Kimble faces flack as Clarion acquires defence shows

Within minutes of Clarion Events confirming it had acquired DSEi, ITEC and LAAD defence exhibitions from Reed Exhibitions today, managing director Simon Kimble got his first taste of the level of animosity towards the shows. A blogger calling himself Johnny Void posted a scathing attack on the largest independent exhibition organiser in the UK and urged people to write to 'laughing boy' Kimble to let him know how they feel about his latest acquisition.

Last summer, Reed chief executive, Crispin Davis, announced that Reed would sever ties with the arms industry by the end of 2007. The decision was in response to pressure from anti-arms-trade campaigners and writers at Reed Elsevier's scientific journals. "The sale of these three exhibitions to Clarion Events completes Reed Exhibitions' withdrawal from the defence-exhibitions sector announced in 2007," Reed said today in a statement.

It was always going to take a brave man to take on the ownership of DSEi, Europe's largest arms fair. In 2005, The Independent newspaper discovered that an exhibitor was offering cluster bombs for sale. Clarion Defence has acted swiftly to announce on the DSEi website its decision to ban from display, publication, offer or marketing in any form, all munitions and references to them, that can loosely be described as Cluster Munitions.

This move, however welcome, will do little to silence the Disarm DSEi movement. But it does indicate that Kimble is readying himself for the long diplomacy battle that lies ahead. I know Simon Kimble. He's an ambitious business savvy entrepreneur who is moving into waters deeper than he's ever swum before. Asked by the Guardian about ethical concerns over the acquisition, Kimble said today: "The events we have acquired are thriving with full government support, serving only the legitimate global defence-and-security industry. Exhibitors and visitors must adhere to the highest regulatory scrutiny, not just complying with but exceeding UK and international law. Defence and security is a legitimate business like any other and we will apply the same very high standards, rigour, experience and skill to organising events in this sector as we do in all of our others."

The next DSEi runs in September 2009 at Excel. Between now and then, Kimble will be forced to face some of the toughest personal and professional challenges of his career. That in itself will determine his diplomacy and bravery. I hope, along the way his passion for every event he manages will help tighten and regulate further an industry that could otherwise so easily spill blood on his hands.

Behind the headlines: Excel & Mask

Whilst I’ve been sitting in the editor’s chair at Revolution, my former editorial team on Event magazine has been chasing major breaking news. First, Excel London, the exhibition centre in Docklands was sold for £321million to a UK subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company.

This summer, the venue can finally begin phase two of its long-awaited development plans. The £150million second phase will take Excel London to around 100,000sqm of flexible flat floor exhibition and conference space. It will represent a major investment in providing event facilities of world scale in London, as well as supporting the capital’s ambition to host an increasing number of high profile domestic and international shows.

The sale has resulted in the departure of chief executive Jamie Buchan – replaced by former deputy CEO Kevin Murphy. Jamie joined Excel in February 2002, a year after I started on Event magazine. He wrote to tell me he was stepping down and to thank me for my ‘friendship and support’. Shortly after his appointment I criticised Excel for its cold appearance. On my next visit, Jamie had lined the venue atrium with palm trees. He was always ready to listen, had a real passion for the future success of the venue and would go out of his way to acknowledge everyone in a room. As the race now gets under way to complete Excel's development before Olympic year, I sincerely hope Jamie is able to retain his non-executive status on the Visit London board and I wish him well in his next venture.

Mask , a 20-year old party agency run by Arthur Somerset has sadly been less fortunate in securing its financial future as an independent agency. The Concerto Group was called to its rescue this month and has now added Mask to a portfolio that includes rival agencies the Ultimate Experience and Event Wise, as well as caterer Create, team building provider Business Pursuits and structure supplier Witney UK.

Mask’s principal contract to provide parties at the Truman Galleries in November and December remains unaffected and I understand Arthur has joined the Concerto Group as a consultant for the next two years. Arthur is one of the industry’s more colourful characters. During my seven years as editor of Event and RSVP magazines, his support and ‘Ask Arthur’ agony uncle advice was always appreciated whilst his maverick bad-boy behaviour and strong opinions set him apart from his rivals. I wish him well.

Ecocho: the green search alternative

Sticking with the subject of online search, the guys at experiential agency Sledge have discovered Ecocho. Powered by Yahoo!, Ecocho is a new search engine trying to make a difference for climate change.

For every 1000 searches users make on Echocho, the Australian-based company will offset a ton of greenhouse gases by sponsoring two trees. It's a free service, trees are grown via official Government-accredited projects and KPMG is auditing the scheme on a quarterly basis. Switching to ecocho.com doesn't alter or slow your search. Search results are displayed via Yahoo! technology and it's one of the easiest ways people can change their everyday behaviour to make a positive impact on the environment. For further information on Echocho click here

View from the editor's chair: Search wars

My first week in the editor’s chair at Revolution has been all about online search. As Yahoo! crawls from the wreckage of a failed $47.5bn merger with Microsoft, I was interested to find out how all the major search engines were faring. On the day I filed my copy, the Financial Times declared Google triumphant in the battle of the search wars. The FT article however, fails to speak to Microsoft or even Yahoo! for that matter, before declaring that war is over.

It’s true that by next year, half of the world’s online advertising – set to reach £28bn in total - is expected to flow through Google’s systems. And that Google has 87% of the UK’s search share compared with Yahoo’s 4% and MSN’s 3.7%. But for Microsoft, the fight is a long way from concluded. It now has a mulit-billion dollar war chest and new armies could be recruited from AOL or social networking tie-ups with Facebook.
Since the doomed merger treaty, MSN has already made huge improvements to Live Search including a really cool video search mechanic that plays the clips whenever you scroll over them.

