The Web Is Back

By Michael Hughes -- Tradeshow Week, 5/24/2004

It's as if the dot-com meltdown never happened.

The search engine Google recently registered its plan for a huge initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. A recent report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau found that Internet advertising in 2003 increased by 21 percent over 2002, to nearly $7.3 billion – the first year-over-year increase since 2000. Search engines' paid search services providing links to keywords is one of the main challenges and opportunities facing traditional media companies.

Even the information technology events industry is finally seeing growth. According to recent Tradeshow Week surveys, IT exhibitors are projecting a healthy 12-percent increase in event spending this year. In the first quarter 2004, HIMSS and FOSE both grew by more than 10 percent in net square feet and Electronic House Expo Spring expanded by more than 50 percent, according to show reports to Tradeshow Week.

The increased Web-based marketing activity and IT spending is a sign of increasing corporate confidence. It's also a warning shot for event producers and other traditional media companies. Web spending is growing many times faster than total marketing budget growth, event spending or U.S. gross domestic product. It looks as if this growth in electronic marketing spending may be coming at the expense of other mediums, including exhibitions and events.

In fact, according to recent TSW exhibitor research, Web and e-mail marketing spending is receiving the bulk of shifted event marketing funds. That is, among funds diverted from exhibition and event marketing budgets, most of the dollars are going to Web and e-mail campaigns.

It's true that electronic marketing will not replace exhibitions, meetings and conferences. But it's now clear that the Web is a viable marketing medium competing for stagnant marketing dollars. With this the case, show producers need to know that one of their key competitors is likely their clients' own Web-based spending. Here's how show producers should respond.

1. Learn where your clients are spending their electronic marketing dollars. Are they shifting event dollars or other marketing funds to electronic marketing? Has their opinion of electronic marketing changed in the last few years (or months)? Do they view electronic marketing as integrated and complementary with their event marketing efforts? Or do they view online marketing as at odds with events? Also, how do your attendees use the Web to source suppliers and partners?

2. Shows are the perfect complement to online campaigns.Think in terms of what your events provide that the Web and electronic marketing will never be able to offer. You may also need to take into consideration marketers' current bias toward Web and electronic marketing and pay homage to this, but when you go for the close, stress the differences. Exhibitions are the only medium that can make Web sites and other marketing campaigns "come to life." An electronic Web community is somewhat of an oxymoron. Exhibitions and conferences are the true marketing communities – always stress this when telling your event's value story.

3. Today's generation of marketing executives grew up with the Web.The general public and the business community have used the Web for about 10 years now. This means that marketing executives and managers will have increasingly worked online for their entire adult lives, their entire careers. The Web is a fundamental part of their lives and jobs; it is definitely not a new medium anymore.

4. Reevaluate your own Web site(s). Show producers need to make their own Web sites as informative and user-friendly as possible. In particular, too many association show sites are neither. Also, how can you make your Web site a revenue stream? Is paid search an option for your site and your buyer and seller community? Is your market ready today for the online plans that went nowhere five years ago?

5. Keep the focus on the attendee.Today's attendees are very well informed about your exhibitors' products and services. And they are well informed by electronic marketing. Then why are they still attending shows? Attendees are looking to size up and compare the quality of people at the companies they are considering doing business with, and your show is the best place to do that. It's really the only place to assess so many teams at the same time. Let your exhibitors understand this and that they should respond by putting their best and most informed people in their booths. This should be another part of your show's value story.

The issue isn't that one marketing medium will beat another – although the business press tends to oversimplify by putting it in these terms. It's about what marketing media will receive new spending and growth. With electronic marketing finally out of the post-dot-com era, now is a good time for you and your team to look at the impact of the Web on your clients and their markets. How can you harness the power and efficiency of electronic marketing while differentiating at the same time? You have to balance being complementary to Web marketing with being a strong competitor.