Towards 'Exhibitions That Lead to Business Meetings'. Design First Launches New Service for Integrated Support from Planning to Business Deal Closure.

Design First Inc. (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Yasuyuki Nagahori) has launched support for B2B companies' exhibition participation within "Marcom Bank," its matching-based business support service for professional human resources specializing in the marketing and communication domain. This new service consolidates exhibition tasks, which were previously divided among multiple vendors for construction, design, and printing, to provide integrated support from clarifying exhibition objectives to converting leads into business meetings after the event. Companies can also request support for only the necessary processes according to their situation.

Marcom Bank's support system: Optimal professionals are assigned from a network of over 640 professionals based on the company's challenges, with quality and progress managed comprehensively.

Background: While the value of exhibitions is being re-evaluated, exhibition operations are becoming more complex.

Amidst the normalization of online meetings, the value of exhibitions, where face-to-face contact with prospective customers can be made, is actually increasing. On the other hand, the tasks required to achieve results are not limited to booth construction. The effectiveness of investment is greatly influenced by the integrated design of pre-exhibition messaging, visitor flow design, sales activities during the event, and post-event lead follow-up.

However, the know-how for systematically designing these aspects is difficult to accumulate internally, and in many companies, the person in charge handles it concurrently with their regular duties. The burden of individually selecting vendors for construction, design, printing, and advertising, communicating requirements, and managing progress is heavy, often leading to repeated participation in the "same format as last time."

Structural Challenge: A fragmented ordering structure concentrates the burden on the担当者 (person in charge).

Traditionally, construction companies were responsible for the "booth creation" process, while tasks such as clarifying exhibition objectives, designing messaging, planning on-site sales activities, and post-event follow-up often remained with the client. Since a sufficient platform to delegate these tasks comprehensively was not adequately established, exhibition managers were forced to act as coordinators connecting multiple partners, making it difficult to allocate time to sales activities and customer support, which should be their primary focus.

Service Overview: Integrated support for exhibition operations "from planning to business deal closure."

"Marcom Bank Exhibition Special Support" is a new service that provides integrated support for B2B companies' exhibition participation, covering everything from planning, booth design, production, construction, on-site operations, to post-event follow-up. Design First has a network of over 640 professionals in various fields of marketing and communication, including exhibitions, and assigns the most suitable personnel according to the company's challenges and objectives. The company manages quality and progress, and handles inquiries from the initial stage of "wanting to exhibit," thereby reducing the burden on担当者 to find multiple external partners individually.

Marcom Bank covers planning, on-site operations, and post-event follow-up, which traditionally remained with the client, across all exhibition processes (Before/After comparison).

Features: Integration and flexibility to select only necessary processes.

This service features both a wide range of support, from planning to business deal closure, and the flexibility to request only the necessary processes. Support can be combined according to the situation, from partial requests such as "only booth design," "only post-event follow-up measures," or "only design and production materials," to comprehensive requests like "planning, construction, and post-event follow-up all together."

▼ Scope of Support

Pre-Exhibition: Clarification of exhibition objectives, concept and target design, messaging and flow design, exhibition direction, production of sales materials, promotional flyers, brochures, panels, landing pages, advertising creatives, etc.

Preparation to During Exhibition: Booth construction, space and flow design, management of production materials, on-site sales activity support, visitor engagement design.

Post-Exhibition: Business meeting follow-up, telemarketing, newsletter distribution, production of follow-up materials, sales flow design.

Provided Value: Reduce workload, optimize costs, and lead to results.

This service aims to free exhibition担当者 from coordination tasks and reposition exhibitions as "creating touchpoints that lead to results." Specifically, it emphasizes the following three points:

① Reduction of Workload

By taking charge of vendor selection, requirement clarification, progress management, and quality checks, we create an environment where担当者 can concentrate on their core sales activities.

② Cost Optimization

This model utilizes independent professionals without employing full-time staff, thereby reducing intermediary costs. Furthermore, by reviewing existing exhibition content and streamlining excessive specifications or inefficiencies, we optimize investment allocation while maintaining quality. The focus is not simply on reducing costs, but on organizing "where to invest and where to review."

③ Results-Oriented Design ~ In-house Development

We design follow-up measures with an eye on not just exhibiting, but also on acquiring business cards and closing deals after the event. Additionally, we proceed with projects with the aim of embedding this know-how within the client company for in-house development from the next exhibition onwards.

▼ Industries with Frequent Inquiries

Particularly B2B manufacturers, manufacturing industries, general contractors, energy, real estate, IT/SaaS, and companies dealing with specialized products.

▼ Frequently Asked Questions

- "I'm exhibiting for the first time, and I don't know what to do."
- "We exhibit every year but want to refresh our presentation."
- "I feel burdened by getting multiple quotes and selecting construction and production companies."
- "We have challenges in converting leads into business meetings after the exhibition."
- "I want to clearly convey the appeal of our B2B products."

Representative's Comment

Yasuyuki Nagahori, President and CEO

Exhibitions are rare opportunities to directly engage with prospective customers. Whether their value can be converted into results depends not only on the perfection of the booth but also on the ability to consistently plan from pre-exhibition design to post-event follow-up.

These series of tasks were often fragmented due to individual requests to multiple partners. We aim to be a "client-side exhibition promotion office" that takes on this fragmentation. Through this service, we will continuously improve B2B company exhibitions.