The Intangible ROI of Response Expo

The Intangible Benefits of Response Expo For Your Business

Having attended numerous Response Expos over the years, the event always wraps for us with a plane ride or two back to Tampa, FL from San Diego. This year we took a chunk of the travel time and analyzed the overall ROI value of the show for our company and as individual professionals.

It’s a given that many of us envision attending the show and closing a piece of new business right then and there. And that does happen quite frequently. After all, it does take an investment of time, expense and effort to attend any industry tradeshow, so you tend to do the quick math in your head. But looking back over the years, we’ve seen an increasing ROI benefit well beyond closing a sale in the moment. It’s a benefit, when viewed in retrospect, continues to build year over year.     

Here’s our take on the real-world ROI of Response Expo for us. 

Relationships
Our industry typically rides the razor’s edge with regard to trends, technology and consumer needs. As such, every year we see an influx of new companies and attendees ready to contribute to innovating the industry by breathing fresh insights and ideas into all corners of our business. Everywhere you look, new relationships are just waiting to be made. Without a doubt, each year we make new contacts that directly help our business. And as these new contacts blossom into relationships, we see a direct ROI correlation to the expansion of our own business.

 But long-term relationships cannot be overlooked. Percolating within established relationships, there always seems to be new business opportunities. As the direct response industry expands and evolves, colleagues move between companies, or start their own. It’s this constant energy and movement that creates exponential business opportunities. As a cross-channel agency, this translates into the ability to meet creative, media and operations connections all in one place. And invariably, there is always something new to learn – this knowledge contributes directly to our company ROI.

Intelligence
With consumer purchase behavior, technology and regulations changing so quickly, it’s an absolute that we stay on the cusp of what is happening in the industry. And when you aggregate a large number of marketing visionaries and trench troops together, as you see at Response Expo, there is an incredible amount of real-time intelligence flowing. 

The ROI payoff for us is huge when it comes to this intelligence. As we meet with marketing partners, media reps and service providers, we share back and forth what is working, and what is not. We can then analyze and triangulate tactics for our own customers, based on this intel, to enhance and optimize our campaigns. The key here is listening, because the answers are there.  

Services
As a full service agency, clients regularly ask us for recommendations on third party service providers. For us, Response Expo provides a unique opportunity to walk the show floor, or attend events, and meet various support vendors such as call centers, fulfillment and other vendors who help make the backend operations happen. With these companies spread over the US, Expo is a great opportunity to meet these folks, evaluate their services and make informed recommendations to our clients. And in many cases, aligning clients with the right provider elicits a direct ROI back to our company, in the form of expanded media, production and service budgets.

Intangibles
With Response Expo, there’s the Show itself and there’s the show around the Show. The Show proper, of course, is chock full of continuing education seminars, panel discussions, speakers and more, all of which contribute greatly to our overall perspective of the industry. By ingesting, and digesting, insights from direct response pioneers and up-and-comers alike, as an agency we can formulate directional changes that once again drive direct ROI. For us, Response Expo is a giant sounding board where we can confirm, affirm and crosscheck our own data points against what others are experiencing in their campaigns.

Additionally, the show around the Show is a powerful networking entity. From half-day marathons in the Fox Sports Grill, to broadcast and cable network events, to dinners late into the evening, this halo of activity could be quite possibly the biggest driver of all in terms of measurable ROI back to our company. For us, it’s the perfect opportunity to conduct meaningful business, in a laid back environment. It’s where impressions are made and relationships are solidified.

Response Expo provides something for just about everyone in the direct response and direct to consumer business. In looking at the past data (prior Response Expos), we see a clear pattern of return on our investment in both short and long term gains for our company.

tandemROI is a cross-channel advertising and marketing agency located in Tampa, FL.

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