...The Baby Expo space...

Baby expo for the Soweto market!

Baba Indaba has announced the introduction of a new baby expo targeting visitors in the Johannesburg southern and south western areas. The choice of the newly renovated Johannesburg Expo Centre as a venue has already created much excitement amongst the larger brands and many smaller brands who have realised that this is a market not to be ignored.  In 2010 newcomers to the baby expo market have added to the options for the marketer, with one existing expo, oddly, choosing to repeat their show twice in one year at the same venue.  The Baba Indaba research has indicated that a huge gap has been filled with their new expo at the end of August.  The new venue thereby opens a completely new market. 

The introduction of the Kids Indaba as a separate expo running alongside the Baba Indaba has a brilliant dual role of retaining the interest of the parent market as they move into the second and third siblings as well as providing a great new place for the older siblings to enjoy the more advanced activities targeted at the junior school child.  See the Kids Indaba website for more details as they develop.

Baba Indaba setting the pace!

The Western Cape exhibition industry is alive and well.  Agri Expo, The National Boat Show, Homemakers, Expo-Screens and Baba Indaba all taking awards away from the recent EXSA awards function.  Baba Indaba winning the Top Woman award for gender empowerment in the SMME sector, Best consumer expo in the category and a Gold award for "Most Memorable Event"

Winning expos. Baba Indaba winning for their Cape Town baby expo

  At the 2009 EXSA Awards evening - The Cape Town winners

Kids Indaba to exhibit alongside Baba Indaba in 2010

Three City Events recently launched Kids Indaba at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.  This new expo is aimed at your child aged 6-12 years old.  Running the two expos alongside one another will capitalise on the synergy of appealing to the older siblings while creating a separate brand and unique visitor market of its own.  "The excitement for this new expo has been infectious.  Their has been a tremendous buzz around this new expo" says Natalie Naude the show director at Three City Events.  "The new website will be launched in 2010 with the usual exhibitor information as well as fun stuff for the Kids"  Contact Natalie at 021 689 3262 or natalie(at)kidsindaba.co.za.

Sandton Baba Indaba refused to participate in the recession:

With more than 150 exhibitors at the Sandton Convention Centre record sales were shown by many.   More than 29,000 visitors were treated to a display of new and innovative products from a number of new entrants into the market.  "The economy seems still to be affecting the larger suppliers but the SMME market is willing to tighten their belts in other ways in order to expose their baby products to this niche market" says Chris Naude CEO of  Three City Events.

Some new and really great designs were seen at the Designer's Platform.  Baby clothing, baby furniture, and maternity wear all featured new startups in the baby goods market.

Recent Cape Town Baba Indaba brings new business:

The Baba Indaba Cape Town expo lead the way with the innovative e-baby concept.  Smaller exhibitors were able to retail their products through this new retailer in the baby market. Exhibitors not able to or not wishing to retail direct to the public were able to market their products through this new retail outlet. e-baby will sell products online and at all of the Baba Indaba expos.  The retail outlet reported sales figures only marginally lower than sold in previous years.  "Considering the economy and the relative immaturity of e-baby we were really happy with the turnover......  we are expecting real growth at the Sandton expo and going forward to 2010"

Baby Expos and the economy

The organisers of the Baba Indaba baby expo have reported that they have also noticed the effect of the "economic downturn"  Interestingly this was felt among the larger companies more than the smaller exhibitors.  Marketing budgets are being cut all around according to Chris Naude of Three City Events. "It was much more difficult to get exhibitors to commit to exhibiting in 2009 than in 2008.  Everyone is leaving the decision as late as possible making the planning extremely difficult.  So far we have been lucky and not had to cut any exhibitions as has been the case for some other oganisers."  Interestingly most organisers are reporting only a small drop off in visitors perhaps indicating that in hard times people are still keen to look for the best deal especially when it comes to purchases for their babies. "We still have in excess of 80,000 babies being born annually in each of our exhibition areas and we expect our Pretoria baby expo to reflect a little more optimism than earlier in the year" reports Chris.

EXSA annual conference:

Delegates from the exhibition industry in South Africa recently gathered at the Lord Charles hotel in Somerset West for the association annual conference.  Speakers from various industry sectors within SA and abroad spoke on a variety of topics that both inspired and reinforced the resolve of those present to ensure high profile, ethical and environmentally friendly management of the industry. It was generally agreed that the South African exhibition industry is in a good state of health and is destined to play a more and more important role in marketing in South Africa.

For more detail see the conference website: http://www.exsaconference2009.co.za

Congratulations to Baba Indaba - Best Exhibition of the Year again!

The Exhibition Association of South Africa once again voted Baba Indaba best consumer exhibition in its category.  The Durban Baba Indaba of 2008 was voted by the judges to be the best consumer exhibition in the -6,000 square metre category at the annual EXSA awards function held in Johannesburg in November this year.  Event organiser Natalie Naude believes that this proves the important role of exhibitions in the marketing options available to suppliers to the growing baby industry.

The 2009 dates for Baba Indaba expos are:

Durban expo:   27-29 March at the Durban Exhibition Centre

Pretoria expo:  12-14 June at the Tshwane Expo centre

Cape Town Expo:  8-10 August at the CTICC

Johannesburg:      23-25 October at the Sandton Convention Centre

 

Baby and Kids expos are the way of the future.

London now supports two such expos.  Well they have the population to support it.  Can you believe that Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban are all hosting two major expos per year while Pretoria, just a few km from Johannesburg is playing host to yet another.  The Launch of this new Pretoria Baby expo in the form of a baby photo competition at one of the largest shopping centres, Menlyn Park was exceptionally well received with hundreds of proud parents wanting to enter the competition.  The winner to appear on the cover of the Baba Indaba Magazine.

Showing faith in the experiential marketinig model, the organisers have chosen to market their expos through the medium of shopping centres, direct marketing as well as the more traditional TV, Radio, print and outdoor media.  The reception at Menlyn sugests that this will prove to be a winning strategy.

Baby expos as a credible marketing medium!

The importance and stature of exhibitions is growing daily with a greater and greater percentage of marketing spend being spent in the exhibition industry.  In no area is this more true than the category of the baby expos.  In South Africa for instance, following a few small expos over the years, those such as the Baba Indaba expo have grown dramatically in three years and are now considered a vital part of the marketing strategies for most baby related products. This, coupled with a growth in the industry as a whole has ensured an industry with a steadily growing future.  If you have Baby products or services related to the Baby market and are looking for places to exhibit your wares, check out some of these exhibitions around the world.

If you would like your exhibition listed on this site or would like to publish a press release on this site,  or you simply have a great baby related website that you would like linked please contact us and supply information about your show or site.