indication of the need to develop their emergent economies. Permanent trade
exhibition centres exist in developing countries such as Malaysia and
Nigeria.
Types of exhibition
1. Public indoor
Usually held in specially built halls, the public show is based on a theme
of public interest such as food, the home, do-it-yourself, gardening or
holidays and travel.
2. Trade or business indoor
A more specialised type of exhibition, this will probably have a smaller
attendance consisting of bona fide visitors who are invited, given tickets
in their trade journal or admitted on presentation of their business card.
3. Private indoor
These are usually confined to one sponsor, but occasionally consist of a
few sponsors with associated but not rival interests Venues are usually
hotels, local halls, libraries, building centres or company premises if
suitable.
4. Outdoor
Certain subjects lend themselves to outdoor exhibitions, for instance
aviation, farm equipment (at agricultural shows) camping and large
construction equipment. Exhibition stand may also be available at outdoor
or tented events like flower shows and horse shows. In hotter countries
exhibitions normally held indoors in the northern hemisphere will be held
out-of-doors.
5. Travelling
Mobile exhibitions can be transported by caravan, specially built
exhibition vehicles, converted double-decker buses, trains aircraft and
ships. British Rail has its special Ambassador exhibition train which can
be used by a single client and taken to a choice of railway stations
throughout the country where visitors can be received. It can also be taken
to European countries Mobile van shows are common in developing countries,
travelling from town to town and village to village.
6. In-store
These are popular with foreign sponsors who organise weeks in different
towns to display foods, wines, fabrics, pottery, glassware or tourist
attractions. The displays are usually in appropriate stores, but a special
entertainment evening may be organised for the public in a theatre or hall,
when singers, dancers and/or films may constitute the programme.
7. Permanent exhibitions
Some large organisations may hold exhibitions within their premises or in
special halls or parks. A particularly attractive one is Legoland, a
children's park at Billund, Denmark, which demonstrates Lego toys.
The following are well worth visiting, combining as they do well mounted
exhibits with video shows:
The Thames Barrier Exhibition, near Woolwich. The Mary Rose Exhibition,
Portsmouth Dockyard. The Eurotunnel Exhibition, Folkestone.
8. Conferences
In association with annual conferences there is often an exhibition
supported by suppliers which delegates may visit between and after
conference sessions. Some of them are quite small, perhaps arranged in an
ante-room or in the foyer of the hotel, but others are as big as the
conference itself. The larger exhibitions are usually held at venues like
Brighton or Harrogate where there are combined conference and exhibition
facilities.
Characteristics of exhibitions
Exhibitions are unlike any other forms of advertising and can include
selling direct off-the-stand to visitors. The special characteristics of
exhibitions are summarised in 16-21.
The chief value of an exhibition is that it draws attention to it subject
and so attracts people, often from great distances. Thus the exhibitor has
the opportunity of meeting people he would never meet nor have time to
contact. The message of the exhibition, and often that of individual
exhibitors, spreads far beyond the even itself, and coverage is possible
throughout the appropriate media at home and abroad.
An exhibition requires a lot of time for its preparation, and for manning
the stand. It is essential that the stand is manned by knowledgeable people
capable of answering visitors' questions.
Exhibitions provide opportunities to display prototypes of new products,
and to receive visitors' comments and criticisms.
Confidence, credibility and goodwill can be established by meeting
potential customers face-to-face. This applies to both distributors and
consumers.
There are ideal opportunities actually to show the product which is more
authentic than describing and illustrating it in advertisements, catalogues
and sales literature. Similarly, sampling provides a good sales promotion
opportunity.
The atmosphere of an exhibition is very congenial, even though a long visit
may be hard on the feet. For many people it is an outing to be enjoyed and
there is an atmosphere of entertainment like going to the circus or the
theatre.
Using exhibitions
There are many trade papers which give forward dates of exhibitions, the
most complete details appearing in Exhibition Bulletin. Other publications
which announce some exhibition details are British Rate and Data,
Conferences and Exhibitions International and Sales and Marketing
Management.
