succeet 2022 - Impressions
I visited the succeet conference-cum-trade fair last week in Munich. For those of you not familiar with it, it's the successor organisation to what was known as Research and Results, which packed up business a couple of years ago.
Lead by a team initially of Heinrich Fischer, Simone Waller-Klink, and joined by the Editor of marktforshung.de Holger Geißler, it's a yearly fixture, and certainly on the map of many researchers in the DACH region.
2022 was it's second year in existence - 2021 was apparently still muted by things like COVID face masks, so not really comparable.
So how was it, what did I learn?
In-Person Experience
Some observations:
- there was a genuine buzz about the place. Whether people are still enjoying the in-person experience post-covid, or the industry feels optimistic despite all the head-winds - difficult to say.
- as always, it proved a great meeting place to bump into people. Digital is great, but if you've only ever e-met someone say on LinkedIn, the in-person meet-up is so much more valuable. I had quite a few of these meetings with big names on the international MR circuit.
- plenty of new faces. The mix of exhibitors seemed different to previous years. Civey was present - a major newer and disruptive presence in the German MR space. There was also a dedicated start-up area, with an adjacent stage for shorter pitches, less glam than say IIEX but certainly audible. Happy Thinking People - my own company - was back after many years absence with a sponsorship package.
- sample providers such as Bilendi-Respondi seemed to be attracting the sort of crowds that previously were pulled by the likes of TNS. Sorry Kantar. Maybe calling party-hour relatively early towards the end of day one is something others could learn from.
- some major faces were missing. GIM, for example, who came top in the overall MR rankings of the 2021 image study conducted by marktforschung.de.
- there were also whole segments of the expanded MR/analytics space such as DIY or CX software providers, not to mention analytics providers who were poorly represented. Not that they ever have been, to my recollection - the industry still exists in separate spaces, it seems.
I also noticed a number of international players exhibiting from the Anglo-US space - some SaaS AI providers, for example, with smaller booths, placed peripherically. Maybe they're just testing the waters in Germany, but my sense is that to succeed, a culturally-attuned approach begins with speaking the language, not just by being present and having a few flyers available in English.
ROI? Think long, not just short!
Was it worth the effort? It's quite an ask - individually and for companies.
I'd say yes - despite being quite demanding. But that's like most things in life - no effort, no reward. At least that's what I told myself on the long S Bahn trip from my hotel which was sadly on the other side of Munich - which I booked by mistake with zero flexibility to re-book, having captured the lowest price.
And lead generation? Yes for sure - there were plenty of clients there. But as the folk from Bass Ehrenberg suggest, successful b2b marketing is a lot about creating memories, or points of category entry as they put it rather obliquely. Which is where shared personal experiences come in - in-person conversations, exchanges, in-person presentations... with higher degrees of stickiness than digital equivalents.
The next succeet in 2023 is planned for Wiesbaden. Which is near Frankfurt. Germany. Europe. So bye-bye to the M.O.C Munich conference area - I won't miss the rather alienating location, but I will cherish the memories.
And partiuclar kudos to Mssrs Fischer, Waller-Klink for making this whole thing happen in the first place. And to Holger Geißler for leaning forward.
As well as the perhaps unsung team heroes - Fr. Frank, S. Weich and P. Beißwanger.
Curious, as ever, as to others' views.