Trade Show Demographics

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Permalink Reply by Trevor Punt on March 12, 2010 at 4:34pm

Hi Willy.

Thanks for this. The document you produce seems to be a normal visitor analysis. Having said that quite a few organisers don't event produce this. However, do you use the demographics to segment the data for targetted marketing campaigns etc.

Trevor

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Permalink Reply by Trevor Punt on March 12, 2010 at 5:30pm

Sort of.

From the registration process organisers normally get a set of demographics i.e. interested in X products, job title etc.

These can be used pre-show to create a simple "matchmaker report" for visitors (WRS Ltd do that) and/or to send specific marketing messages i.e. Must attend event for "X profession".

One unenlightended Exhibition Director I know didn't collect demographics at all saying "wedon't need them, we never use them". A view he held right up to the point where an enlighted marketign manager decided to target specific visitor groups.

The demographics issue is one that will be covered in the next MICE Monitor.

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Permalink Reply by Ray Verhelst on July 30, 2010 at 6:16pm

I will start out with a bold statement, “Smart organizers are utilizing the collected registration demographics right from the moment they are collected and compiled. Those not so smart collect data simply because someone told them to do so.”

Besides the effort to generate early excitement and motivation, early registration when married with strong demographic questions allows the organizer to gauge the specific interests, define the collective buying power and determine the issues of most concern. Early registrants are like technology “Early Adopters” who tend to be more in tune with their industry and in many cases have a more focused agenda when it comes to attending an exhibition.

Obviously, it is critical that you ask the right questions in order to turn the answers into resources. As an example one question might be a multiple choice list of key product categories that would most likely be on display during the show with the request that the attendee check off the top five areas of interest. Paired with that question might be the role in which this attendee plays in the purchasing process such as investigates, recommends or is the final decision maker.

The final question in this series would be the purchasing timeline. Just Looking; During the Next 12 Months; Within 6 Months; or Immediately. String these three responses together and build a matrix of what key product categories have the most interest and cross tabulate the results against the decision making roles and purchasing timeline.

Now provide this real-time data to your exhibit and sponsorship sales team to have them review the companies currently participating as well as potential companies who could benefit from the volume of qualified buyers. An example might be that you have five companies selling widget “A” and only one company selling widget “B” yet your demographic results show a greater interest in widget “B” and the level of interest and buying power is greater. Armed with this data, your team can start to reach out to other known companies who offer their own version of widget “B” and with just a summary of the information collected they become interested in exhibiting.

By the same token, your marketing staff can use the same data to highlight these new exhibitors and product interests to further drive more attendance. Remember, your goal is to bring qualified buyers together with verified vendors.

From an educational conference viewpoint, demographics can often help to direct the topics and session content. Here in the US we have association meetings that travel annually to different regions of the country. One year might have the conference in the Southeast and the next in the northern Midwest.

Often the educational committee is made up of representatives from national organizations that have a different outlook on the needs of the industry and tend to look at the challenge from the 30,000 foot level. Yet there are unique issues facing members from each region as well. If your questions allowed the attendee to define their challenges from a key list that included regional issues, the association may find that a greater percentage of the content needs to be localized based on the attendance.

If 75% of the pre-registered attendees are from that region, offering up national content with only minor relevance will reduce the incentive to make the trip. Granted, a national association needs to address the entire scope of its membership base but knowing in advance what the member’s most important needs are means you can inject more relevant content.

Year old demographics can be used as part of a promotional pitch for the next year but often they become irrelevant as economic and political issues change the landscape. You need to use the data captured in real-time to gain the maximum benefit. The only time I find post event demographics valuable is if we do blind attendee samplings to measure the overall effectiveness of the event and to either validate our efforts or help us change course next year.

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