A positive forecast

Ian Allchild is Chairman of Volume Exhibitions and Promotional Marketing 2006, an exhibition which launches on 21st March at the Barbican Exhibition Centre.

How do you see the promotional products market shaping up in the near future and the longer-term?

Given that I've worked in the incentive and promotional products industry for longer than I care to mention, I think what's really surprising is how little the product mix has changed over the years. Products such as pens, clothing, fine china and crystal have proved timelessly attractive and useful as business rewards. However one corner of the market that has rocketed into the spotlight has been electronics. The explosion of email and the internet has created a whole new market for PC hardware and software products but it has also fundamentally altered the way in which companies can offer and package their incentives to their different target audiences. The figures behind this are mind-boggling: We now live and work in a world where global corporate email has grown from 1.8 billion a day in 1998 to more than 17 billion a day today! [Source: McKinsey]

Aligning products to personal values

In the year ahead, I suspect there will be something of a backlash against the 'remoteness' of delivering incentives and promotions via email and online though. My feeling, and our exhibition has virtually been built around this central belief, is that people from all walks of life are increasingly isolated and desire genuine personal contact. The manager who now takes time to remember the name of a colleague's baby and partner (or maybe even the dog) is the one who, in doing so, consistently rewards with praise and personal attention. This is going to be the big shift over the next few years. In turn, I think it will be his or her intimate knowledge of their staff that will enable them to craft incentives and products to suit an individual's personal values. Promotional Marketing 2006 is founded on this vital principle of 'personal touch' and the whole team understands that we also live or die by making this real for our exhibitors, visitors and partners.

I also see issues such as spending more quality time with the family (travel vouchers) and access to additional education opportunities (so-called 'edutainment' products and experiences for the cash-rich, time-rich baby-boomers or their kids) being used in closer combination with promotional products. The product will serve as a specific reminder of the experience or as a teaser for the experience, the reward, to come. Many of these products will have more multi-sensory features too, smell, sound, taste, which will help to bring the experience back to life and make the memories richer for it.

Ethical product trend

Longer-term I see consumer-demand for ethical products making a bigger impact. At present, I think manufacturers and suppliers in the market are waiting to see what will happen but you only have to look at High Street consumption of organic foods and the way in which environmental charities are now branching out into ethical products to see a permanent shift taking place. I think this represents huge potential for promotional merchandise. Shoppers are increasingly voting with their feet, and their plastic, against companies and products they feel should be 'punished' for bad practices and these consumers and employees won't thank you for a gift or promotion which doesn't take these values into account. On one level, this could mean more fair-trade chocolate and recycled plastics in pens. Where none of this makes any difference at all is at the ultra-rich end of the market where luxury, highly exclusive premiums continue to have a cache and motivational power all of their own.

Why was the time right to launch a new show for the sector?

I felt very strongly that the industry was crying out for an exhibition in the Capital. London is one of the most dynamic and business-diverse capital cities in Europe, if not the world. To place an exhibition in London, representing an industry that's worth more than £20 billion to the UK economy, makes absolute sense to me. London also contributes over 18 per cent to the UK's GDP. It's an important centre of domestic and international trade and it's also home to Britain's leading creative and media industries as well as world-beating technology, entertainment and financial service companies. All of these companies, and their agencies, represent prime targets for promotional product suppliers and our exhibition is intended to be the place for these two to come together and to do business with the maximum of ease.

What is going to be on at the exhibition?

More than 180 companies will be exhibiting and they will represent the best quality from all corners of the industry. As we never set out to be a large show, these companies will include market-leaders and experts from individual promotional product companies, motivation and incentive scheme providers, packaging specialists, voucher companies and sourcing agencies. Among these will be Marks and Spencer, Boots, Marriott Individual Incentives, Sonyincentives.co.uk, Carta Mundi, AT Cross, Non-Stop Promotions, Villeroy & Boch and Projectlink. Visitors will also be able to see new products such as the iKyp – information to Keep in your pocket – being billed as 'a new marketing communications phenomenon' from Kyp Systems. This clever, attention-grabbing device has already proved a hit with Driving Standards Agency, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Visit London and the Kennel Club.

The leading provider of travel and leisure product and solutions, P&MM, will be showcasing their Escape VIP Travel Rewards package (www.vipescape.co.uk). This makes memorable and exciting travel prizes and rewards readily available to winners and offers a wide variety of options to suit different promotional budgets and objectives.

We will also be running a twice daily seminar programme, 'Think about it!', with speakers including Alex Cacouris of Burger King, Martin Borrett, Coca Cola and Jane Asscher of 23Red and Michelle Smith of OC Tanner. Our aim here is to dig deeper into some of the industry's grittiest issues and to offer guidance and informed debate about their impact on business planning and operations. John Greenway, MP, will also moderate a session on the government's use of and views about promotional marketing techniques. Our seminars are free but numbers are limited. Visitors will be able to book places via the website by the end of January.

The ISP will also be announcing its shortlist of Annual Awards winners on its stand, going public with the list for the very first time. All the nominees are expected to attend, which will make for an interesting line-up. The ISP will also be presenting awards to winners of the recent European industry awards too. The BPMA will be running a free internet café on its stand to allow visitors to keep in touch with the office while they're on the move and the Voucher Association will also be actively promoting its 10th anniversary and with opportunities for visitors to help them celebrate in style.

Added to our highly knowledgeable and innovative exhibitors, will be a wide array of visitor promotions specially designed to allow visitors to experience the power and impact that a well-crafted promotion can have. In this way, we aim to demonstrate that promotional products and promotional marketing techniques are a vital part of the marketing mix for any serious 21st century business. We will show that when promotions are well-targeted, carefully-planned and properly-resourced, there is no better motivational tool!

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