New technology is increasingly impacting the B2B sector, with virtual platforms breaking out of their gaming cul-de-sac with the commercialisation of spaces such as Second Life.
The B2B market is focusing in particular on virtual tradeshow technology, with events in all sectors ranging from IT to education and every different kind of event from virtual job fairs to virtual symposiums.
But is this platform a fad that will fade quickly, or a new tool all B2B organisations should embrace? Ben Harris, founder and MD of New Brand Vision Group thinks they are a bit of both.
“Whether virtual exhibitions are useful as a marketing tool or a gimmick depends on the angle. When they appeared about ten years ago, they were graphically heavy and not implemented well. Many of them tried to replicate the physical tradeshow online. But the web doesn’t work that way. To make virtual exhibitions successful you need to apply the concept of a place where buyers can meet suppliers and convert it into a website. You then have an interesting model,” he says.
Corporate enterprises are beginning to use virtual events on a large scale to stay in touch with their customers, prospects, partners and employees, to release new products, generate leads and communicate and educate more productively at a lower cost. Tim Gibbon, director of Elemental PR, adds that virtual exhibitions and tradeshows are also beneficial to visitors. “The lead generation and CRM products that are available to those that attend means they are able to create profiles of contacts they meet and also the means to contact them via email, messaging and more recently social networking,” he says.
Market reach is important, but as with other marketing technologies within the virtual environment, one size doesn’t fit all. Aaron Delwiche, founder and CEO of Elastic Collision, speaking at the Virtual Worlds Management industry forecast for 2008, says, “The arrival of new platforms means that Second Life’s dominance is no longer taken for granted and we are already witnessing segmentation. Want to reach teenagers? Launch a presence in There.com. Interested in forming a community of creative and intelligent adults? Establish a foothold in Second Life. Interested in educational activities aimed at children or teens? Whyville or Club Penguin may be your best bet. This market segmentation will become further differentiated and current market leaders may be unseated by clever upstarts.”
When placed into the context of B2B marketing, can virtual exhibitions really delivery tangible gains in market penetration? Tom Chapman, founder and director of ClickExpo, says, “We constantly get feedback from marketing professionals saying what a cost effective and measurable concept exhibiting online actually is. There are no costs involved in printing literature, hotel and hospitality bills or travel expenses, in fact all of the large costs associated with exhibiting at conventional trade shows. As a professional marketer, this is one of the reasons why I set up ClickExpo, not to replace the conventional trade shows but to compliment or enhance it whilst harnessing the power and reach of the net. You cannot get away from the fact that more and more users are doing their research and information gathering online, so online exhibitions is an extra string to a marketer’s communication bow.”
Tim Clark, partner of The FactPoint Group, adds, “Virtual conferences are effective for lead generation. The issue is whether a target segment is comfortable with the Internet and whether they have fast Internet access.”
He continues, “With growing access to broadband Internet, online conferences are emerging as an important new way for marketers to generate leads. I saw my first online trade show in 1993 using a low speed connection. That simply didn’t work, but broadband makes online conferences work. Bad experiences with slower access speeds are a barrier to adoption that the online conference industry must address. Many events today are targeted at hi-tech companies or engineersbecause those audiences are likely to have the fastest access.”
Holding a virtual exhibition doesn’t necessarily mean a large event. Increasingly, companies are looking at the virtual space to publicise new product launches. Even for small B2B enterprises, utilising virtual spaces in their marketing campaigns can be cost effective. For example, a stand at the Bizexpo online exhibition (www.bizexpo.co.uk) is £360 for one year. “We limit each zone to six companies so there is an element of exclusivity,” says Chapman.
“In comparison, a recent physical trade show for businesses in the same region we operate charged £1500 for two days for a small stand. We do not guarantee ROI to match conventional trade show. Exhibitors get out what they put in. If they regularly update content, upload new case studies, podcasts, promotional offers and press release which search engines love, then they increase their exposure online. In turn, this can increase the success of an online stand such as receiving more leads, which they can then nurture and convert to sales.”
It’s easy to become lulled into thinking that virtual event spaces are all about highly graphical Second Life type applications, when in fact online tradeshow spaces like www.brcareersfair.com and www.suppliershowcase.net are more the norm and can be more highly effective. As with all marketing activity, it’s important to understand your product and the customers that you are trying to reach. Jumping on the virtual marketing bandwagon just for the sake of it is certainly not a sensible move for any B2B organisation. However, if your business does have products or services that lend themselves to virtual marketing techniques, you could find you have a whole new marketing channel to investigate.
Harris says, “Virtual exhibitions at their core simply offer another place for online advertising. If you think about it, there aren’t that many locations a business can place advertising on the Internet.
You can buy a Google Adword, use some banner advertising or some natural search optimisation. So if someone says that there is going to be a specialist virtual tradeshow it’s a no brainer that companies should place advertising or have a stand.”
He continues, “I don’t think that exhibitions in the real world will disappear. They are becoming different beasts. For instance, if you hold a virtual exhibition before the real world event, you can get a lot of the meet and greets out of the way, so the exhibition becomes a much more useful thing.”
For the B2B enterprise looking at how it can enhance its marketing activities, virtual spaces offer a cost effective means of exposing its services or products to a wider audience. With pressures to show real-world corporate social responsibility, the physical trade show could give way to the virtual event. Remember that virtual doesn’t necessarily mean bandwidth-hogging 3D environments.
These have their place, but take a look at what is being offered by companies like the New Brand Vision Group and ClickExpo to see how the web can be leveraged to mount effective virtual tradeshows. ROI will always take centre stage of course, but with very low costs and potential high returns promised by virtual events over the next few years, the Internet may contain a whole new marketing facet for all B2B organisations to explore.
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