Since 2001, the UFI Marketing Committee has organised the “UFI Marketing Award”, whose main purpose is to reward the best marketing initiatives undertaken by exhibition professionals. Since 2006 this competition is open to UFI members and non-members alike.

The UFI Marketing Award 2022 invited the most innovative and successful strategies for exhibition organisers to sustain, grow and remain successful in this ‘changing world of events’ to step forward. The award recognises the strategy that best demonstrates, in a comprehensible and measurable way, how the company’s marketing objectives, campaigns and activities have been tailored to meet the new demands of their target audiences in a post-COVID-19 world.

After deliberations, the 2022 UFI Marketing Award was granted to the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) for the “Best marketing strategy in a changing exhibition industry”.

TCEB President, Mr. Chiruit Isarangkun Na Ayuthaya said, “This UFI 2022 Marketing Award not only is a great honor but further gives us confidence in our commitment to supporting the MICE innovation to stimulate sustainable growth and further create a meaningful impact to the country’s economy, particularly in times of difficulty. Thailand Exhibition and Convention Bureau had promoted MICE innovation during the challenging time to be followed by this Winnovation, or ‘win with innovation’, that acts as a business platform between the developer and the end user.  With the success of this marketing strategy, we help MICE entrepreneurs develop while deepening an innovative mindset in which they need to be adaptable, tolerant, and creative in their search for newer approaches to cope up with the changes in exhibition industry.”

“The Winnovation, however, is one of our works to support the MICE industry to achieve our main goal of sustainable growth and stands to benefit the Thai MICE and beyond,” concluded Mr. Chiruit.

The working team included:

  1. Supawan Teerarat
  2. Jaruwan Rose Suwannasat
  3. Mac Asadachatreekul
  4. Narasak Muangkaew
  5. Thassawan Chomchit
  6. Khunita A.

Holger Feist, Chair of UFI Marketing Working Group said, “Change seemed to be the only constant for many in our industry over the last year. So it was only consequent to honour the ‘Best marketing strategy in a changing exhibition industry’ with the UFI 2022 Marketing Award. How were new demands imposed by the pandemic met? Which challenges had to be overcome? What about the originality of the solution, and how could others benefit from it? The winner has taken a broad perspective, looking at a country’s entire MICE industry. It has applied a novel approach, designing a multi-faceted programme to foster innovation and technology adoption in the MICE sector – including matchmaking with start-ups, innovation vouchers and expert workshops. And while delivering a state of the art data-driven campaign, the winner has shown that in the end, it is not all about technology: It is the shift in mindset that matters. Congratulations from the entire jury to the ‘MICE Winnovation – Defeating the pandemic. Winning with innovation’ project. Congratulations to TCEB, the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau.“

Entries were evaluated based on the following elements:

• How the market strategy meets the new demands imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic
• The key challenges faced during the delivery of the strategy (timings, location, authority regulations, budget implications, etc.)
• The process used to develop the marketing strategy
• The key elements of the marketing strategy (target groups, value propositions, key selling points, clearly defined and measurable objectives and communication channels)
• Sales support provided by the marketing team
• Results and lessons learned

The winning team is invited to present their winning project at the UFI Global Congress this November.

For more information about the UFI Marketing Award, please visit www.ufi.org/awards/marketing-award.