The cost of setting up an exhibition sales team overseas is prohibitive for all except the largest international organisers. Nonetheless, the benefit of working on the ground with potential exhibitors for your events cannot be overlooked.
There is an increasing pool of companies that organisers can tap to help fill their stands with companies from regions in which they have limited or zero presence. But their appeal goes beyond that. While organisers are very good at conceiving and running events, they are not necessarily the best salesmen. The approach to selling varies depending on where you are. Local sensibilities differ and for those without people on the ground, there are times when only an agent with local knowledge will do.
ExpoPromoGroup’s offering includes a service that places exhibition listings on more than a thousand affiliated trade websites to give an event visibility in the communities where the target audience traditionally spends its time. It finds visitors using channels not necessarily available to the organiser.
Business development manager at ExpoPromoGroup, Mariya Shtanhrat, says the service, ExpoPromoter, provides buyers for exhibitors. “We are focused on visitors, ensuring that when the doors open, the hall fills,” she says.
According to Shtanhrat, ExpoPromoter doesn’t charge for the listings or newsletters, only for the clients an organiser get through them. “Depending on your event goal or budget, you choose the most appropriate way to promote your event, traffic to your event website, visitor registrations as well as hosted buyers, or admission tickets sold.”
The company’s clients include Fiera Milano, organiser of International Home Show MACEF, and Hannover Fairs Interpro International, organiser of CEBIT Eurasia. As a result of listing events by sector, ExpoPromoter is also capable of offering a similar service to exhibitors. Companies looking for new events to explore in their sector can be informed by email, or go in search themselves.
After all, what good is an exhibition of the greatest exhibitors if there’s nobody there to see them.
The company is entering its second round of investment this year [its first round of investment took place in 2010] with plans to expand its international footprint. There is talk of a new offices in the US and China, among other countries.
Based in the UK, OTSA acts as the UK and Irish representative for overseas organisers, representing Messe Berlin among others. The company targets all shows looking to get an international clientele. It also has business in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
“Organisers approach us and ask us to represent UK companies to export and exhibit their potential. They see us as part of their sales team, only we’re sitting in the UK or Ireland,” says chairman Christopher Newton.
The company’s contracts don’t only come from organisers overseas. OTSA plays a campaigning role for potential exhibitors looking to get tap funding for appearances at international pavilions. In September it took a group of exhibitors to Innotrans in Berlin.
The service can be set up very quickly, although Newton says a full year would be ideal. The only limitations come with events that are a rival to events OTSA already represents.
The company goes through the same channels any organiser would use to get exhibitors onboard, such as approaching trade associations and the press.
The company also conducts visitor campaigns for some clients, recruiting buyers.
“Some organisers have their own office in a territory they’re looking for exhibitors from, rather than using an agent. The problem is if you’re not a large global organiser, doing things that way is rarely cost-effective,” says Newton, who is also director of exhibition organiser Montgomery.
Like Newton and OTSA, Turkey’s Expotim is also able to bring its experience as an organiser to bear on its service as an international sales agent. It organises events in neighbouring Iraq, including the UFI-approved event Basra Oil & Gas, but also helps organisers looking to attract Turkish exhibitors.
Its role as sales agent sees it embed Turkish firms in more than 50 exhibitions every year, effectively by sub-letting space at events.
“We do this by first buying a certain area of places in the exhibition and then selling those to Turkish firms,” says international marketing manager Hande Sert.
“For instance, when we take Turkish firms to The Big 5 construction exhibition in Dubai, we are performing as the international agent of this exhibition.”
Agencies aren’t simply a way of making sales where the organiser doesn’t have the staff either. In the case of ExpoEast, the strategy is to familiarise exhibitors with Russian working practice and flag up the oportunities that the country and its industry present.
ExpoEast is a business conceived to provide, among other services, international exhibitors for events in Russia – and in particular from regions or companies that see entering the market as a daunting or overly complicated prospect. The company recently delivered seven companies for Prodexpo in Moscow and also works with Ikonworld and Fasttrack.
According to Rauno Ramo, VP and business development director, the company is helping a lot of Finnish businesses realise their potential through participation in Russian events.
“We work by educating potential Finnish exhibitors about the events we work with in Russia,” he says. “For example we will take them through Russian marketing material, hall maps and so on, so they get an accurate impression of the event and what it could do for them, and understand why they should be there.”
The company also works with Canadian companies looking to get into Russia, recently partnering with Gallant Expo in Toronto.
“Gallant is not happy with the union policy in the US, and is actively seeking new business connections in Russia. The problem is, it has no idea how to go about establishing those connections.”
Ramo and Gallant already had a working relationship, but this new direction ushers in a new chapter for cooperation, in what both companies believe to be a progressive venture that’s becoming more valuable in the global exhibition industry.
International agents may not come with the autonomy of an in-house regional office, but with the right partner in place, they are a good way to test the water or expand the influence of your event at a fraction of the cost.
This was first published in the Issue4/2012 edition of EW. Any comments? Email exhibitionworld@mashmedia.net
