Advertising played a rather subordinate role at the national exhibition: on the one hand, it was not possible to communicate the countless contents and information of Expo.02 with advertising, on the other hand, the available resources did not permit a massive presence. A large part of the communication was therefore covered by media work, and specific messages were integrated into the advertising.

Partner marketing and communication

The financial resources of Expo.02's partners exceeded Expo.02's possibilities many times over. The main task of the Department of Marketing and Communication of the Partners was to motivate the companies to communicate their commitment to Expo.02 at all levels (e.g. advertising, employee magazines, ticket purchases, brand presence) in order to raise their profile on the one hand, but also to help Expo.02 directly gain more presence, interest and visitors on the other. 

Official Partner

The concept of the communication partnership or Official Partner also dates back to the original phase of the project. This was the first partnership category launched by the sponsorship department back in 1997. For a cash contribution of CHF 6 million, a communication partner acquired the right to be integrated into all Expo.01 and Expo.02 communication measures with the company logo. A total of twelve communication partners were acquired, resulting in a net marketing and communication budget of around CHF 50 million for the national exhibition. At a time when the national exhibition was still at a very vague stage, it was a remarkable achievement for those responsible for sponsorship to find a dozen companies that committed themselves to the national exhibition at an early stage with a substantial amount and an only partially defined consideration. 

Although financing the marketing and communication budget through partners may have seemed appropriate at the time, the disadvantages of this approach later became apparent. Over time, the communication partners became increasingly impatient and wanted to finally receive something in return for the sponsorship contribution invested. In retrospect, it seems to make more sense to provide the marketing and communication budget for a major event separately from sponsorship in order to avoid conflicts of interest with the partners.

^{Text: Final report of Expo.02, 2003}