How can industry decision-makers be reached online?

Peter Borstel

Trade fairs and trade fair companies need to constantly further develop， become more agile and flexible and offer services all year round. New， digital offerings are very important here. With its TrustedTargeting technology， Messe München offers its customers access to leading business-to-business decision-makers on the Internet.

Simple process for users

TrustedTargeting helps companies find those prospects or trade fair visitors who are likely to be interested in what they are offering and keeps waste coverage to a minimum. This happens through the website www.trustedtargeting.com. Users of the website enter which industry they want to target. If requested to do so， the marketing experts of Messe München then make contact with them and examine their existing campaigns. Future marketing goals can be set together in direct person-to-person exchanges – such as improving brand recognition in the B2B market or generating relevant website traffic on the customers website. The basic principle behind this is very simple and can also be applied relatively easily： users make their online media available， and Messe München then implements the desired online campaign based on their B2B data. As a result， （more） prospective customers visit the users website. The user gets a tool that can be put into effect quickly with measurable results and a high level of cost control. It provides online access to new target groups and allows the market potential to be exploited to better effect. It constitutes a new element in the digital marketing mix for its international growth strategy on relevant digital devices and channels.

Trade fair-independent usage

By addressing customers online， the use of TrustedTargeting is not limited to the days when a trade fair takes place. Although the digital solution is offered in the context of trade fairs， it can also be promoted and used independently of them. There are many conceivable scenarios： take a high-end furniture manufacturer by way of example. The company wants to reach consumers who are at least potentially interested in high-quality office furniture through targeted advertising. It does not exhibit at the furniture trade fair Expo Real itself， but the industry decision-makers who gather there may be of great interest to it as a target group.

Data protection-compliant offering

Messe München makes use of the extensive data it keeps on its trade fair visitors with TrustedTargeting. On the basis of this data， over three million decision-makers from around 220 countries can be reached at any time， wherever they are and via a range of platforms– Facebook， LinkedIn or Google， for example. It is critical for the service to comply with data protection requirements. Consequently， Messe München only uses anonymised data and never relinquishes ownership of this data. Nobody outside the company ever sees it.

Verified success stories

TrustedTargeting has been available for two years and already been used successfully by a variety of companies. One of these was a German airport， one of Europes largest hubs. The airport wanted to promote its departures online and attract the attention of a target group predisposed to travel. To this end， data from the leisure and travel fair f.re.e. was used. As a result， the click rate significantly improved. An international manufacturer of agricultural and construction machinery provides another example. The companys aim was to increase the number of views of its videos – a Working Hero trailer and episode – in baumas social media channels. The results were again impressive： the trailer and episode were clicked 230，000 times. And for good measure， here is a third example： the technology group Jenoptik exhibited at Laser 2019. In parallel with its trade fair appearance， the company wanted to further increase its online presence among the trade fairs target group and inform this market segment about two product innovations. It certainly succeeded in that. The low bounce rate and extremely long time visitors spent on the website were particularly notable.