A Yahoo! insider promised me that it’s search results will start to look completely different in the coming months. Digital agencies are split between fearing the writing may be on the wall for Yahoo! or predicting a return to the negotiating table.

Meanwhile, Chris Dobson, Microsoft acting general manager, Consumer and Online International UK told me that Microsoft has a history of playing the long game to win. Whilst Google has become the ‘search verb’, Microsoft has achieved verb status in Instant Messenger. I predict that the search battle lines will now be redrawn around chat and video.
“This is still an early dawn in the search world and the fight is by no means over,” says Dobson. I agree.
The full article appears in the June issue of Revolution

View from the editor's chair: Digital marketing

Digital marketing magazine Revolution is getting a new editor. Gareth Jones takes the hot seat on 2 June. Until then, I'm steering the good ship Revolution for one issue only. Last month I wrote about the digital landscape I've now inherited (as featured in Revolution's Digital Media Buyer's Guide).

The digital landscape is a complex and often confusing place. By its very nature it’s fast moving and therefore difficult to analyse. And yet there are a total of eight different research providers and studies, which all employ different methodologies and produce largely non-comparative data.

The need for information on site traffic, user trends and online advertising has never been more important. At the turn of the year, Group M, the combined media planning and buying operation owned by Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP group predicted that UK internet advertising spend will overtake TV, which has been the leading advertising medium for a half a century, in 2009.
By the end of 2008, according to Group M, the internet will account for 24.8% of UK media spend, just behind the 26% share held by the TV ad sector. UK internet revenue is likely to climb by 30.8% this year to £3.4bn compared with just 1% year-on-year growth in TV ad spend to around £3.56bn. It’s not hard to see what will happen if both internet and TV revenues continue to grow at this current rate. And it’s easy to appreciate why online data is rapidly becoming the holy grail of the media and marketing strategy.

So what do we know? In 2007 there were 29.8 million people online, which accounted for 63% of the total UK population. Now, there are 32 million people online – 67% of the total British adult population.

According to the BRMB Internet Monitor August 2007, more than 85% of UK internet users have been online for at least three years. And sites where people can buy products or services are still proving to be the most popular online destinations along with checking the weather forecasts.

The power of Google remains dominant. Marketing strategies that use the search engine’s advertising products can relax in the knowledge that in February this year, 27.3 million British users visited Google, which accounts for 84% of the active UK internet population, according to Nielsen Online.

The average internet-related time spent per person during February was 17 hours and 46 minutes. And according to the BRMB August report, the most popular online activity is still the use of email. But at 28.2 million users, three million more of us do it compared with the 25.2million email users in 2006.

More than 13.2 million households in the UK now have a broadband connection compared with 9.9 million in 2006 according to Continental Research. This accounts for 90% of all internet users, up from 84% the year before. According to a report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Broadband penetration is expected to continue rising and is predicted to be in 75% of all homes by 2010.

BRMB states that 58% of internet users are now going online every day and Nielsen Netratings’ report in September 2006 measured the average length of each user session to be 53 minutes.

Online advertising
UK online advertising spend increased by 38% last year to reach £2.8bn, according to research published by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Pricewaterhouse Coopers on 7 April. In just three years, online advertising spend has increased by £2bn and looks set to justify the predication by M Group at the start of 2008. The medium now has a market share of 15.3%, up from 11.4% in 2006 and is already larger than press classifieds and regional newspapers.

IAB chief executive Guy Phillipson says: “To grow 38% from £2bn to £2.8bn is a very powerful performance and with 15.3% market share of media spend, the UK is head and shoulders above all other major world markets. It’s clear, marketing directors now recognise the value of online to drive their business and more and more are using rich media and video to build their brands, just as they do on TV.”

Total internet display advertising spend saw a 31% year-on-year increase whilst the core formats – banners, skyscrapers and embedded rich media including video – grew by 45% to £592m. Furthermore, spend on embedded formats has doubled during the past two years to account for 79% of total display.

Paid-for search marketing is maturing as marketers become more sophisticated in their use of the medium. In 2007, search grew by 39% in line with overall growth to £1.6bn compared with £1.2bn in 2006. Its market share however remained largely the same at 57.6% compared with 57.8% in 2006.

There’s no doubt that brands are now using search more intelligently, getting a greater return on investment through key phrases and more accurate targeting that reflects consumer behaviour. According to the IAB findings, classified advertising saw a 54% year-on-year growth and was worth £585.3m in 2007 as consumers and marketers recognise online’s reach, flexibility and immediacy.

The breakdown of industry categories in the report reveals that the recruitment sector continues to lead with 25.7% market share, up 0.9 points on the second half of 2006. Second is automotive with 11.9% while technology at 10.4% has overtaken finance at 10% for the first time to take third spot.
Other sectors experiencing high online ad spend growth include retail, which increased by 1.7 points to 5% as a result of a buoyant e-commerce sector and consumer goods, which increased by 1% to account for 5.3% of spend. For the first time, the property sector broke into the top five with a market share of 7.9%.

The key driver for growth is obviously the increased UK online audience. But maybe more surprisingly, the over 50s make up 30% of internet users compared with 21% coming from the 25-34 age range. As the population continues to get older and stay older for longer, it’s this demographic that will fuel the next wave of online advertising spend.

Under the bridge with Banksy

For three days only, a disused tunnel next to Waterloo station formed a canvas for hundreds of stencil works created especially for the Cans Festival.
Banksy joined 30 graffiti artists to create an exhibition of urban art. For me, it was the perfect opportunity to put my new Canon IXUS to good use. For aspiring Banksy artists, they were invited to bring a stencil and contribute to the display, making this a truly open and community based art fest.

Click here for part one of my photos from the Cans Festival
Click here for part two of my photos from the Cans Festival