I am sharing with you all an interview of
Ringier Trade Media's President Michael R. Hay, as he looks back on 15 years of serving
metalworking, plastics and food industries and eyes what's in store for thousands of our readers worldwide.
***
THERE wasn’t a lack headlines in July 1997. What should have been the big story – Hong Kong’s handover to China by the United Kingdom – was quickly eclipsed by the financial crisis that knocked out Thailand and quickly pummelled more economies across Asia. Industrial projects ground to a halt, banks shut down, and investments dried up.To observers, only China was unmarked by the pounding that the rest of the region was taking.
B2B multimedia publisher Michael R. Hay agreed with this observation and saw positive prospects for trade media in China. In contrast to the rest of Asia, investments were still pouring in to China and industrial activity was ramping up. Domestic companies, for instance, were venturing into OEM operations to serve international demand for competitively priced products and components.
“I saw that in China that manufacturers had a very strong need for information and knowhow – on technology and on manufacturing. They were learning how to market and create their products but they were still very backward in technology in terms of production and manufacturing," recalls Mr Hay, president and publisher of Ringier Trade Media – one of the most successful industrial media companies in the region.
In this dearth of information, Mike saw potential to publish trade magazines for core industries. He identified Plastics Processing and Packaging as two of these industries requiring technology to achieve greater levels of efficiency and reach global standards.
“I saw a real opportunity there, because plastics manufacturing consumption was rapidly rising 15 years ago and China was very active in developing export markets, which require packaging, so it seemed like a natural fit,” he explains.
It was 15 years ago, he set up Ringier Trade Media with joint business partner, the Swiss media giant Ringier AG. Although at that time the B2B sector was a huge departure for the Swiss firm, having always been in the commercial sector, they have been supportive from the get-go.An incident early on proved to be a very pleasant surprise and also gave Ringier AG a great deal of confidence of the potential of B2B magazines.
In March of 1998, Ringier Trade participated in the trade show Sinopack in Guangzhou, with the prototype of their first magazine International Plastics News for China（国际塑料商情）. To their amazement, they got nearly 3,000 requests for subscriptions in just three days. “We were just overwhelmed. The booth was just swamped with visitors to the trade show trying to sign up for subscription – we had to fight them off. It was amazing,” Mike recalls.
“Then the same thing happened a few months later at Chinaplas, also in Guangzhou. We reintroduced our International Plastics News for China. Again the booth was just absolutely overwhelmed with people demanding to get sample copies of the magazine,” he adds.
China at that time had a very high demand and respect for product and machinery made in Taiwan, and Ringier Trade was the first publishing operation to set up in Taiwan with the specific objective of helping Taiwan exporters break into the China market. “So really, you know, 50% of the business was coming from Taiwan, and we also discovered that we had another opportunity not just for China, but also had a great opportunity to introduce Taiwan machinery makers to markets in Latin America, USA, Europe, and we did this by establishing partnerships through our partner media. So it was a very good story that we have for our clients in Taiwan: that we are present in China, Europe, Latin America, and so on,” says Mike.
In the 15 years since, Ringier Trade has added over 30 titles to its portfolio including for other core industries, including Metalworking and Food & Beverage. The company has also partnered with international publishing firms with significant markets in the United States, Latin America and Europe as well as setting up co-branded titles in India. “We were basically the first B2B media company from this area to set up kind of a joint venture in India and build a bridge between two great trading centres,” says Mike.
Keeping pace with developments
As the core industries developed and specialised, Ringier Trade introduced new titles to serve their requirements. These included for instance, Rubber World for China（国际橡胶商情）and Reinforced Plastics China（增强塑料－中国版） in Plastics, and International Mold & Die Making News for China（国际模具制造商情 and Automotive Engineering International China（国际汽车工程－中 文版 in Metalworking. The expansion of print media has also been territorial; English trade journals were the natural progression to serve the Plastics, Metalworking and Food & Beverage industries in South East Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
The company also holds 20 specialised conferences annually. While organizing these events is very time- and labor-intensive, this form of communication and interaction is booming. “There still remains a very great need for companies to build relationships, to create business networks. People still want to meet people. People still want to develop those contacts and build trust and confidence with their suppliers and potential customers and you do that through events. So that’s what led me into the conference business,” Mike explains.
