Once Snubbed, Now Wooed

In the fashion scene， cars， food， sports...and so forth， bloggers were once spurned as freeloaders trying to slip into a trade fair on a free press ticket. Now they are respected reporters and welcomed visitors， especially at trade fairs.

Growing public interest in this species underscores what everyone had already guessed： bloggers have more or less entered the mainstream. Fashion blog networks， in particular， have made a break-through in Germany. Hubert Burda Media bought into the fashion blog Modeblog fro LesMads and Otto has taken on well known fashion blogs for its “Two for Fashion” network. The strategy bears great potential shared marketing， internet presence， influence.

T h e I g e d o C o m p a n y f r o m Dusseldorf is utilizing the growing public acceptance of bloggers in its communications portfolio. Ines Cont， head of the press department： ”During Collection Premiere Moscow（CPM）， we started collaboration with the fashion portal “The Look” in the Russian metropolis at the 20th CPM this February.” In projects like the Bloggers Choice， some 20 bloggers accompanied individual exhibitors during the fair， or discussed interesting labels， commented on fashion shows and analysed the styles of fair visitors for them.

“This is a win-win situation for us trade fair organizers， not only because we help our clients， the exhibitors， to promote and sell their labels but also because the trade fair itself is advertised on the brand websites of the fashion portal， we can place banner advertising on the homepages of the blogger portals and publish photos and videps pf the fair there.” In return， Igedo provided the Look with an exhibition stand as a workplace. Bloggers were also treated to a guided tour of the fair， which offered initial impressions.

So are blogs now the ideal way of reporting a trade fair？ Do they give exhibitors more publicity than communication through conventional media channels？ “We will not be doing anything in this direction for the IAA，”says Sandra Courant. The deputy manager of the press department of the fairs organizer， German Association of the Automotive Industry （VDA）， welcomes the many enthusiasts who blog on the IAA， but remains committed to conventional press work. “Although our exhibitors may well employ individual blogger.” BMW， for example， discovered the positive PR effect of its own IAA blog in 2005. The scene is so mixed and the attention that the IAA generates as a Mecca for car enthusiasts around the world so strong that it is very difficult to control. The VDA is therefore making no attempts to channel this form of reporting.

While fashion， lifestyle and glamour might interest the masses， the topic of food has a much more heterogeneous following-from bloggers who perceive food as a political act to gourmets who simply enjoy eating. That is precisely the cross-section that we see among the visitors to our fair，” says Andreas Wallbillich of the competence team Lifestyle&Freizelt of Messe Stuttgart. “And it can be broken down further. There are many bloggers who concentrate on a specific segment such as wine， meat or baking.” the fair has its own social media channels to welcome them and broadcast the special fair events available to them while also relying on the support of well known food bloggers as multipliers. They are known to the organizer now， After all， Stuttgart Messe monitors its fair extensively. At the most recent fair in April 2013， they produced over 100 A4 pages of blogger posts. “The bloggers are as diverse as their posts”， says Wallibillich， “and cover everything from the first Swabian whisky to photos of individual exhibitors. And that is where the benefit for our customers lies. Their presence goes beyond the fair； many bloggers link their posts with the online shops of exhibitors， giving them new sales channels beyond the fair and their regional catchment area.”

The event is also offered at the large holiday fair CMT， which kicks off the trade fair year in January. The first exhibition took place this year with 15 participants. The event covering the food fair also started with roughly that number. The organizers make sure that not any old bloggers appear at the meeting， they owe that to their exhibitors after all. “We now have a blogger distribution list for our press dispatches and look very carefully at the blogs of the applicants”. Explains Ines Cont. Igedo also looks at the number of followers and interesting writing.

In Stuttgart， applicants have to register their product via a link， which is studied by the trade fair company. “We can now tap into well-known multipliers in the community”， says Wallbillich.

Nurnbergmess also recognised the value of bloggers early on. Way back in 2008， it welcomed them to Biofach with open arms. “The group has since from to easily 50 bloggers，” says Magdalena Beichel， press officer for the Nuremberg company. They have their own blogger center equipped with workstations and WiFi and get invited to an evening event. Beichel finds it exciting that， alongside familiar faces， there are always new bloggers. “Obviously that does open the debate on accreditation， but for us they are just as legitimate as journalists. They report objectively， they have a wide reach and， lets not underestimate it， they blog in real time from the fair.” All advantages that Nurembergmesse now also wants to use for its Mailing Days， to which it has also invited marketing bloggers for the first time.