Rescuing a trade show in its first year under new owners

The challenge

The show had just been acquired, and attendee marketing was so far behind that leadership was weighing whether to cancel. The inherited email list was full of bad addresses, and the server had been blacklisted. The company’s standard playbook didn’t fit this audience of manufacturers and suppliers, either.

Our approach

We worked with the data team to clean the list so email could go out again. Then we wrote a new integrated plan across digital, social, programmatic, email, out-of-home, and direct mail, funded with $50K in added budget.

We marketed to attendees and exhibitors alike. Exhibitors knew who would be in the room, so they could make the most of their meetings.

Results

Leadership was so pleased that they created a new role to lead marketing for newly acquired shows through their first few years.