Avid says No to NAB 2008

[Ron Lindeboom]

I can sympathize with companies that feel strapped by expos.

Back when we did our own expo, Creative COW West in 2003, we had over 40 companies as I recall on our expo floor. We had the usual Platinum, Gold and Silver sponsors. We had booths and brought a couple of thousand people to the Westin Hotel’s conference and expo center in Los Angeles.

It was fun but it was VERY expensive. Fortunately, we didn’t lose money or we’d have been out of business, quick.

But it taught me the other side of conferences and expos and why they are so expensive.

It also taught me that I am not sure that I’d really ever want to do it again.

I can understand why NAB wants every nickel on the table but I can also understand why companies like Avid are getting sick of the drill — and drill is a pretty accurate description.

Some people say that Avid is bowing out because they are in trouble. This kind of short-sighted argument really bores me and bore me quick.

Why?

These people ignore the fact that in the restructuring of Avid that recently happened, they brought in the man who ran their most successful video division, Graham Sharp of Avid Europe (a man with a strong record of doing things against the grain and having it work profitably, very profitably). Graham has always played his gut instincts and he has proven his instincts to be quite accute.

Graham was the head of Avid’s European offices and he spent years ignoring IBC. Instead, he took the money and got toe-to-toe with those who wanted to know more about Avid and who wanted to get real answers from Avid — not the kind that come on a 1-800- line where some know-nothing tells you “Yeah, our system does that.” Or the kind of answers you get from a 10 minute demo on the battlefloor of NAB. Graham is an expert guerrilla marketer with the track record to prove it.

As I said, he also has a long history of hating tradeshows. He’s a strong advocate of roadshows and targeted mini-conferences that take Avid’s message directly to the best prospects — and he knows how to find him.

Huge tradeshows are dying. Just look at demise of Showbiz Expo, the NY DV Show, the LA DV Show and others that are now dead and gone. Even DV Expo, Siggraph, NAB and others continue to spiral downward — some with actual attendee number losses and fewer and fewer supporting vendors, etc. Other shows lose by the quality of the attendees dropping to the point where many companies that I talk to are saying that they get questions today that almost make them want to break out laughing — or crying, and just go home.

Me, I will stand by my words and say that I believe that over the next few years, these shows will become less and less important and their attendees and exhibitors will dwindle.

Avid is not the first and they surely won’t be the last. But, to date, they are indeed the biggest fish that has leaped from the pond and strode off looking for their own better way to market.

Me, I wish them luck and think that the day has come for companies to recognize the fact that the market has changed — REALLY changed.

It isn’t 1980 anymore. Business models change…

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
creativecow.net
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[Christopher Wright]

Ron..

Finally acknowledging the paradigm shift….

[Ben Holmes]

Ron

I don’t doubt that the market has changed, but I’m not sure that just because it makes little sense for YOU to be at NAB (you’re an online business) that it makes little sense for AVID. As expensive as shows like NAB and IBC are, they also signal intent on behalf of the company to be in a market, to allow direct comparison of their products to others, and to build personal relationships with buyers and new customers – particularly the new consumers that will become their userbase in years to come. For hire companies and post-production houses, the shows present a unique opportunity to do business with multiple companies over a short time period – often this is a money saver, not a drain on time or resources – and I speak from personal experience here. I know many companies who do a great deal of business at NAB, millions of dollars every year.

I suspect that some of AVID’s reasons may be more prosaic. As I long time FCP user, I knew I had made the right choice in technology when I visited NAB a few years ago and arrived at the steps down to the post hall. On my right was a huge Apple stand PACKED with people, many of them younger professionals taking a look at the latest builds of FCP etc. To the left of that aisle was AVID, in a large but almost entirely empty stand. The staff manning it had a slighty bemused look every time I passed.

There may well have been a paradigm shift – in editing – and I think AVID may have been on the receiving end….

Ben

[Olivier Lauchenauer]

I missed AVID at IBC this year. Which is probably one of the maddest thing I could say as we run only FCP.

We always take the company to Amsterdam to give them an idea what new technologies are out there and have a good time. It’s a great and very effective way to see what there is out there. All our major purchasing decisions are influenced at these shows. If we are interested we generally set up follow up meeting.

I know Avid do road shows but I’ve never seen one or heard one and we are based in Soho. So to me there are not very effective. I way prefer to go once to a show than having all these multiple demos and generally when I see something new and interesting I go round to other stands and see if they can do it and how.

I’ve always found it a very weird that AVID decided not to go to IBC for the last 3 years and maybe if they had we would have got a system. Especially one that runs on a Mac.

Olivier
Pogo Films

[Hellena]

Ben,

I sincerely hope that the number of people on a stand is not what makes you commit to a product – but the product itself. We all know that Apple are good at creating a buzz around their product range. But does this really help you Ben when you are editing?
Marketing is one thing. I prefer to work with products that actually work. A nice wrapping doesn’t do it for me. And isn’t NAB just that?

