CASE STUDY: Educating Garden & Seaside Retailers About Market
As the trade show industry emerged from pandemic-related disruption in late 2022, attendance forecasts for the Winter 2023 editions of Atlanta Market and Las Vegas Market were pacing to be at about 85% of pre-pandemic figures. Atlanta Market and Las Vegas Market are semiannual trade shows where retailers and interior designers from across the nation and around the world place orders for wholesale merchandise. ANDMORE’s marketing and PR teams were tasked with developing an awareness campaign that would attract new buyers and those who had not attended since before the pandemic to fill the attendance gap.
Research performed by ANDMORE’s Buyer Services team identified as a key growth demographic retailers who ordered merchandise in categories available at Atlanta Market and Las Vegas Market, but typically limited their sourcing trips to more vertical-specific and niche trade shows. These targets included gourmet/kitchen stores, toy stores, florists, lawn and garden retailers and seaside / souvenir shops.
Objective: To return Atlanta Market and Las Vegas Market to pre-pandemic attendance levels for the Winter 2023 stagings.
Strategy, Audience, and Feature Story Tactic: From the potential buyer types identified, garden centers and seaside / souvenir retailers were selected as key demographics to target for the Winter 2023 markets through a series of feature stories. Both groups were chosen due to volume of relevant product at Atlanta Market and Las Vegas Market and existing, but limited attendance by these types of buyers. The feature story was selected as a way to educate buyers about the positive impact of attending Atlanta Market and Las Vegas Market on their businesses timed when their attendance could have grown trade show attendance.
For the feature stories, the two top publications for these groups in readership and influence – Lawn & Garden Retailer and Seaside Retailer – were chosen for the pitch to reach the most retailers. ANDMORE PR successfully pitched feature articles focused on tips and tricks for shopping a gift market to both publications plus an appearance from a company representative at Seaside Retailer’s annual retailer conference.
“Expand Your Garden Center Profits with Gift and Lifestyle Products” in the Winter 2023 edition of Lawn & Garden Retailer and “Navigate Markets Like A Pro” in the January-February 2023 edition of Seaside Retailer were ghostwritten by the ANDMORE PR team on behalf of Cindy Henry, ANDMORE vice president of Buyer Services. In her role, Henry was responsible for recruiting and retaining retailers and designers who source at ANDMORE’s markets, so she was the ideal voice for a piece that was designed to educate and encourage buyers to attend a gift market.
To remain newsworthy and draw a greater appeal, the pieces were written as business advice with mentions of Atlanta Market and Las Vegas Market. The key message was ultimately “gift trade shows are away to grow your businesses through new product and Atlanta Market and Las Vegas Market are the best events to attend.” Supporting the stories were images of the markets shot by ANDMORE’s official market photographers. Additionally, ANDMORE placed ads in both publications to encourage buyers to register.
Results: Ultimately, both Atlanta Market and Las Vegas Market saw an uptick in buyers in January 2023 at 15% and 25% respectively.
