Sunday, 26 February 2012

DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE!!!

That's right people Hyper Japan was not what i thought it was going to be, after visiting the event and the local area in which it was held (Earls Court in London) it was clear to see that the event was lacking in the physical advertising and promotion aspects of marketing.

On my journey to the event i detected no presence of event promotion and even worse no advertising in the form of posters, billboards, handouts, flyer's or London Underground tube advertising. On my arrival to the Earls Court exhibition hall i found it hard to event detect the location and entrance.

The only external physical marketing i could see was a sign that said Hyper Japan tickets this way and on the actual Earls Court illuminated listings which are located directly on the front doors of the Earls court building.

Finding so little or virtually no physical advertising presence at earls court and in the surrounding area's( I traveled around London for the day) came as some what of a surprise to me. I have attended several events at Earls Court and also the local Olympia and i have always seen advertising for the event of which i was attending.

On finding and entering the event which was being held in the smaller event hall at the rear of Earls Court, it was clear to see that there was a minimal budget for the event and that a lot of what they had advertised was hype. All or most of what the website advertised as being at the event was there but in very small quantities and or not well organised. The information from the website and news letters did not match up to what was on offer on the day of the event.

The marketing strategy was to advertise via social media and website links. This in turn has created a social networking event, targeted mainly at 16-25 year old computer gamer's or anime animation fans.

Hyper Japans social media marketing must of worked though as the event seemed reasonably busy with the right type of clientele.

IF the marketing strategy was to only use social media and viral marketing mixed in with a bit of business to business PR it seems to have worked. But i do believe that they are missing a trick by not using other types of media to reach out to other target groups who may be interested in the event, they could be alienating them selves from other markets outside of the social media reach and therefore cutting themselves off from potential market groups which may bring in bigger revenue and advertising and business relations with other media suppliers.

Saturday, 25 February 2012

HYPE UP HYPER JAPAN!!

Today is the start of the Hyper Japan event at earls court, I am visiting the event to have a closer look at their marketing solutions and strategies. So excited, of course i will have to soak up some of the Japanese culture along the way, first its the marketing then its the sushi!! Many advertising aspects to be looked at! watch this space!

Friday, 24 February 2012

PUBLIC RELATIONS....READ ALL ABOUT IT.

Hyper Japan next, I wonder what PR they are using?

Well again i have first looked at their websites to see what type of PR is there.

Hyper Japan have gone for a social media feed on the website and a massive push on social media as a whole.
If you go to there website and look at the social media bar at the top of the page and then click the more text at the end of the bar a box appears with hundreds maybe or maybe over a thousand social media links. I could not believe my eyes.

This goes to show that hyper Japan really know there target market and that it is out there online somewhere!

Another great piece of PR using social media was to create a blog competition or a blog off, Hyper japan offered bloggers to create PR about this years show and each week there would be a winner who's blog would be posted on the Hyper Japan website. Just look at all these blogs its amazing!

Greta use of public relations to try to create some free advertising.

But it does not end there, when searching Hyper Japan PR online i have found so many review websites talking about what Hyper Japan is doing this year. Take a look at this website a

Next month will see the arrival of a new anime event in the UK - Hyper Japan. Running from October 1st 2010 - October 3rd 2010 at the Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London, the weekend event promises to be a Japanese pop culture experience which will cover anime, cosplay, cuisine, competitions, stage performances and a range of Japanese retailers and much more.

To find out more about the event we spoke to Emily Bastian, who will be organising the cosplay and otaku village sections of Hyper Japan:

Japanese cuisine will be one of many of the cultural events happening over the weekend

Animetion: How did Hyper Japan come about?

Emily: "Hyper Japan is organised by Cross Media - a company specialising in Japanese food, drink and culture. They are known as the publisher of Eat-Japan magazine and Tokyo City's tourism representative in the UK. After successfully running the Eat Japan food festival and Tokyo Day tourism event, Cross Media wanted to make their own show to introduce Japanese pop culture and affordable food to a new audience of younger people."

Animetion: How does Hyper Japan differ from other anime events?

