The IAEE Art of the Show Competition’s Attendance Promotion Campaign category evaluates a series of pieces used in a marketing campaign to promote attendance at a show (attendance promotion brochure, printed/digital ads, website, mobile app, etc.). Judging criteria includes overall presentation, visual appeal and creativity of the campaign; clarity of information, overall message and content usefulness; how each piece plays into the “big picture” (how it suits its intended role in the campaign); how the campaign relates to the overall “theme” of the event; and how well the campaign met its intended goals.
In today’s IAEE Blog, we highlight the winners of last year’s Attendance Promotion Campaign category:
Under 75,000 nsf
Frank Strategic Marketing
TRANSACT 16
TRANSACT 16 is the event for payments technology. It is produced by the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA), the world’s largest payments industry trade group. TRANSACT 16 is where attendees make connections, secure partners and funding, and leverage emerging technologies. At TRANSACT 16, there were more than 4,000 attendees including ISOs, VARs, ISVs and Tech Startups that are driving innovation and responding to consumer demand at the POS. TRANSACT focuses on the payments technology industry, and It is where everyone in payments – all the big players and the latest tech companies – come together to meet, partner and drive innovation.
ETA positions the event as one for the leaders, titans, innovators, and the newest players changing the game; it is the one event where its target audience can see and meet everyone they need to in order to make things happen and move their company forward. The goal for TRANSACT 16 was to communicate the idea that this is where the “old/new” and “slow/fast” come together to create mutually beneficial partnerships. The campaign intended to help stalwarts understand that technology is nothing to fear or be intimidated by; and for start-ups/tech community to see that there is value in partnering with those experienced in the field. To that end, the tagline for TRANSACT 16 was “Connecting the Payments Technology World” – as it is the one place where the global payments and transactions ecosystem come together. In more than 60 sessions and five keynote presentations, speakers dug into big topics such as mobile payments, omni-channel commerce, security and fraud prevention and much more.
“This is a tremendous time of growth and change in our industry,” said ETA CEO Jason Oxman. “TRANSACT 16 brought together thousands of payments game-changers from traditional payment leaders and investors to innovators to chart the future of commerce.”
Between 75,001 and 200,000 nsf
Texas Nursery & Landscape Association
2016 Nursery/Landscape EXPO
For more than 60 years, the Nursery/Landscape EXPO has annually been produced by the Texas Nursery & Landscape Association (TNLA). Over 6,000 participants attend EXPO’s annual B2B trade show covering 150,000 nsf and featuring the latest products the industry has to offer. Participants include buyers representing various segments of the “Green” industry: retail garden centers; landscape and irrigation professionals; growers; arborists; and suppliers, brokers and distributors of nursery and landscape products.
The goal for this campaign was to brand the show throughout the year in order to reach current and new attendees. The western theme of “Saddle Up” encouraged the nursery and landscaping industry to get ready to build their business at EXPO. As the theme evolved and with the city of Houston as the destination, creative inspiration was derived from vintage rodeo imagery, incorporation of industrialism in Houston, the oil boom and skylines.
“Each year, TNLA brainstorms and develops a new theme and marketing campaign to brand EXPO to returning and potential attendees,” said Sarah Riggins, CEM, Director, TNLA & EXPO Marketing/Communications. “We review previous years of data and set benchmarks based on different aspects of the campaign to raise attendee’s EXPO brand awareness. To help further brand EXPO, the team utilizes a variety of marketing vehicles and tracks impressions from email open rates, website content click-throughs, social media ‘likes’ and EXPO’s mobile app downloads. One of the most important things we continue to place high value on throughout the entire marketing process is strong content, making sure that we are providing messaging to answer the question, ‘What is in it for the Attendee?’”
Over 200,001 nsf
Tarsus Group
Labelexpo Europe 2015
Founded in 1980, Labelexpo Europe is one of Tarsus’ flagship shows and a leading exhibition
brand. Held biennially in Brussels, it is widely acknowledged as the label industry’s leading and largest dedicated event. With a global audience, its exhibitors are machinery/material suppliers and visitors label printers who produce labels and packaging for the food, drink and pharmaceutical markets. The show is pretty unusual with its large scale, complex and technical exhibits of live working print machinery and high level buying audience. Dominating a niche market, it has no direct competition within the label sector, but does share a target audience/purchasing opportunities with general print industry shows like Drupa.
Despite many print shows suffering over the past few years, Labelexpo set the following key objectives:
- Increase visitor numbers
- Promote creative printing technologies
- Expand the show by targeting other groups (e.g. flexible packaging)
The theme was intensively drilled down to every possible and conceivable touch point for the show visitor. From marketing collateral to registration, venue signage and ultimately the show floor, every aspect of the show echoed the fairy tale creative. It was because of this attention to detail and the very high quality of the printed materials, that Labelexpo Europe 2015 broke all previous records. Exhibitor, visitor and even press feedback all resonated around the quality of the show and how eye catching and imaginative the campaign and show look had been.
It was hugely influential in 2015’s show being the most successful in its 35-year history:
- Highest visitor attendance ever: 35,739 (up 12.4% on 2013)
- Increase in proportion of visitors from the flexible packaging sector (up 9.4%)
- Highest number of exhibitors ever – 650 (600 in 2013)
“Creative, challenging and engaging, this particular campaign pushed our team to new limits and delivered excellent results,” noted Michael Hatton, Director of Marketing at Labelexpo. “It achieved more than the budget would suggest, because it caught the imagination of the Labelexpo community and wider printing world. It made people smile, talk about it and most importantly attend the show to find out how to improve their own business. We set out to separate our brand from the pack and we succeeded.”
The 2017 IAEE Art of the Show Competition is now underway – you have until 31 August 2017 to submit your entries! You can also view all of last year’s winners and honorable mentions here.
