Back in April, Marketing MA student Lucie Apampa joined The Exhibiting Agency as a paid intern to take control of a marketing research project. This is what she found out.
When I first met John and Jo of the Exhibiting Agency, I had little idea of what to expect. I’d pored over the Exhibiting Agency and the John Blaskey websites, but didn’t completely understand just what it was that these guys did. Exhibitions to me were art shows and marketing was an entirely different kettle of fish.
Fast forward a few months, and I can give you the rundown without even thinking.
It all started with a Unite and University of Salford partnership that saw students like myself, offered the chance to do a paid internship for a local company. I sent off my CV to Pam Mullin at the University of Salford and simply waited for a reply, knowing that there would be plenty of other students out there with similar qualifications and an attraction to the paid part of the internship.
A great interview with the The Exhibiting Agency led to my catching a train to Glasgow to assist John at an exhibiting masterclass with the SFHA (Scottish Federation of Housing Association) just one week later. It was here that I began to learn the value of The Exhibiting Agency. John’s talk got plenty of laughs and lots of interested questions. Most impressive to me, was the fact that the masterclass itself was an example of the engaging live marketing that the EA teaches. We had interactivity, feedback and follow-ups – all key aspects of the transformative exhibiting that John propounds.
With a masterclass behind me, it was time to get started on the marketing research project. John and Jo were looking to work with more trade associations and to reach individual organisations through them. And this meant one thing: research. I got online, I picked up the phone and I made a lot of spreadsheets. We wanted to find out what trade associations already did for their members when it came to exhibiting and the results told a similar story. TAs would help their members to obtain funding and in some cases they’d help them to find a stand technician or to create marketing literature. But when it came to actual marketing or exhibiting training, I kept hearing the same thing. ‘No, we don’t do that’. Why? ‘It’s just not something that we would do’.
This seemed strange, but unsurprising to John and Jo. TAs were generally under the impression that their member companies saw themselves as ‘old hands’ where exhibiting was concerned. Yes, it might take them years to secure business with an exhibition visitor, but that was just ‘normal’ and they certainly weren’t going to sign up and pay for something they already knew how to do.
Our next step was to transform the way that both individual companies and trade associations approached exhibitions. With results at the ready, I got back in touch with trade associations that I had surveyed. I explained what we had found and explained what we could do to change this. After all, why carry on going in blind doing the same old things just because it’s what you’ve always done, when you could be improving tenfold, with the ROI to prove it!?
The results of this project included an Exhibiting Masterclass with the Trade Association Forum (TAF) and attending members. There are also further masterclasses and consultation work in the pipeline. For me, it was a great opportunity to work up close and personal with a business that is quite unique in its output. The research experience has been invaluable and helped me to secure a position with a law firm. The personal experience has also been invaluable and helped me to get to know John and Jo as well as a whole host of contacts at trade associations. But most importantly, it got me a bonus and a box of Lindt chocolates!