Advanced Television

Report: Trade shows still most popular channel for media buyers

November 30, 2021

Modern broadcast and media technology buyers feel bombarded with marketing messages, digital content and cold calling from technology suppliers. Most of it is not relevant to them at that moment in time and gets ignored. But then, how do vendors ensure buyers keep up with innovation and how can they showcase what they are able to provide and what business problems they can solve?

A study from Bubble Agency shows that tradeshows remain the most popular channel for buyers to keep up with industry trends and vendor news, trade press magazines and websites remain important channels of information for sellers and buyers and LinkedIn dominates the conversation on social media.

Independently researched and produced by Caretta Research in partnership with Bubble Agency, Marketing Media Technology: Revealing what broadcast and media technology buyers want from their suppliers is based on the analysis of detailed focus group interviews and survey data gathered from a broad range of industry leaders in Q3 2021.

According to the report, the focus of sales and marketing in media technology was already changing rapidly pre-pandemic driven by the shift to SaaS and cloud services, smaller projects, faster buying cycles, and increasingly-informed buyers cherry picking the vendors they want to work with. The report examines the way that these changes have only accelerated since, offering strategic insights into evolving buyer/vendor behaviours.

Key findings include:

  • Even after a series of cancelled trade shows, the lure of in-person events remains strong. Trade shows remain the most popular channel for buyers to keep up with industry trends and vendor news, chosen by 83 per cent of respondents.
  • Media still plays a critical role in the industry. Trade press magazines and websites remain important channels of information for 71 per cent of sellers and 69 per cent of buyers.
  • LinkedIn dominates the conversation on social media, with 98 per cent of technology providers and 88 per cent of buyers using it for industry research ‘often’ or ‘sometimes’.
  • 81 per cent of sellers think their company is good at understanding potential customers’ needs, only 61 per cent of buyers agree. This is a dramatic disconnect that suggests vendors need to listen more effectively to their customers.

The report contrasts the attitudes of buyers and sellers in several key areas and delivers valuable insights into how buyers are finding out about the market, how they want to engage with technology providers, the sort of marketing content they’re consuming through which channels, and how vendors can best respond.

“This research reveals the fundamental shifts in the broadcast and media technology buying process that we’re tracking,” said Rob Ambrose, co-founder of Caretta Research and the report’s author. “Buyers want honest, transparent marketing communications from potential suppliers so they can clearly understand what vendors can do, and gauge their ability to deliver. In an increasingly-virtual world building trust has never been more important.”

“The industry is changing rapidly, and as a result the successful sales and marketing strategies that the leading companies are deploying are changing too,” comments Sadie Groom, Bubble Agency CEO. “Modern marketing communications needs to be a two-way process with a clear strategy developed for engaging with customers and prospects and hearing what they want, and it is fascinating to see both the similarities and the differences in emphasis between the two sides of the conversation.”

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