Show organisers SingEx are having to become increasingly inventive and original in order to make sure Tyrexpo Asia different from the other events.
Tyrexpo Asia Adds New Attractions
Tyrexpo Asia has long been considered the leading international tyre industry exhibition in Asia, and with good reason, but in a world where exhibitions are becoming ever more regionalised and segmented, show organisers SingEx are having to become increasingly inventive and original in order to make sure their show remains sufficiently different from all the other events on offer to assure the exhibition maintains its leading position.
Of course, the situation is not helped when the show coincides with another tyre exhibition in Indonesia, an automotive equipment and parts show in Malaysia and a garage equipment show in China, as it did this year. That said, the challenge is wider than that, with Tyrexpo Asia also having to compete with the various annual Chinese tyre shows as well as local tyre industry exhibitions in other South East Asian markets such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia and specialist events such as the Asian Retread Conference.
There is also the fact that many of the equipment suppliers from both the retread and garage sectors who have traditionally supported the show, have decided over the years to either invest in other exhibitions more specific to their niches, or to reduce their participation by no longer displaying equipment on their stands.
Of course, the slack has been taken up by the many Chinese tyre manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and brokers, often supported by Chinese government money, but this has only served to alter the balance of the show to the point that it appears heavily oversubscribed by Chinese traders, a problem which is far from unique to SingEx.
As far as the retreading sector is concerned, the show is still supported by key equipment suppliers like Newera, Liew Koon and Elgi, and by several of the Malaysian tread rubber suppliers including Maxrubber, Eversafe and Sun Rubber, but these suppliers only make up a very small proportion of the total exhibitors at the show.
This change in the market for tyre exhibitions is not an easy one to solve. SingEx do have one advantage in the location, as Singapore is a city which attracts Asians and Westerners alike.
Nonetheless, maintaining Tyrexpo Asia’s position in the market needs more than that. During the show we met with show director Ian Wu to talk about some of the activities and measures SingEx had introduced in order to add new impetus to Tyrexpo Asia.
Speaking towards the end of the first day of the show, Wu professed himself to be satisfied with the response to this year’s event.
“The attendance and buzz at the show is good,” he said. Overall, there has been a growing interest in the South East Asian region, especially as a result of some of the protectionist actions that have been going on around the world. We are expecting a slight growth on 2017 figures and are anticipating around 4,500 to 5,000 attendees in total including both exhibitors and visitors.”
The show certainly did seem to be slightly busier than in recent years, which may well be down to some of the pre-show promotional activities carried out by the organisers.
According to Wu, SingEx carried out 10,000 cold calls to potential visitors prior to the event carried out substantial research to identify levels of awareness at the show and carried out activities such as regional road shows to boost attendance.
“We have been reaching out to the Generation Y segment, as the age group we are most looking to boost,” said Wu. “We’ve also initiated a pre-event business matching platform carried out on a highly personalised basis. In total, we managed to make ca. 400 matches prior to the event. In addition to this, we’ve added more social activities such as pre-event networking for exhibitors and our “Beer O’Clock” events at the end of each exhibition day.”
According to Wu, SingEx will also be carrying out a similar strategy to boost the success of next year’s Tyrexpo Africa event. Indeed, the company says it is looking to achieve double-digit growth in both the Asia and Africa markets.
“What we have found over the last few years is that the old formula for marketing exhibitions no longer works,” said Wu. “We are therefore commencing our marketing of events much earlier than we used to and trying multiple formats in order to attract both attendees and exhibitors. At the end of the day we have to create the right business platform to make it interesting for people to exhibit. We believe we are achieving this.”
SingEx创新为亚洲轮胎展增添新动力
亚洲轮胎展（Tyrexpo Asia）一直以来都被认为是亚洲领先的国际轮胎工业展览会。放眼全球，许多展会都按照地理区域和市场细分得更加精细。因此，本展会主办单位新SingEx必须要比过去更有创意，确保展会与其他类似活动有很大的区别，以保持领先地位。
今年，该展会与印尼的轮胎展，马来西亚汽车设备与零件展，以及中国车行设备展撞期，让这一切变得更不容易，并且更具有挑战性。此外，亚洲轮胎展还必须与中国各地的轮胎展和东南亚市场如菲律宾、越南和马来西亚等地轮胎展，以及亚洲翻新大会（Asian Retread Conference）竞争。
传统上支持该展会的修车和翻新业者，在过去几年已经决定参加其他更专业或更利基的展会，甚至缩小展览面积，不再展示设备。
当然，许多经常获得政府资助的中国轮胎制造商、进口商、批发商和代理已经采取上述措施，以平衡中国贸易商过度认购的情况。这个问题并非SingEx独有。
就翻新行业来说，该展会仍然受到纽耶拉、刘坤和Elgi等主要设备供应商以及马来西亚几家胎面胶供应商（包括马胶，永安和日升橡胶）的支持，但这些供应商仅占展会参展商的一小部份。
这种轮胎展览市场的变化并不容易解决。SingEx确实在地理位置具有优势，因为新加坡是一个能够吸引亚洲人和西方人的城市。
尽管如此，要维持亚洲轮胎展在市场地位还是需要更多的努力。在展会期间，我们与活动总监Ian Wu会面，讨论SingEx为亚洲轮胎展推出的一些活动和措施。
在第一天展会结束后，Ian Wu自称对今年的展会反应感到满意。
他表示：“展会出席人数和反应相当热烈。整体而言，人们对东南亚地区越来越感兴趣，尤其是世界各地正在发生一些保护主义行动。 我们预计2017年的数据将略有增长，预计参展商和访客人数的总额约4,500至5,000人。
该活动看起来确实比近年来得稍微热闹，主要原因很可能是主办单位在展前的推广活动。
根据Ian Wu，SingEX在展会前夕拨打了10，000个推销电话（cold call），以确保更多人知道展会详情，并且举办区域路演等活动，以提高出席率。
“我们一直在接触Y世代市场，因为这是我们希望提高的年龄层。我们也推出一个高度个性化的商务配对平台。整体来说，我们成功在展会前完成400个配对。此外，我们也增加更多的社交活动，例如在参展前，我们增设交流活动，以及在每天展会结束时的“Beer O’Clock”活动。
Ian Wu透露，SingEx在明年的非洲轮胎展也将采取上述措施，以确保展会的成功。该公司希望在亚洲和非洲市场可以创下双位数增长。
“过去几年，我们发现陈旧的行销展会方法不再奏效。因此，我们比以往更早开始我们的展会行销活动，并且尝试采用多种形式，以吸引访客和参展商。 在一天结束后，我们必须提供合适的商业平台，才能让更多人有兴趣参展。 我相信我们正在朝向这一个目标。”
