All of 2020’s major global machine fairs have either been cancelled or postponed – with this in mind, Engcon chose to produce their own live digital broadcast called Engcon 360, covering key products. The production was recorded at Engon’s own “exhibition centre” located at the headquarters in Strömsund, Sweden. The live broadcasts were adapted by Engcon staff for their customers in each home market.
For many companies, customer meetings and trade shows are important for direct customer contact and for generating sales. But COVID-19 has had a significant impact in 2020 with trade shows around the world cancelled or postponed. Attending trade fairs and organising excavation days have always been an important part of Engcon’s activities to get closer to their customers. Something that is particularly appreciated when presenting technical products that improve an excavator’s efficiency. Attending fairs gives Engcon the opportunity to show how the products work and let excavators test the products themselves.
Engcon’s live broadcast was a way of meeting the needs of excavators even in times of isolation, and the interest in these digital fairs was great.
“We see how excavators around the world have continued to work during this turbulent time. Of course it’s a nice interruption in the workday with a live broadcast of products that can have a big impact on your daily work. The chat feature allowed viewers to communicate with us directly, in their own language with their local Engcon office,” says Ulrica Hellström, Marketing Manager at Engcon, and she continues:
“We built up an exhibition area in Strömsund at our main production site. There we were able to showcase our products in a demo run with an excavator. We connected our local sales and service teams in different countries to our control studio in Sweden and broadcast everything on Facebook Live. So French speaking excavators got a presentation by our French colleagues in French about our products and so on. It is important for us to maintain contact locally and form a close customer relationship”.
The groundwork was time consuming but when it was finished, the live fair, with small adjustments, could be run in all countries where Engcon is represented together with their respective Engcon teams worldwide. First out was the International digital live broadcast which took place in the UK on June 14, at 8pm (CEST).
“In competition with beautiful weather, 220 people participated in the broadcast with live chat, with as many as 7,300 people watching the UK broadcast. The week after the International live event we got our first sale, as a direct result of the arrangement. All of Engcon’s Facebook pages have received a push in the form of new followers and we have received a lot of positive feedback from the industry”.
“Internally, expectations were cautious before the first live broadcast, but the positive response from the viewers has really added momentum to digitize more of our marketing efforts. Engcon now sees opportunities to use this technology in the future, for example, to reach out to a wider audience at product launches, concludes Ulrica Hellström”.
In total, for all broadcasts, 24,000 people took part in the initiative, which went under the name “Engcon 360”.
