Consumer Shows Continue to Climb

Michael Hughes -- Tradeshow Week, 6/21/2004

Consumer shows are hot. The recent economic downturn hardly impacted them at all. From 2000 through 2003, consumer shows grew by an average annual rate of 4.5 percent in net square footage, according to Tradeshow Week research. In fact, net square footage has grown faster than the number of exhibiting companies, suggesting that exhibitors are taking more space each year and confirming the medium's solid return on investment.

Moreover, these growth statistics are only for shows that are at least a year old. They don't take into account the more than 220 new shows launched in the same period. So the consumer show market has likely been growing by well over 10 percent per year in terms of total gross revenue. All this during the most challenging period ever for business-to-business exhibitions.

I suspect that most B-to-B show producers still look down their noses at consumer shows and have no idea how healthy some of the best of them have become in terms of both growth rates and gross margins.

Tradeshow Week first started to study the consumer show market in depth in 2000, and we liked the organic growth and the ability to launch new shows. We also recognized that the national convention center boom would provide more open dates for consumer shows in suburbs and in downtown municipal convention centers. We saw the potential fit for consumer publishers and broadcasters to enter the industry or partner with existing leaders.

Clearly, consumer shows have benefited from strong consumer spending, fueled by low interest rates and the housing boom. Strong attendance growth suggests that consumer events are a viable entertainment option competing with movies, the mall and sporting events.

On the exhibitor side, the bulk of consumer show participants are small local or regional businesses. Certainly, many small businesses go under, but they are not consolidating due to mergers and acquisitions anywhere near the rate of national and international companies in many B-to-B sectors — a key issue impacting conventions and tradeshows.

Here are some of the key growth strategies being employed by leading consumer show producers:

1. Finding underserved cities
   Consumer show producers look for cities and regions that do not already have a particular type of show and then analyze the demographics to see if the community could support a new show launch. First-, second- and third-tier cities are all on their radar screens.
2. Targeting new venues in development
   Consumer show producers are benefiting from the convention center and exhibit hall space boom. Since 1999, exhibit space supply has increased by 5 percent per year, adding nearly 14 million square feet of new exhibit space in the United States and Canada. Consumer show producers will continue to benefit as 9 million square feet of additional space is in the pipeline. When a new hall opens (or is even announced), show producers act fast to be the first in with a show concept.
3. Going head-to-head with competitors
   We are seeing more head-to-head battles in the same cities with similar consumer show concepts, a tactic that rarely works in the B-to-B world. Consumer-show brands are rather generic by design (i.e., the Home Show, the Car Show, etc.), which makes them vulnerable to aggressive competitors and copycats. (Quick, can you name the consumer show producer that runs the Home Show in your city?)
4. Converging show concepts
   Similar to collocating in the B-to-B exhibition sector, the trend of multiple show concepts under one roof is also becoming more common. The thinking is it's likely that a new boat buyer may also be interested in adding a new spa to his pool deck.