Since 2006, the MCH Group has been on a mission to build itself as more than your average fair organiser. The company, best known for its flagship events Art Basel and watch and jewellery show Basel World, wanted to be seen as a fully-fledged integrated live marketing group.
The publically-listed company organises about 45-50 events a year, primarily at its own locations. Roughly the same number of events are organised by a third party at its venues, albeit significantly smaller. Last year the company made 390m Swiss francs, and expects to lift that to 450m in 2013. Its net profitability, according to chairman and CEO Rene Kamm, is increasing 10 per cent year-on-year.
But recent changes have seen the company expand its offering to accommodate new revenue streams, chief among which is the decision to offer exhibition services at its venues as well as direction.
“Twelve years ago we were not a live marketing group, we were a fair company. Through the provision of top quality products and services, we became the market leaders in our clearly defined segments,” says Kamm.
“When we talk about adaptability,” Kamm continues, “it’s important to change the structure of the company, and maybe even the ownership of a company to allow more freedom for development.”
The partnership with Miami Beach Convention Center, which joined business infrastructure in Basel, Zurich, Lausanne and Hong Kong, saw a new integration of different events service divisions, acquired and developed in-house.
Break into new markets however you can
What brought new event service companies under MCH’s umbrella was of course the pursuit of revenue. But they brought with them another way of thinking, interaction with new clients. “As an exhibition company we didn’t have clients, for example, in the financial insurance sector. Rufener, a small event company that does primarily corporate events, brought clients that we didn’t have elsewhere in the group,” says Kamm.
MCH Group also acquired and developed Expomobilia, a stand development company. As an exhibition organiser MCH hosts small car events, but Kamm doesn’t claim to be in the car show business. However, he points out car manufacturers spend more on marketing than companies in any other sector. With Expomobilia, MCH became a supplier for car shows. “We wanted to be in that market – we couldn’t enter as an organiser, so we entered as a supplier. We are in the corporate event sector as well as the public event sector, and now a supplier to the car industry. This move brought new clients to our group.
“I think that with our top-down approach as exhibition organisers, we tend to have a very macro-level view of things. The key success factor is how relevant your event is for the industry, or your defined market. If you’re not relevant, your exhibition is at risk.”
Events service providers, Kamm says, tend to be more on the level with each individual customer. “In my experience, it is very good for our group to unite these levels. Work on both the macro-thinking and the micro-thinking. I would say that it improved that it improved our corporate intelligence and customer focus in general – because exhibition organisers within our group could learn from the event service guys what it means to be a customer-oriented.”
Not your ordinary art exhibitor
At Art Basel in June this year, the integration of a service provider in MCH’s portfolio enabled an unexpected exhibitors to put on a show for 1,500 people. “Our partner in Design Miami is a friend of musicians and Hollywood celebrities. He calls me and says: “Rene, I’m sitting here with Kanye West and he wants to give a spontaneous concert – tonight – because he’s launching his new album next week,” says Kamm. This was at 2pm. After a brief bio on West by his Kamm’s wife, they arranged to meet at 4pm and discuss how they could put on a concert that evening.
“My wife says Kanye’s a world star, if you wanted to book him it’s going to be at least two million dollars. He had just given a concert in New York for 50,000 people,” says Kamm. “So I called my guys at Winkler and said ‘come at 4pm, we have to discuss something’. We meet with Kanye and his entourage, then we walk through one of the halls that still had installations in it, and he said “I like this hall – can we make the concert in here?’ I said ‘When?’, he said ‘Tonight’.
“I said “Kanye, I’m a little naïve. How can we tell that many people in the five or six hours we have, that you’re giving a concert. Nobody knows about it.” He said ‘Don’t worry, I’ll make a tweet, we’ll put it on Facebook’. In the end we had 1,500 people to see a guy with a freaky idea, who wanted to be associated with our event, who gave this concert that went out all over the world.”
MCH’s improved strategic adaptability and operational flexibility has enabled it to not only expand its offering, but to think differently and think quicker. As Kamm says, it’s not just about revenue. By removing yourself from the top-down view most organisers are used to, you can understand your existing clients’ needs better bring in new clients, and ensure both return this year.
This was first published in issue 4/2013 of EW. Any comments? Email exhibitionworld@mashmedia.net
