Freeman’s winning UFI Marketing Award entry shows the exhibition industry what a stand programme should be.
PARIS – Meeting in Stockholm last week, UFI’s Marketing Committee selected the winner of the 2012 UFI Marketing Award. This annual competition honours “the best marketing activity of the year” in the exhibition industry. This year’s winner is Freeman whose “Your Freeman” programme created a holistic experience to develop more awareness of their complete portfolio of exhibition services and reinforce their positioning as a provider of integrated exhibition solutions.
Organizers, venues and service providers were invited to share their innovative programmes covering a successful marketing activity or campaign with clearly proven quantitative and qualitative results in 2011/2012. The four finalists chosen for this year’s final elimination round in Stockholm were Amsterdam RAI (Netherlands), Freeman (USA), Kintex (Korea) and Palais des Congres de Montreal (Canada).
The winning Freeman concept established an exhibition booth with the customer at its core. The booth space provided each visitor with sound, colour, lighting and projection options providing each visitor with unique interaction opportunities. Touch screen displays and tablets allowed attendees visiting the stand to take self-guided tours through Freeman’s brand pillars: strategy, creative, innovation and logistics. To intrigue attendees a video invitation was created and sent via social media channels to target customers. The video featured Freeman employees, specially trained for their stand participation, which were then available at the booth to welcome visitors. A follow-up video was sent to those who visited the stand, thanking them and inviting them to learn more at the Freeman website.
UFI committee Chair Christian Glasmacher (Koelnmesse GmbH, Germany) noted that, “our exhibition industry should take a close look at Freeman’s programme. We are sometimes the worst exhibitors when it comes to showing off the clear benefits and value of our exciting face-to-face marketing medium. This winning programme shows us how we should put our best foot forward when we participate as exhibitors ourselves!”
Freeman’s winning UFI Marketing Award entry shows the exhibition industry what a stand programme should be!
11/09/12 – 2/2 – UFI annual awards recognize creative, results-oriented initiatives relating to ICT, Marketing, Operations and Sustainable Development topics in the global exhibition community. Freeman’s VP for Brand Marketing, Molly Casey, welcomed this global recognition saying, “Winning the UFI Marketing Award is a great honor for Freeman. We support the mission of UFI and strongly believe that face-to-face marketing is one of the most impactful communication mediums available. The opportunity to share marketing strategies we’ve employed as well as learn and network with other leaders in the global exhibition industry was a key reason we participated in the competition and why we will do so again in the future.”
Photo caption: From left to right, Christian Glasmacher, Chair of UFI’s Marketing Committee, Freeman’s Molly Casey – VP Brand Marketing, and Tom Yurkin – VP Creative.
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