• by Ray Schultz , March 26, 2020

Two weeks ago, commenting on survey results showing that 20% of manufacturing firms were changing their trade show plans in response to the COVID-19 crisis, IEEE GlobalSpec CEO Pete Hoelscher said the following:

“20% is a big number. And that survey was conducted last week — if we did it today, we would see those numbers have shifted.” 

They sure have: That 20% has risen to a staggering 88%, according to new polling by IEEE GlobalSpec. That includes firms that have cancelled plans to attend or exhibit at trade shows. 

In fact, 84% say that trade shows they planned on participating in have been cancelled. Moreover, 55% now expect their marketing budgets to decline for the remainder of this year. And 40% will shift their budget to digital advertising.

In this environment, email is a perfect channel is for sharing information, but the content “has to be targeted, it has to be relevant and it has to resonate,” Hoelscher said.

GlobalSpec conducted the new survey to make sense of the rapidly evolving situation, the company says.

IEEE GlobalSpec is an online catalog listing tens of millions of parts from a dozen verticals. And it produces content for clients, ranging from email newsletters to whitepapers.