International Boston Seafood Show

National and regional print exposure helped this trade show beat declining attendance.

Since 1997, PAN has served as PR agency of record for the International Boston Seafood Show (IBSS), the city's largest trade event and the world's leading conference and tradeshow for the seafood industry. Over the years, PAN has successfully positioned the Boston Seafood Show as an annual, must-attend for seafood professionals, featuring more than 750 exhibitors and visitors from more than 80 countries.

The Challenge

"The public relations strategy PAN implemented to help overcome the 2002 trend of decreased tradeshow attendance and raise awareness of the International Boston Seafood Show provided us with the visibility we were seeking to maintain attendee numbers. Ultimately we credit PAN's efforts in helping drive demand, and keeping us first in the minds of seafood professionals."

Ruth Auslander
Marketing Manager, Diversified Business Communications

Show management was faced with new challenges in 2002, as the aftermath of 9/11 forced most tradeshow attendance numbers to drop due to restricted travel and declining budgets for exhibiting companies. PAN set out to differentiate the International Boston Seafood Show among other trade show events, with a goal to help capture the event's usual record-high attendance from both a press and visitor standpoint.

The Approach

PAN was charged with reaching an even larger audience than previous years to combat the current state of the tradeshow industry. The team set out to gain the attention of not only the print trade and consumer media, but placed a higher emphasis on local and national broadcast coverage. To gain such attention, PAN partnered closely with exhibitors, speakers and buyers participating in the event in order to interest the media in IBSS happenings and leverage show participants for trend segments. After successfully uncovering several newsworthy angles, ranging from the effect of bioterrorism on the seafood industry to the health benefits of eating seafood to celebrity chef involvement in the show, PAN then pitched a series of exclusives to key national and local broadcast outlets, carefully timing stories in conjunction with the show's opening day.

The Results

The high level of media and broadcast participation secured at the 2002 event was tremendous. By leveraging the creativity and knowledge of IBSS exhibitors and its arsenal of seafood health experts in particular, PAN generated an unprecedented buzz around the 2002 International Boston Seafood Show.

As a testament to its media success, PAN garnered 33 pieces of coverage for IBSS, 14 of which were broadcast hits. Event-related segments ran on top-tier national and regional outlets including CNN, NECN's Phantom Gourmet, and Boston's WB in the Morning. In addition, IBSS was also featured during the nightly news on all six local broadcast TV outlets.

High-level print media exposure complemented the broadcast coverage secured by the PAN team, with exclusive stories running simultaneously in the Associated Press, Boston Herald, and the Boston Business Journal. The quality and quantity of the final media results speak for themselves. With a greater emphasis on broadcast coverage, PAN helped play a major role in retaining the attendee base that IBSS has enjoyed for the last nineteen years and made the Boston Seafood Show live up to its reputation as the premiere forum for networking, launching new products, meeting new buyers, and discovering what's new in the seafood industry.