The Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) announces a new report, Exhibitor Product Information Sharing Practices.
This report documents the most common ways exhibitors share product information with attendees who visit their booths and compares these practices with how attendees prefer obtaining this information. It also identifies which methods are considered most effective in supporting an organization’s overall objectives for exhibiting.
CEIR’s Research Director, Nancy Drapeau, PRC notes, “We recently released the Digital Playbook study, which provides insights into how digital tactics are used in exhibit marketing. This new, short report provides another perspective, both from what exhibitors typically do for the purpose of information sharing juxtaposed with attendee preferences. Though results in part affirm a shift in exhibitor practices to digital methods, it is not completely the case. Print collateral on premise and post-event is still pervasive, and a good proportion of attendees still want print collateral when they walk the floor. So, these results clearly indicate the importance of using print options strategically along with considering which digital tactics make sense to satisfy the preferences of their target attendees.”
Topline findings of note:
- The most common exhibitor practices and attendee preferences are well-aligned. The two most common methods of product information sharing methods used by exhibitors are printed brochures/catalogues given out at the booth, 85 per cent, and emails sent after the exhibition, 70 per cent. The top two methods preferred by attendees to receive information are the same, in the same rank order: 58 per cent and 41 per cent respectively.
- In terms of how effective each method is considered to be in supporting an exhibiting company’s overall objectives for exhibiting, the top two ranked methods are digital. Among users of each method, 82 per cent who offer information that is downloadable to a USB and 80 per cent who send emails post-event say the tactic is either “highly effective” or “effective.”
A sampling from The International Center for Exhibitor and Event Marketing database and Exhibitrac’s Top 250 trade exhibition list were invited to participate in the online survey in June 2012. A total of 502 exhibitors responded.
