New year, new strategies. Yes, 2009 was a tough year for most shows, at least in terms of attendance. And as we enter 2010, it’s clear we’re not out of the woods yet. So, if your plan of action has been “to wait it out,” it’s time for a new strategy. And EXPO’s here to help. We talked with show organizers who are bucking the attendance trends to find out what strategies they’re using to market their shows in 2010.

Targeted messages are more important than ever. If you’re like a lot of show organizers, you’re looking to drive attendance through new prospects and expanding vertical niches. PRINT 09, an international show held every four years, went from serving six market segments in 2005 to 11 in 2009. Like many shows serving mature industries, PRINT 09 is serving a shrinking industry. By 2009, the show’s primary attendee base, commercial printers, had shrunk by 5,000, compared with 2005.

To attract new segments, Chris Price, Vice President for Reston, VAbased Graphics Arts Show Co. (GASC), personalized the message with 44 direct mail pieces — four to each of the 11 audience segments. The show’s marketing campaign, themed “myPRINT,” featured content that spoke directly to the product, application, networking and educational needs of each target group. Mail and e-mail marketing pieces directed audience segments to personalized URLs (PURLs), with the specific content geared toward their needs. In addition, a digital print advisory council helped show organizers understand the market to determine who these new attendees were and how to get them to the show. In 2009, the show attracted 28,678 verified attendees with a significant percentage coming from the new audience segments.

Generate buzz with nonsales messages and content. To promote The Cable Show 2010, Mark Manlove, Director of Convention Marketing and Industry Affairs for the Washington DC-based National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA), launched a contest based on creative from its new marketing campaign, which features a Dalmatian. In October 2009, typically a slow time for buzz about its annual show held in May, Manlove announced a contest to name the show’s mascot. Within a month, there were 185 entries, which staff narrowed down to the top five. Users were given another month to vote on the top five. Nearly 400,000 votes were cast online and via Twitter (participants could vote as many times as they wanted). The winner received a full-conference pass to The Cable Show 2010 in Los Angeles, plus a free three-night stay at a Beverly Hills hotel. “There was minimal impact to our budget, and it produced a lot of chatter about the show,” Manlove says.

To promote the new C2E2, the Chicago Entertainment and Comic Expo, which launches this spring, Lance Fensterman, Vice President, Publishing and Pop Culture, Reed Exhibitions, is planning a Twitter scavenger hunt in the Chicago area. Fensterman will be posting clues on Twitter and giving away an expensive comic book to the winner. For last year’s New York Comic-Con, Fensterman took a successful idea from NPR and adapted it to his audience. He recorded a message by comic industry icon Stan Lee and offered it as a free cell phone download. The response: 43,000 people downloaded it.

Shift more resources from print to online. Whether it’s money or staff time, most shows are investing more in online. “We’re budgeting more toward online and producing fewer direct mail pieces,” Manlove says. Last year, NCTA sent one less direct mail piece for The Cable Show 2009.

Instead of three direct mail pieces, attendees only received two. “We sent a save-the-date postcard to announce registration was open and one major multi-page brochure closer to the show with more detailed information about sessions and exhibitors.” At the same time, NCTA redesigned its Web site, e-newsletter and e-mail communications to make its online information more convenient for attendees to access.

For New York Comic-Con, Fensterman didn’t spend any of his marketing budget on print promotions to attract 77,000 attendees for the 2009 show. “My marketing budget for New York Comic-Con is about one-fifth of my marketing budget for the Book Expo,” says Fensterman. “We’re spending our budget on things like the cell phone downloads, online advertising on community sites for the comic book industry, making videos and producing cable television spots.”

At the very least, dabble with Facebook and Twitter. In 2009, use of Twitter and Facebook exploded. According to Facebook, the site had 350 million active users worldwide in December after starting out 2009 with 150 million active users. The average user becomes a fan of two pages a month and is invited to three events per month. As of October 2009, Twitter had 18 million users, compared with 6 million in October 2008. eMarketer predicts Twitter usage will increase to 26 million in 2010, or 15.5 percent of adult Internet users. From the Book Expo to the Cable Show, show managers are using these social media tools. They’re free, and they don’t take as much time as you think. “We don’t have a traditional marketing plan for these mediums,” Fensterman says. “They don’t lend themselves to set timing. It’s ongoing, but it doesn’t take a lot of resources besides staff time.” GASC offered a registration discount via Twitter and within 26 hours had 15 new registrants. After its contest to name the Dalmatian, NCTA now has close to 1,000 Twitter followers.