Emily: "Hyper Japan was launched to bring Japanese companies together directly with UK fans. This year will see several companies exhibiting in the UK for the first time - Toei Animation, Good Smile Company, EVA Store and KERA magazine, to name a few!

Secondly, Hyper Japan is not just aimed at anime fans, but at lovers of Japanese food, fashion, and the general public, too - so there will be a wide range of activities and exhibitors, making a more exciting and varied event! Visitors will be able to sample many kinds of cuisine at the Eat-Japan food court, see

famous punk and lolita brands in the KERA fashion show and experience everything from traditional calligraphy to Japanese beauty treatments.

Lastly, Cross Media run a monthly "focus group" meeting with anime and fashion fans, to get their opinion on what is popular within the British otaku community and what they would like to see at the show. Many of the people who have taken part in our focus group are very active members of the anime, cosplay and lolita scenes (the owners of some well known websites have taken part, too!). Their advice has helped to shape the event into something which (we hope) is exciting and authentic for anime fans."

Animetion: we notice you have several exhibitors and sponsors from overseas, was this difficult to arrange?

Emily: "My job is to organise the cosplay events and PR within the otaku community, so I don't know the details of particular exhibitors. However, most of Cross Media's staff are Japanese, they have built up a lot of Japanese contacts over the years, so they are able to make use of that network to bring exhibitors from Japan who otherwise perhaps wouldn't be part of a UK show. "

Animetion: we note that many events are focused on various facets of Japanese culture, what is there for anime fans?

Emily: "The cast of new shojo anime Milky Holmes will be joining us at Hyper Japan! The four seiyu will be performing and signing autographs at the event. Milky Holmes is a brand-new anime, so UK fans get to meet the actresses before anyone else! There will also be anime screenings on the Friday afternoon, manga tutorials on the Saturday, and of course three cosplay competitions on Saturday and Sunday! (see below). We are lucky to have animation studios Toei Animation and Bushiroad exhibiting at the event, as well as several companies selling anime goods and toys (I'm especially excited about Square Enix's stand! Anime fan groups, manga artists and events, will be exhibiting in the community area, too."

OK free promotion and advertising via social media and reviews now that is one hell of a Public relations campaign. But it does not end there what about the press. It seems that event the press are making noise about them too.

It's a J-celebration: Hyper Japan in London

TNT Magazine - 3 days ago

Hyper Japan is the UK's biggest celebration of Japanese culture, cuisine and cool; a veritable cornucopia of delights from the Land of the Rising Sun.

Hyper Japan

Time Out London - 5 days ago

A festival of Japanese culture and cuisine. There's sushi, sake and snacks to sample, anime and manga to see, as well as fashion shows, demonstrations, ...

London Food & Drink News: 9 February 2012

Londonist - 9 Feb 2012

Hyper Japan is an event dedicated to the love of all things contemporary and Japanese. The third Hyper Japan will be held in West London at Earls Court ...

Right then who's next! ah ha! the sponsors and supporting companies, lets see what they have for us!!

Well earlier on i looked at the sponsors and i had noticed that Hyper Japan actually have announced their PR Partners on the same page. so lets start with them.

PR Partners

This is most interesting, although they have announced their PR partners i can not seem to find any PR about Hyper japan on any of the partner websites, maybe the partners are doing something else to publicize Hyper Japan?

I will investigate more on this as there must be more PR than this from the there sponsors and partners, more research needed!!

PUBLIC RELATIONS......READ ALL ABOUT IT!

P.R or public relations? What is it? and what does it do? and do either of these two events use it!

Well the this is what public relations is defined as.

"public relations practice is the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences , counselling organization leaders, and implementing planned program's of action that will serve both the organizations and the public interest". (cited in Jefkins, 1994) (Baines, P. et al.2004)

"public relations is about reputation-the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you. Public relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of influencing opinion and behavior. it is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organization and its public."(Broom, G.M.1985)

Now we know what it is are these two events Hyper japan and the I.O.E.X using PR

Well the answer is yes. lets have a look at what PR i have found from these events.

First off i will start with I.O.E.X

So first of lets see what PR they are doing themselves.

