To The ARC Show!!!

So yesterday I went along to The ARC Show and I found that there was not a lot in the way of advertising, in fact there was no advertising around London or the area where it was. The only place that I could find anything was inside the event hall, this is down to the fact that they are aiming at a specific audience as I found out. I found this information out as I had an interview with a guy called Andrew Vaughan who is the brand director for IBM who organise The ARC Show.

My first question to him was, what benefits do companies get for sponsoring The ARC Show? His response was "each company that sponsors The ARC Show will be mentioned in any magazine article or any interview that's related the The ARC Show, they also get a big stall at The ARC Show but they still have to pay like everyone else. he also added that "this benefits them as the ARC Show will only talk about Mondo magazine for example and if there is another magazine company at The ARC Show they will have an agreement that they will not mention them unless specifically asked. He said this advertises Mondo magazine as an important company as The ARC Show is the biggest lighting show in the UK.

Advertising board inside the Business
Design Centre

My second question was, who is your target audience? and what advertising tactics do you use? His reply was "our main audience will be architects and lighting designers and people that work within the industry, not really aiming at the main public".  He also added "as we are aiming at businesses and professionals we tend not to use social media as much as other event may do, so we tend to use magazines and direct mail rather than putting posters up on the high street and buses etc".

I also paid a little visit to wembeley arena, which turned out to be a complete waste of time as when I got there, there was nothing to be found at all. I even asked a member of staff and he replied by saying "I didn't even realise it was happening", whats that all about? I thought, hes obviously not a Boxing fan. So the answer to that was, there was no advertising inside the arena, considering the fight is 2 weeks away, I found this a bit weird. This say's to me again the fact that Frank Warren again relies on media attention rather that putting up posters, which would be an extra cost to their advertising budget.

Advertising inside the Business Design Centre

What I found out here is, I believe both these events, though they are very different types of events, they are both aiming at a specific audience and that they are both aiming at people inside the industry, who follow whats going on in the world of their industry. Though I found that as Frank Warren Promotions relies on getting media attention, whether it be with the Groves vs Anderson fight or another fight, they don't just need attention on the next fight they promote as the media will have stories about other boxers promoted by Frank Warren. They also are in touch with social networking a lot more than The ARC Show, so this shows they're trying to reach out to a new audience and stay in the spotlight for people to pay attention to whats going on, whereas The ARC Show will strictly rely on a specific audience.

Though The ARC Show did look a lot better at night!!