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Positivity the focus at Reed Gift Fairs Melbourne
[Tue 14/02/2012 09:48:50]
 Retailers and exhibitors pulled together at Reed Gift Fairs' Melbourne February show to inject some optimism back in the sector to counteract the flat market and negative sales figures.
According to exhibition director Stephen Steenson visitor numbers rose to an estimated 7,000 – up four per cent on last year.
“We had great attendance over and above the previous years, which coincided with some very positive feedback from exhibitors and visitors, and all in all to kick start the year the Reed Gift Fair Melbourne February was a success,” he says.
Pre-registration numbers, which were the best in years for the first fair of 2012, gave Reed Gift Fairs an early indication the event would be a hit.
“…It got delivered with more people attending the show and quality buyers at that. The feedback from exhibitors was [with] the times and the economy and the negative feedback that’s out there everyone pulled together and said ‘no we’re going to be strong and we’re going to be positive this year’ and that’s part of the message we’re sending and that was delivered on site.
 “We have exhibitors talking about good sales, good leads, new business that they hadn’t seen before so… it was fairly positive,” he explains.
Steenson attributes part of the event’s success to Reed Gift Fairs’ new marketing campaign. It included new imagery and changing the name of the trade show guide to Gifted to better reflect the sector.
“I think it all played a key part... There were a couple of key points from a marketing perspective and that was to make sure we’re talking about the positives, to talk up not down…
“The images that we are using, the name change of the show trade guide to Gifted, being more related to the actual industry itself and the more sophisticated presentation that we’re delivering in the imagery, all these entitled people to understand that there [are] new products [and] there [are] new exhibitors who are launching products at the fair to start the year, which encouraged a greater purpose for them to attend and place orders.”
The target audience of the Melbourne February fair is regional Victoria but visitors also came from New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia despite the national fair in Sydney opening three weeks later. Steenson says their research shows there remains a strong reason to hold both events so close together.
“…Our feedback and the way we’re tracking it at the moment it’s obvious the buyers will be in Sydney to fulfill their purchases, so there’s no perfect world but at the moment the way it runs, there’s still a visitation level that’s there and [while] we’re still getting new visitors the shows will be run the way they are.”
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