There is a Twitter feed on their website which is a massive public relations tool.

There is a big push on their website about it being a new event and about whats happening at the event. There are also some research results of what seems to be quit a large survey and some promotion of the survey. This is a sure winner for getting others involved and talking about your event ahead of the opening.

take a look at what they have done.

Other exciting news

Event Industry Investment Survey 2012
IOEX launched a research project into the state of the UK event industry aimed at providing an insight into what event professionals are facing in their day to day roles and highlighting potential issues for the rest of 2012.
festival

We revealed the results at a special event on Thursday 26 January at ExCeL London.

Watch a video of the presentation and of the reaction from guests here.

An exciting talent competition to find the next superstar in corporate entertainment!
Want to get exposure for your act and win top prizes? Then it’s time to break into the corporate entertainment scene, with The Next Big Thing. This is the perfect opportunity to get access to corporate organisers looking for acts from bands to dancers, magicians to acrobats, singers to violinists.

• For further information and to enter

Just from typing I.O.E.X PR into the Google search bar it is clear from the results that there are a lot of

different people talking about this event and for different reasons.

the first few items that pop up in the search results that are not from the I.O.E.X website are links taking you to either social media sites or blogs where people are talking about the event here are a sample links of sites i found.

Blog site

http://eventsecrets.com/articles/ioex-reveals-seminar-programme/

Linked i

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/IOEX-International-Outdoor-Event-Expo-4213425

Blog site

http://marketingblog.sitepreviews.co.uk/2012/02/new-type-of-digitally-printed-flooring-from-sunbaba/

Twitter

http://marketingblog.sitepreviews.co.uk/2012/02/new-type-of-digitally-printed-flooring-from-sunbaba/

Twiiter

http://twitter.com/OutdoorEventXpo

People seem to be really excited about this event and talking about it.

funnily enough a link to my own blog comes up o n the second page!!

OK so now we need to look at the events partners and associated businesses that will or should be talking about the I.O.E.X.

Yes sure enough just going to the sponsor, supporters,and industry partners websites it is clear to see there is some clear PR happening, very healthy PR. check out the links.

http://www.standoutmagazine.co.uk/?s=ioex

http://www.majoreventsint.com/pub/news.php?mscID=2065

http://www.noea.org.uk/events.asp#22

You could call this business to business marketing but also this is PR, the mother event C.O.N.F.E.X has a huge press release about the I.O.E.X on their website. it is very impressive and i imagine that it is where most of the initial PR and press information stemmed from.

Check out the link its a must PR read!

http://www.international-confex.com/page.cfm/ID=588

OK but truly i think its going to be the press that create the real PR rants about the events before and after.

Event magazine has so much spiel about the the I.O.E.X it is quit unbelievable. it really shows just how much the I.O.E.X must be doing to create this PR information or press copy. Check out the link, and type ioex into their online search engine!!
hhttp://www.eventmagazine.co.uk

It is clear to see that public relations is important to the I.O.E.X, but the I.O.E.X PR does differ from the Hyper Japan PR. The I.O.E.X does use social media but it is not anywhere close to the amount of social media PR that Hyper Japan uses. Also I.O.E.X has much more PR available via the press or trade magazines than Hyper Japan.

Its not just that though, the PR content is different as well, I.O.E.X PR is directed at trade and industry and talks of industry news, expresses interest in the event, talks of how the expo will bring businesses together and networking opportunities ect. Hyper Japan's PR is solely aimed at advertising to potential attendees in a bid to sell tickets.

SALES PROMOTION?

Before we get started on the actual sales promotion of each of these amazing events lets see what the theorist say about sales promotion.

Bowdin et al state that "sales promotion, sometimes called below the line promotion by advertising agencies because they do not receive commission on these activities, are those activities that use incentives or discounts to increase sales. Examples of sales promotion are family fun days at an event where families receive a group discount or a free bottle of fizzy drink when you buy a ticket. sales promotions have the ability to generate extra sales in particular target market sub segments".(Bowdin, G. Et Al.2001).

Fantastically put by Bowdin and crew but Guy Masterman really surmises it.

