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The IAEE Art of the Show Competition’s Email Promotion Campaign category evaluates a series of email messages disseminated to distinct target audiences in order to promote and/or inform interested parties about a show. Judging criteria includes: overall presentation, visual appeal and creativity; how well each individual email applies to its target audience; clarity of pertinent information, overall message and content usefulness; how well the email met its intended goals; and effectiveness of the email in terms of audience response.
In today’s IAEE Art of the Show Competition Winners Circle, we highlight the winners of last year’s Email Promotion Campaign category:
Under 75,000 nsf
onPeak, a GES company
New England Food Show
The New England Food Show is the largest regional trade event serving buyers and suppliers in the New England food service and retail markets. The goal of the show’s 2017 email promotion campaign was to creatively educate event participants about staying within the official hotel block for the event and drive them to the online reservation website using enticing, relatable imagery with clever headlines and calls to action.
Each email within the campaign was designed to match the aesthetic of the event’s branding and included messaging appropriate for the event’s attendees and exhibitors. Since the main goal of the campaign was to drive traffic to the reservation booking website, onPeak’s marketing team focused on open and click-through rates, striving to exceed onPeak’s average stats with each individual email.
As a result, the New England Food Show’s email marketing campaign averaged an open rate of 47.2% – roughly 11.2% more than onPeak’s average open rate. Also, the amount of reservations made online for the 2017 event increased by more than 40%.
“Culinary professionals are known for their passion, attention to detail, competitive nature and their sense of urgency,” said onPeak Marketing Account Manager Niki Babarskas. “For our New England Food Show (NEFS) email campaigns, it was vital to capture these characteristics and illustrate the crucial timing of securing hotel reservations with onPeak. In Boston, a city that’s so often compressed, you have to act quickly to snag a room near the convention center.
“We used visually appealing imagery and animated GIFs to roll out the CTA and hold the attention of recipients. They’re granting us a moment in their already packed schedules, so the least we can offer in return is a reason to keep reading! We provided familiar content and language to start, then built on the messaging with the value onPeak affords NEFS guests. The idea is, from our subject lines to the final hotel amenity, the content should feel like a satisfying meal you’ll remember fondly, return to, and recommend.”
Between 75,001 and 200,000 nsf
onPeak, a GES company
Surf Expo 2017
Since 1976, Surf Expo has brought together manufacturers and retailers in the surf, skate, water sports, swim and resort industries in a business-first buying and selling environment. Surf Expo is produced twice annually for manufacturers and retailers in the board, beach and fashion industries. Held in January and September in Orlando, Florida, Surf Expo draws buyers from specialty stores across the United States, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe and around the world.
Surf Expo features approximately 2,500+ booths of apparel and hard goods as well as a full line-up of special events including fashion shows, annual awards ceremonies, skate and other board sport demos. Average buyer and exhibitor turnout exceed 27,500 attendees including retailers, exhibitors and media per show.
The goal of the show’s 2017 email promotion campaign was to creatively educate event participants about staying within the official hotel block for the event and drive them to the online reservation system. Each email within the campaign was designed to match the aesthetic of the event’s branding and included messaging appropriate for the event’s attendees and exhibitors.
onPeak’s marketing team focused on open and click-through rates with each individual email. For this campaign, the average open rate was 41.8% – 6.8% more than onPeak’s average open rate and as a result of this campaign, 6.3% of all hotel reservations were a direct result of these emails.
“Surf Expo is such a fun event to be a part of!” said onPeak Marketing Account Manager Niki Babarskas. “The attendees and exhibitors possess this youthful vibrancy, which is evident in exhibitor branding and interaction with retail buyers. We wanted to mimic this voice and were so appreciative the client let us take creative reins!
“With our Surf Expo campaigns, we embodied the event’s young, approachable personality in our imagery and copy. It was a collaborative effort between Marketing and Design here at onPeak to identify and allude to the nature of an event, while still representing the client’s hotel block. So we used engaging and timely subject lines, content and strategic scheduling along with outlining clear benefits of booking in Surf Expo’s official hotel block. These campaigns were really spirited, with the hopes recipients would see a little piece of themselves in our messaging, as well as advantages onPeak offers them.”
The 2018 IAEE Art of the Show Competition is now underway – you have until 14 September 2018 to submit your entries! Check out all the winners from the 2017 competition.
