Time, consistency, technical accuracy and control. Today, more than ever before, trade fairs and shows have become event brands that move quickly, and with the same brand logic, from country to country. This phenomenon is no longer valid only for giants such as MWC or COSMOPROF, but now extends to all events that are expanding on an international scale or have the potential for global development in the near future. It is common for leading visitors and exhibitors to follow the event across continents with two or three exhibitions in the same portfolio year. Consistency in the management of all communication modules, such as hanging and digital signage, marketing collaterals, outdoor advertising and the whole at-large infographics for the event, is crucial. Within a fragmented framework of end suppliers, often contractually imposed by local trade fair organisers, this management method is particularly complex and a nightmare for event managers. Even when a brand bible is available to consult, it is not always followed and implemented by micro printing firms. These are often subcontractor companies, unfamiliar with the event branding, that have been guaranteed business by the fair to provide signage and advertising, resulting in an overburden of volume that makes it unrealistic to guarantee relative control over form and content. For many events the instructions focus on quality over content, and suppliers then find themselves having to send their employees to the venue at the eleventh hour with the ticket counters already open. This leads to extra reprint and final costs well known to the event’s marketing managers, which inevitably means going over budget and hiking up the expenses added to the fixed price lists set by the local trade fair organisers. This is before we also take into account the problems with logistics and safety created by last-minute setting up of the stands once the gates are already open to welcome visitors, with further penalties to bump up the final invoice amounts. For this reason, in the upstream management of files it is essential to arrive as prepared as possible, standardising the management of DTP files, digital advertising, videos and graphics, as well as the management of textual content; reducing the number of steps in the layout of graphic content and decreasing the margin of error, enriching event after event with a range of digital templates for text layout, all managed under the same umbrella, continuously updated and easily modified by the marketing manager according to their demands, without constantly looking for feedback from distant micro-enterprises, not used to dealing directly with senior management and often not even ready to communicate in English or in the client’s language. Translation and DTP and translations with InDesign are just some of the specific issues well known to those working in the events industry. Fortunately, these are issues for which BBLTranslation and PURPLEPRINT Creative present a unique solution as successful and experienced insiders.
