The TCR Show only has 3 sponsors, they are high profile in the industry and fit the target audience of the show.

220 Triathlon is one of 3 main triathlon magazines, it produces 13 issues a year with an annual circulation of 21,210. The magazine is aimed at triathletes of all abilities and so as we saw in the customer profile, as a sponsor it definitely fits in with the profile of those visiting the event.

—

Tri 247.com is an incredibly useful website for triathletes of all levels, it has training sections on swimming, cycling and running, as well as product reviews, race reports, a list of all triathlon, duathlon and aquathon events in the uk and some in europe, as well as a comprehensive listing of the results of all these events.

—

The British Triathlon Federation are the governing boy of Triathlons in Great Britain, they licence all events and run many events too, the vast majority of triathletes will at some join British Triathlon which does make me wonder why they are sponsoring this event. They had a large stand at the show but weren’t using it very productively, only really covering age group racing and helping people to sign up to the promotion that day of reduced price membership. As the governing body of Triathlon they weren’t doing it to increase their presence and knowledge in the industry, so apart from being seen to support an industry show, their gain didn’t seem very high.

Event Production Show

The Event Production Show lists 15 sponsors on its website, none of them being a main sponsor.

Access All Areas is a magazine that is dedicated to updating the Events world on the new and up and coming developments from the industry.

The White Book is a directory of the events industry, a one stop shop for all the important organisations to help you organise your perfect event.

Show Biz Works is an online live entertainment agency, helping you to find the perfect live act whatever the event you are putting on.

Ascot Structures is a company specialising in hiring structures for events, their website lists clients from the might of Google to the Olympics, Network Rail to Silverstone, if a structure is needed, they have the skills to organise it.

One Big Star specialise in exhibition stand design and event production, they organise all types of events and both hire and sell products to customers.

Arena group specialise in seating and structures, the group owns 4 companies covering; seating, structures and temporary warehouses.

Marketing Magazine is one the of the biggest marketing magazine and covers all aspects of the industry.

Temporary Structures and Elevated flooring is TSG’s focus, they build every type of structure for all types of events.

The Association of Event Organisers is the trade body that represents any companies that organise, run or manage events.

The Event Supplier and Services Association are the trade body that represents the suppliers to the events industry.

EC&O own Earls Court and Olympia, the Event Production Show takes place at Olympia.

The International Special Events Events Society, it exists to focus on “the event as a whole rather than its individual parts”. It is a network that helps its members to achieve the best results possible.

The National Outdoor Events Association specialise in the running of outdoor events, the association exists to “educate, share problems and enhance professionalism and business opportunities clearly works.”

The Production Services Association is the trade association specialising in the live event production industry.

ArcStream AV Interactive Technologies focus on the hiring and selling of interactive and visual products.

The Event Production Show has 15, (yes, 15) sponsors, listed on it’s website. At first glace it is unclear why there are so many sponsors but as you read about each one every sponsor covers a different element of the Events industry, but as they say, too many cooks spoil the broth and so in the same way that British Triathlon Federation was there to be seen supporting the show and to gain promotion through association, many of these sponsors are too. As sponsors, only Arcstream and the Arena group gained a bigger show presence and so other than to be seen associated with the show, it’s unclear why so many of the sponsors are really there.

The show floor plan is available here.

One Week to Triathlon Cycling & Running 2010

Sent on Saturday 6th February, 7 days before the show starts.

New at Triathlon Cycling & Running 2010

Sent on Thursday 11th February, 2 days before the show starts.

Triathlon Plus at 2010

Sent on Thursday 11th February, 2 days before the show starts.

With only 3 pieces of direct mail after I’d registered, this was really dissapointing, such a missed opportunity. The TCR show really could have capitalised on the variety of the event with many thing going on inside the event itself, but M2 Events put them all in 3 pieces and all within 5 days of each other. They should have built it up slowly and started atleast a month in advanced of the event, even though I’d bought tickets there was still alot of events to sign up to whilst at the show, so this should have been included in the mail, they should also have used a bit more creavity in their pieces because they were quite dull and boring.

