Having spent many years running media businesses working alongside advertisers and exhibitors, seeing results is by far the most enjoyable part of the job. A win win.
While Managing Director of Hotelympia, now HRC, I would often witness this live in show, and most people in hospitality will have visited at some point and seen similar. People shaking hands on a deal, satisfying both parties and making the commercial world spin that bit faster.
Toby Wand, Director, TWEThe best marketers I have worked with have always been meticulous planners and trackers, they know what they want to achieve, and they track progress along the way to arrival of their goal.
In the many events I have organised this has always been the methodology I and my teams have applied, and it has delivered results.
The best plans are always aligned to sales, ensuring that when enquiries are received, they are responded to accordingly, and entered into sales pipelines and marketing databases.
Over the past ten years or so hospitality events that I managed have regularly advertised in, and got quantifiable results from Hospitality & Catering News. You advertise, track registrations to attend, who attended, analyse results and then repeat, if results justify. They were and we did, for many years.
It’s worth noting if you are a media buyer, repeat advertising for most events is a good signal to past results and worth review when considering media selection.
So, when I was asked recently by Hospitality & Catering News to be a judge in a marketing competition, I looked carefully at how it worked before agreeing. Putting your name to something needs due consideration.
The competition focus is on the two elements of marketing that have always been at the centre of what I touched on earlier, marketing planning and tracking, and integrated sales and marketing.
The timing and reasoning of the competition is appropriate as needless to say the current Covid-19 crisis is the biggest challenge any of us have seen in a lifetime. Additional marketing resources will aid combating the crisis.
I would encourage all hospitality supplier businesses to enter the competition by making time to consider carefully how they would use the £20,000 top prize if won. Only one business of course can win, but seven other major prizes are also available to be won.
On a personal note, I always enjoy creating marketing plans, and suggest that the winners will also enjoy putting their entry together.