The following points should be borne in mind before booking space in an
exhibition,
(a) Organisers. Is the event organised by a responsible firm? Are they
members of the Association of Exhibition Organisers? Have they run this or
other shows before?
(b) Date. What is the date, is it convenient and does it clash with any
other event?
(c) Venue. Is it a good venue, that is one likely to attract a good
attendance? Is it a convenient one for transporting exhibits to and from?
Some foreign venues may impose transportation and customs problems. Does it
have good transport links? Is there adequate car-parking? Are there nearby
hotels?
(d) Cost of sites. What is the charge per square metre and are, perhaps,
modestly priced shell schemes available?
(e) Facilities. Are all the necessary facilities available such as water,
gas or electricity, if they are required?
(f) Publicity. How will visitors be attracted?
(g) Build-up and knock-down. Is there adequate time allowed before and
after the show for erection and dismantling of stands?
(h) Public relations. What press office and press visit facilities will
there be?
This is an aspect of exhibitions which is overlooked by many exhibitors. It
pays to co-operate with the exhibition press officer months before the
event. Valuable press, radio and television coverage can be gained from
exhibitions, and this is a valuable bonus. Hundreds of journalists visit
shows, looking for good stories and pictures. They do not carry suitcases
and will shun clumsy press kits packed with irrelevant material.
(i) Associated events. Are there any associated events like a conference or
film/video shows?
(j) Is it justified? Is the cost of designing and constructing a stand,
renting space, printing sales literature, providing hospitality (especially
at a trade show) and taking staff away from their regular work justified?
Has the company something new to show, does it need to meet distributors
and/or customers, must it compete with rival exhibitors? What value may be
anticipated for the money spent—in goodwill or sales, including perhaps the
finding and appointing of new agents or distributors?
In his very useful book, Exhibitions and Conferences from A to Z, (Modina
Press, 1989) Sam Black makes the following comment:
'Exhibitions are visited by people expecting to see actual objects.
Photographs, diagrams and illustrations play an important part in conveying
technical or general information but they should be subsidiary to the three-
dimensional exhibits. People will read quite detailed explanatory copy on
an exhibition stand if it explains an exhibit which has attracted their
curiosity, but isolated panels of text will rarely be read.'
Sponsorship
Sponsorship consists of giving monetary or other support to a beneficiary
in order to make it financially viable, sometimes for altruistic reasons,
but usually to gain some advertising, public relations or marketing
advantage.
The beneficiary could be an organisation or individual. While some sponsors
may simply wish to be philanthropic, this is seldom so today when the
object is more often deliberately commercial.
At present, the bulk of sponsorship money is spent on sport, and while this
support is given mainly to the major sports of motor-racing, horse-racing,
football, cricket, tennis, golf, a number of other sports have become
popular through sponsorship and television coverage, to mention only bowls,
snooker, and darts. For example, Canon were the origional sponsors of the
football League and at the end of their three - year sponsorship, costing f
3mln they were able to boast that there was hardly an office in Britain
which didn't have a Canon machine. The strength of this sponsorship was
that British football is played of many months of the year by 92 teams,
this producing constant media coverage.
What can be sponsored?
a) Books and other publications such as maps.
b) Exhibitions which may be sponsored by trade associations and
professional societies.
c) Education, in the form of grants, bursaries and fellowships.
d) Expeditions, explorations, mountaineering, round-the-world voyages and
other adventures.
e) Sport.
f) The arts such as music, painting, literature and the theatre.
g) Charities, especially by helping them to promote their activities.
The aim of a sponsorship is to gain results associated with the
advertising,
public relations or marketing strategy.
Advertising objectives:
a) When media advertising a banned. The product may be banned by certain
media, e.g. cigarettes cannot be advertised on British TV, although this
may not apply in other countries. Cigarette manufactures have succeeded in
gaining considerable TV programme coverage by sponsoring cricket, golf and
motor-racing.
b) In association with sponsorship, arena advertising in the form of boards
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