By Phil Soar, Chairman of CloserStill Group and Nineteen Group
Jeremy Rees is very well-informed. Excel (the venue once known as ExCeL) is a major site for all manner of events these days – Pompeii exhibitions, Elvis shows, Motor Racing, Medical congresses, company annual meetings, London University examinations and much more. All in addition to their bread and butter – trade and consumer shows.
So the mood and prospects of the events market are fundamental to Jeremy’s Excel (Jeremy is the venue’s CEO). And one of the ways he tracks this closely is via the IPA Bellwether Reports. IPA is the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, the long-standing body which tries to keep abreast of everything happening in what one might call the media and marketing worlds.
Jeremy is kind enough to keep me updated on what the IPA is doing, and its January quarterly report makes interesting reading for those of us in the trade show and exhibition industry.
For years events were excluded from marketing analyses
It is worth saying here that for many years (certainly the period from 2000 to 2015), Trevor Foley and others tried very hard to persuade the IPA that they should include events as well as more traditional media such as print, TV and radio. They refused point blank – often rather aggressively.
As far back as 2008, I wrote (as AEO Chairman) to the IPA, saying: “We have been interested to read IPA’s Bellwether Report press release, the Report itself and the subsequent national press comments (e.g. Daily Telegraph, Tues 15 July – “Spend on events was downgraded”). The consequent press reports all tend to state that marketing spend on events is down.
“As Chairman of the Board of the Association of Event Organisers (AEO), which includes senior representation from the likes of Reed, UBM, EMAP, DMG and Haymarket, I have been asked if you could advise us of the level of fall in event marketing spend (if any) and to provide us with whatever evidence you can to support this.
“From the information in the press/public domain, we are unable to identify any decline in marketing spend on events which you report. We publish an annual report on the state of the events industry, due to be available this year in August. In 2008, this has analysed 812 exhibitions and events and our findings do not correspond with yours.”
Let’s just say that this did not improve relations, and the IPA continued to refuse to include serious data on exhibitions and events.
But then IPA had a change of heart
But eventually the IPA changed tack.
The reason, I am inclined to believe, was that it just became clear that events in the broadest sense were becoming more and more significant while newspapers, magazines, radio and free to air television were showing slow but sure revenue declines. This frightened the advertising world, for rather obvious reasons.
So, we now have now moved to a situation where “Events” have become a major part of the IPA’s hinterland. The January 2026 report actually headlined : “Events and PR expenditure grows further” – what that headline doesn’t say is that the prospects for Sales Promotions, Market Research, Direct Marketing and “Main Media” (meaning press, TV, online and radio) were all projecting a decrease in spend in 2026 and 2027.
See the graph below for the details taken directly from the IPA report.
As the chart shows, the IPA is projecting falls in budgets for the 2026/27 period everywhere except events. To quote the IPA report directly: “Market research is predicted to see the largest fall in budgets (-17.4%), General Marketing -10.1%, Sales Promotions -5.5%, Direct Marketing -5.1% and “Main Media” -3.1%”.
In 2026 events are the fastest growing marketing sector
Main Media is the core of the IPA hinterland, covering the likes of press, magazines, radio, television and (I assume) much digital advertising (digital is now 60% of all US marketing spend). Audio (radio) was the worst performing with panelists suggesting a 10% decline, published brands a 6.5% decline and video (presumably largely free to air TV) a 5% decline.
Trying to explain this apparently gloomy picture for marketing and advertising generally, IPA argued: “Escalating geopolitical tensions, global and domestic policy uncertainty, US tariffs and fears of an AI-fueled stock market bubble encapsulated the wide-ranging challenges.”
Marayam Baluch, of S&P Global Market Intelligence, is more forthright: “As we move into 2026 the economic climate remains challenging, with marketeers under pressure to deliver ROI … [and] firms scrutinise spending decisions more harshly … given the subdued macroeconomic outlook.”
And yet, the one truly bright spot was clearly events – with 6.6% of all their respondents saying they were going to increase spending in the next 12 months.
On the plus side, the markets with promising outlooks were said to be Cyber, Data Centre, AI, financial services and pharmaceuticals (sounds exactly like the CloserStill portfolio).
One IPA report doesn’t make a summer, but the trend lines seem clear. After many years of trying, we are now very much on the agenda for advertising agencies and for marketing budgets. That is good reason to celebrate. Jeremy will be very pleased.
Source: www.exhibitionworld.co.uk
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