In this year of weirdness, of dead events and booming newbie sales, of digital pivots and real world layoffs, here's an idea that’s worth latching onto.
Take that unspent trade show budget for 2020/21 and spend it … or at least a big chunk of it … on directly supporting the editorial magazines that are quietly holding the outdoor industry together.
In the last six months, while the outdoor world and other industries have ridden a real world rollercoaster of success and failure, pivoting and reinventing and burning things down just to start over, editorial media has been our constant. They’ve stayed true to their original goals of community, education, inspiration and context — and in fact, they’ve doubled down on them. They’ve published more stories, more ideas and more thoughts. And by doing so, they have built the framework, walls and ceiling of previously delivered by the best parts of a year-round big tent trade show. Even in the strangest of summers, our vertical publications have given the outdoor industry a strong and vibrant core identity, which is incredibly helpful to all outdoor industry businesses as without it we are just running on the fumes of old relationships.
Behind the brand curtain, the trade show line item is often a funny thing, in that it frequently isn’t even a thing. Trade shows are sometimes part of a company's sales budget. Other times, they’re part of the marketing budget. And in a bunch of other instances, the funds that pay for show exhibition and attendance is spread across multiple buckets. That varied approach is an accurate reflection of the varied perceptions of what a healthy, thriving and well attended trade show actually delivers. It’s not just about writing orders, nor is it just about branding and market positioning in front of influencers and athletes and media — often, as proven by the dispersion of trade show dollars within a company, the value of a gathering is its ability to provide a bunch of different things, such as industry perspective and activity-based community. These are the benefits that come from getting out of the office and immersing yourself in the people, places and actions that define your customer’s world. And we’re all missing them.
The idea of repurposing unspent trade show dollars from 2021 and putting them toward supporting editorial outlets isn’t about sinking cash into transactional digital content. It’s about supporting aspirational journalism — big stories and cool ideas — that come most frequently from independent small publishers. Here are a few thoughts:
* EDUCATION & COMMUNITY — for both consumers and members of the outdoor industry, editorial publications are the unquestioned leader in identifying emerging trends and rallying around important causes. They build communities of readers, as well as communities of advertisers. They also build community among your staff, giving them editorially unbiased outdoorsy things to inspire them at their desk as well as to share around the Slack watercolor (your employees … I hate to break it to you … are not sharing links to company hosted HR seminars at nearly the same pace).
* BRAND LOYALTY — The biggest poison pill for brands right now is the fear of an inexorable descent into commoditization: i.e, becoming just another backpack, or just another pocket knife. After “pivoting” for the last two quarters into the blood red ocean of oversaturated digital buys, that slippery slope is greasier and more real than ever. One proven defense against that slide is a brand’s alignment with something bigger, something natural, something authentic. And there is nothing more authentic than the editorial magazines that are, and remain, the backbone of the outdoor industry.
* SALES — When the reality of pandemic economics landed on us last summer, and reports of a mini-boom began in boats and bikes and rods and reels and other things outdoorsy … did you ever ask yourself ‘why outdoor gear?’ How did people know to hone in on the outdoor world? How did they decide to turn to the equipment and apparel that delivered them the myriad benefits of a day outside? It wasn’t because of a trade show, it was because of decades of inspirational work from consumer-friendly editorial publications. If you still have a job in the outdoor industry right now, it’s time to thank them. And if you want the outdoor industry to thrive in 2021 and beyond, it’s worth investing in them.
— DS