"Sales promotion can be an impressive tool and has consequently grown into a first choice for many events. its cost effectiveness can in some cases be readily evaluated against objectives and achieve both short term and long term impact on an event brand. it is, however, totally dependent upon other communications tools if it is to work. On the one hand, it is a natural bed-fellow for advertising, public relations, personal selling, sponsorship and direct marketing but, on the other , it relies on these other forms of contact as communication vehicles. The greatest sales promotions can not work unless target audiences are made aware of them.(Masterman, G.2006)

So now we know what we are talking about lets see what Hyper Japan and I.O.E.X have created using sales promotions with other businesses, sponsors, supporters and partners.

First off lets look at their websites to see if their are any of their own sales promotions on offer.

Hyper Japans website had an offer on tickets right up until the day before the day of its opening.

This sales promotion was based around discounted ticket price, offering tickets at £10 rather than the £14 official selling price, their where also adverts for cheaper tickets when bought in multiple or for group bookings.Tickets are now.

SHOW OPENING TIMES:	Friday 24 February 15:00-21:00 Saturday 25 February 09:30-20:00 Sunday 26 February 09:30-17:00
General Entry Ticket:	£12 (on the door £14)
Friday Ticket:	£6 (on the door £7)
Late Afternoon Ticket:	£6 (on the door £7)
(valid for entry between 16:00-20:00 Saturday and 15:00-17:00 Sunday ONLY)
Fast Track Ticket: A Fast Track ticket will allow you to enter through the priority (Fast Track) queue. In those cases when the venue becomes crowded and we are required for health and safety reasons to limit entry to the venue, Fast Track ticket holders will be given priority entry over General Entry ticket holders. Fast Track ticket holders may, however, be required to queue for entry in those cases where the venue has reached capacity and we are legally obliged to restrict entry to the venue. Fast Track ticket holders will, however, be given priority entry over General Entry ticket holders, and will therefore be able to enter the venue sooner, even in the case of a Fast Track ticket holder queue forming.	£14

Kids aged up to and including ten go FREE

(http://hyperjapan.co.uk/tickets, 24/02/2012)

As you can see there is still a discounted ticket price offer available when booking online or in advance also a pay on the door cost of £14. Interestingly their is a que jump or fast track ticket available at the cost of £14 this type of sales promotion has become evermore increasingly popular with event production companies as it has proved to be a lucrative source of income, I mean who wants to que these days!

OK so the type of sales promotions that are on offer here are what is called customer sales promotion. Customer sales promotions "sales promotions that are directly focused on the end-users are designed to provide a final reason why customers should select a particular brand over an other.( Masterman, G.2006)

Also "Sales promotion can inspire customers into action. (Masterman, G.2006) And "Discounts, gifts, premiums and prize promotions can not only be directed at single ticket buyers but also corporate hospitality clients for example."(Masterman, G.2006)

There are tickets for the sake and sushi awards which are taking place at Hyper Japan.

Here i will be looking at sales promotion offers from sponsors, partners and supporters or even public relations situations.

First up quite interestingly is an online anime news website which has no business links with Hyper japan, But is promoting cheaper tickets. The promotion actually navigates you to the Hyper Japan website, at the time Hyper Japan must have been selling the tickets at half price, an early bird type of sale( now the link just takes you to the updated website. Anyway take a look at this link which will give you an insight to what i am talking about. I would say this is a PR related sales promotion.
http://www.animeuknews.net/news/2731/tickets-for-hyper-japan-2012-spring-available

Below is some information copied from the Japan Center who are one of the major PR partners for Hyper Japan. Another use of PR to promote both business's.
http://blog.japancentre.com/2012/02/01/competition-hyper-japan-is-back-for-2012-and-we-have-tickets-to-give-away-again/#more-4121

February 1, 2012 | Japan Centre | 67 Comments

COMPETITION: Hyper Japan is Back for 2012… And We Have Tickets To Give Away Again!

