've shot ourselves in the foot by only counting leads, without qualifying them, for so long. We just track revenue without finding out the other things that matter – branding, public relations, the total value of a show … To turn this around, I think it has to be a partnership between show managers and exhibitors."

But that partnership may be a long way down the road. Pennino said none of the shows Praxair exhibits at have offered any sort of help measuring return, other than renting lead-retrieval systems. And show consultant Sam Lippman, of integrated show management and marketing, said none of his clients had mentioned the idea.

"Some show managers do a great job of training exhibitors to get the most out of a show," Lippman said. "But what each one wants from a show is so specific – and what each show offers its exhibitors is so different based on the industry it's in – that I think it's really difficult to pin down the performance of specific companies and translate that to the overall value of the show."