Trade Visitor Insights

Transcription

1 Trade Visitor Insights Whitepaper November March 2014 Hannover Germany cebit.com Ready for lead success! New Perspectives in IT Business.

2 All the best Executive summary For all marketing and trade fair professionals: Trade visitors are the most important factor in your success at a trade show. The concrete number and quality of technical discussions that occurred at the display stands were repeatedly mentioned to the event organizers as the most important indicator of success when participating in a trade fair. Why do people attend CeBIT? When is the best time to send an invitation? What factors influence a trade show visit? How to trade visitors get information on exhibitors and trade fair themes? What services can one expect? But what persuades trade visitors to attend? Why and when do they decide to visit CeBIT? And how do they prepare for their visit to the trade show? You can find the answers to these and other questions here in this whitepaper. Use the figures, facts and knowledge to individually optimize your communications before, during and after CeBIT and maximize your success at the trade fair. The trade visitor insights published in this whitepaper are based on a representative survey of thousands of CeBIT trade visitors in 2012 and This whitepaper summarizes the most useful information to you found in these surveys, which were carried out on behalf of Deutsche Messe AG by Wissler & Partner, Trade Fair Marketing Basel and IfaD (Institute for Applied Data Analysis) in Hamburg. We hope you can gain many interesting insights and wish you all the best at CeBIT 2014 in Hanover. Your CeBIT Team 2

3 The successful trade fair approach: Commercial challenges Lack of resources Data management Cost reduction Leadership and management qualities Ensuring survival IT security Boost customer database Customer satisfaction New customers Customer loyalty Manage financial crises Outsourcing Customer consulting Jobs/recruiting pricing strategy Cheap products Founding a company Price competition Reorganization Contractor safety Migration of new technologies Social Networking Return/earnings Digital business unit / virtualization Competitive ability New business segments reduction in staff M&A Internet Market entry Skills shortage Reputation New markets safeguard/preserve jobs e-commerce strategy Product development Increase exports Financing/liquidity Generate revenue Competitive advantage Recognize trends Data management/cloud management Expansion/internationalization Network design and maintenance Branding/ marketing strategy Raise awareness Integrate decentralized international IT solutions New technologies Founding new companies/branches Mobile Business Standardization Qualitative Besucherbefragung CeBIT 2012, n = Trade visitors use trade shows to find suggestions and solutions to increase their business success. A profitable trade fair visit therefore depends on whether or not exhibitors and topic areas can help visitors master their business challenges. Here, trade visitors to CeBIT from Germany and abroad agree on one thing: their attention is on technological innovations and trends. However, networking also carries great weight. Trade visitors from Germany and abroad are primarily interested in new technologies and trends at trade shows to solve their business challenges. Opportunity for marketing and trade fair professionals: Plan your trade show participation and corresponding marketing activities around the following question: How can my company help its customers achieve their commercial goals? 3

4 Networking is not everything: Reasons to attend a trade show When it comes to concrete reasons for attending a trade show, visitors from Germany and those from other countries have different answers. German trade visitors are interested in gaining a comprehensive overview of the market and in trying out innovations on site. Trade visitors from abroad attend CeBIT primarily to seek out new trends and find new suppliers. German trade visitors want innovations they can touch ; international trade visitors are looking for technologies of the future. Market Observation & Innovation Trends & Suppliers Opportunity for marketing and trade fair professionals: Address the reasons your target group is attending the trade fair in your trade show communications highlight what your customers can expect at your booth. This enhances your relevance and therefore your opportunities for more contacts. 4

5 Now is a good time: Deciding to attend German and international trade visitors turn their interest into concrete action at different times. International trade visitors decide to attend on average 8 weeks before the fair begins. Germany trade visitors on the other hand decide to attend CeBIT on shorter notice on average 4 weeks beforehand. The best window to invite your customers and other interested parties from Germany and abroad is 12 to 4 weeks before the trade show begins. 4 weeks 12 weeks Opportunity for marketing and trade fair professionals: Organize your marketing activities to coincide with the optimum window of 12 to 4 weeks before the trade show starts. Your communication measures will have a maximum effect. 5

