Suntec Singapore Wins 2006 UFI Award

By Gary Tufel -- Tradeshow Week, 7/17/2006

The Suntec Singapore Intl. Convention & Exhibition Centre won the sixth annual UFI Marketing Award. The award was presented at the recent UFI Open Summer Seminar in Helsinki, Finland.

For the award competition's theme of "Best Ideas to Win Customers," Suntec's entry asked, "What is missing in your strategy?" Judges said they liked its clear problem definition and effective solution proposals and results.

According to Suntec officials, the campaign yielded a 34-percent response rate and 21 potential international events between now and 2009. It featured a teaser chess set missing the king and queen, mailed to a select audience. Follow-up calls were made when customers asked for the missing pieces. The message was, "You can't win a game of chess without your key players, and you can't deliver a successful event without a reliable partner."

Berislav Cizmek, marketing committee chairman for UFI, the Global Assn. of the Exhibition Industry, said, "The jury considered that the entry provided by Suntec Singapore matches perfectly with the contest topic. The marketing program's creativity and implementation were the most innovative and efficient compared to the other submitted entries."

Semifinalists were Intl. CES, United States; CeBit, Germany; ExCeL, United Kingdom; Messe Muenchen, Germany; and RAI, the Netherlands. The competition was open for the first time to UFI members and nonmembers alike, and there were entries from a wider range of countries than in the past.