Event Production Show

The Event Production show’s website says “We’ll also be placing over 300’000 visitor invitations as inserts and via a highly targeted direct mail campaign to event professionals responsible for purchasing event solutions across a variety of industries. In addition we will be promoting the show in industry e-newsletters and emails to our own purpose built database of key contacts in the events market.”

Event Registration

Sent on Tuesday 10th November, 3 months before the show starts.

“Stars of TV Perform at Event Production Show 2010″

Sent on Monday 25th January, 2 weeks before the show starts.

“The Event Production Show Starts Tomorrow”

Sent on Monday 1st February, 1 week before the show starts.

“The Event Production Show Started Yesterday”

Sent on Wednesday 3rd February, on the final day of the show.

Again 3 pieces after registration were sent and again they were just dull, nothing interesting to read about and why don’t organisers send them out earlier? Admittedly Ocean Media did send out a piece 2 weeks before the show starts, but there wasn’t any follow up, I would expect atleast one piece each week running up to the event, and one every other day in the last week,

Direct mail needs to get you excited about the event and make you think that your life would be worse off if you missed it, neither organisations did this.

To play click on the video and then click maximise to see all the detail. If the video above does not load you can download it by right clicking here and clicking “Save Target As” and save it to your computer to watch.

Event Production Show 2010 Website Discussion

To play click on the video and then click maximise to see all the detail. If the video above does not load you can download it by right clicking here and clicking “Save Target As” and save it to your computer to watch.

Below are a list of editiorials and press releases relating to the TCR Show.

Bike Biz

This is a small article, under 90 words, which is brief and to the point. There is no padding or extra information, it’s really a bit too short and is quite clearly from M2 Events.

Team Milton Keynes

Team Milton Keynes released a piece about the show on 30th December 2009, it has all the relevant information in it, and is more personal than the Bike Biz piece.

Evans Cycles

The Evans Cycles PR piece was not only advertising the event but also their own organised bike rides that happen on the day of the event, it includes sign up information and routes that the rides will take. It’s a clever piece that both advertises the show and advertises their own events.

Road.cc

Road.cc have used their PR piece to focus on the Evans cycle ride, specifically the road ride on the Sunday of the show. It provides an explanation of the ride, a description of the form it takes and information on how to register.

220 Triathlon

As one of the main sponsors you would expect 220 Triathlon to produce a big piece on the event, but they have focused on the rides aswell, written on 4th February it is clear that the rides were lacking in numbers and so a PR push by TCR helped to increase the numbers. Post-event all the demo-bikes, that could be hired for the event, were used so the increase in PR clearly worked.

TCR Twitter

TCR’s Twitter account was dissapointing, very little public interaction and only generally links to the TCR site or other press releases. The account was set up in July 2009, between then and the end of the year the account was only used 3 times, with the majority of its use being between January and February and in that time around half of the usage was retweeting what someone else had said instead of putting something original. It’s a good idea to have social networking involvement, but I don’t really understand why it was there and not being used.

Event Production Show

Unlike the TCR Show, The Event Production Show’s website has a section dedicated to the media and press releases…

Event Production Press Media Releases

Running show

As part of our London Running Show Promotion, you are entitled to free ticket(s) to the event on the 28th and 29th November.  These will be despatched to you buy the 20th November.  Please visit www.runningshow.co.uk for show opening times and directions.

The promotion was well targeted and I attended the Running Show with my free tickets on 28th November 2009. However, the show was a disappointment and I felt it was a wasted opportunity by M2 events, both events organiser, there was no mention of the TCR Show at the Running Show and with a lot of cross over between the shows it is definitely an area that could be improved on.

Online Ticket Prices

As with many events organisers now, M2 events chose to reduce the price of the tickets sold online, the on-the-door price was £12 with the online price being reduced to £9. Companies do this to get more ticket sales and higher attendance, if you have already bought a ticket to something then you are much more likely to go, even if it has only cost you £9. It was a good promotion and given the amount of people at the show and the lack of queues to buy tickets, it worked well.

