First appeared in Ad Age
While publishers struggle to mine revenue from their core
print operations, their events businesses are starting to look like a
comparative gold rush.
In June, Fortune magazine is introducing a half-day London
version of its three-day Most Powerful Women Summit. It will be the 14-year-old
conference's first venture overseas, with an Asian iteration following in the
fourth quarter. Fortune is also raising attendance fees on the summit's U.S.
edition in October by $2,000, to $7,500. It's also holding an event May 7
that's tied to the annual Fortune 500 list. Trade Show Displays prove useful.
You can see the appeal from Fortune's perspective: Profit
from events rose 63% last year and are expected to grow 55% this year,
according to a Time Inc. executive. Its Global Forum -- typically held every
other year -- will return in 2013, this time in China. The function could help
double the event division's revenue from an estimated $15 million this year.
Fortune's stages attract speakers such as President Barack
Obama, Warren Buffett and Facebook No. 2 Sheryl Sandberg, and streaming video
means the various confabs can reach many more people.
They also give advertisers something compelling to buy other
than ad pages.
"Events give you the ability to actually meet people on
the ground, the ability to influence and gain thought leadership from
others," said Esther Lee, senior VP-brand marketing and advertising at
AT&T.
As more publishers succeed in the field, however, they risk
a problem that has dogged traditional ad sales: clutter. When a business
chooses to Rent Exhibits, clutter
can be helped.
"There is truly what I would call an almost
unmanageable proliferation of events," Ms. Lee said.
Some marketers are responding by getting more deliberate
about where they invest, according to Elizabeth Baker Keffer, president of
Atlantic Live, The Atlantic's events division.
"I am seeing the underwriter community starting to
concentrate their resources," Ms. Keffer said. "Because of the
plethora of events, they're saying, "Let's see which ones are working for
us.'"
The Atlantic, whose activities include the Aspen Ideas
Festival every summer, has "ambitious" growth plans, Ms. Keffer said.
They include expanding its 3-year-old Washington Ideas Forum and two events,
Brave Thinkers and The Atlantic Meets the Pacific, rolled out last year. Both events
possibly utilized Wall
Graphics.
It also has designs on Silicon Valley. "We have two
[events] on the drawing board and hope to get at least one off the
ground," Ms. Keffer said. "And our big hope is to do something on a
global stage."
Events now account for 17% of The Atlantic's revenue, vs.
14% in 2009. That is a higher share than at most magazines, but that may change
as publishers expand their event businesses more quickly than they can grow
print.
The swath of print-affiliated extensions vying for audiences
include the Women in the World Summit from Newsweek and The Daily Beast; O You!
from O, The Oprah Magazine; The New Yorker Festival; The New York Times'
TimesTalks; and the art-centric Creators Project from Vice Media and Intel.
Creators Project functions in New York, Beijing, Paris,
Lyon, São Paulo and Seoul attracted more than 560,000 attendees last year,
according to Vice. On March 17 and 18, Vice and Intel are hosting the project's
first San Francisco event. Events like these need Custom Graphics.
And don't forget other players, including TechCrunch
Disrupt, the D Conference from Dow Jones' All Things D website and broad-based
conferences such as South by Southwest. AT&T is a big sponsor of Most
Powerful Women and South by Southwest.
Some events charge for admission, while others depend
entirely on marketer support. Sponsorship models also vary. This is true of Trade Shows Phoenix as well.
"We do many big, integrated programs where [an
advertiser] will sponsor an element of the event and do parallel print and
digital, and sometimes custom elements," said Jed Hartman, group publisher
at Fortune. "In addition, some companies focus on different things, such
as live events rather than print-and-digital strategies." These include Phoenix Exhibits.
If some of print's challenges are following publishers into
the events space, at least some of its strengths are tagging along. Fortune's
venerable brand and extensive reach, for example, help it garner prestigious
speakers, large audiences and marketer support.
"There's no question that there are more events than
there were, say, 10 years ago," said Andy Serwer, managing editor of
Fortune. "In one sense we welcome the competition, and we're flattered
that other people are coming to the space. Having said that, we have a big head
start in many instances."
Marketers' move to concentrate their resources has benefited
The Atlantic, an established brand with a well-defined following and more
events experience than some, Ms. Keffer said.
"The competition, the clutter and events being
commoditized is an issue," she said. "We focus on trying to remain
unique -- even as the field has gotten more crowded -- by differentiating
through our content."
