Direct Mail

By signing up with each website you agree to receive emails from them updating you on their activities. The nation wedding show would send regular updates around once a week updating me on the latest news regarding the show. Hotelympia would also send me regular emails encouraging me to turn up to the show and updates in the days of the events claiming what I had been missing. What I felt was inappropriate was very regular (2/3 times a week) emails from caterer and hotelkeeper magazine as this was very annoying.





Promotions

As Hotelympia was a free event there no promotions in relation to ticketing, however after signing up to register for the event I was being sent emails in relation to the sponsors offering me half price subscription to caterer and hospitality magazine. I did not receive emails from any other sponsors.

As the national wedding show relies on ticket sales it is heavily promoted throughout their website and booking in advance is strongly advised. To encourage people to do so they offer a discounted price in comparison to paying on the door. They also promote buying in groups of four for an even bigger saving to make it an occasion for all of the family.

In line with many other exhibitions they both also claim you can make massive savings in comparison to retail prices which is obviously a huge incentive to anyone.

Capacity

The national wedding show was this year held at London Olympia, it is believed that they hired three out of the six venues available within Olympia; Olympia grand hall (max cap 11,800), Olympia national hall (max cap 5,000) and Olympia two (max cap 4,940) leading to an overall capacity of 21,740. However as it is being used for exhibition purposes this would have dramatically fallen and would differ for each event. As no official figures have been published it is hard to estimate the overall attendance of the national wedding show although the website claimed to expect around 20,000 attendees over the three days.



Hotelympia held at London’s Earls Court and was more specific with their attendance figures which were published just days after the event, claiming that they had over 33,000 attendees over their five days at London excel, a 4% increase in comparison to the previous event. We assume they only hired Earl’s court one with a maximum capacity of 30,000 it would have be a perfect size.

Apps

As the digital world continues to evolve it has become easier for businesses to market to the world on a lower budget, which has seen the rise of many independent and small companies. The latest innovated way of marketing has become the use of apps. It is thought that just under half of the U.K’s population owns a smart phone and there are over 500,000 apps making this a popular choice for many.

Both of my events created an app in relation to their exhibition this year. What I found interesting was that they were also both free to anyone who wanted to download them. This meant that this was not a profit making tool but a way to enhance the customer experience and increase their knowledge of the event.



However I was disappointed in the national wedding shows app because of its lack of colour and attention to detail unlike the website, it also used a very basic layout which was practical but not appealing to the eye. The Hotelympia app used a similar format however this seemed more appropriate as it was being used for business as opposed to pleasure. Another similar aspect was you could create a schedule of the events you were going to attend whilst at the show and a timetable of everything going on each of the days. I personally feel that the apps were not publicised enough and not many visitors would have downloaded them.

Social Media

Social media is one of the world’s fastest growing innovations, with social networking sites reaching up to 82% of the world’s internet population (estimated at 1.2 billion people). In terms of marketing this is an ideal place to target you audience on a worldwide scale due to the ability to discuss topics and to promote products through images, videos, audio and text.

Both Hotelympia and the national wedding show communicated via social networking sites having both Facebook and twitter pages. The national wedding show was very active on both sites, regularly updating and communicating with their ‘friends’ or ‘followers’; although Hotelympia had a profile for both sites its Facebook page was inactive and no posts were submitted.

Hotelympia however was extremely active on its twitter page. This information then leads me on to do some research into social networking sites. As previously stated business owners are typically white middle aged males of which would have fit Hotelympia criteria while the national wedding show would have targeted women aged 25-29. From this we can understand why they both chose social networking as a way of promotion.

Over 64% of twitter users are ages 35 years or older and use it to engage with other businesses showing it is used for both business and pleasure. However Facebook appeals to a slightly younger audience with a high majority fitting into both the 18-25 and 26-34 category, combined this makes up 52% of the overall customers.

