Marketing Shift: Flying the Tradeshow Coop

It wasn’t long ago that YRC Worldwide, a transportation service provider based in Overland Park, Kan., had a significant tradeshow presence. After looking at that strategy, the company changed its model, reduced its tradeshow investment by 40 percent and channeled marketing funds into its own events.

Greg Reid, YRC’s executive vice president of Enterprise Solutions Group and chief marketing officer, will speak June 19 at the Exhibition & Convention Executives Forum at the Walter E. Washington (D.C.) Convention Center about that shift, and what it could take to convince Fortune 500 companies like his to reinvest in industry-wide shows.

Assistant Editor Stephanie Corbin recently spoke with Reid about why YRC Worldwide changed its strategy and where events now fit in the company’s marketing plan.

Question: What was your company’s tradeshow presence before?

Answer: I would say ... our tradeshow presence was like a lot of companies. ... (We chose) a strategy of, if there was a show, you had to be there because you would be conspicuous by your absence.

Q: What tradeshows did YRC exhibit at and why?

A: Without naming specific tradeshows, our tradeshows are very industry specific. ... And again, we were there because our competitors were there, because we believed strongly that key decision makers were attending these shows and it was important to be a part of that.

Q: What prompted the company to reduce its tradeshow appearances?

A: Several things. One is that we have been as a corporation acquiring, as so many companies have done, and consolidating our industry. ... Once we acquired a competitor, we obviously took on their marketing organization and their selling organization (and their tradeshow presence). ... We had to decide: Are we going to keep that separate and do it as a separate brand, or are we going to look for some economies? ... We kind of did it on a show-by-show basis. ...

And the other (reason) is purely the challenge for so many companies, to improve the ROI on all marketing and selling-related investments.

Q: What are you doing instead of tradeshows?

A: We do several corporate events. ... We developed a concept that created a major corporate event – I mean a multimillion-dollar kind of event – that was designed to replace a significant amount of our investment not only in the tradeshow area, but in other advertising, promotion and merchandising areas, and bring that investment into one spot.

We also do ... multiple corporate events within brands that are designed to build relationships and encourage brand loyalties to our companies. ... The funding for them comes from, in part, scaling back participation in more classic or more traditional tradeshow activities.

Q: How has that worked for your company?

A: I think a couple ways. One is that it gives us a much more focused message, and it gives us control over that message. ... The other thing that is important ... is that we haven’t chosen to exclude ourselves from every tradeshow. (We) just have gotten smarter about how we participate.

Q: Do you recommend it for other companies?

A: What I recommend for any company is that they have to continually look for ways to improve the return on their investment in sales and marketing areas. One of the ways to do that is to challenge conventional thinking of how you participate in any event, even in your own events.

Q: Will YRC ever return to its former tradeshow presence?

A: I don’t think we would ever go back to the old way, or the original way, of doing things. Would we return or increase the size of our investment in certain events? Sure. Absolutely. And I’m open to doing that if and when certain programs or certain shows improve their relevance (and) help me improve the ability to increase the return on the investment.

Q: Do you think tradeshows still have value?

A: Absolutely. They absolutely do have value. And I would say that the ones that we are still in, the ones that we still support significantly, have the greatest value.