Ad agencies need to take on board exhibitions

Advertising agencies have a duty to their clients to offer them the best and most profitable platforms to market their products, according to Conrad Kullmann, EXSA chairperson, who asks South African advertising agencies whether they think that missing out on a R1.6 billion industry is a failure in their duty to provide their clients with the best service possible?

While the argument goes that it is advertisements that produce repeated business, Kullman says so too do exhibitions. "As a company's exhibiting becomes more successful, exhibition spend will increase. This will occur when the number of exhibitions a company partakes in, as well as the size of [its] stand, rises. At present there are as much as 180 exhibitions (both exhibitions and confexes) in southern Africa to choose from."

Also to be considered, he claims, is advertising agencies' poor understanding of how exhibitions work and what they actually are. In order to successfully exhibit, agencies should team up with exhibition organisers and stand builders and work together. Ask the questions, Kullman says.

He explains that a partnership with advertising agencies has the potential to double the worth of the exhibition industry. "The optimal strategy is a combination of exhibiting and the more traditional platforms of advertising, such as television and print. With such potential for profit in both the advertising and exhibition industries, it is time to take advantage. There's a R1.6 billion industry waiting out there..."

The Exhibition Association of Southern Africa, (EXSA), was founded in 1980 as a non-profit organisation representing venues, organisers, exhibition designers, stand builders, service companies and associate organisations. For more information, go to www.exsa.co.za.