When visibility becomes expensive: are big industry events still the best marketing?

By

Rob Goodall

There is always a lot of noise in our industry about where you should be seen.

Major events. Big exhibition stands. Sponsorship packages.

And every year the price seems to go up.

Events like MIPIM are incredible gatherings. Thousands of developers, lenders, investors and advisers all in one place. If you want to get a sense of the scale and energy of the property industry, there are few better places to do it.

But if you want to exhibit properly at events like that, or at many of the larger conferences across the UK property and specialist finance calendar, you’re often talking tens of thousands of pounds for a stand before flights, hotels and entertaining even start.

Which raises a simple question.

Is being visible the same thing as effective marketing?

Personally, I’ve always preferred targeted marketing.

A smaller group. A more relevant audience.

In specialist finance, the best opportunities rarely come from the biggest rooms. They tend to come from the right relationships, built over time with brokers, developers and professional introducers who genuinely understand what you do.

That doesn’t mean the big industry events don’t have value. They absolutely do.

They bring the market together, create opportunities to reconnect with people you don’t see regularly and allow new entrants to introduce themselves to the industry.

But I do sometimes wonder whether the dynamic is changing.

When every firm is trying to stand out with bigger stands, more sponsorship and more visibility, the line between presence and effectiveness can start to blur.

And occasionally I wonder if the opposite effect can occur.

If you don’t have a stand, does it invite more questions? If you’re not part of the biggest presence in the room, do people become more curious about what you’re actually doing?

In a world where everyone is trying to be seen, sometimes being a little more selective about where you show up can create better conversations.

Because in the end, our industry still runs on relationships, not exhibition stands.

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