Industry News

We will be updating this post with any new dates we receive for member shows. Please send mole@aaxo.co.za any date changes you have so that we may accurately keep this up to date. For a full list of shows, click here.

After months in lockdown, many will flock back to events. Will revenge attending save the event industry from the deepest crisis ever faced?

Human beings are social animals by our very nature. After months of lockdown, we will do everything in our power to establish face-to-face connections again.

As a result, events will be flooded with a surge in demand we have never witnessed before.

Click here to read more…

AAXO Chairperson, Projeni Pather, talks with other leading industry experts on Adjusting Exhibition Practice in line with Social Distancing.

Click here to view webinar.

AAXO Chairperson Projeni Pather talks to Justin Hawes MD at Scan Display

AAXO Chairperson, Projeni Pather talks to Justin Hawes, MD at Scan Display about business matters and the changing in their supplier environment during the Covid crisis.

Click to watch interview

Scan Display offers temporary infrastructure for COVID-19

Exhibition, events and display specialist, Scan Display, has a range of products and infrastructure solutions that are ideal for managing the COVID-19 health crisis.

Traditionally, the company’s products and services have been used at exhibitions, events, conferences and activations. Many of these products can now be used for testing stations and temporary hospitals during the current pandemic.

Scan Display’s Modulbox is a mobile activation unit that can be moved easily between locations by a delivery vehicle and set up in a parking lot or similar environment within the hour. The Modulbox can be used indoors and outdoors and is the perfect solution for establishing temporary testing stations.

Scan Display’s shell scheme has been used over the years to create infrastructure at local shows including Professional Beauty, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, We are Africa and Investing in African Mining Indaba. This shell scheme can now be used to create partitioning for temporary hospitals, and Scan Display’s team of electricians can provide the electrical requirements at these facilities.

Click on the following link to see Scan Display’s health management infrastructure and products brochure: http://tiny.cc/6ntvnz

For more information, please contact Justin Hawes on justin@scandisplay.co.za or +27 11 447 4777 or visit www.scandisplay.co.za.

ENDS

For more information, please contact:

Ceri-Leigh Craig | Scan Display Marketing Manager | ceri@scandisplay.co.za | +27 11 447 4777

Or visit: www.scandisplay.co.za

AAXO Chairperson, Projeni Pather talks to Madeline Roscher, the CEO at PR Worx on how to handle Crisis Communication for businesses

Click to watch interview

EFFECTIVE CORPORATE MESSAGING CAN SAVE LIVES – AND BUSINESSES

 As parts of the country prepare to enter into level four of the government COVID-19 alert matrix, some industries are readying themselves to open up and start trading again. While this is a welcome development in getting South Africa back on its economical feet, corporates must still place the welfare of their staff, customers and country at the top of their business agendas if they wish to avoid a relapse into complete national lockdown again. To balance satisfying their business needs and the safety of their stakeholders, industry leaders must leverage innovative communication methods, says Madelain Roscher, CEO of PR Worx.

“It goes without saying that during a crisis such as the pandemic South Africa and the world are currently facing; clear, consistent and concise communications can be an effective tool in curbing the spread of COVID-19 – and be an endearing brand reminder to your customers. But innovative communication has always been an Achilles heel for leaders in a crisis, and South Africa is no exception,” says Rosher.

She says leaders who are too eager to make up for lost productivity, may end up either under-communicating the lingering COVID-19 threat or fail to make their brands’ messaging resonate with the market’s current form, and potentially alienating their stakeholders.

“To flatten the curve, corporates need to drive an understanding of the severity of COVID-19, which has caused a global shut down – for a reason. Whatever health initiatives are carried out should be accompanied by simple but effective communication solutions that can resonate with all stakeholders, regardless of their level of education.

“Communication efforts can only be seen as effective when all the stakeholders understand the crisis the country is currently experiencing; the potentially devastating ramifications the pandemic will have on every citizen’s life; and most importantly, the need to change their behaviour.  It is only when the message is fully understood and the significance thereof resonates with our people, that the communication uptake or call to action results will improve,” explains Roscher.

