Although the event landscape has changed significantly since these pieces were created, some things prove to be timeless. Specifically, the roles that creativity, innovation and a strategic approach to marketing play in driving results. IAEE’s Art of the Show Competition recognizes outstanding marketing activities directly related to successfully organizing and executing an exhibition and/or event. As such, it is the only marketing competition tailored specifically to our industry. Each year, event organizers submit the work they did to promote their show experience across 14 categories and an independent panel of marketing and graphic design experts selects the winners.
In today’s IAEE Art of the Show Competition Winners Circle, we highlight the winners of last year’s Email Promotion Campaign category, which evaluates a series of email messages disseminated to distinct target audiences in order to promote and/or inform interested parties about a show. Judging criteria includes: overall presentation, visual appeal and creativity; how well each individual email applies to its target audience; clarity of pertinent information, overall message and content usefulness; how well the email met its intended goals; and effectiveness of the email in terms of audience response.
Under 75,000 nsf
CSG Creative for AdvaMed
The MedTech Conference
The MedTech Conference is the premier annual gathering for the medical technology industry’s most prominent and promising companies. Powered by the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed), The MedTech Conference includes a cutting- edge educational program, dynamic show floor, plenary sessions and networking opportunities for more than 3,000 of the world’s leading medtech executives. Attendees come to learn about the newest developments in medical technology that will improve health care and improve lives.
AdvaMed teamed with CSG Creative to create an email campaign meant to drive conference registration. Email was used to reinforce the 2019 campaign theme of “Improving Health Care. Improving Lives.” and to provide key conference highlights and crucial information. With a series of email templates designed to meet the conference’s various promotional needs, the campaign kept engagement high while establishing a cohesive look and feel.
The campaign incorporated dynamic content elements such as animated GIFs, video and various photo modules. All emails were optimized across the different desktop and mobile platforms. The MedTech Conference email CTRs and open rates were consistently strong, with overall results outpacing those of previous years.
Between 75,001 and 200,000 nsf
onPeak
ASCP Annual Meeting 2019
The American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) Annual Meeting provides world-class education to gain practical, immediately applicable knowledge. Attendees have the opportunity to discover how to move laboratory stewardship from principles to practice and convey their expertise to the clinical care team through sessions led by knowledgeable, world-class faculty and respected, premier leaders. The meeting also features multiple formal and informal networking events where participants can share their knowledge with peers, discuss issues with other experts and form new relationships.
ASCP teamed with onPeak to create an email promotion campaign with the primary goal of directing traffic to the online booking site. The emails featured hotels and promotions that would lead its target audience to not only browse the meeting website, but also to book their reservation. The team worked to make a cohesive series of emails with a design that was inspired by the ASCP brand.
The average open rate for this email campaign was 35.5%, a 7.7% increase from the onPeak average. The average click-through rate for this campaign was also higher than the onPeak average. The strong performance of this campaign led to an increase in the traffic to the online booking site, which also led to 33.6% increase in total room nights booked from the 2018 event.
Over 200,001 nsf
onPeak
Surf Expo September 2019
Surf Expo is the largest and longest-running board sports and beach/resort lifestyle trade show in the world. It is produced in January and September in Orlando, Florida and draws buyers from specialty stores across the U.S., the Caribbean, Central and South America and around the world. The show features more than 2,500 booths of apparel and hard goods and a full line- up of special events, including fashion shows, annual awards ceremonies, and demos. Average buyer and exhibitor turnout exceeds 28,600 attendees including retailers, exhibitors and media per show.
The main goal of this email campaign series was to drive event participants to visit the online hotel booking site. The onPeak team aimed to build off of the Surf Expo brand and highlight hotels that it believed interested parties would like to learn more about. The emails were designed to be eye catching and include cohesive copy to increase the open rates.
Traffic to the online booking site for this event increased by 13.3% from the previous year. The total reservations made via the booking site increased by 16.26%. The average open rate for this email cycle was 36.5%, which is 8.7% higher than the onPeak average. This above average open rate helped direct more attendees to the reservation site.
The 2020 IAEE Art of the Show Competition is now open! Take advantage of discounted entry fees by submitting your entries before the early bird deadline on 31 August! You can also check out all the winners from the 2019 competition here.
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