Per Per Guest (PPG)

In 1851, the first exhibition in the world, The Great Exhibition, took place in London. Ever since, humanity has utilized this activity as a mean to showcase products and services of the same sector. This market has grown since. Yahoo finance stated that “the global exhibition market was valued at US$13.87 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow to US$36.31 billion by 2026”. Conversely, according to their website, the Dubai world trade center host more than 1.5 million visitors across more than 500 events per year. Similarly, Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (ADNEC) announced that in 2019, they had around 2.3 million visitors to their 496 events. However, the business model of an exhibition hasn’t changed much since 1851! The basic outline of an exhibition is still the same; organizers set up the venue, charge rent to the exhibitors and admission fee to visitors. True that there has been some evolvement in the method of advertising and the visitors’ insights submitted to the exhibitors, nevertheless, overall, it’s still the same basic structure. 

Exhibitions are a vital marketing activity when it comes to promoting some services and products that require demonstrations or physical interaction with the product. However, many companies and especially small businesses or SMEs, shy away from participating in exhibitions due to their costly fees. Not to mention that in some industries, an exhibition’s ROI isn’t fully visible until 6 months after. This uncertainty in materializing the sale as well as the costly participation fee, shifts advertisers’ attention elsewhere. Means such as digital marketing, that provides detailed reporting and targeted advertising become more appealing to those penny-wise businesses. So why haven’t exhibitions organizers modified their structure to keep up with the competing world of marketing? Does the fact that the global exhibition market keeps growing has to do with anything? 

They say, “if it isn’t broken don’t fix it”, globally the exhibition market is growing. This realization might be the reason why organizers haven’t thought of changing their business model. However, this might also be the reason why they are missing out on untapped potential business opportunities. According to statistica.com, there are approximately 332.99 million SMEs worldwide in 2021. This huge number of potential participants could propel the exhibition business if done properly. Let’s take the digital marketing business model as an example, advertisers target their audience and pay only per click or impression. The ability to pay for only what you need creates the great appeal digital marketing has for budget cautions businesses. So why can’t exhibitions do the same? Why can’t they charge exhibitors per guest? 

Utilizing modern technology such as IP cameras, NFC technology and WI-FI, proper tracking of each guest can be done. This will allow the organizers to track how many guests visited each stand. Hence, providing a detailed report and perhaps even analysis to the exhibitors plus charge them based on their traffic. Organizers can agree with exhibitors on a fee per guest. And with the aid of technology each participant is charged based on how many guests stopped by their stand. The technology implemented, will enable the exhibitors to assess their stand’s performance as well as justify their participation fee. Organizers often promise that hundreds of thousands of guests will attend their event. But do all of them visit each and every stand? This scheme will ensure that exhibitors don’t feel like they over paid and the organizers to have their event’s returns meet their target, perhaps even more. 

Today, we often pay for only what we utilize; car per hour rental options, maid services chargeable by the hour, even our digital marketing campaigns are charged based on clicks or impressions. So why can’t the exhibition business model evolve to keep up with the market trend? Charging exhibitors based on number of guests visiting their stand, would encourage businesses with modest marketing budgets as well as skeptics to participate. This in turn, would improve the overall exhibiting experience, hence, generate more profit. Its true that “if it isn’t broken don’t fix it” however, sometimes its not broken but its inefficient, so why not enhance it?