Competition: Win a Pair of Tickets to Hyper Japan

Japan Centre are giving away a pair of tickets to one lucky winner so they can join the fun and games at Hyper Japan on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, you can choose which day! To enter, all you have to do is tell us the answer to this question:

• What do you think is going to be the most awesome-tastic event at Hyper Japan 2012?

Simply leave your answer in a comment on this post, or if you prefer you can head over to our Facebook page and leave a comment on the post there. You can even re-tweet your answer if Twitter is your social platform of choice!

We will choose a random winner next week so make sure you get your answer in as soon as possible!

Even if you don’t win our competition, you can still buy tickets for the event at the Hyper Japan website.

But there has never been a discounted or promotional cost for these. This is probably based on knowledge of previous events that it would sell out anyway. Or just that it is such a prestigious event that Eat Japan the sponsors of the awards and Hyper Japan do not desire to devalue the the ticket price.

OK not bad Hyper Japan, Lets see what I.O.E.X have got on their website.

First of their is no cost for event industry professionals to attend the I.O.E.X so this means there is no revenue to be made from ticket sales. But just because their is no monetary value involved it does not mean that it is not a sales promotion. the free registration is a hidden sales promotion, promoting the event in a bid to raise sales of their partners and trade businesses at the event. This is creates bigger and better Public relations and should increase the footfall of potential event industry professionals. very clever marketing.

I.O.E.X charge the exhibitors for stands, so with that in mind i looked at he exhibiting information and found sales promotions aimed at the exhibitors. As you can see from the information below taken from the I.O.E.X website, there is a 25% discount to all members of supporting trade associations. This is a direct sales promotion aimed at a target group who have affiliation with the supporting associations and is almost a call to action for those who are not affiliated to become so, in a bid to gain a discount price.

Also look at what the price includes section, a real push on promoting what you get for your money.

Also there is a clear call to action for potential exhibitors with larger stands of over 20 meters squared to get further sliding scale discounts. another use of sales promotion.

Also there is a push for exhibitors to become launch partners to receive even better value packages. Again sale promotion in action.

OK, even though the exhibitors are customers to the I.O.E.X and fall under the Customer sales promotions, the exhibitors fall into both customer and trade sales promotion depending on what type of package they purchase. they also fall into the trade sales promotion due toe being intermediaries.

Trade sales Promotion" Intermediaries in the sales chain include retailers and distributors. The promotions can be received for the intermediary's own benefit or they can be received and then passed on to the end user in order to achieve this.(Masterman, G.2006)

Exhibiting Information

Rate card
Space only £285.00 per m²
Shell scheme £315.00 per m²
25% launch event discount to all members of supporting trade associations.

Further sliding scale discounts for stands over 20m² are available. Please contact mark.gordon@ubm.com to discuss.

Price includes:

Listing in Event Preview
Full profile and product category listing in the Event Guide
Full entry on the IOEX website
An invitation to the Exhibitor Training Day
PR support through our in-house PR team
Free tickets for your customers
VIP link to invite customers to the show
Listing on ‘You Are Here’ signage around the show
Ticket to the joint IOEX & Confex Party
Invitations to numerous networking events

Platinum founder member packages
A number of even better value packages are available for launch partners wishing to take over 100m2. (Subject to discussion).

Dowload the sales brochure
Register today for FREE entry

When you click on the Download sale brochure you get a more comprehensive explanation of the above and direct contact links with marketing and sales managers at I.O.E.X

Very clever sales promotion form both events,
now lets look at what other sales promotions have been made available.......

This was interesting, considering its free to get in to I.O.E.X

Click the link to see how this sales promotion works!!

http://www.majoreventsint.com/pub/news.php?mscID=2082

Here i will be looking at sales promotion offers from sponsors, partners and supporters or even public relations situations
This was also some interesting sales promotion where a supporter of the I.O.E.X is selling space on their own stand and giving a discount to those who are affiliated. A good use of trade sales promotion.