Helena

[Phil Grimpo]

For me, I’ve always held my major purchases until I go to NAB and hold the product, talk to the vendors, compare with others, etc. I don’t have time to read through every trade show magazine and keep track of what’s what. It’s nice to go to NAB and have it all there. See how others are reacting, develop some relationships with vendors, etc.

And I agree with the Road Shows in both senses. I LOVE it when I can see a road show and have a very one-on-one setting. However, in Lincoln NE that very rarely ever happens. If I’m going to drive 5 hours to Minneapolis, I might as well fly 2 hours to Vegas and see it all.

Just my $.02

[Walter Biscardi]

[Phil Grimpo] “And I agree with the Road Shows in both senses. I LOVE it when I can see a road show and have a very one-on-one setting. However, in Lincoln NE that very rarely ever happens. If I’m going to drive 5 hours to Minneapolis, I might as well fly 2 hours to Vegas and see it all.”

Completely agree there. No way a Road Show can hit all the potential customers and if you’re going to pay to travel for a one day road show, you’re better off traveling to a major convention where you can compare everything at once. I’ve only been to one road show from Adobe a few years back and it was just a stage show and no way to get near the actual product or product managers.

Avid’s Road Shows will be targeted where they can hit large market clients because that’s really the only way they can survive. Somebody buying one system or two systems is not worth their time, hence no need for a booth. They need 50 to 200+ systems purchased to make any deal worth their while anymore.

Of course as I noted in the Final Cut Pro forum, those large clients are going to be harder and harder to come by. CNN Atlanta is transitioning from Avid to Final Cut Pro as we speak and from what I’ve been told it was the horrendous customer service that really doomed them.

Nobody twisted Avid’s arm to run an 80′ by 80′ booth or whatever their footprint was. Bottom line for me, Avid is losing the overall NLE war to Apple and Adobe. I don’t see how staying off the show floor completely helps them to gain market share back.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Ron Lindeboom]

[Ben Holmes] “I know many companies who do a great deal of business at NAB, millions of dollars every year.”

I just spoke with one of my friends yesterday who is in this class. He does millions of dollars a year in sales at NAB, when tracking the leads out over the next few months of follow-up.

That’s a good thing.

Especially for him, he says. ;o)

But he was quite blunt with me when I reminded him that millions in sales is not millions in profit.

That’s when he admitted to me, that he’s not sure that he’d be able to afford it were he not being subsidized by the many manufacturers whose products he represents. He told me how he splits his cost across a bunch of co-op ad programs and that is what makes it palpable.

My point with the article is that Avid is arguably one of the deepest — if not the deepest — nonlinear editing and content production and management technologies on the planet. You don’t “pitch” it against FCP in 10 to 20 minutes on a loud show floor — if you make a decision on your tools that way, there is no guarantee that you got it right.

What some people are missing in this is that Avid stayed away from IBC for years and yet Graham Sharp, the guy who is now leading Avid Video, turned in some of the highest numbers in Avid when he headed the European region.

I think that Avid has merely made a decision that basically comes down to this: They can take $2 million and apply it to the kinds of strategies that Graham used in Europe; strategies that involve taking Avid directly to those whose demographic is likely to appreciate the depth and breadth of the kind of media management and file sharing prowess that is at the heart of what Avid does. That kind of story doesn’t play well on the battlefloor of NAB. But it does play well when presented to the engineers and key personnel at major broadcasters, film studios and others that make up the vast majority of Avid’s customer base.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
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[Ron Lindeboom]

Oliver,

Smaller shops are not the target market of Avid. They likely pass you by for the same reason that they pass me by. We are just too small here to truly appreciate the kind of infrastructure that Avid has developed to meet the needs of their core market, which is made up of customers that want to manage huge amounts of data from many, many projects, all accessible and managed within a construct that disallows one person access to a file for one reason, while allowing another access — all the while giving full management access to those who need to oversee the project.

That is not a story that communicates well on a noisy showfloor in a matter of minutes.

I agree that not being on the showfloor sends a certain message and it is one that will likely hurt Avid — some.

But if Graham is half as good a marketer as I think he is, I think that the company will likely surprise some (oh, while likely rankling and angering others).

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
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[Olivier Lauchenauer]

Hi Ron

I don’t entirely agree to that, as we’ve been looking at what Quantel are up and the only reason it popped on the radar was that they were at IBC doing some cool new stuff that we didn’t expect. Obviously after that noisy trying to get a appointment at the stand did we have a one to one in Soho.

I just have no idea what Avid are up to and at these shows I’m all ears on what is happening. Then during the rest of the year I’m working out which problem I need to solve.

Mmm what should I do now… ahh yea color 1.02 see what they have fixed and not!

Olivier