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.