Live marketing is acknowledged to be much more effective and efficient than the classical advertising media and purely virtual platforms. This is due, firstly, to the direct, personal contact that prevails and, secondly, to the opportunity that live marketing offers for exploiting all the different forms of communication – information, emotion and interaction – and incorporating all the different media instruments. Exhibitions have a special role to play in the live marketing market: as platforms for individual industries, they create an impact for the sector and the exhibitor companies that could scarcely be generated by isolated corporate events. If it proves possible to link the unique features of exhibitions to the ever-expanding virtual networks that exist (“communities” is the keyword here), exhibitions will continue to play a central role for the digital generation of the future too.New dimensions are opening up here thanks to the internet and the social media. The latter, however, are calling upon exhibitions to reinvent and reposition themselves, in part at least, and are also providing the impetus for this.
In order to be able to understand, exploit and further develop the way in which participation in an exhibition serves as an integrated and integrating marketing campaign, it is necessary to have an explanatory model. The 5C model developed by the MCH Group shows what an exhibition is today, which functions it performs in a market sector and how it is anchored in the economic and social system. The five “Cs” in the model stand for Commerce, Content, Community, Communication and Context.
The 5C model supports both the strategic and conceptual steering of the products and hence the development of the portfolio as a whole. It serves as a multi-dimensional cockpit, which can be used to continuously check the key cornerstones of an exhibition and anticipate trends in good time. It is also used to define and flesh out the conceptual highlights of an event and provides support in evaluating developments and innovations on the basis of a uniform system. It can thus specifically determine the successful mix, and align the exhibition platform to defined needs. In the ideal case, this will take place with the exhibition organisers, exhibitors, industry representatives and opinion leaders all working together closely. Finally, it is also possible to derive specific measures from the 5C model which will not only help an event to develop further as a platform but will also provide decisive support to exhibitors in achieving the desired success from their participation in the exhibition.