Tri 247 Competition

As one of the main sponsors of the event, Tri247.com ran a competition to win free tickets to the show but it also uses the opportunity to promote the show and to tell readers about what other competitions there are at the show. Show competition prizes included; an £8,000 Tri Bike, a coaching weekend, £600 wetsuit amongst others, the full story and competition is avaliable here.

Event Production Show

There were no sales promotions for the Event Production show because the show is a trade show and is free to enter, there was no need to give tickets away because they are readily accessible.

Analysis

Clearly the TCR Show was very successful in its sales promotions, the show made full use of all the opportunities it had and as mensioned earlier, there was a large amount of people that attended and so these promotions clearly worked. It would be unfair to compare both shows because the Event Production show did not need any sales promotions because it didn’t need to ‘sell’ tickets to the event as they are free.

	Searching: “Events Show” – Event Production Show Ranking: #1
	Searching: “Event Production Show” – Event Production Show Ranking #1
	Searching: “Production Show” – Event Production Show Ranking #3 The first two results are for the “Broadcast Video Expo” whose website also covers the “Production Show”
	Searching: “Event Production” – Event Production Show Ranking #1

The Event Production Show website as a whole is very well optimised however it does fall down on “Production Show” with an event of that name coming in the first two ranked positions and whilst this is unfortunate, it is not surprising.

	Searching: “Triathlon” - TCR Website Ranking: #3 In this search the TCR website is only out ranked by the British Triathlon Federation and Triathlon on Wikipedia.
	Searching: “Triathlon Show” – TCR Website Ranking: #1
	Searching: “TCR” – TCR Website Ranking: #1
	Searching: “Tri Show” – TCR Website Ranking: #1
	Searching: “Triathlon Events” – TCR Website Ranking: #3 In this search the TCR website is again out ranked by British Triathlon Federation and Triathlon on Wikipedia.

The TCR Show has been optimised very well, only falling down on “Triathlon” and “Triathlon” events to which you would expect Wikipedia and governing body British Triathlon Federation to out rank the TCR Show.

Event Production Show

Trevor is the Managing Director of ‘All Events Ltd’,  his company typically organises corporate and private events but his interested lie in the events management and entertainment markets with an interest in live acts also. He organises around 7 events a year and typically spends under £100,000 annually, Trevor has final purchase responsibility for ‘All Events Ltd’.

TCR Show

Ivan is a 34 year old Male Triathlete, he’s raced before and now typically enters 2 big races a year, his household income is around £80,000 and on average he spends £1500 on kit each year.

The show is meant for all types of events and clearly there is interest in all of these types, but there is a clear focus on corporate and private events.

This graph surprises me, I would have assumed that the companies who would have attended the show would be bigger, but with only 17% of attendees spending between £500,000 and £1 million it is clear that the attendees are generally from smaller companies. Remember of course, this isn’t profit, this is their annual spend, the amount they spend on buying and hiring good for events, and so clearly this shows that the attendees are generally organising smaller events, or they already have all the necessary equipment in their own storage facilities.

This graph shows that the events companies that are attending the show are sending their heavy weights, the people who make the decisions and who have the power. 80% of attendees have either purchase responsibility or recommendation, however this figure may be skewed as when being questioned some are likely to put themselves  in a position of higher authority than is actually realistic.

I don’t think that this graph is surprising, event management covers every element of the industry because the common factor between all events is its management. Entertainment, lighting & sound and marquues/temporary structures are the second, third and fourth placed catergorys and again this is not at all surprising, they are common factors for most events.

Along with the annual spend, this set of figures surprises me, the majority of companies only organise 10 events a year which if they are bigger events makes sense, but the annual spend graph shows significantly reduced spending and so this again points to a large percentage of the attendees being from smaller companies.