6 An invitation please: Factors that influence attendance It goes without saying that each visitor s personal interest and the direction of their company are decisive factors in whether a visitor will attend a particular exhibition or not. However, there are several other factors that have a positive impact on whether trade visitors will attend CeBIT that you can influence: 60% of all trade visitors say that a personal invitation from an exhibitor was an important factor that swayed their decision. That means that those receiving an invitation will most likely come to CeBIT and to their host s booth. In addition, almost 70% of trade visitors from Germany and abroad say that a recommendation by friends, partners and colleagues was extremely important. Personal invitations and recommendations to visit the trade fair and the booth are the best ways to reach the right customers and interested parties. Opportunity for marketing and trade fair professionals: The way you manage your invitations is the best lever you have to increase the number of your contacts and thereby the success of the trade fair: Always invite your (potential) contacts personally and let them know about the innovations that you will be displaying at your booth. 6

7 More than an incentive: Importance of trade visitor tickets Around 40% of German trade visitors will not respond to a personal invitation if it is not accompanied by a trade visitor ticket. For international trade visitors this expectation is shared by more than a quarter of trade visitors (26%). Did you know that the ticket makes a significant contribution to the lead management of your business? You can retrieve the data of the trade visitors who accept your invitation 5 weeks before, during and after CeBIT in OBS and enter it into your CRM system. This enormously facilitates gathering and post-processing your trade fair contact data. Personal invitations should be accompanied by a trade visitor ticket. TICKET TICKET TICKET CRM Opportunity for marketing and trade fair professionals: Use your allotment of free trade visitor tickets and other promotional material to increase the value of your CeBIT invitation. We provide a whole line-up of services to support your invitation management. Take a look and then contact us: 7

8 Increase the frequency: Planning trade fair and exhibitor visits hall 2 booth Z32 Around two-thirds of all trade visitors organize more than just their travel and accommodation when attending a trade show. They prepare extensively for CeBIT in general and for exhibitors in particular. There is significant difference between German and international trade visitors regarding the number of booths they visit. On average, German trade visitors visit 16 booths but international visitor stop in at 42. Both German and international visitors stated that they primarily visit those booths from whom they had received an invitation or other relevant information in the run up to the trade fair. hall 2 booth Z32 66% of all trade visitors plan their trade fair visits in advance. Opportunity for marketing and trade fair professionals: You should also plan your communication measures before the trade show begins and time your invitations, media information, press releases and product announcements to call attention to your company. 9

9 There s no going without: The information source when planning a visit The CeBIT website 2013 was the number one source of information for trade visitors with a utilization rate of 92%. The site s most important service was the exhibitor and product search function where your company and product information, among other things, is displayed. 80% of trade visitors to CeBIT used this search engine before the trade fair began. Three quarters of all visitors got information on topics and trends at CeBIT in the daily and business press and 50% through online portals. YouTube was used for CeBIT 2013 by around 30% and 16% of visitors got their information through social media channels, primarily to gather opinions and recommendations 92% of all trade visitors used the CeBIT website and stated that it was the most important source of information when planning their visit. Opportunity for marketing and trade fair professionals: From media service to search engine marketing to full-video formats on YouTube make a plan in advance for which channels you can best use to focus the attention of trade visitors on your company. 10

10 A service that s worth it: The importance of Match & Meet Match & Meet is a service provided by Deutsche Messe AG that gives exhibitors the opportunity to approach relevant target groups and contacts before, during and after the trade show. Currently around 16,000 people from more than 130 countries actively use this service. 65% of all German trade visitors find Match & Meet helpful especially before the trade show; 78% of international visitors give it the highest marks for its ability to make appointments at the trade show at short notice. Around 16,000 people actively use the contact initiation platform Match & Meet. Opportunity for marketing and trade fair professionals: Register with Match & Meet and link up with over 16,000 active users and counting. Find out about more lead management services provided by Deutsche Messe AG. 11

11 You can plan a successful trade fair: Executive conclusion Figures, facts and knowledge are only effective if they can be implemented as concrete measures. This whitepaper makes one thing clear: You as an exhibitor, and especially your marketing and trade fair professionals, have great opportunities to proactively influence a successful trade show presentation In particular you need a well thought-out distribution of marketing and communication measures in those areas in which you can gain the greatest amount of attention. The insights presented here can help you decide what the best measures and channels to use are and the best moment to implement them. We would be glad to demonstrate the additional services and solutions you can use to increase the success of your appearance at the trade show. Consult with us personally just give us a call at: +49 (0) , or write to us. We look forward to supporting your trade show presentation. Your CeBIT Team 12

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