Online Marketing Rockstars – Lost & Found

05/18/2022

Die OMR startet wieder durch - Review Tag 1

Here we are again! OMR is back: loud, proud, massive.
Finally, networking, real conversations, a relaxed atmosphere, and lots of content. Meetings are starting up again, and real conversations need to be relearned. Gestures and facial expressions are back in harmony—wow, that must feel good. As strategists at Drive, we always stay up to date, continue our education, define current topics for our clients, and find suitable solutions to challenges. OMR has a lot to offer: classic large-scale exhibition stands, a hall with many small stands, masterclasses with knowledge transfer, know-how, news, plus lots of stages in colors such as red, yellow, blue, and so on. And catering with food trucks, drinks, and variety through and through at all levels.
Let's take a look at some of the highlights of this OMR:

ANALOG USER JOURNEY

Logistics for a trade fair with 70,000 people is no easy task, but on the train to Hamburg, it's easy to spot who's heading to OMR. Almost everyone. It's great, everyone's relaxed, in a good mood, and looking forward to the day ahead. The station in Hamburg is bustling with the usual hustle and bustle, but the public transport system is coping well with the rush. Then we head towards the main entrance, round the corner and... boom! There's the OMR queue:

It's 9:25 a.m., which is pretty quick. People from Hanover are spoiled with strong trade fair expertise. Hamburg can do that too. No. OMR can't handle an analog user journey. People are standing in line, everything is moving very slowly, and there is no information about whether other entrances are faster. After 30 minutes, the line is directed to additional, new accreditation counters.

I would have liked to have done that the evening before, but it was only possible in person at selected locations in Hamburg. Not on the day of arrival, for example at the main train station or at the S-Bahn stations – but at the airport, yes. Other visitors said that the accreditation process the evening before took two hours. Phew. OMR wants to go digital and can't even organize a check-in model like the airlines? With Lufthansa, I book my flight, my seat, and my check-in via app. Then all I have to do when I get there is go through security and drop off my luggage.

With their own OMR app, the basis is already there – please optimize this by 2023!

ACCREDITATION

I saved the ticket to my phone. I scanned it with my phone and then... off we go into digitalism: a sticky note is printed out and stuck onto an oversized paper badge. The lanyard is only attached now and handed to me.

The lanyards could have been attached to the notes in advance, which leaves me speechless. It takes too long.

The festival wristbands are issued with a payment chip, which at least saves you having to carry cash. You can pay on site or later by invoice. If my accreditation is also on the chip, that's perfect. But now I can go into the hall, after joining another queue. Another 30 minutes. In the entrance hall, there's another queue for the turnstiles. There are far too few of them for the crowds. A bottleneck par excellence, with two pallets of apples in front of it that people are tripping over.

After 90 minutes, I'm on the premises. 11:00 a.m.! My first appointment was at 9:45 a.m., with the first keynotes scheduled for 10:15 a.m.

EXHIBITORS, KEYNOTES

The meetings with the exhibitors are good, everyone is enthusiastic and looking forward to real dialogue. Here, too, the lanyard serves as a contact medium – the app could illustrate this wonderfully, as the shake hands function already exists. At the moment, the exchange, “Can I scan your badge?”, seems like a supermarket item being scanned at the checkout. I am the product for EUR 49.00 at the checkout. Thank you very much.

CONTENTS: GET CLOSER TO YOUR CLIENT!

The presentations are good; some speakers convey familiar knowledge in an exciting way, while others present new information and insights in a rather lukewarm and tiresome manner. Presenting is an art, after all. The insights provided in the keynote speeches by frog and Eurowings and their lessons learned from the coronavirus crisis were very good and exciting. Marketing is not dead; we need to see things from the client's perspective, engage with them, and build a relationship. The booths compete for the best SEO, best SEA... higher, faster, further, more digital!

There was a lot of content for two days, so smart planning is important – don't try to do too much. Set priorities and organize around them.

IMPORTANT FOR DRIVE: NO NEW ROCKET SCIENCE, WE ARE GOOD AT WHAT WE DO AND ARE ALREADY IMPLEMENTING MANY OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS.

Finally

Does that sound familiar? Well, then it fits. At the end of the day, OMR is a trade fair like many others. Thematically relevant and digital. Marketing is colorful, loud, and fast-paced. But not sustainable. When young start-ups still print flyers and throw them around, and the giveaways consist of pens, shopping chips, and jute bags. My idea was actually that after three years, an entry system similar to the one at airports would be installed. Hold up your cell phone and go through. Pay via the app—that's already standard, my data is stored there so an invoice can be sent, and contact cards can already be scanned via the OMR app.

Terms like purpose, sustainability, marketing, me, me, me are everywhere. You can and must be more.

We'll go back in 2023 – who knows, maybe we'll be there with a keynote speech.