Gold Coast Food and Wine Show 2011

I was lucky enough to spend a day at the Gold Coast Food and Wine Show, which was held at the Gold Coast Convention Centre from the 28th to the 30th of January, 2011.  It is a fantastic idea to put such a show and exhibition together, and from what I could see, the hundreds of people there were having a great time.

The Show Featured:

• Gourmet Food
• Exquisit Wines
• Celebrity Chefs
• The latest cooking products
• Sensational new recipe ideas
• Australian Specialty Coffee Championships

…and it delivered what was promised.

The exhibitors all were in good spirits, giving out free food – cakes, breads, crackers, cheese, and other various yummy things.  And the drinks were just as good, with many gourmet coffee companies offering out free lattes, cappucinos and such.  The wine producers were also there, and you could get a sample of nearly any wine in the world you could think of – white, red, pink, mango, pomegranate, and champagne.

The entertainment including a variety of famous chefs, and I was lucky to see ‘Fast Ed’ Halmagyi, who “is one of Australia’s favourite chefs.  His work on Better Homes & Gardens – the TV show, the radio show, the magazine and online – has seen his recipes served on millions of Australian dining tables every week”.

Marketing Assessment

When it comes to marketing, and your work and your passion cross paths so often, as mine do, you cannot help but assess the potential ROI that the exhibitors are receiving, as well as critique their marketing efforts.

Firstly I assessed the exhibition as a whole, with focus on the exhibition organisers.  The marketing was a little disappointing, at least from an online perspective.  I guessed that many attendees found out about the day, only through Coles:

I found out about the show while buying groceries at my local Coles supermarket.  Quite strategically placed, next to the check-out was a neat pile of discount coupons.  I was not offered a coupon, but I figured they were there to be taken…

The Website

Clearly, very little budget was allocated to online marketing.  The website is a quickly thrown together HTML/ CSS deal.  There is no blog or news, very little information on the actual event.  The website should have been the centre piece of their online marketing campaign.  Also an agenda and times of the chefs presentations would have been excellent.

The second noticeable online black hole was – social media marketing.

Facebook

If you search for Gold Coast Food and Wine Show on Facebook, you will find 7 unofficial groups/ pages set up, with the “largest” group showing 7 members.  The organisers should have set up an official page, which they could have updated daily as the 3 days progressed.

Twitter, YouTube, et al…

As you can guess, with a souless website and non-existent Facebook presence, you can barely expect to see any activity on Twitter, YouTube or Foursquare.  I didn’t do much research to see if they were using these networks, but based on their website and Facebook, I don’t expect to see activity there.

The Exhibitors

The exhibitors came very well prepared, and most were very impressive.  Many came with large amounts of stock to sell, stock for sampling, and business cards and brochures to give away.  Most had experience or had been advised on stall layout, and how to present to potential customers.

Some businesses had prepared promotions especially for the event, which was good to see, that involved a competition of sorts, collecting names, emails and phone numbers.  And a large percentage appeared to have websites.

The only sad thing was that only a small percentage of those businesses actually put on their websites the NEWS – that their customers could come along and meet them, and try their products at the show.  This shows a huge future opportunity.

In Summary

The event was fantastic.  With the Coles voucher making entrance only $12.50 per person, which also gave free access to the next door exhibition – Health, Harmony and Soul, there was a lot of value in the daily entrance fee.  Oceans of free, organic and tasty hot coffee, as well as all the other food and drink available to delight your tastebuds, was well worth the visit.

For the exhibitors who paid $1,180 – $3,540++ I hope, despite the poor online and offline marketing, that the event was beneficial and profitable.  Considering the number of people attending, there was a good chance that the event was a success.

Do exhibitions provide good ROI?  Do you find them worthwhile to attend?  As a customer?  Or as a business?  Feel free to comment.