Informa Markets, the division of Informa previously known as Informa Exhibitions, has introduced a new name, brand identity and corporate website. The announcement comes less than a year after the organiser announced the acquisition of UBM in a deal worth £3.9bn.
EW's sister publication EN sat down with Charlie McCurdy, Informa Markets CEO, to learn more about the rebrand and the continued integration of UBM.
Tell us about the origins of the rebrand
We saw an opportunity as we put together two very similar-sized organisations to create a common brand that represented what everyone set out to do in their day-to-day work. Over the last three or four years, we’ve been stressing that not only do we want to be really effective organisers of exhibitions but also to look at the dynamics of the markets that we serve in a more comprehensive way, in a practice that we have called ‘being a market maker’. That puts us in a position where we’ve made tremendous progress in not only how we conduct the exhibition business but how we add to it through digital and data-driven activities in the markets that we cover.
Can you tell us more about plans to expand digital and data side of the business?
The exhibition business is a wonderful business. The excitement of staging an event is palpable. At the same time, underlying all of those activities are the interfaces we have with exhibitors and visitors. We generate a lot of data, and a lot of content comes into our orbit, and so what we’re able to do is create a deeper understanding of the dynamics of an industry or a marketplace and do a better job of linking people.
We have been reinforcing existing business in a more effective way using the data that we have. By having the data structured similarly, and able to be pooled in a meaningful way, we can understand different suppliers’ behaviours in different regions of the world, and different buyers’ interests, and use that to direct a more productive experience on the show floor and beyond.
What’s next for Informa Markets?
UBM’s portfolio and Informa’s legacy portfolio are, by and large, are quite strong and performing well, so the number one job is to just let that success continue.
Having said that, we’re quite excited about what we can do incrementally as an organising company through cross-selling and through cross-launching events both on a co-located basis and on a freestanding basis. Our ability to leverage technologies consistently across portfolios is very exciting as far as our ability to market better, sell better and create digital connectivity in a way that complements our events.
