A special email campaign announcing a ‘new’ exhibition taking place in the Birmingham NEC during September has caused quite a stir in the gardening industry.  i2i Events Group, the organisers of Glee 2014, sent out the email to promote its new Green Shoots feature, and now claim the marketing ploy has worked a treat...

i2i’s Matthew Mein, Glee’s event manager, said: “Over the past few months we’ve been working tirelessly to develop a program for Glee that is unlike any show that has come before.  ‘New, new and even more new’ really does encapsulate this year’s show, as every step around the 2014 show will offer exhibitors and visitors something different.  From the layout and new location, to the raft of amazing features and content that we’ve got planned, we believe that Glee 2014 will work harder than ever before.  Whilst we’ve been communicating these changes we thought it might be good to have a bit of fun with it, and see if people would recognise the changes and automatically link it back to Glee.  

“The response to the email has been fantastic, and has opened up new lines of communication with both existing and potential exhibitors and visitors.  Many people instantly recognised the branding and messaging, whilst some others worried that there was a pretender to the ‘garden retail exhibition’ crown, prompting them to quickly pledge their allegiance to Glee! Either way, the email has certainly got people talking, and has helped us to reiterate that Glee 2014 will be new. 

"From the very second you walk into the show this sense of newness will be felt, and we believe it will positively impact on the show, helping people to build better business, source new and exciting products, gather inspiration, and network with even more companies than ever before.  All of this comes together as an extremely exciting prospect; one that we hope the industry shares with us as we rapidly approach the opening of the 2014 show.”