GERMANY – Exhibitors pursue a wide range of objectives at trade fairs. Above all they want to establish direct personal contacts with customers. This is one of the results of the AUMA MesseTrend 2019, a representative survey of 500 companies that exhibit at fairs with a focus on trade visitors.

Commissioned by AUMA – the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry – and conducted by TNS Emnid, the study has now been published.

The German exhibitors define an average of more than eight different objectives that they pursue at trade fairs. The five most important objectives are cultivating relations with existing customers (named by 90% of exhibitors), raising the public awareness of the company and its products (89%), acquiring new customers (89%), presenting new products and services (82%), and improving company and/or brand image (83%). Exhibitions also continue to be important for concluding sales and signing contracts, both during and after the actual exhibitions (67%).

The objective of recruiting new employees has risen in significance. In 2012 it was named by just 15% of exhibitors but in the current survey this increased to 23%. Larger exhibitors pursue this objective especially intensively: 41% of companies with an annual revenue of more than 125 million euros seek to recruit employees at trade fairs.

With more than 30 questions, the MesseTrend 2019 survey covers the number and development of companies’ appearances at exhibitions both in Germany and abroad, the associated investment including comparative figures for 2017/2018, exhibition investment as percentage of overall communications budgets, and the use and importance of different tools in companies’ marketing portfolios.

The study also contains the latest figures on the number and structure of exhibiting companies in Germany: sector, number of employees, and revenue. TNS Emnid conducted this representative survey of 500 German companies that exhibit at trade fairs in Germany in November 2018. The study is now available in German language.