by Liese Peterson
Since neither the Denver Broncos nor the Green Bay Packers were playing in this year’s Super Bowl, I only had two reasons to be excited about watching the big game. As a Nevada resident, I was fascinated by the incredible variety of “prop” bets available and the bookmakers’ ability to inject humor and creativity into their offerings. And this year, I was particularly interested to see what the nation’s top consumer marketing professionals were doing creatively.
Whoppers and Tradeshows
I had read online that Burger King was not going to advertise on the Super Bowl this year. Like many of my fellow Americans, I can sing their crazy jingle in my head for hours, and the other day I told my husband that I think there were more than two kinds of whoppers. “Right! Regular and junior, isn’t it?” he replied. So I confess: I Googled “number of whopper variations available at Burger King.” You may be surprised that some say the actual number of Whopper types is nine, while other sights say 10. My sense is that only burger connoisseurs can name five. From my search, I learned that there is an Angry Whopper, Ghost Whopper, a Whopperito and still more. Knowing corporate marketing people as I do, I think we can conclude that the coming years will offer us such new variants as the passive-aggressive Whopper, Whopperetti and Dim Sum Whopper.
What do Whoppers have in common with tradeshows? I’ve been in the exhibit industry for more than 20 years, and for this article, I reflected on how I became involved in international tradeshows. Being able to speak German helped.
German whoppers
I very clearly remember the CEO of Exhibitgroup-Giltspurthe, first exhibit building company I worked for, telling me about the German Whoppers. One was referred to primarily as “Hannover,” and another was “international hardware” or “Cologne.” Then there was “bauma” in Munich and so many more. I asked several people why they were known as being so large. The responses I got from most Americans was, “I don’t know, I haven’t been there,” but for those who had been, the answer became clear: not only were the shows themselves attracting far more attendees, but the square feet (well, square meters) of exhibit space was in many cases 10 or 15 times bigger than a typical American convention center.
European Tradeshows
The first time I went to “Hannover” (correctly named Messe Hannover, which means Hannover Trade Fair), I had been to McCormick Place and the Las Vegas Convention Center many times. I wondered how much bigger than these two venues they could be. The answer was simple: They were really whoppers. The “Messe” or tradefair grounds in Germany (and in other key cities in Europe) are so large that they hold the equivalent of eight, 10 or more “convention centers” on each campus. The fairgrounds are so large that there often are shuttle buses or carts that also take people from place to place. They’re like small cities, and all of this is buyer-friendly because instead of making each building a catch-all for any type of exhibitor, the show organizer sets things up to be conducive to people making purchases. I’ve often said that European tradeshows are more about purchasing than they are “shopping” or “browsing,” and even though new product introductions drive tradeshow exhibits in a huge way, just as in America, the Europeans use tradeshows to cement both deals and relationships to a much greater extent than is done in America, where walking the show floor can be done in a day.
Pre-show Marketing
One reason for this is that European sellers consider the sales process one that is more about matching the right product at the right price to the right application, than it is developing short-lived friendships with salespeople focused on promotion rather than a long-term commitment between supplier and client. Both approaches can lead to business success. It’s important for many American first-time exhibitors to realize that the high pressure or glitzy approach may not help them in the same way as they would, in say, Chicago or Las Vegas. It also means that when some Europeans exhibit for the first time in US cities, they are not sufficiently aggressive in pre-show marketing or at-show sales development. Both approaches can lead to business success.
Whopper Shows
Let’s return now for a moment to the topic of “whopper” shows, because as I was reminiscing. I also thought about how different this year’s whopper shows are from the two dozen or so I was aware of when I began in international exhibiting. Hannover is still in the top five with more than 5,000 coming to Hannover in April of this year. Not surprisingly, the Hardware show has slipped down and is more of a whopper Junior. In the year 2000, big-box retailers didn’t dominate the hardware market, making the hardware tradeshow a must if the manufacturers of hardware items wanted to reach local buyers. This means that those of us in the exhibit industry must rethink the future of the shows that have traditionally served our bottom line.
How Well Do We Know
Here’s a challenge: How well do you know today’s “whopper shows”? To answer that question for myself, I went to thetradeshowcalendar.com and picked a sponsor whose version I could see on the screen. I didn’t limit my search at all. First, I sorted the listing by numbers of exhibitors. I expected the Consumer Electronics Show to be in the top five and it was. Next, I clicked on the number of attendees, and it was sorted from most to fewest attendees.
Another stunning result! I was, as an alumna of the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, surprised and delighted to see that the EAA fly-in put Oshkosh on the map when the data are sorted by attendees. One does get a lot of confirmation that food and transportation are still monster drivers in the success of tradeshows. Both by numbers of exhibitors and numbers of attendees. I have attended the giant SIAL tradeshow (food) in Paris, but not in Shanghai, and was surprised to see it appear in 10th place. Although it is only logical when viewed from a distribution standpoint.
Be Sure to Visit One
How many whoppers are there? More than 10, and if you haven’t done so already, visit thetradeshowcalendar.com and see if there are some you don’t want to miss. For the record, there are Burger King restaurants in Europe. Additionally, you don’t need to speak German to get your favorite Whopper served with an order of fries. Be sure to visit one (even if just for the experience) when your next tradeshow takes you to Europe. Or China!
