LONDON – The Reed Exhibition Companies have put six DM-related shows into a new subsidiary, the Reed Marketing Group, with four of them in a package built around the 22-year-old British International Direct Marketing Fair (IDMF).
Formation of the new subsidiary was announced at last month’s show held for the last time at the Wembley Conference and Exhibition Center in North London. Next year IDMF and three other shows will be moved to the ExCel Conference Center.
The facility is under construction on a 100-acre site along the Thames six miles from Trafalgar Square and across the river from the Millennium Dome 2000, a family-type entertainment venue.
It is part of a 10 billion pound ($16 billion) investment program in the Dockland area that includes a new underground line linking the East End to central London. The aim is to shift more urban activities from the west to the east of the city.
The new facility, whose shell is to be weatherproofed this month, will have 65,000 square meters of exhibition space in two glass enclosed buildings overlooking the Thames. The first exhibition is scheduled to open there in November of this year.
IFDM is to be rebranded as the London Marketing Expo and will be held March 13-15 2001. In addition to IFDM, which will remain the core of the new exhibit, three other shows are being added to the event.
New Media Marketing was launched this year as an Internet show next door to the traditional fair and contributed to a 17 percent rise in overall attendance.
Marketing IT -Technology for Marketers will focus on datamining, GIS, credit profiling, data warehousing and CRM. It is designed to attract senior management from multinationals and the SME community.
Telecommercexpo is being launched in response to a 22 percent growth in the UK’s business in this area in 1998-99.
“It is now much more than telemarketing,” said Malcolm Whitmarsh, the IDMF director and new head of the Expo, “which is only one strand given Internet developments.”
The show will feature inbound and outbound call handling, call center hardware and software, computer telephony integration and Web-enabled telephony.
Whitmarsh insisted that each show would retain its own character and draw in new audiences that have not attended IDMF shows in the past, and by being under one roof would trigger much cross-fertilization.
The Reed Marketing Group also has acquired two other shows that will be held in different venues and at different times. Total Marketing Solutions is held at the NEC facility in Birmingham and is focused on the entire marketing community including DM.
iwIncentive World 2000, finally, was acquired by Reed Exhibition Companies earlier this month and put under the RMG umbrella. It is held in early March in Earls Court, London. This is a sales promotion and incentive exhibition that attracts some 450 exhibitors and 8,000 attendees.
