Tradeshows Rely on Online Advertising, Partnership Marketing

Online registration and online housing information are the most popular functions used by tradeshow attendees - as well as exhibitors - through the websites of event producers, according to preliminary results from a recent “Tradeshow Industry Outlook” study, writes MarketingCharts.

Reviewing interactive floor plans is the third most-utilized website function for attendees, as it is for exhibitors, who also tend to benefit from electronic lead follow-up services offered by producers’ websites - the main difference between attendees’ and exhibitors’ use of such websites.

The study was conducted by The Society of Independent Show Organizers (SISO), the Jordan Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI) and Tradeshow Week, writes JEGI’s “Client Briefing” newsletter.

Some findings of the study:

• Show producers most commonly use online advertising (77 percent) and partnership marketing (75 percent) to generate leads, followed by online-subscription products (e.g., newsletters), with 58 percent, paid search via major search engines (37 percent), and paid search via vertical search engines (26 percent).
• The Tradeshow Week 200 (TSW 200), which ranks the top 200 U.S. events by net square footage sold, grew 2.6 percent in net square feet, 1.4 percent in number of exhibiting companies and 3.1 percent in attendance in 2006.
• On average, TSW 200 shows took up about 340,000 net square feet and more than 1,000 exhibitors and some 22,500 attendees.

MarketingCharts has more data from the study, including on the top show organizers.