In the opposite direction is digital marketing in which Ringier Trade has directed a lot of resources in the past six or seven or so years. “Money, people and time have gone to enhancing our website, industrysourcing.com, and all our digital services – whether it's the occasional webinar, web TV, the showrooms that we have – and this all never stops. The technology changes, so you have to change – constant reinvention, re-investment just to keep up with the technology. And then smartphones change the game dramatically so we have to change again,” he says.
The future is content marketing
As Ringier Trade celebrates its 15th anniversary, Mike sees B2B communications evolving to incorporate content marketing. A whole new style of advertising, content marketing is not the easiest concept to explain to an advertisers so he has personally been meeting with select clients to introduce what Ringier can offer them.
“In the digital age, the communication process will be very text-driven, image driven, more informative, and present a company through thought leadership, and that builds up trust and generates inquiries in a bit more of an indirect way,” he says. “So that is one area of change that will change the way we will incorporate our content. In the past, the mandate to the editors was produce the best quality content that you can for the magazine. Today, it's totally turned on its head. I tell our editors that they are content directors, they're brand managers, and most importantly, the most important brand now is what they do in digital.”
- See more at: http://us.industrysourcing.com/news/278013.aspx#sthash.QoYIqb4C.dpuf
THERE
wasn’t a lack headlines in July 1997. What should have been the big
story – Hong Kong’s handover to China by the United Kingdom – was
quickly eclipsed by the financial crisis that knocked out Thailand and
quickly pummelled more economies across Asia. Industrial projects ground
to a halt, banks shut down, and investments dried up.To observers, only
China was unmarked by the pounding that the rest of the region was
taking.
B2B multimedia publisher Michael R. Hay agreed with this observation and
saw positive prospects for trade media in China. In contrast to the
rest of Asia, investments were still pouring in to China and industrial
activity was ramping up. Domestic companies, for instance, were
venturing into OEM operations to serve international demand for
competitively priced products and components.
“I saw that in China that manufacturers had a very strong need for
information and knowhow – on technology and on manufacturing. They were
learning how to market and create their products but they were still
very backward in technology in terms of production and
manufacturing,”recalls Mr Hay, president and publisher of Ringier Trade
Media – one of the most successful industrial media companies in the
region.
In this dearth of information, Mike saw potential to publish trade
magazines for core industries. He identified Plastics Processing and
Packaging as two of these industries requiring technology to achieve
greater levels of efficiency and reach global standards.
“I saw a real opportunity there, because plastics manufacturing
consumption was rapidly rising 15 years ago and China was very active in
developing export markets, which require packaging, so it seemed like a
natural fit,” he explains.
It was 15 years ago, he set up Ringier Trade Media with joint business
partner, the Swiss media giant Ringier AG. Although at that time the B2B
sector was a huge departure for the Swiss firm, having always been in
the commercial sector, they have been supportive from the get-go.An
incident early on proved to be a very pleasant surprise and also gave
Ringier AG a great deal of confidence of the potential of B2B magazines.
In March of 1998, Ringier Trade participated in the trade show Sinopack
in Guangzhou, with the prototype of their first magazine International
Plastics News for China（国际塑料商情）. To their amazement, they got nearly
3,000 requests for subscriptions in just three days. “We were just
overwhelmed. The booth was just swamped with visitors to the trade show
trying to sign up for subscription – we had to fight them off. It was
amazing,” Mike recalls.
“Then the same thing happened a few months later at Chinaplas, also in
Guangzhou. We reintroduced our International Plastics News for China.
Again the booth was just absolutely overwhelmed with people demanding to
get sample copies of the magazine,” he adds.
China at that time had a very high demand and respect for product and
machinery made in Taiwan, and Ringier Trade was the first publishing
operation to set up in Taiwan with the specific objective of helping
Taiwan exporters break into the China market. “So really, you know, 50%
of the business was coming from Taiwan, and we also discovered that we
had another opportunity not just for China, but also had a great
opportunity to introduce Taiwan machinery makers to markets in Latin
America, USA, Europe, and we did this by establishing partnerships
through our partner media. So it was a very good story that we have for
our clients in Taiwan: that we are present in China, Europe, Latin
America, and so on,” says Mike.
