Trade shows are leveraging the Web to extend the reach — and time frames — of their events.
“Our aim here is to communicate every day of the year, and not just four days, four times a year,” said Michael Hadida, organizer of Tranoï, which in late September launched its e-commerce site featuring a selection of current season products from each designer represented at the show and daily updates from a team of bloggers.
“We create buzz with bloggers who talk about a brand, or a specific item,” he said. Print also remains an important communication tool for the event, however, which from October began distributing Tranoï magazine, into its sixth issue, overseas. “We launched the magazine in order to communicate about new talent. Having a magazine gives a more prestigious image.”
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For Muriel Piaser, director of trade fairs and special events for Prêt à Porter Paris, which this January is expected to draw some 1,400 exhibitors, multimedia platforms have become an indispensable tool.
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She described PAPP’s Web site as an extension of the salon before, during and after it has taken place, saying: “It’s a window, a platform for building relationships…[and] engaging emotions using images or videos.”
PAPP’s preshow online services, for instance, include an interactive map of the show’s layout, designed to help visitors plan their schedule in advance, as well as a personal shopper service. PAPP’s Facebook page, Les Parisiennes, features fashion trend information from guest bloggers, such as Isabelle Thomas.
Piaser said key ingredients for a successful site are clear readability, attractiveness and interactivity. “In one glance, one should be able to get what the salon is about. Easy access to information is also important…it’s about facilitating services for both exhibitors or visitors, such as enabling them to download badges to save time,” she said.
A spokesman for Who’s Next and Premiere Classe salons said the Web has opened up visibility to the general public and young designers.
“We’re a professional salon, but we have also become a provider of content and there is strong demand from [members of the general public] for fashion information,” he said, adding that the salons recently engaged three French bloggers to cover the shows each season — Mademoiselle Quincampoix, Oversize Me and Red Stiletto.
Who’s Next has cited growing interest from young designers for its Who’s Next Blog community platform, which hosts photos of designers’ collections. The Who’s Next team selects all talent that appears on the site, which since its launch two-and-a-half years ago has seen average monthly visits grow to 3,000 from 200.
Traffic peaks around 10,000 monthly visits around the timing of a competition run twice yearly by the site, which offers 10 designers the chance to win free stands at the Who’s Next and Premiere Classe trade shows. The salons’ Facebook page counts over 4,000 followers.
The growing importance of the shows’ social networking sites led to the recent engagement of a full-time employee to manage the sites, while certain organizers, such as the Vendôme Luxury Trade Show, have engaged an external multimedia agency to manage social networking platforms.
Not everybody is chasing the social media train, however, with certain organizers keen not to overwhelm buyers with information overload or lose sight of core objectives and audiences.
“Social media are primarily consumer-driven, so we have not been using this avenue, because we are focused on getting back to business,” said Ed Mandelbaum, co-organizer of Designers & Agents, which presented its first Paris show in October.
While fabrics remain very much a tactile affair, organizers of the Première Vision textiles salon said that they are investing in strengthening Web services for visitors, meanwhile, such as preregistration, e-books, links toward exhibitors’ sites and illustrated fashion information, with the project to be finalized in 2011.
Already Première Vision offers an online service allowing visitors to preregister online and preorder textiles in a range of colors from any exhibitor. There is also an e-book offering an in-depth look at exhibitors and fabric ranges.