NutriFair focuses on a data-driven
fair participation
NutriFair has just held a kickoff for their exhibitors, where the main theme was how to collect, validate and use data to optimize your fair participation. Among today's speakers were Maria Aagaard, marketing specialist at the global technology company ABB, and NutriFair's project manager, Ida Brøgger Hahn.
"There is data on every square meter of your exhibition stand," was the message from NutriFair's project manager Ida Brøgger Hahn, who through her presentation focused on why data is important and how it can be used effectively.
“There can be a lot to gain by switching from a gut feeling approach to a data-driven approach to trade shows. Instead of making decisions based on routines or intuition, companies can benefit from a data-oriented approach and look at data as how many, who and what.”
"It may sound like a lot of extra work, but it can be done quite simply by just counting how many people come to your stand, where they come from, as well as e.g. how they heard about you. Find out which data is relevant for your company, and subsequently use your data to set clearly defined goals for your trade fair participation in the future," urged NutriFair's project manager.
"If companies have data to make decisions based on, they can develop their participation based on facts rather than feelings," stresses Ida Brøgger Hahn. She concludes by pointing out the importance of ensuring that there is someone in the company who takes ownership of the data after the fair and ensures that it is used.
Set goals for the fair
Maria Aagaard advised the exhibitors to begin trade fair planning by taking a big step back and defining clear goals and strategies before starting with stand design and product selection.
"At ABB, we initiate discussions about goals and strategies in our steering group to determine why we attend a particular fair and what our goals for attending are. We then write it down so that we all agree on which way we are going . Then we start talking about what the stand should look like," she explains.
She emphasized that success should not be subjective but based on data and stressed the importance of setting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure effectiveness.
Get the whole company activated
Another key message from the event was the call to take a holistic approach and involve the whole company in the success of the fair, rather than putting all the work on the marketing department and then leaving the fair to the sales department.
"Creating success at a trade fair is not a department-specific matter, it is a company task. Marketing works hard to get the fairs up and running, but if the seller doesn't catch the ball, there will be no success. Therefore, trade fairs should be seen as a shared responsibility for the entire company in accordance with the overall business goals," says Maria Aagaard, who explains that the stand staff may be driven by personal interests rather than the company's, as fairs can be seen as shortcuts to sales targets.
"The stand staff, who are often salespeople, can be driven by their own interests rather than those of the company, because it can be a platform from which you, as a salesperson, can get tasks done in a few days that could otherwise take several months. But that is not necessarily why the company has chosen to participate in the fair.”
Maria Aagaard also highlighted the importance of optimizing communication options before, during and after the fair: "As we all know, fairs require significant resources - both in terms of time and money. Therefore, it is crucial to optimize this channel to the full, and align it strategically with business goals ,” notes Maria, who argued for considering trade shows as an integral part of larger marketing campaigns rather than isolated events.
The held Kickoff event was the first of two events that NutriFair holds for its exhibitors, to warm up for the fair in January 2025. The next event is NutriFair's pre-event in December.