Shows That Defied the Odds

Everyone’s heard the seemingly nonstop stream of bad news about shows, big and small, that have experienced steep dips in attendance in the past year.

Some shows had drops of up to 40 percent, compared with last year. Other shows have defied the odds and either maintained their attendance year over year, or somehow increased it.

Several shows that had positive results have a common thread: They discovered very quickly when the economy took a turn for the worse what they needed to do to survive and acted accordingly.

Here are just a few examples of shows that benefited from their show managers’ quick thinking and ability to adapt to a rapidly changing economic environment:

When the economy started to dip, the first reaction by consumers was to put away their wallets – especially when it came to spending money on buying new clothes.

As a result, large retail clothing shows, such as MAGIC Marketplace, saw declines in attendance.

On the other hand, smaller, niche shows, such as The Off-Price Specialist Show that ran the same week as MAGIC in early September, actually saw a boost in numbers.

Don Browne, Off-Price’s marketing director, said the show was up 16 percent with 10,281 attendees, compared with last year’s show.

“Obviously, we can’t complain about the numbers,” he added.

Browne said he thought the show, like many others, would take some hits because of the economy. But, by continuing the strategy of adopting high-quality discount items, he saw that the show still attracted a crowd.

Browne said, “There’s been this perception that we (were) the garbage show. It’s simply not true.”

He added the gap between off-price and fashion retail is narrowing.

To capitalize on that, Browne added, his 2008 marketing campaign was focused on fashion. “'On-trend fashion below wholesale prices’ was the motto,” he said.

The approach helped the show weather the economic storm that was on the horizon. “We’ve always been about tremendous value,” Browne added. “Now, they’re finding the same caliber of goods at our show.”

To support the push toward marketing the show from a fashion angle, as well as an effort to improve the brand, he said the magazine that supports the show also was redesigned last year.

Browne added the show’s buyers understand the importance of attending the event. “The average buyer will purchase up to one-third of their in-store inventory at our show,” he said. “It’s not your average show where you’re kicking tires. At our show, it’s first and foremost a marketplace. Attendees come open to buy.”

Still, even with the success, the show is not without its challenges, Browne added.

“We have found at each of our shows that 20 percent of the attendance is all new buyers,” he said. “The challenge is how do we get them to come back to the next show?”

Browne added customer attention still is a concern, so he and his team do a lot of promotion through search engine optimization and word-of-mouth.

“Growing the show, too, is a challenge,” he said. “We have all the main vendors already in our show, so we can’t really expand.”

Instead, Browne added he is looking to expand the show in other categories besides clothing, such as home, gift and jewelry.

“These are good problems to have,” he said. “We have a pretty secure niche during Las Vegas Fashion Week. We have something that’s been around since 1995, and we’re in our own industry that’s been around since Moses.”

And, Browne added, he thought the show’s success directly was tied to the market it serves.

“We definitely benefit because of the timing with the economy, but also the fact the concept is so important,” he said. “Shows that are struggling, how much does their concept match the needs of the people they are supposed to represent?”

Another show, Lightfair Intl., had an impressive attendance boost of 14 percent, from 19,800 attendees last year to 23,000 this year, when it was held May 3-7 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center of New York. It also serves a market that doesn’t seem like it should have fared well during the recession – architectural and commercial lighting.

Both the commercial and housing markets particularly have been hard hit, but that didn’t faze Lightfair, which is owned and managed by AMC/AmericasMart Atlanta, according to Rochelle Burt, managing director of tradeshow sales for Lightfair.

One reason, Burt said, was the show didn’t stand still when the economy started to slip, but acted fast to make changes.

“Last year, we anticipated audience decline for tradeshows overall, so we increased overall marketing and sales for attendees and exhibitors as well,” she added.

Burt said additional mail campaigns and outreach, particularly in the Northeast and New York area, where a lot of their attendees come from, helped.

“We also increased our advertising, and we increased our press releases and amount of info going out to the industry,” she added. “We went after crucial exhibitors and got top speakers for the conference.”

Burt said the strategy has been to communicate as much as possible the importance of coming to the show, especially during tough economic times.