In the 15 years since, Ringier Trade has added over 30 titles to its
portfolio including for other core industries, including Metalworking
and Food & Beverage. The company has also partnered with
international publishing firms with significant markets in the United
States, Latin America and Europe as well as setting up co-branded titles
in India. “We were basically the first B2B media company from this area
to set up kind of a joint venture in India and build a bridge between
two great trading centres,” says Mike.
Keeping pace with developments
As the core industries developed and specialised, Ringier Trade
introduced new titles to serve their requirements. These included for
instance, Rubber World for China（国际橡胶商情）and Reinforced Plastics
China（增强塑料－中国版） in Plastics, and International Mold & Die Making
News for China（国际模具制造商情）and Automotive Engineering International
China（国际汽车工程－中 文版）in Metalworking. The expansion of print media has also
been territorial; English trade journals were the natural progression
to serve the Plastics, Metalworking and Food & Beverage industries
in South East Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
The company also holds 20 specialised conferences annually. While
organizing these events is very time- and labourintensive, this form of
communication and interaction is booming. “There still remains a very
great need for companies to build relationships, to create business
networks. People still want to meet people. People still want to develop
those contacts and build trust and confidence with their suppliers and
potential customers and you do that through events. So that’s what led
me into the conference business,” Mike explains.
In the opposite direction is digital marketing in which Ringier Trade
has directed a lot of resources in the past six or seven or so years.
“Money, people and time have gone to enhancing our website,
industrysourcing.com, and all our digital services – whether it's the
occasional webinar, web TV, the showrooms that we have – and this all
never stops. The technology changes, so you have to change – constant
reinvention, re-investment just to keep up with the technology. And then
smartphones change the game dramatically so we have to change again,”
he says.
The future is content marketing
As Ringier Trade celebrates its 15th anniversary, Mike s ees B2B
communications evolving to incorporate content marketing. A whole new
style of advertising, content marketing is not the easiest concept to
explain to an advertisers so he has personally been meeting with select
clients to introduce what Ringier can offer them.
“In the digital age, the communication process will be very text-driven,
imagedriven, more informative, and present a company through thought
leadership, and that builds up trust and generates inquiries in a bit
more of an indirect way,” he says.“So that is one area of change that
will change the way we will incorporate our content. In the past, the
mandate to the editors was produce the best quality content that you can
for the magazine. Today, it's totally turned on its head. I tell our
editors that they are content directors, they're brand managers, and
most importantly, the most important brand now is what they do in
digital.” - See more at:
http://us.industrysourcing.com/news/278013.aspx#sthash.9oEX6uNq.dpuf
THERE
wasn’t a lack headlines in July 1997. What should have been the big
story – Hong Kong’s handover to China by the United Kingdom – was
quickly eclipsed by the financial crisis that knocked out Thailand and
quickly pummelled more economies across Asia. Industrial projects ground
to a halt, banks shut down, and investments dried up.To observers, only
China was unmarked by the pounding that the rest of the region was
taking.
B2B multimedia publisher Michael R. Hay agreed with this observation and
saw positive prospects for trade media in China. In contrast to the
rest of Asia, investments were still pouring in to China and industrial
activity was ramping up. Domestic companies, for instance, were
venturing into OEM operations to serve international demand for
competitively priced products and components.
“I saw that in China that manufacturers had a very strong need for
information and knowhow – on technology and on manufacturing. They were
learning how to market and create their products but they were still
very backward in technology in terms of production and
manufacturing,”recalls Mr Hay, president and publisher of Ringier Trade
Media – one of the most successful industrial media companies in the
region.
In this dearth of information, Mike saw potential to publish trade
magazines for core industries. He identified Plastics Processing and
Packaging as two of these industries requiring technology to achieve
greater levels of efficiency and reach global standards.
“I saw a real opportunity there, because plastics manufacturing
consumption was rapidly rising 15 years ago and China was very active in
developing export markets, which require packaging, so it seemed like a
natural fit,” he explains.
It was 15 years ago, he set up Ringier Trade Media with joint business
partner, the Swiss media giant Ringier AG. Although at that time the B2B
sector was a huge departure for the Swiss firm, having always been in
the commercial sector, they have been supportive from the get-go.An
incident early on proved to be a very pleasant surprise and also gave
Ringier AG a great deal of confidence of the potential of B2B magazines.
