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After the success of last year’s event, Messe Frankfurt needed to ensure Beautyworld Middle East 2023 was bigger and better in every way. With high demand, the challenge was to balance profits and exhibit space constraints while providing an engaging experience and ROI for exhibitors.
Beautyworld Middle East 2023 delivered record attendance and international participation. It was a huge success for exhibitors and attendees alike. By successfully integrating digital tools like Grip for enhanced lead generation, exhibitors were able to connect with customers before, during and after the event. At the same time, attendees were able to enjoy a unique, engaging and immersive experience they’ll never forget.
Not many people want to carry a business card around anymore. Being able to just scan a badge and get all the information that you want, then make notes about the lead and rate them is important to the exhibitors.
Beauty is big business. The cosmetics industry generates over $100 billion in revenue annually, a figure that’s predicted to grow over the coming years.
As one of the world’s leading beauty trade shows, Beautyworld Middle East, which was delivered by Info Salons Middle East, unites customers and suppliers from all parts of the industry and world. This connection between vendors and customers is aided by integrating the latest technology into the event to benefit attendees and exhibitors alike. The three day show is the largest international fair in the Middle East for beauty and wellness products, fragrance and beauty accessories. With exhibitors from 57 different countries and visitors from 156 countries, Beautyworld Middle East is a truly global event.
Dubai is the perfect setting; along with its central location, the region is widely viewed as the next big market in the beauty industry, forecast to grow at a rate of 12% annually (around double the rate of established markets like the US and Europe).
After the success of the previous year’s show, the biggest challenge was how to make Beautyworld Middle East 2023 an even greater success.
For Flyn Roberts, Portfolio Director for Consumer Goods at Messe Frankfurt Middle East, this meant weighing up potential profit with putting on a memorable event, one that was even more polished than previous years. “As an organizer, you could sell every square inch of the show floor to generate revenue. But meeting exhibitors isn’t the only reason participants love the show. You have to understand the value of educational and experiential content. Yes, it’s about business, product sourcing and making connections but participants also want an experience. They want something cool, something memorable. At the end of the event, they should feel inspired, having learned something valuable that they can take back to their organizations.”
All of this needs to be considered carefully to ensure visitors are entertained, exhibitors get a return on their investment and everyone comes back next year.
Beautyworld Middle East covers the complete supply chain, featuring everything from raw ingredients, manufacturing and finished product.
New research from Freeman reveals that 75% of participants want to see demonstrations or take part in hands-on activities at shows. With this in mind, Beautyworld Middle East visitors can enjoy a wide range of exciting and immersive experiences, including:
Beautyworld Middle East reflects how the industry has grown, showcasing innovations in beauty tech and highlighting the importance of sustainable, ethical practices.
For example, the show includes a “Clean and Conscious” section, where only the brands that meet the highest standards can exhibit. As consumers increasingly look for companies that align with their values, this allows buyers to find the top brands in that space.
Beautyworld Middle East has enjoyed incredible growth, both in terms of footfall and the quality of attendees. “The people who are making the effort to travel and attend these international shows are now at a much higher level of seniority,” explains Flyn. “They’re the ones who have a serious reason to be there. They have money to spend and they’re highly engaged.”
While the pandemic led to more virtual events, people go to shows like Beautyworld Middle East specifically because it’s a product-based event. “When it comes to beauty products, you need to smell the fragrance, you need to test the cosmetics — all the senses need to be engaged and you can’t do all of that online,” explains Flyn. “What we’re seeing is that the face-to-face element and the ability to see, touch and smell are super important.”
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However, technology still plays a key part at Beautyworld Middle East, enabling businesses and customers to connect and communicate before, during and after the event. The sheer size of the event means it’s impossible to walk up and down every aisle, purely relying on chance to find what you’re looking for. Instead, businesses need to get more tactical to make and maintain business relationships.
By using a Beautyworld Middle East-branded Event App from Grip, attendees can create a shortlist of the different vendors and other visitors they’d like to meet. By booking meetings and reviewing the floor plan in advance via the app, participants can plan their day and ensure they’ll get the most out of the event.