Partner, partner, partner. For Print 09, GASC developed partnerships with smaller associations in their new target markets to help them gain knowledge and a sense of their communities. “At first, some of these groups were tentative,” Price says. “But we talked to them about their goals and how we could develop a partnership that would benefit both of us.” For example, GASC worked with the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) and In-Plant Graphics Magazine to develop an educational session at the show.

At TechWeb, show managers are looking to partner more internally and externally. “We are more open and flexible about partnerships,” says Greg Kerwin, Group Vice President of Marketing for San Francisco-based TechWeb, a division of United Business Media. For example, Network World attended TechWeb’s Interop event, despite the fact that Network World is a competitor to other TechWeb events. In addition, the events group is working closely with its online communities to offer attendees and prospective attendees access to digital libraries with white papers, video downloads, case studies, presentations and webcasts.

Use video to generate excitement and enhance value. According to eMarketer, 167 million users viewed online videos at least once a month in 2009, or 84.1 percent of Internet users. Of those, 144 million have viewed online video advertising. To promote C2E2, Fensterman tapped a popular YouTube video producer in his industry. It’s Just Some Random Guy produces Marvel/DC review/parody videos that have more than 5 million views on YouTube. He produced a video for New York Comic-Con, which has gotten 160,000 views on YouTube since it was posted 11 months ago. It’s already gotten 120,000 views in one month for the video promoting the brand new Chicago event. “Don’t try to figure it out yourself,” Fensterman says. “Use someone in that space who’s already doing it well. Find your own Random Guy.”

TechWeb is offering live streaming of some content during its events. “Some people say that if you provide free online content that you’ll cannibalize your on-site event,” Kerwin says. “From our standpoint, video doesn’t replace a live event, so it’s not a competitor. The reality is you can cast a wider net and hopefully get those people interested in coming to your live event.” After the event, video from keynotes and sessions is edited and archived on the show’s site, as well as other TechWeb sites. Most downloads require users to provide first and last names, as well as an e-mail address, which is used as a lead-gen tool.

Create interactive promotions. For its Winter Fancy Food Show to be held this month, the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) launched the Trend Game, where players name their top picks for food trends for a chance to be crowned “Top Trend Spotter” at the show. Ken Seiter, Chief Marketing Director for New York Citybased NASFT, launched the online contest three months before the show, and monthly winners received gift certificates to restaurants in San Francisco, where the show will be held. The idea stemmed from an on-site promotion at its Summer Fancy Food show where attendees were asked to vote on the show’s Sophie awards, a staple at the show. “We got more than 1,000 responses within a couple of weeks,” Seiter says. “That was well beyond our expectations, so we decided to expand on that idea.” In the first month, 200 participants voted for the top trends online, and that number doubled in November.

Develop a sense of ownership for your show. Things that get attendees involved in your show, like naming a show mascot, voting on trends and cell phone downloads, are all ways to not only create a sense of ownership but also promote your event. These viral campaigns are more fun than sales-oriented, but you can tie them to attendance promotions by giving away conference registrations, hotel stays and gift certificates to local restaurants or shops where the show will be held. With its Trend Game promotion, “We’re not just speaking at attendees, we’re getting them involved in the benefits of the show,” Seiter says.

Each year, industry experts predict next year’s must-have foods and beverages, ingredients and trends — a key takeaway for attendees. The Trend Game contest was tied to a Trendspotter webcast in December 2009, which featured a live Q&A through the event’s chat feature and via Twitter.

Respond to your audience’s changing needs. No matter what industry your show serves, attendees’ needs have likely changed dramatically from five years ago. Differentiate your show from others by making it clear how your event is responding. For example, PRINT 09 asked each of its 11 audience segments to identify their company’s biggest challenges when they registered on their PURL. That information was used to create a script for a live attendee telemarketing campaign launched six weeks before the show. “We discussed the two top challenges for each audience segment and how our show would address these issues,” Price says.

Open a year-round dialogue with attendees. It’s easier than ever to communicate with your audience by using blogs, podcasts, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Fensterman’s blog (mediumatlarge. net), which includes content about the 10 shows his group manages, gets 30,000 to 40,000 unique visitors a month. “One of the easiest ways to gauge how your attendees are reacting is to look at the comments they’re making on your blog and others,” Fensterman says. In addition, his group produces a podcast three times a month, which features callers, Q&A, etc. For NCTA, opening a year-round dialogue for its annual show is one of its key marketing goals. “We want to get people talking about the show more than just a couple months a year,” Manlove says. “It’s never too early to drive awareness about your show.”