2020 Investments in Company Positioning & Brand Identity

In February 2020, VNU Asia Pacific moved its office into a new premium space located in the heart of Bangkok at The PARQ – a newly built state-of-the-art real estate project developed by VNU’s Thai shareholder TCC Group. The new ultra-modern office is a key asset for the company’s future growth and regional positioning.

During the first half of 2020, VNU also launched its new Corporate Identity and a powerful red logo, making the company brand stronger and more cohesive with the headquarters in Utrecht, Shanghai and Bangkok. At projects level, VIV worldwide also refreshed its overall brand with a compelling new style which now also incorporates the VNU Asia Pacific ILDEX Exhibitions within the global VIV portfolio.

Additionally, looking at its Corporate Social Responsibility realm, VNU Asia Pacific started a program in 2020 to support Thai children in needs – giving them access to education, thus making way for a better future.

New Shows & Key Partnerships

Regardless of economic fluctuation and market uncertainty during the past year, VNU Asia Pacific introduced five new collaborations in 2020 eyeing global partnerships to bring soon engaging trade shows right across the Asia region.

Free From Food Asia with EBC Expo – trade show organizer specialized in healthy food & alternative protein – arrives in Bangkok in 2021 reflecting an increasing importance of food consumption in Asia. Focused on free from, organic, vegan, functional and healthy food solutions, the show covers both manufacturing and retail.        

Meat Pro Asia, also debuting this year in Thailand, covers the processing and packaging for egg, poultry, meat, seafood & food products and is the result of a strategic partnership between two top players in this sector: the organizer of IFFA (Messe Frankfurt New Era Business Media Ltd.) and the organizer of VIV Asia (VNU Group).

Aquatica Asia, organized with PT Global Permata Perkasa in Indonesia, focuses on aquaculture industry and aims to improve fisheries production. Although the aquaculture profile is already presented in the livestock event ILDEX Indonesia, VNU recognizes the potential of this segment with a designated event.

Bio Asia Pacific with TCELS (Thailand Center of Excellence for Life Sciences). Where Bio Asia Pacific is a new platform for Biotechnology, Life Sciences and Smart Health in Asia Pacific, Thailand LAB INTERNATIONAL is its counterpart for the Laboratory Industry. Both shows will provide an Integrated Innovative Platform from Laboratory to Life Sciences for the SEA region.

BYOND MOBILE organized with EJ Krause will be the B2B meeting place for the 5G ecosystem to drive the super-connected economy in the heart of Asia. The conference will bring together business leaders from Agriculture, Health, Manufacturing and Mobility with experts from the Internet, Mobile Communications and IT sectors. The dedicated 5G exhibition will feature leading blue-chip companies as well as promising start-ups drawn from the whole technology stack. Focused areas include those from mobile network and cloud solutions, cyber-security and robotics, as well as the latest in AR/VR, machine learning and AI.

           

Virtual, Live & Hybrid – VNU Asia Pacific enhancing its Digital Footprint

Even during these difficult times, VNU Asia Pacific did not stop engaging with the industry and fulfilling its need to connect. In 2020 the company launched a series of virtual platforms in tandem with its live events aiming to create a goal-oriented hybrid experience.

Pet Fair SEA Pre-Connect was the first virtual event launched by VNU Asia Pacific, which took place October 2020 and offered a one-day platform for global brands and innovative products to connect with Asian buyers ahead of the live event scheduled in 2021. With 152 global companies, 430 contacts and 588 total successful meetings in a span of 12 hours – this virtual event made a great success. The same initiative was made for agritech portfolio, a newly-launched AGRITECHNICA ASIA & HORTI ASIA “digital talks” started off successfully and included experts from world’s leading organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the World Vegetable Center. With registered attendees from 30 countries updating themselves about solutions for efficient crop production in Asia as well as network directly with 572 agricultural experts who already logged in and made meetings on the virtual platform “digital connect’.

During the same month, October 2020, Thailand LAB INTERNATIONAL along with Bio Asia Pacific organized the first Hybrid Exhibition and witnessed a huge number of attendees from the industry. The show concluded with 109 exhibiting companies and 8,067 trade visitors at the live event at BITEC Exhibition Center. 65% of total trade visitors were physical visitors while 35% were virtual. There were 47 physical conferences and 47 purely virtual conferences, plus 38 hybrid conferences (physical with live streamed content at Facebook and YouTube LIVE).

The ILDEX Exhibitions closed the year with another digital concept called I-Match & Pitching, a two-day online event for business networking held in November 2020. During the 2-day program, 26 international suppliers from 8 countries introduced their latest products and services via online pitch presentations. With the participation from selected VIP guests around Asia Pacific region, over 150 business matchings were successfully concluded.

In addition to the exhibition activities, the VNU Professional Conference Organizer (PCO) Department organized 31 webinars for multiple partners across government and private sectors including the Prince Mahidol Award Conference, the Thai Exhibition Association, the Federation of Asian Veterinary Associations and the Royal Thai Embassy in Berlin, Germany.