Even so, she added, preparation was the key to making sure the show didn’t get caught in the downturn.

“It was the anticipation of … the economic impact on a global scale (that) prepared us way in advance,” Burt said.

Attendance wasn’t the only positive uptick at this year’s show. While most other shows have seen exhibitors cut back on their booth size and, as a result, have seen their showfloors shrink, Lightfair had 170,000 net square feet this year, compared with 160,000 net sq. ft. last year.

“We were very proactive (in) making sure exhibitors were in the right place on the floor,” Burt said. “We had a healthy wait list and filled space immediately that was downsized.”

For other show managers hoping to emulate Lightfair’s results, she added the “most critical advice I could give is to keep their fingers on the pulse of what’s happening in (their show’s) industry.”

Burt said, “Fortunately for us, we have such a committed industry that comes to Lightfair annually. This is definitely a place they need to make connections.”

Wandering the ASD Las Vegas showfloor – held twice a year at multiple venues in Las Vegas – the aisles are filled with merchandise that typically can be found at the ubiquitous 99¢ Only and Dollar Store chains.

Plastic gnomes, beer hats and inexpensive knickknacks obviously have hit a chord in this economy because the show that ran in August was up 6 percent in attendance, compared with the show that ran during the same period last year.

“We were really pleased with the results,” said Chris McCabe, vice president of ASD’s Merchandise Group for Nielsen Business Media. “We heard from the exhibitors that the quality (of attendees) was really good. Maybe we lost some of the tire kickers, but that’s OK.”

McCabe said before the economy even started to struggle, he and his team were working to improve the show.

“ASD had been around since 1961,” he added. “We did a concerted effort to better categorize the show.”

Beginning with the March 2008 show, the layout drastically changed, McCabe said. “We shook things up quite a bit to make it more efficient for buyers,” he added. “By the time the economy had tanked, we had made (most of) the changes. We are (now) also able to market the show better based on certain categories.”

The reorganization is part of a three-year plan that “will conclude in 2010,” McCabe said. He added before the changes were set in motion, a “shotgun approach” to marketing to key segments was in place.

Also, bucking the trend of most shows, the economy actually has helped ASD Las Vegas.

“From the consumer side, there were shoppers who would not go to T.J. Maxx beforehand,” McCabe said. “Now, there is no stigma attached. We are at the right place at the right time.”

The biggest change in store for the show next year will be its consolidation in one venue. To get the word out, McCabe said he and his team hit the road and started talking to their key customers about the changes.

“The customers are happy, and, if they are, we are,” he added.

Dorothy Belshaw admits it’s not that big of an increase, but the fact that dmg world media’s New York Intl. Gift Fair, managed by George Little Management, went from 30,000 attendees at its January edition to 31,000 at its August edition is an accomplishment in the current economy.

“We’ve been focusing very hard on trying to improve both the quality and quantity (of the attendee),” said Belshaw, the show’s manager. “We also worked pretty proactively to pull more from outside of the (Northeast) region, such as California, Canada, the South and the Midwest.”

Also, while other shows are watching every penny they’re spending, she added she knew it was important to spend money on attendee marketing.

One of the tools she and her team are shifting their resources toward is social media, Belshaw said. “This year, we began to work more aggressively with social media to help capture (attendees’) attention,” she added. Facebook, Twitter and blogs all have been key components to spreading the word about the show.

“We’re kind of doing everything we can to have as big as voice as possible to as many spaces as possible,” Belshaw said.

In addition, Belshaw and her team have worked hard to keep exhibitors on the showfloor by not raising prices during the past two years.

“Ultimately, I think they would like to see more of a concession, but our (internal) price structure is still going up,” she added. “We believe our show still has value.”

To keep costs in line, Belshaw said she also works with exhibitors to make sure they are booking early to get the best possible prices from the show’s contracted vendors.

“We also launched some new initiatives to help (exhibitors) improve their ROI when they are at the show,” she added, including offering webinars on how to follow up on leads.

Belshaw said the N.Y. Intl Gift Fair continues to be successful, even in challenging economic times, because it has to do “with the strength of the resource.”

She added, “We do represent the best brands at market. New York is the place to do this kind of business.”