The marketing message
Aro PR and Marketing MD Billy McKenna discusses his reasons for exhibiting at the UK's biggest plastics industry trade fair, Interplas.
How important are trade fairs such as Interplas to a PR and Marketing company?
The shows are really important to us and engineering shows in particular in terms of meeting up with some of our existing clients so we can just pass the time with them. It's also important for business development and growing the business because we get to meet a lot of new contacts. Like a lot of exhibitors, we won't sign a deal on the dotted line on the day of the show, but we will start a relationship which will then continue over weeks, months or years and thus secure new business, new clients. What shows like Interplas can do is give you an opportunity to have a conversation with somebody face to face. It's not cold calling because you’ve got a reason to be there, and sometimes people are open to having those conversations. So, for me, it's a really important way of building the business.
How excited are you that these events are returning?
I can hardly contain myself. We've done the event scene – sometimes three or four events a year – and to be honest with you, at the time I hated it. I hated the preparation for them and the build-up but, when I got there, I always had quite a nice time because you meet nice people and you have a nice chat. Now that I haven't done them for a year and a half, I'm really looking forward to it, and really looking forward to Interplas in particular because this is our first time exhibiting there. I chose Interplas as the first event we're returning to exhibit at because it's one of the biggest, if not the biggest, shows around. It's been out of my diary for a number of years and I’ve been meaning to put it in. This past year and a half has made me prioritise a lot more rigorously and a lot more vigorously about where we are allocating our time and our show budget. Interplas was an obvious place to be because of the depths and the extent of its reach within the industry – within various sectors. It's just huge and it's got so many different aspects to it. It covers so many aspects of advanced engineering.
What can other visitors expect to learn about at your Interplas exhibit?
We’re specialists for SME engineering companies so, at the very least, they can have a conversation about how they can boost their own business development and lead generation, which we've recently developed into our service. We can bring techniques from the business-to-consumer market. These are things that Coca-Cola and Mars do to get their customers. We’re bringing some of those ideas into the advanced engineering field, and that's quite a new development for us. So, at the very least, they can get some new ideas; they will certainly get food for thought; and they might find a way to quickly grow their own businesses.
How does Aro plan to contribute to the discussion around sustainability and circularity, and how can how can you contribute to industrial players’ ability to meet those targets?
What we do helps that whole sustainability and environmental agenda because all of our clients are SMEs dealing with the bigger players in the industry. These bigger companies have all got very strong sustainability targets in their agendas. What we help our clients do is communicate their own sustainability practises. For example, in the oil and gas industry there’s a not uncommon problem of leaking and energy-inefficient pumps. I was talking with one pump manufacturer and one of their big selling points is that their pumps don’t leak and are much more efficient in energy usage. Those are very strong business messages to get out there, and also very strong sustainability messages that play in and meet the needs of the bigger companies. So, that's what we do on sustainability because getting those messages out there is very, very important for our clients and will encourage more companies to think of the environment.
Aro PR and Marketing will be exhibiting from booth No. C41