Savvy’s POV on Licensing Expo 2009 (#LX9)

Just a quick Licensing Expo wrap up since we were blogging and tweeting leading up to and during the entire show! Savvy had a super-successful show – with Agents, Licensors and Licensees signing up to participate in social media. To see what we blogged about on Days 1 and 2, please click here.

First off, Advanstar, who ran Licensing Expo, did a really nice job of utilizing social media to both drive registration and keep attendees involved. We’d have to revisit this more closely, but we think that the licensing trades could have used the media to further expand on their dailies and help support the various announcements made. Additionally, we love that we won an iPod Touch from Tweeting to help drive registration!

Kudos to LIMA for their new site launch in time for the Show – and their recent engagement with social media. Make sure to follow Marty Brochstein’s blog at Licensing.org, and on Twitter at @mbroch.

Attendance – Although people tended to say that attendance was down, and we know plenty of people who didn’t attend this year, we would say that attendance was actually focused. Many of the attendees we talked to were pleased that they were very busy with back-to-back meetings, and that they weren’t approached as much by people who walked up to the booth. We would say, overall, from what we heard, exhibitors and attendees were pleased with participation.

Booth participation – We were impressed with the amount of exhibitors – given the economy, in addition to the many meetings suites that were occupied.
We think marketers are getting smarter about branding and creating a presence – without having to spend some serious money to generate buzz. We also were pleased to see smaller, more start-up brands be a part of the show…as that’s the real premise behind the industry, isn’t it?!  Giving new brands life and a chance to create product extensions is the foundation of the industry.

Speakers – We’d definitely would like to hear more about Licensing University and see more promotion of both speakers and the events using the Twitter feed.

How about developing an interactive “You Are Here” iPhone app of the show floor/meeting rooms? Wouldn’t that be cool?

Location – We heard a lot of pros and cons to having the show in Vegas…some were satisfied, and some were not. We think that the New Yorkers were probably the most disheartened to have to fly to Vegas, but there were those like folks from LA, who were happy to have to travel a shorter distance. The only advice we would have given whether the Licensing Show was held in NY or in Las Vegas – is that you make sure you wear comfortable shoes!!! It is a ton of walking!

We’ve reached out to lots of new and old friends from the industry, so if you’re reading this blog, we’d love to hear your comments on the show. And, if you want to learn more about Savvy’s social media or professional social media services, please click here.

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