The eyes have it
Matthias Tesi Baur asks whether , having turned our eyes on the digital side , B2B digital is now turning its eyes on us ?
f there was one good thing that came out of the last year , it is the fact that we finally turned our eyes on the digital aspect of our business . The last year easily equals ten normal years in terms of digital development in our industry . We all experimented with hybrid events , digital products and how to monetise these channels . Discussions around data , how to measure the performance of the industry ’ s online activities became more serious and we started to work out and establish standards in digital fields we hardly paid attention to before the crisis .
However , we also experienced that it is still not easy to earn money with digital products . Digital channels serve different target group motivations . While educational content can be placed via digital channels very well , brand building and lead generation works better in face to face ( F2F ) formats .
Digital and F2F channels differ in their strength and weaknesses of how well they can serve exhibitor motivations . The good news is that if we work out a well thought through hybrid strategy that combines the strength of the different channels we will be in a strong position to widen the USP to our customer groups and also to widen the product offer beyond a normal live event format . MBB has created a hybrid monetisation concept that can help create a wider offer to our exhibitors and sponsors .
Now that the entire industry is taking the digital aspect of our business seriously , the next question is will digital B2B companies such as Google and LinkedIn turn their eyes on our business model ?
What was widely discussed in our industry before the crisis – that it is not possible to earn money with digital products – has been proven wrong by these digital players . Google turns over more than ten times the revenue of the top 30 exhibition organisers combined , with most of the revenue coming in from B2B products ! This means our competitors are not only other trade shows serving the same industry but spread far more widely and now
Above : Matthias Tesi Baur , CEO MBB-Consulting Group
“ While the digital industry saw the event industry as ‘ too small ’ in the past , we have now strong indicators that this attitude has changed .”
include companies such as Google or LinkedIn . The budget that funds these channels and their products is the same budget that funds exhibition stands .
Is this industry now competing for the same budgets as us and turning their eyes to our business model ? Will LinkedIn , Google , Facebook and Co . become event organisers in the future ? Or , in other words , will the digital industry turn from a competitor to a player in the event industry ?
While the digital industry saw the event industry as ‘ too small ’ in the past , we have now strong indicators that this attitude has changed . LinkedIn has acquired Hopin , a London-based live virtual events platform and is developing its event functions quite rapidly . Alibaba has started to experiment with hybrid shows . While these activities are in their early stages we need to ask ourselves how disruptive they may be to our business model in the future .
Some questions we need to answer here include whether the digital industry has the funding , the data and the willingness to disrupt our industry . The first two questions can be answered with a clear “ yes ”, and the answer to the third question has moved from a “ not likely ” to a “ likely ”.
This all means we need to take the potential threat that is coming from the digital industry far more seriously . All exhibition organisers should consider digital community providers as direct competitors which need to monitored in our strategies . Budget shifts on our customer side from F2F to digital products must be investigated and monitored as well . If we partner with this industry , we should see them as a very powerful partner who is not necessarily seeing us eye to eye .
Do contact MBB-Consulting Group direct to hear more about its hybrid monetisation concept or digital strategy building process .
www . exhibitionworld . co . uk Issue 4 2021 35