Big Ideas Don’t Have to Be Shut Down By Limited Resources

If you are anything like Nicole Bowman, MBA, vice president of marketing and communications at the International Association of Exhibitions and Events, you take pride in providing great content and meaningful connections to your members. And you are constantly fighting the battle between what you’d like to do versus what you have time and resources to do. “I always have big ideas and never enough money or staff to get those big ideas to fruition,” she laughs.

In the close to seven years she’s been with the organization, Bowman’s attempts to reach more potential members and users of IAEE’s initiatives have been hindered by that all-too-familiar association struggle: a lack of a big marketing staff and big marketing bucks. IAEE turned to the retargeting platform Feathr, which almost immediately delivered the results she was after without a huge resource investment.

Nicole also works for the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR). “We started using Feathr in 2016 for a campaign marketing a new report series, and immediately saw a six-fold increase in users,” Bowman says. “After that success, we switched our retargeting efforts to promote Expo! Expo! IAEE’s Annual Meeting and Exhibition. When all was said and done, I saw that at least half of our registrations were attributed to our Feathr retargeting campaigns.”

Feathr is a simple-to-implement platform that uses ads to retarget association members and site visitors wherever they are on the internet. When the world went into lockdown last year, the live-events business was put on hold, but IAEE’s work was not. Members and professionals in the exhibitions and events industry were more in need than ever of community connections, advice and updates on the latest guidelines. Even though IAEE wasn’t promoting in-person events, Bowman says that Feathr performed an important function by reminding them that the association was there for them. “We’re a trade show association for trade show organizers,” Bowman says. “We have authentic conversations with our community, and I believe our relationship with our members is even stronger thanks to continued visibility throughout the pandemic.”

Feathr’s ease of use and execution was critical for Bowman when she suddenly needed more time and energy to devote to building a virtual platform for event attendees. “That’s one of the things that I like about Feathr; I don’t have to spend a lot of time on it—it’s easy to just instantly create a campaign.” She says that the platform has effectively become another arm of her marketing staff, with staff eager to assist on the other end of support calls. “The staff at Feathr are some of the happiest and most helpful people I’ve worked with throughout my career.”

Great things can happen when passionate people have the right technology and leadership behind them. “I have the best bosses because they set me loose to do what I do best, which is run the marketing department,” Bowman says. “And Feathr provides me with clear data and measurable ROI that I can bring to them and say, ‘This person registered for this event or downloaded this report because of this campaign.’ That helps build trust, and trust allows me to go out and experiment and find new ways to serve the members of our community better.”

Feathr has thought of everything to help get associations up and running with digital advertising. Their dedicated flock of experts advise on unique revenue generating campaigns, campaign best practices, and graphic designer concierge services to ensure successful campaigns. Partnering with Feathr will ensure your association’s success for years to come.

(Patrick Perkins)