Special National Outdoor Event Association member offers:

2x2 metre stand on the NOEA Pavilion - £800
3x2 metre stand on the NOEA Pavilion - £1,000
7+ squared metres stand – 25% off Ratecard price

this information was taken from this link.
http://www.noea.org.uk/events.asp#22

Who did what? Well both events used sales promotion for their events, and in very similar ways, offering a discount to the customer in a bid to sell tickets or exhibitor space. There was a competition from Hyper japan and with the I.O.E.X there were incentives to book exhibitor space, free tickets for your clients who wish to attend and a discounted price on stand space if you are affiliated with one of the supporting associations.

There must of been much more sales promotion with the I.O.E.X/C.O.N.F.E.X than i have been able to find and that is because the type of sale promotion i am talking would of been between the exhibitors or sponsors and secondary product and services providers of them. This would of been a mix of internal and trade sales promotion and is much harder to detect as it is not advertised publicly and is done either behind closed doors or as a sweetener to get potential customers of the exhibitors to come down to the show, especially if the exhibitor is not from London and they desire for there'r potential London customers to pop down to try to close the sale.

Tuesday, 21 February 2012

EVENT SPONSORSHIP

Bring in the big guns!! oh Yeah!!

Sponsorship can make and or brake an event, without it many events just would not be financially viable as sponsorship does not just bring the possibilities of extra finance but it with it a string of extra free advertising from the sponsor and advertising leverage when it comes to planning you marketing strategy your own event.

Check out what the event theorist(Guru) Guy Masterman has to say about it!

Masterman talks about sponsorship programs and how to create suitable sponsorship packages for your desired sponsors and how it is important to get the "sponsor fit"(Masterman, G.2006), so as the sponsors are right for your event and that the sponsors fit each other and are willing to go on the same bill.

"Development of sponsorship programmes in this way can not only lead to enhanced communications reach at no extra cost of the event, but also leads to sponsor renewal.Event sponsors that exploit their event rights by integrating them into their own communications programmes are doing so at their own cost and, in addition, are complementing effort. In so doing, sponsors are more likely to be successful in achieving their sponsorship objectives and react to positively to renewing and developing the relationship.(Masterman, G.2006)

Right then lets look at what I.O.E.X and Hyper japan have done about sponsorship.

Up First is I.O.E.X

Take a look at the sponsorship page on the I.O.E.X website and this is what you find.

Sponsors and Supporters

Official industry partner
stand out

Supported by:
MEI

Supporters

Wow, some big guns in the event industry, Stand Out are direct business partners with the actual event and are also direct business partners with C.O.N.F.E.X the sister expo which is joined to the I.O.E.X. Some are just supporters and there are many more than just the logos that are shown. The association of Independent festivals, Losberger, Silverstream TV, national catering association and many many more of which are actual exhibitors at the event.So why are all these companies supporting and partnering up with the I.O.E.X, Lets look at Stand Out Magazine who are the official industry partner of the I.O.E.X. Stand Out must of had some big reasons for wanting to be the main industry partner with the I.O.E.X

Is the the Official industry partner a sponsor or just a partner? The answer is both. Stand Out have chosen and also been chosen or won the tender to become the main industry partner for the I.O.E.X.This poll position of the main and in this case the only industry partner for the I.O.E.X comes at a cost. This number one spot on the podium of sponsorship will cost Stand out a considerable amount will engage them in big sponsorship deals with the I.O.E.X. This will not only cost money but it will also cost time in man hours and general business hours spent on creating a successful partnership.

Obviously Stand Out are doing it for a reason, those reason's will be to fulfill their sponsorship objectives.
The sponsorship objectives will be a string of reasons or alterior motives to sponsor the event in a bid to gain benefits from the relationship.
Stand out have done exactly this.
The Sponsorship objectives of Stand Out magazine are a mixed combination of direct and indirect objectives.

Guy Masterman states" Direct objectives may be for the achievement of short term impact on consumption behavior and the increasing of sales. Indirect objectives on the other hand, would ultimately be over a longer term, and would at some future point lead to increased sales."(Masterman, G)

So the direct objectives would be to create heightened consumption of the Stand Out magazine by the attendees of the I.O.E.X and as the Stand Out magazine is a trade magazine and the I.O.E.X is a trade show, one of the direct objectives would be to make direct a sustained sales within the events industry by getting industry businesses to either subscribe to the magazine or advertise in the magazine.