A good example is Pakistan-based Soneri Care, which exhibited alongside 35 other companies from the country. Marketing Manager Bisma Khan said “Meeting our clients from many different countries at Beautyworld Middle East and introductions to new markets are the highlight for us, and presents great business opportunities - we hope to participate again for years to come”
For Beautyworld Middle East 2023, Flyn wanted to ensure that all the exhibitors were familiar with Grip’s Event App and how it could be used to build their lead database. “Not many people want to carry a business card around anymore. Being able to just scan a badge and get all the information that you want, then make notes about the lead and rate them is important to the exhibitors.”
While exhibitors can’t possibly talk to everyone on the day, they can still use Grip’s lead generation feature to scan a visitor’s badge and have that conversation during or after the show. Over 10,000 badge scans happened at the show. Exhibitors could use that information to create highly tailored retargeting campaigns on LinkedIn and other social media platforms to keep prospects engaged.
Of course, exhibitors can only get the full benefit of the app if they use it. To increase user adoption and engagement, all exhibitors were sent videos and tutorials before the show, introducing the Event App and explaining how to use it effectively.
On the first morning of the show, Flyn arranged for her team to visit the exhibitors’ stands to ensure they were getting the most from the app. “We’re investing in having people on the ground to go stand to stand, help them get up and running and get maximum value from the show.”
The team then returned on the last day, checking in with the exhibitors, ensuring they could properly access and use all of the lead information they’d collected in the app.
This data isn’t just useful to exhibitors. As event organizers, the team was able to use this opportunity to get a sense of how much potential business is being done at the event. By seeing which sections and exhibitors had the most traffic, and how many meetings were booked, they got insights into what categories are particularly popular and made any necessary changes for the following year. For example, if French perfumer exhibitors received the highest number of meeting requests, Messe Frankfurt team could take that information from the Grip dashboard and then increase the number of exhibitors in this category for future shows.
The latest edition of Beautyworld Middle East delivered impressive results that were definitely more than skin deep. For example, visitor numbers were up 23% on the 2022 show, while international attendance grew 14% with 156 participating countries, an increase of 17 countries compared to 2022. This all points to a show that is growing in popularity, where global industry leaders come to meet and build beautiful, long-lasting business relationships.
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Messe Frankfurt is one of the world’s leading event organisers, running events around the world that connect vendors and customers. Here are Flyn’s four tips for helping exhibitors make your next event a success for exhibitors and vendors.
Many first-time exhibitors expect people to just automatically show up at their stand, but more experienced ones realize that’s not how it works. The more work they put into planning and promotion before the event, the better the results.
“Exhibitors that do the best are the ones that make the effort to complete their directory listing,” says Flyn. “Those who fill those out properly, upload good quality images, clearly explain what their product or service does and present themselves well online will generate leads and do way better on the stand as well.
“I’ve known people who’ve taken orders worth hundreds of thousands of dollars before the show even opened because someone found them online in the directory first.”
While it would be great if everyone who registered to attend actually turned up, that’s not going to be the case. Sickness, transport issues or a last minute board meeting can all scupper plans. However, a lot of those people who don’t turn up can still become a valuable connection.
“We find a lot of people register for the show because they want to be in the network,” explains Flyn. “Even if they can’t attend themselves, they want to know who’s going. They still get fed a lot of information, and that’s a way to discover new products and make connections without having to physically be there as well. These digital tools complement the in-person event and give exhibitors a wider exposure than the 65,000 people who are on the show floor.”
International shows like Beautyworld Middle East are an exciting place to be, but the large number of different countries represented can make communication a challenge at times. By ensuring exhibitors and visitors have an easy way to exchange contact information (such as Grip’s badge-scanning technology), vendors can always follow up after the event.
“You might not always be able to communicate that well with a person face-to-face on the stand,” says Flyn. “However, the customer can still at least exchange their information. Sometimes you just need that little ice-breaker and transaction of data, then you can follow up with an email in their language or ask someone from your business who’s a native speaker to get in touch, rather than just struggling on the day and losing a potential customer.”
Although it’s important that exhibitors prepare for the event, you shouldn’t overwhelm them either.
“Everyone is so busy,” explains Flyn. “We want to educate exhibitors as much as possible before the show, but we know that we can’t overload them with information either, or they just will not read it. Instead, invest in providing on-the-ground support and education. It’s the fastest and the best way to get customers onboarded so they get maximum value from the show.”
Discover how Messe Frankfurt's Beautyworld Middle East 2023 surpassed expectations with record attendance, global participation, and enhanced digital engagement, creating an unforgettable experience for exhibitors and attendees alike.
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