Week 10: ISPA Do You?

“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??