Trade fairs are back again

Manufacturers like BMW Group and suppliers like Schaeffler had to wait a long time for the return of the big trade shows, such as IAA Mobility, which took place in Munich for the first time – and with a brand new concept. The excitement about the first live marketing event in 2021 was great – not only for our clients but also for us. For our customers from the mobility sector, it was clear at an early stage that they would collaborate with insidery again to analyze the success of their trade fair participation.

The trend is towards smart data analysis

There’s no doubt about it: trade fairs are an important part of the customer journey – both in B2B and B2C. In recent months, the perception of trade fairs has moved away from an ‘on-off activity’ towards an integrated touchpoint: there is no longer a clear beginning and end to trade fair participation. Communication through digital channels and platforms has a strong weight, and the content of trade fair participation is intensely fed into networks and communities – not to mention hybrid concepts.

We consider this fact in the analysis of trade fairs. Whenever digital communication channels are used, massive amounts of data are generated. That’s why for our clients at IAA Mobility 2021, we’ve been analyzing customer activation and target group involvement as a result of trade fair communication before, during and after the event.

However, the onsite visitor survey which captured unfiltered feedback from the target groups was the central element of the success evaluation. Where else do you have such an easy way to personally ask your customers for their opinion?

Specifically, we analysed the following dimensions for our clients:

• Reach online and offline
• Social media and digital performance (owned and paid)
• Target group fit and target group potential
• Typologisation of visitors
• Message and knowledge transfer
• Image effect
• Experience value and emotionalisation of target groups
• Functionality of the visitor journey and storytelling
• Customer relations
• Generation of potential new customers
• and much more

The central added value now lies in the smart linking of data and results to gain effective insights. The aim is put aside information with minor relevance and focus exclusively on what is most important. While the data pool has become even larger as compared to previous years, the demand for accurate insights has also increased: “short but concise”, as a client‘s trade fair manager put it.

Customer-specific KPI models support the evaluation and comparison of trade fair success

The IAA Mobility is only the prelude to a very exciting phase in marketing and communication. Today it is crucial to understand, which events and formats should be realized physically, digitally or hybrid – and to what extent they help to achieve the intended objectives. Only companies that understand how to orchestrate their engagement marketing in a target group driven way will be able to deliver real added value in the competition for the attention of each individual customer.

That’s why our clients started developing custom KPI models with insidery early on. They use their individual KPI model to continuously monitor the performance of every touchpoint in engagement marketing, ensuring that every Euro invested goes towards achieving their goals. For example, one of our customers at the IAA Mobility can measure and analyze its entire performance and payback at the trade fair holistically with just nine key performance indicators.

Find out more about monitoring the success of trade fairs and events and developing engagement marketing KPIs.