Some of the indirect objectives may be related to image building and brand awareness. Heightening brand awareness may bring non attendees of the event or skeptical businesses using competitors to favor Stand Out over other trade magazines.

The connection to a new event such as I.O.E.X and ultimately to the bigger sister C.O.N.F.E.X and both of their creators U.B.M will improve improve the image of Stand Out, this is due to the prestige of the U.B.M, C.O.F.E.X and the association with the next big thing I.O.E.X. This should fulfill some of direct and indirect objectives.

Stand out will have many Sponsorship objectives that will cover most of these objectives: Competitive advantage, Brand awareness, Image building, developing and maintaining relations.

Having the competitive edge over your direct competitors is a must in business and sponsorship really allows you to do this, if you get in first on the sponsorship deal and make it exclusive in the sense that you are the only or main sponsor then you may have just put your company in a leading advertising position over your main rival.

"If the sponsorship opportunity is in demand, then even if this is the only objective a sponsor achieves it will at least have prevented the opposition from taking up the opportunity."(Shank, 2005)(Masterman, G.2006).

In a later post i will be looking at the sales promotion aspects between the sponsors and the Internationaloutdoor Event Expo.

I believe that Stand Outs sponsorship objectives by becoming the I.O.E.X Main Industry partner are all of the above, but most importantly to achieve Brand awareness and develop relations and have the competitive advantage. This will all be done by piggy backing on all advertising created by the I.O.E.X and by any PR, advertising or self promotion created by Stand Out about the relationship with the I.O.E.X.

Their will be many reasons for the partnership between the these two businesses also the supporting companies who will also in some form will be sponsoring the I.O.E.X. Each will have differing objectives but all will ultimately be doing so for the purpose of increased revenue and or awareness.

OK lets have a look at Hyper Japan's sponsor page

PR Partners

Special Thanks To

All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd.
Asahi Breweries,LTD.
CA4LA
DHC
DOCOMO Europe Ltd.
EVISU
Japan England Insurance Brokers Ltd.
JEEF (Japan Europe Entrepreneurs Forum)
Lantis Co., Ltd.
London Fukushima Shakunage kai
Melt
Mitsukoshi(UK)Ltd.
Nissin (UK) Ltd.
Buy J Crafts Campaign by NSDA (Noriko Sawayama Design & Associates Ltd.)
NTT Europe Ltd.
Stardust Promotion, Inc.
SUNTORY
Tabio
The Japan Society

Supporters

Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO)

Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO)

The Foundation for Promotion of Music Industry and Culture

Partners

Claritas Marketing Ltd.
Japan Publications Trading Co., Ltd.

Wow, again!!

Hyper Japan has a huge amount of sponsors, supporters and partners and even have a list of thanks to other businesses and exhibitors that help towards the event. nearly every sponsor is a Japanese based company, the partners are a mix of Japanese and British as are the supporters.

There are some seriously big names in all the different genres involved within the Hyper japan experience.

Eat Japan is another business created by Cross Media the company behind Hyper japan, so because of this there are huge links between them. Eat Japan is is the actual company presenting Hyper japan.

Hyper japan have many main sponsors, it would be interesting to find out if there is one major sponsor or are all sponsor committing to a similar sponsorship package, i fear it would be almost impossible to find out that information given to earlier tight lipped conversations with Hyper Japan.

If i were to take a guess why most of these companies sponsored the Hyper Japan event, i would guess that the sponsoring objectives of most would be to heighten awareness of their brand to the clientele of the event and others watching it.

As Hyper Japan is a consumer expo it makes sense that most of the sponsors are consumer product based companies which supply products for high street retail.

This shows that the main objectives of the sponsoring companies must be to heighten the brand awareness in a bid to create sales revenue either in the short or long term, either at the show or on the high street.

Also as the event is a Japanese culture show there will be some competitive advantage objectives being set by most of the sponsors as they are all bar one Japanese. So it is almost a must to be a main sponsor for such an event.

In a later post i will be looking at the sales promotion aspects between the sponsors and Hyper Japan.