The marketing world was hit with TFM&A this week. Lots of keen marketers under one roof, buzzing around to hear from some of the big names in marketing, do a spot of networking and of course pick up some enticing cupcakes along the way!

Innovation

I managed to pop in Wednesday afternoon and was lucky to catch CEO of Econsultancy Ashley Friedlein’s talk on ‘Innovation’. For me he always delivers great, current examples of what’s new and exciting in the industry. I love the point he made about ‘scarcity’ and how marketers just don’t do enough in the Online world to create that sense of urgency. Of course companies like Groupon and Living Social are shining examples of that, but most companies could do a lot more to utilise timing and create scarcity online – definitely something to think about in our strategies – for example something that goes beyond the usual Early Bird offers in events marketing. Ashley gave the great example of Happy Hour on Travelex which is proving to be successful.

Online Vs. Offline

I also really enjoyed the IDM Debate that followed after (despite the poor facilitator!) – the much debated topic of Online v Offline. For me Sarah Evans, Head of Mobile Internet at O2 UK was the strongest out of the bunch – she did a great job of fighting the Offline Marketing case. Google fell flat right at the end when Richard Robinson, Head of B2B at Google, admitted that they were the biggest DM spenders in the UK! Also an interesting observation from the session – most of the questions from the live audience came through via Twitter, as opposed to raising hands and using the mic. Really interesting to see the merge of offline and online which brings me to the point that this debate could go on and on and as all savvy marketers know, effective marketing is all about marrying the two with an integrated approach – that’s when you see true results! The debate certainly made interesting discussion, but for me there will never be a clear winner and it would be naive of any marketer to think one can exist without the other.

Confex

I popped in to check out Confex too – to be honest there’s not much relevance for B2B events, but interesting to see some new technologies that allow delegates to interact prior, during and post event. I also have a huge fascination with 3D projection mapping so it was great to talk to the guys at Hear Colours – for sure we’ll be seeing a lot more use of this medium in advertising!

Was the event a success?

Overall it was an insightful afternoon – although one conversation really sticks out in my mind. I spoke with one vendor (I won’t name and shame!), but she said how disappointed they were with the show and they’d sent staff home as they had nothing to do! “There’s just not the levels of traffic – nothing like previous years!” Admittedly I’d noticed that too. So it begs the question of why?

Did they cut back on marketing? Was enough done through social media, DM and PR or are they relying too much on their event brand to pull in the crowds? If numbers have declined this year, the marketing team will have a very interesting task ahead of them with analysing all the data and developing next year’s strategy. A good indicator of success will be seeing those repeat exhibitors next year. I’m sure the Sage’s and Experian’s of the world will be there for act of presence, but the smaller companies will no doubt be meticulously analysing ROI’s over the coming months.

As mentioned in B2B Magazine’s recent blog the event is definitely more content focused which is a positive sign and they’ve cleverly introduced ‘Priority Passes’ for fast track entry to solve the oversubscribed sessions – even with this there were still queues for the sessions I attended, so things can’t be all that bad!