CASE STUDY
Organisers of Dubai ’ s Najah Education Series experienced a low attendance and NPS score in 2021 due to Covid restrictions and were affected by a ban on students attending exhibitions .
The event ’ s organisers at Informa Connect , including consumer portfolio head of marketing Sarita Lakhiani , responded with a bold campaign that engaged its Generation Z audience through strong data-driven techniques .
Its new strategy resulted in a 193 % rise in preregistrations to more than 25,000 across both Najah events and an 185 % increase in attendance . The event saw 378 % more school groups attend and attracted 180 exhibitors from 20 countries . The event also saw an average 40-point increase in visitor NPS , with Najah Abu Dhabi up 61 points .
“ Our goal was to not just come up with strategies , we wanted to make a lot of data driven decisions to drive engagement with Gen Zs . The younger generation have completely different habits and interests to the previous attendees we have catered for ,” says Lakhiani . “ We wanted to make sure we understood what their motivations are and base our campaign around that , instead of just doing what we usually do .
“ Gen Z are digital savvy , have strong ethics and are sceptical of traditional forms of advertising . They know when influencers are promoting something that isn ’ t as good as it seems , and
How to reach Gen Z
After a lower than desired attendance and NPS score in 2021 , organisers of the Najah Education Series bounced back a year later by winning Best Consumer Show Marketing Campaign at the EN Awards . EN reporter Joe Gallop speaks to Informa Connect ’ s Sarita Lakhiani about how the Najah team turned it around in style with an innovative , content-driven marketing campaign
they don ’ t want to buy into anything dishonest . They want to buy into something that is authentic and real .”
The Informa Connect team conducted a survey into education industry trends which showed students felt overwhelmed with the choice of study options and were left frustrated by a lack of guidance . The Najah team responded by coming up with tactics to address the challenges the students were facing . “ The most important thing was gaining our stakeholders ’ trust back ,” says Lakhiani .
After the difficulties of 2021 , Lakhiani says her team built an innovative contentdriven marketing campaign , which focused , most crucially , on the student ’ s needs .
Campaign success The campaign led to organic website traffic of 115,809 unique users ; a digital conversion rate of 45 %; and a database growth of 189 %.
The campaign not only built up students ’ trust , it also helped the event reduce the cost per attendee . This was critical at a time when the UAE was experiencing its highest rate of inflation for seven years .
To overcome inflationary pressures , Lakhiani says her team optimised digital campaigns using relevant content to increase
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