This shows that in order to appeal to a wider audience the national wedding show had to continually update both websites, Facebook appealing to the younger brides and twitter relating to the more mature bride. The national wedding show had 8,288 friends on Facebook and 5,044 followers on twitter. However Hotelympia had 2,634 followers on twitter and 322 friends on Facebook showing that they felt it was not necessary to appeal to those on Facebook and that social media was not a strong factor within their marketing campaign.

Both sites also had links to social media via their website



Sponsorship

Hotelympia relies greatly on sponsorship of the event in order to fund and run it. It has over 17 sponsors or ‘media partners’ of which they use in order to promote the event. Each contract would be different and from the videos it is shown that Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine as head media sponsor has their own stall within the show. They use the show as a way of connecting to potential customers by associating themselves with the show.

The national wedding show has no or little sponsors as it is self-funded as businesses pay in order to have a stall within the exhibition and they generate money from ticket sales. However there is a link to ‘wedding ideas’ magazine on their website which may not nessecarilty be a sponsor but they could work together to give each other promotion, the wedding show may have given them free tickets in order to do a feature within the magazine.

Advertising

Hotelympia as a trade show would have had no or minimal advertising towards the public, it would have specifically targeted areas of interest of their target market. It would work closely with their many sponsors in order to ensure the show is heavily publicised to the audience of interest in both hospitality and business magazines as well as online. As I did not have access to these magazines despite looking in retail shops and libraries I did not find any advertising. However Hotelympia did have a heavy presence in the sponsor’s websites regularly appearing on the homepage engaging regular visitors who would be inclined to read those stories.

The national wedding show had said that this year they would change their advertising campaign however there has not been any statements realised as to whether this was more effective than previous years. On a day out in London I regularly came across a poster advertising on the escalators, this is thought to be very effective as it can reach thousands of people at peak times, this was also an idea place as the location was relevant.

The national wedding show would have also offered free tickets to relevant media like fabulous magazine (below) in return for publicity within the magazine. They would have also been present within many bridal magazine especially ‘wedding ideas’ which is featured on their website.

Website Layouts

The website for the national wedding show is very elegant and beautiful which would emulate how a bride would picture their wedding. It features soft pastel colours and lots of white, all colours which you would automatically associate with a wedding. The direct information is very minimal and only really highlights purchasing tickets until you click on the exhibition you will be visiting; this then brings up visitor information relating to the selected event. I feel there is a lack of general information on the home screen and they rely on customers already being aware of what goes on at the exhibition and although this may be self-explanatory there are not a brief overview to which unfamiliar visitors can accustom themselves to. 

The Hotelympia website is very bright and attention grabbing with lots of colour creating an exciting vibe. The logo is clearly displaced and also includes the date and location of the event. Unlike the national wedding show it contains a brief paragraph about who they are and what they do.  Hotelympia is also a ticketed event however you do not need to buy them; they are free to all that sign up. I feel it is not made clear enough that you obtain a ticket through registering via the website however the website does encourage you to register by a flashing ‘register’ sign.

When putting both shows name exactly into Google they both come up as top results which reflects their popularity and lack of competitors however if you make your search on a more basic terms such as ‘wedding show’ there is a more varied answer but with increased competitors the national wedding show is still favoured as the top result. With Hotelympia as it is such an unusual word it would be hard to differentiate this, by putting in ‘hotel show’ and hospitality show’ no results concerning Hotelympia were found.

Introduction

My two events I have chosen to compare is the national wedding show taking place between 24^th – 26^th February at London Olympia and Hotelympia taking place between the 26^th February and the 1^st March.

 The national wedding show is a public exhibition targeting brides to be covering all aspects of a wedding. This is a way of inspiring brides and their accompanies by showing them what is possible by tempting them with beautiful products at discounted rates.



Hotelympia is a trade only exhibition for anyone within the food service and hospitality sector. It offers seminars by some of the trades’ leaders in subjects relating to this sector as well as selling the most innovated products.