Interview bought a digital aggregator of news . We have turned over £ 4m and all it comes from exhibitions . “ It means we are talking to our audience everyday – both exhibitors as well our businesses . It means we ’ re becoming conduits for them to find out what ’ s going on in their marketplace . “ We ’ re building new brands which may result in shows in their own rights . “ People are saying we can all forget about digital now and get back to what we know , but that is so out of touch . We ’ ve turned over £ 4m from digital and we haven ’ t done anything . We haven ’ t tried to build a live event on a computer screen .” Newton and Nathan say other exhibition organisers are shortsighted not to see the real potential of digital products . Their new digital platform uses AI to aggregate the top five news stories on any given subject , which they can sell advertising around and then send to their existing exhibition audiences . “ We are putting the buyer and seller together ,” says Newton . “ You have the brand of your exhibition , data of all the exhibitors and sponsors , you ’ ve got relationships and you know what they spend , then you ’ ve got the data of all the visitors . “ If you launch any kind of product , magazine or website , you need to find out who wants to read it and you ’ ve got to find who wants to advertise to them and you ’ ve already got all that . “ Within a day we can launch a brand new newsletter on any subject . We have now got 20 extra newsletter with no extra staff .” Nathan says it takes just 10 minutes to send one of their daily newsletters to 150,000 construction professionals , turning over hundreds of thousands of pounds . But their diversified business is definitely not the end of events . “ We are probably the only event organiser who talks to all their audiences every day ,” adds Nathan . “ It ’ s a protection thing and we are now a rounded media
Media 10 directors Rob Nathan ( left ) and Lee Newton ( right )
business . We can say ‘ we ’ ll sell you a stand at the show , a seat at the conference , a talk on a stage , a page in a magazine , a page in a digital mag or we can market you to our audiences through geolocating or you can go on one of our 40 newsletters ’. “ We have only seen that generate more revenue through stands . “ We ’ re a media business and we happen to run events and they make up 80 % of our revenue . But last year they made 0 % of our revenue and we didn ’ t just sit back and say let ’ s sit on our hands and wait .” Newton is convinced that there is huge growth potential for exhibition organisers in digital markets . “ Pick your best client ,” he challenges his competitors . “ He may spend £ 100k a year with you in events . If he ’ s doing that , he ’ s probably spending £ 1m , £ 10m even , on digital . “ He ’ s not going to do any less shows , as long as the shows continue working . But his digital spend is growing every day . He ’ ll spend more in digital next year that last year . Will he spend more on shows ? Possibly not . That money , he might pull it out of TV , of radio or tube advertising , because they ’ re all not working anymore . Live events are working , which is fantastic . So is digital .” To hammer home the point Nathan adds : “ 70p in every pound is spent online and 1p in every pound is spent in exhibitions . Digital is now 65 % of all advertising spend . Why go after the 1 % when you can go after the 70 %? “ We changed our philosophy . A lot of our competitors are now saying ‘ that ’ s it . Exhibitions are back and we can go back to that ’. But we ’ re saying ‘ No . That ’ s the start of it and we want to build £ 4m , £ 10m whatever ’.” EN
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