Marketing

Expo.02 expected around 4.3 million visitors to come to the Arteplages. In order to achieve this target, Expo.02's marketing managers had various instruments at their disposal, such as visitor marketing, marketing communication and the Local Operator. The sale of products on the Arteplages (sales-on-site) and merchandising were also part of the marketing programme.

Marketing Expo.02 was more than just advertising and hoping that people would go to a ticket counter and buy a ticket. Rather, the focus was on active target group-specific marketing: A school trip to Expo.02? The next club outing to the national exhibition? An Expo.02 ticket as an ideal gift for business partners? Why not enrich a holiday in Switzerland with a trip to the National Exhibition?

Visitor marketing

Visitor marketing was divided into the various core target groups of Expo.02:

  • Companies
  • Associations
  • Schools
  • Families
  • Visitors from abroad

Each segment was targeted with specific measures.

Companies
Companies and partners of Expo.02 were primarily visited in person and encouraged to place collective orders, organise company outings and/or buy gifts.

Associations
Associations were mainly approached with direct marketing, i.e. by sending out letters and brochures.

Schools
In schools, personal presentations of Expo.02 in the cantons or at teachers' conferences proved particularly successful. Over 400,000 pupils were expected to attend Expo.02. Didactic material on the themes of the national exhibition was also produced for schools.

Families
In addition to free admission for children under the age of 6, families enjoyed a particularly favourable offer: for children and young people up to the age of 16 with the SBB Junior Card accompanied by a parent, a visit to the National Exhibition was free of charge.

Marketing abroad
Marketing abroad focused on the European countries, mainly neighbouring Germany and France, as well as the Swiss abroad. Expo.02 worked closely with the largest tour operators (e.g. TUI, DERTOUR), which marketed Expo.02 by means of travel catalogues. Expo.02 was also present at the most important tourism trade fairs and worked closely with Switzerland Tourism on advertising and communication.

Marketing communication

Marketing communication includes:

  • Traditional advertising
  • Brand presence
  • Expo.02.mobile
  • Expo.02 Ambassadeurs

Their main task was to whet the appetite of the general public for Expo.02 and motivate them to visit. The Expo.02 publicity was divided into several stages to reflect the current status of the project. Expo.02 was supported by the advertising agency Publicis, which was responsible for the creation and realisation of the individual phases, as well as the planning of the appropriate media in each case.

Cooperation between the Marketing Directorate and the Departments of Information and Public Relations and Publications played an important role in ensuring targeted communication work. The measures were also coordinated with the official partners and exhibition/event partners.

Local Operator

The Local Operator was the tour operator for Expo.02 groups and was responsible for the interface between product and sales. The Local Operator provided offers for organised visits to Expo.02 (packages) and sold them to customers with the support of Marketing. In particular, admission and event tickets, accommodation, meals, event facilities, boat transfers, HPM hire vehicles and Easy Access could be booked with the Local Operator. Expo.02's own services were supplemented with suitable third-party offers (e.g. hotel accommodation). The local operator's customers were exclusively groups (associations, companies, schools of 10 people or more) and tour operators in Switzerland and abroad.