36% of attendees are event mangers/coordinator/directors with 17% being the head of each company. This shows that the majority of people at the event are in charge of the events themselves, or in charge of the company trying to develop new and current relationships.

Customer Profile

Job: CEO/MD/Chairman

Type of Events Organised: Corporate and Private

Annual Spend: Under £100,000

Purchase Responsibility: Final Purchase Responsibility

Interested In: Event Management, Entertainment and Live Acts

Events Organised Per Year: 0-10

As we can see, the customer profile is heavily focused on industry proffessionals with smaller companies making up the majority of the majority of the attendees.

Not unsurprisingly the profile is largely male dominated, however the extent of the dominance is surprising. With males over triple that of females, the difference in number is almost certainly due to male and female event preferences, males are generally more likely to want to sign up to such a site and visit events like the TCR show where as women are more likely not too. This was indicative of the event itself which was largely male dominated in visitor profile.

The age group of triathletes is again not hugely surprising, the largest age group is the 25-35 bracket followed by the 36-45 group, the former using such a sport as a means to compete competitively where as the latter using the sport to keep fit.

The sport of triathlon is very accessible and for all non-elite events anyone can enter any event, therefore the difference between the intermediate and advanced experience levels of the triathletes sampled is certainly due to the ease of competing at regional level. The profile of the advanced and beginner level is also highly predictable of this type of site and of the TCR event, people in these groups are likely to want to learn where to start (for the beginner triathletes) or how to get that last bit of performance out of their body (for the advanced athletes), both groups largely supporting themselves with no support from sponsors or medical/training staff, and so wanting to get the best deals possible for their money.

The breakdown of number of races entered each year is quite surprising, however when cost of entry and transport is factored into the season, the sport can become very expensive. However, 44% of those sampled raced in 5 races or more, which in itself is not hugely surprising. If we look back at the 27% of beginners from the ‘level of triathlon experience’ graph, this is a very similar number to the ’1-2 races’ group, and so this figure is as expected.

This last graph in conjunction with the information below is the most surprising of all of the profile. 51% of those sampled have a household income of  between £75,000 and £150,000 with 6% over £150,000. Whilst Triathlon can be a bottomless pit of money if you want it to be, the sport is very accessible for people with less money, however from the figures shown it is clear that although this is the case, 73% of those sampled having a household income of over £50,000 and so the customer profiled generally has more money.

Sport Specific Spending

54% spend more than £250 a year on swimming products.

62% spend more than £1000 a year on cycling products.

38% spend more than £200 a year on running products.

Tri247 Profile

“The triathlon market is made up of active, affluent professionals, who rely heavily on the internet for work, communication and the planning of their social lives. The demographics of triathletes are almost unique compared to other sports – the sport requires focus and a drive to succeed and triathletes are continually searching for products that will not only give them the edge but will also enhance their distinct image as a triathlete. This constant striving for better performance, coupled with their strong buying power, results in triathletes being some of the most proactive new technology adopters in sport.”

Customer Profile

Gender: Male

Age: 25-35

Level of Experience: Intermediate

Races a Year: 1-2

Household Income: £75,000-£100,000

Annual Spend;

Spends more than £250 a year on swimming products.

Spends more than £1000 a year on cycling products.

Spends more than £200 a year on running products.

“The Triathlon Cycling and Running Show will take place at Sandown Park on the 13-14 February and once again will be packed with the greatest products, services, seminars and features for the triathletes, cyclists and runners”

Initial Impressions

The show is a public show, on the door ticket prices are £12 with under 16′s going free. The website looks really good, very simple but alot of information there if needed.

The show is for people in the Events Industry and as the shows website explains;
“When you organise an event, you only have one chance to make the right impression. The Event Production Show brings together over 200 suppliers offering the latest innovations, technologies and advice.”

Initial Impressions

The site is good and makes it clear that it’s a trade show, however it also looks like they welcome most people and so aren’t exclusive in terms of attendees, this event is free to attend over both days.