Leica not exhibiting at UK Society of Professional Images Makers Show

[wlaidlaw]

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One has to question how serious Leica are about targeting the professional market in the UK, when they don't have a stand at the SPIM convention and trade show in London this week. Neither do they appear on the exhibitors list for the other major photographic show in the UK - Focus on Imaging in March at the NEC in Birmingham. I know they are selling all the M9's they can make at the moment but I don't know how many orders they have taken for S2's - not a lot is my guess. After the slightly lukewarm review/comparison with the Phamiya P45+ on GetDPI, I would not be surprised. Now that Leica has two products for the pro market, I would thought they would be banging the drum at the two principal pro shows in the UK. Not to do this looks complacent. Mamiya are at the SPIM and FOI; Phase are at FOI along with all the other usual suspects. Hasselblad is at both shows.

 

Wilson

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[bill]

Not to do so looks like a smart move to me.

 

Attending "trade shows" is insanely expensive, and doesn't necessarily have any positive (or indeed measurable) impact on the bottom line. Unless you can justify being a headline sponsor, you are simply there to make up the numbers and hand out leaflets and tat to the slack-jawed, freebie-hunting carrier-bag collectors as they drift from stall to stall in search of the best sticky bug or lens cleaning cloth that they can blag.

 

Personally I would question the sanity of anyone at Leica, or any other company for that matter, who approved marcomms expenditure on one of these junkets.

 

Regards,

 

Bill

[Gentleman Villain]

I'm not convinced that photo trade shows occupy the same place in the industry as in the past. The internet is having quite an impact on the cost/benefit of doing trade shows. The very large international industry shows probably still have some validity, but the smaller regional shows are probably on the decline.

[stunsworth]

A stand at focus on imaging costs 205 GBP per square metre, plus the cost of the stand itself and staff costs of course. Last year there were 34,000 visitors.

[earleygallery]

Surely the potential customers should be too busy to have time to waste browsing round a trade show. Mostly they (trade shows in general) seem attended by competitors and time wasters, rather than serious potential customers.

[wlaidlaw]

If Phase, Mamiya, Hasselblad etc attend year after year, I assume that they find it pays for them. You certainly would not do it because you like trade shows! This is the first year for some considerable time that Leica have two products that definitely should appeal to pro's, the S2 and M9. I really feel you have to get these products in the hands of Nikon D3/D3x and Canon 1Ds Mk3 users to persuade them to consider a change. I cannot see Phase users dumping their P1 systems for an S2 but I can see Hasselblad H-X users deciding that they have had enough back troubles and hernias and looking at an S2. Lets say Leica have a 15 sq meter stand, that is about £3,000, which is probably about the profit they make on one S2. You don't have to give away bags or lens cloths.

 

Wilson

[wattsy]

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I don't disagree with the view that trade shows are generally pretty dreary affairs populated in large part by wannabes, geeks and tyre kickers but I'm more with Wilson on this. It would hardly cost a fortune to have a stand at one or both of these shows and it's not as if Leica haven't got new products to show off or that they don't like throwing money down the drain. My feeling is that the absence is less about cost and more about targeting the S2 (not so much the M9) at the crowd who like to buy expensive baubles (why else give an S2 to an amateur like Seal when I'm sure a well known world class photographer would have been just as willing to parade about for a few minutes in return for a £20k freebie?).

[bybrett]

A trade show at Focus costs £50,000... the majority of visitors are non-professional.

[wattsy]

A trade show at Focus costs £50,000..

 

That's true but £50k is still small beer for a company that can regularly afford to lose €50m.

 

the majority of visitors are non-professional.

 

Again true but most buyers of the M range are non-professional.

[bybrett]

That's true (on both counts) but £50k is still small beer for a company that can regularly afford to lose €50m.

 

Seriously, I think that Leica UK will target the UK professional market in a different way and maybe it can lose £50,000 more usefully elsewhere.

[bill]

Seriously, I think that Leica UK will target the UK professional market in a different way and maybe it can lose £50,000 more usefully elsewhere.

 

Exactly.

 

It's all about ROI and bang per, er, Euro. Trade shows offer notoriously poor returns. Why pay £50k (and the rest) to "reach out" to a subset of 34,000 visitors (not all will "footfall" on your stand) in a limited space of time, tying up your sales people, when you can pay far less and get your message out to millions over the internet (to use just one example)?

 

Regards,

 

Bill

[wlaidlaw]

A trade show at Focus costs £50,000... the majority of visitors are non-professional.

 

Brett,

 

Isn't that the cost for a huge all singing and dancing stand like Canon/Nikon/Sony have with lit set-ups, including scantily clad girls posing in front of Jeeps (going hot under the collar just thinking about it). I was suggesting something far more functional and serious for Leica. I suppose they will have some representation at FOI, as Wilkinsons and R G Lewis normally have a stand. If Leica had a stock of lenses to sell from their stand, I am sure they could easily make the money back.

 

Wilson

[bill]

Isn't that the cost for a huge all singing and dancing stand like Canon/Nikon/Sony have with lit set-ups, including scantily clad girls posing in front of Jeeps (going hot under the collar just thinking about it). I was suggesting something far more functional and serious for Leica.

 

Unless you can justify being a headline sponsor, you are simply there to make up the numbers...

 

It.

 

Is.

 

A.

 

Waste.

 

Of.

 

Money.

 

Regards,

 

Bill

[mikeyt]

It.

 

Is.

 

A.

 

Waste.

 

Of.

 

Money.

 

Regards,

 

Bill

 

+1

 

now, can someone please explain that to my boss?

[earleygallery]

With the exception of some international shows (Photokina for example) I think they're pretty inefficient from a marketing point of view.

 

I worked for an insurance company who attended all the relevant B2B trade shows and spent many long days on the stands. One day a new Director asked those of us who had manned the stands for feedback. I had the honour of being the only person who had sold a policy to a new customer in the previous 3 years. Brownie points for me and the decision was made to stop attending them unless there was a very good case for doing so. Attending just because our main competitors were there wasn't a good enough reason!

 

From personal experience - albeit a different sector completely - the majority of visitors were competitors snooping, or other companies trying to sell stuff to us. Most of the rest of the visitors were relatively junior staff it seemed. The decision makers who you wanted to target were usually too busy to be there.

[bybrett]

Brett,

 

Isn't that the cost for a huge all singing and dancing stand like Canon/Nikon/Sony have with lit set-ups, including scantily clad girls posing in front of Jeeps (going hot under the collar just thinking about it). I was suggesting something far more functional and serious for Leica. I suppose they will have some representation at FOI, as Wilkinsons and R G Lewis normally have a stand. If Leica had a stock of lenses to sell from their stand, I am sure they could easily make the money back.

 

Wilson

 

£50,000 is the all in price with space, build, staff, travel, expenses etc ... Canon will spend FAR more than that! And the lenses will sell anyway so nothing gained there?

To exhibit meaningfully as a sole proprietor at a national wedding fair used to cost me £3000...

[biglouis]

My abiding memory of trade shows in the IT industry is that I discovered where all the 'care in the community' cases spent their time when the hostels were closed during the day. Thank gawd I'll never have to do that again in this life. I can appreciate Leica attending one or two major international events per year, e.g. Photokina but otherwise they are largely an exercise in corporate vanity and one in this economy which I assume few companies can afford.