She says the first directive organisations should adhere to when addressing their target markets, is issuing messaging that is factual; relevant to the current crisis; but most importantly, specific to their consumers. Without hitting these beats, organisations risk losing relevance and sales.

Apart from making the environment safe and devoid of COVID-19 as possible, leaders also need to continue sharing messages of COVID-19 with their staff across all their communication platforms.

“Organisations must remember that their best assets are still their employees. From safety protocols to the buy-in of the company’s new direction, they need to be informed.  Internal communications, therefore, must be a strong core on which the organisations build upon when drafting their new communications’ strategies. Employees are also the company’s greatest ambassadors to disseminate information and to communicate an organisation’s philosophy and approach, especially to their communities.

“Corporates needs to realise that a one-size-fits-all communications approach does not work and that their consumers’ needs may be very different now compared to before the lockdown. Communication methods used to engage with their client base must therefore be tailored to and cognisant of their consumers’ shifting demands, especially while the economy is still in recovery mode,” concludes Roscher.

Ends/

PR Worx is an experienced and highly-awarded marketing-communications partner for the exhibition sector. The agency can assist you with PR, publicity, social media and of course, crisis communications. Contact Madelain Roscher at info@prworx.co.za if you need help with PR.

Embrace your current customers
COVID-19 just changed everything. For many the post COVID-19 world feels like things have speeded up really fast, and many of your customers and your competitors are in turmoil. Supporting current customers now, massively raises your chances of winning their hearts and them paying you forward with their patronage once they have recovered.

For many, if not all marketers, COVID-19 has changed everything and everyone. In circumstances like these, current customer retention must be the most important starting point for any marketing strategy. A bird in the hand is worth ten in the bush. Also, you do not want to neglect the hand that feeds you, or inadvertently bite it (like Branson just did with a Virgin Atlantic begging bowl in the UK).

Now is the time for you to quickly understand how your current customers are thinking, behaving and coping with the COVID-19 clampdown, and its effects on their rights and incomes.

Feel their pain – and respond appropriately

To get you out the starting blocks, please take a look at the attached PDF for a view of the SACOVID-19 5 Survey* about how ‘economically active South Africans’ have been coping each week since the COVID-19 crisis took a grip on our lives 5 weeks ago.

(*The SACOVID-19 Survey is a weekly tracker. We have tracked key consumer variables for the last 5 weeks from pre-lockdown up to last week (week 4 lockdown). New topical measures are added each week. You will be surprised by how much pain ‘economically active South Africans’ are absorbing. The report makes for interesting reading. This week we go to field with round 6.)

The stuff of real brands – earning respect and loyalty

After you have read the SACOVID-19 Report, you may feel the need to get some bespoke customer insights about the current relevance of your products and services to your current customers. This will provide an objective basis for working out what you should, or could be doing, to retain the loyalty of your customers as they run the C-19 gauntlet.

Embracing current customers in the brand fold is more than basic good manners. It is the essential first step to staunching a potential flow of customers to competitors whose COVID-19 responses are better aligned with their current product and service needs. Loyalty levels run low when the wolf’s at the door.

If bad decisions are taken about the brand regarding its public response to COVID-19, this will damage brand equity. If good decisions are taken, this will enhance brand equity and yield the reward of customer loyalty down the line when they are less stressed and able to pay forward with their patronage, the slack you cut them in bad times. This is the stuff of real brands.

Long chats with customers: Enter WAGS

WAGS (WhatsApp Groups) are:

• An antidote to focus groups (hence, qualitative)
• Lockdown and social-distancing friendly
• Digital chat groups (20 defined respondents per WAG)
• Run over a 3-day period
• That you, your team or anyone else can participate in (or just observe)
• With your current customers and / or prospective customers
• Tailormade chat script
• Fully moderated
• Separate moderator / client chat group
• Very cost effective (large volume output – low cost per respondent)
• Fully extracted, charted and presented report
• Quick turnaround
• Thoroughly experienced research team

Get your own survey where you get to decide what tailormade qualitative insights your business needs right now.

Contact

For more, contact Megan (072 060 5241) or megan@alltold.co.za

Click here to subscribe to free SACOVID-19 Survey Reports.