“For over 20 years, the International
SPA Association has been recognized worldwide as the professional organization
and voice of the spa industry, representing health and wellness facilities
and providers in more than 70 countries. Members encompass the entire arena of
the spa experience, from resort/hotel, destination, mineral springs, medical,
club and day spas to service providers such as physicians, wellness
instructors, and nutritionists, massage therapists and product suppliers.
ISPA advances the spa industry by providing invaluable
educational and networking opportunities, promoting the value of the spa
experience and speaking as the authoritative voice to foster professionalism
and growth.”
For this annual meeting and expo, the International SPA Association uses social media to promote and drive traffic to their website both
before, during and after the event.
Their presence on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and a well-maintained
blog create buzz, share information, and supplement the expo through social
media.
ISPA uses Facebook year round to share information about
happenings in the spa community.
Posts like “Massage Envy
announces a new partnership with David’s Bridal to help brides feel their best
before their big day. http://prn.to/GFkl8j” (October
8), help support the vendors that exhibit at their expo, and create reason to
click through and revisit their site.
The week before the expo, ISPA created buzz and
anticipation about vendors and speakers by sharing sneak peaks and tips about
booth numbers, etc. Posts like,
“Sneak peek at the ISPA staff's Silent Auction item. Lots of goodies to help
you GROW... your garden #ISPA2013”
(October 11) create excitement about the goodies available to attendees through
image sharing. There is cross
promotion to the ISPA blog; engagement is encouraged by asking questions of
followers, etc.
During the event, ISPA uses social media to remind
attendees about events and happenings.
Sharing information about that day’s speakers, meetings, and events is a
great way to increase attendance amongst their followers. Specific products are highlighted, with
details about booths and information about signing up for demos and
trials. Sponsors are highlighted
with direct links to their sites, and banner ads on the website as well.
Post event, ISPA uses social media to thank its attendees,
highlight key moments from the event, and share information about next years
event. I loved how they recapped
key moments from keynote speaker, Bill Rancic’s speech on Twitter with simple
quotations and hashtags. Also, by using
a signature hashtag (#ISPA2013), their team is able to track engagement through
out their social media sites.
Tweets from attendees are retweeted, encouraging more people to tweet as
ISPA. 
I think that the Linkedin account and YouTube account can
be better utilized during the expo.
The Linkedin account that is linked on their website is a personal
account, and an email address of the account is necessary to connect as well as
view the page. This limits their
exposure to spa personnel that attend their events. I attend a lingerie buyers market four times a year called
Curve Expo. At the time of my
first registration to the event over 6 years ago, Curve friended me on
Facebook. Now as their social
media network grows, they reach out to me on each new platform for which they
sign up. It is important to make
yourself accessible to potential customers, investors, attendees, etc.
The ISPA YouTube page currently features a few interviews
with ISPA administration, and videos of content from last year’s expo. I recommend that they use YouTube as their
primary video sharing platform, and then share these videos on all social media
platforms. An on the floor
interviewer could be asking questions of attendees, highlighting speakers,
videoing demos, and more – and then live sharing these videos on YouTube. Seeing a demo in a video might
encourage an attendee who missed that area of the floor to double back. It is a great way to share the action
as it is happening.
Benefits that Balance, the ISPA blog, is a great example
of ISPA’s integrated marketing campaign.
While I think that it could be put to better use during the actual show,
it was well updated with unique content leading up to the expo date. Clever blogs with packing tips, what to
expect, and more helped build hype and reinforce their brand. Encouraging people to bring their
workout gear to “be active and get moving”, and not to forget to pack their
vitamins and supplements to “stay healthy” is the perfect incorporation of the
bigger healthy lifestyle brand of a spa.
As far as branding on a whole, I think that ISPA does a
pretty good job. They logo,
colors, and language is consistent.
I would recommend they consider streamlining their user and account
names across the board. With a
Twitter handle of @ISPAdoyou, a Facebook page branded as InternationalSPAAssoc,
and a YouTube account under ISPATheAssociation, there is some discontinuity. The event as whole, though, is well
marketed through social media and an IMC.
Now how do I get to attend??
