Exhibition News July 2022 | Page 19

Marketing

Bridging the sales and marketing divide

The clash between sales and marketing is a perennial problem , but as more organisers recognise the importance of successfully promoting their events , marketing has become the driving force for exhibition organising . Jo Tyler , chief marketing officer at Raccoon Events , tells Emily Wallin how important it is to build marketing into the heart of a show from the very start
ost of the people who

“ M are running events don ’ t actually understand marketing ,” says Raccoon chief marketing officer Jo Tyler . “ Even if they do , it ’ s probably an outdated view of it , because it ’ s changed so much . That ’ s why it ’ s quite tricky .”

Tyler is determined to grow her team by recruiting bright graduates and training them in the raft of skills they need . But she points to experienced
marketers seen as an annex to sales teams as the root of the divide .
“ We ’ ve just employed Chloe Highland from Frankfurt Messe . She ’ s brilliant , but she was pretty much the only marketing person . I ’ ve seen it a lot , where marketing has been seen as a kind of sales support role .
“ Sales are praised and rewarded , financially incentivised to focus on that
Jo Tyler
sale , which is totally correct . But then sometimes , what happens after that sale is almost lost . It ’ s handed over to ops and marketing to them fulfil all the promises . So , you can see why there becomes this kind of hierarchy , sometimes in organisations especially if the person leading the organisation is from a commercial background .” Tyler says the issue is often magnified in smaller
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