In March of 1998, Ringier Trade participated in the trade show Sinopack
in Guangzhou, with the prototype of their first magazine International
Plastics News for China（国际塑料商情）. To their amazement, they got nearly
3,000 requests for subscriptions in just three days. “We were just
overwhelmed. The booth was just swamped with visitors to the trade show
trying to sign up for subscription – we had to fight them off. It was
amazing,” Mike recalls.
“Then the same thing happened a few months later at Chinaplas, also in
Guangzhou. We reintroduced our International Plastics News for China.
Again the booth was just absolutely overwhelmed with people demanding to
get sample copies of the magazine,” he adds.
China at that time had a very high demand and respect for product and
machinery made in Taiwan, and Ringier Trade was the first publishing
operation to set up in Taiwan with the specific objective of helping
Taiwan exporters break into the China market. “So really, you know, 50%
of the business was coming from Taiwan, and we also discovered that we
had another opportunity not just for China, but also had a great
opportunity to introduce Taiwan machinery makers to markets in Latin
America, USA, Europe, and we did this by establishing partnerships
through our partner media. So it was a very good story that we have for
our clients in Taiwan: that we are present in China, Europe, Latin
America, and so on,” says Mike.
In the 15 years since, Ringier Trade has added over 30 titles to its
portfolio including for other core industries, including Metalworking
and Food & Beverage. The company has also partnered with
international publishing firms with significant markets in the United
States, Latin America and Europe as well as setting up co-branded titles
in India. “We were basically the first B2B media company from this area
to set up kind of a joint venture in India and build a bridge between
two great trading centres,” says Mike.
Keeping pace with developments
As the core industries developed and specialised, Ringier Trade
introduced new titles to serve their requirements. These included for
instance, Rubber World for China（国际橡胶商情）and Reinforced Plastics
China（增强塑料－中国版） in Plastics, and International Mold & Die Making
News for China（国际模具制造商情）and Automotive Engineering International
China（国际汽车工程－中 文版）in Metalworking. The expansion of print media has also
been territorial; English trade journals were the natural progression
to serve the Plastics, Metalworking and Food & Beverage industries
in South East Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
The company also holds 20 specialised conferences annually. While
organizing these events is very time- and labourintensive, this form of
communication and interaction is booming. “There still remains a very
great need for companies to build relationships, to create business
networks. People still want to meet people. People still want to develop
those contacts and build trust and confidence with their suppliers and
potential customers and you do that through events. So that’s what led
me into the conference business,” Mike explains.
In the opposite direction is digital marketing in which Ringier Trade
has directed a lot of resources in the past six or seven or so years.
“Money, people and time have gone to enhancing our website,
industrysourcing.com, and all our digital services – whether it's the
occasional webinar, web TV, the showrooms that we have – and this all
never stops. The technology changes, so you have to change – constant
reinvention, re-investment just to keep up with the technology. And then
smartphones change the game dramatically so we have to change again,”
he says.
The future is content marketing
As Ringier Trade celebrates its 15th anniversary, Mike s ees B2B
communications evolving to incorporate content marketing. A whole new
style of advertising, content marketing is not the easiest concept to
explain to an advertisers so he has personally been meeting with select
clients to introduce what Ringier can offer them.
“In the digital age, the communication process will be very text-driven,
imagedriven, more informative, and present a company through thought
leadership, and that builds up trust and generates inquiries in a bit
more of an indirect way,” he says.“So that is one area of change that
will change the way we will incorporate our content. In the past, the
mandate to the editors was produce the best quality content that you can
for the magazine. Today, it's totally turned on its head. I tell our
editors that they are content directors, they're brand managers, and
most importantly, the most important brand now is what they do in
digital.” - See more at:
http://us.industrysourcing.com/news/278013.aspx#sthash.9oEX6uNq.dpuf
THERE
wasn’t a lack headlines in July 1997. What should have been the big
story – Hong Kong’s handover to China by the United Kingdom – was
quickly eclipsed by the financial crisis that knocked out Thailand and
quickly pummelled more economies across Asia. Industrial projects ground
to a halt, banks shut down, and investments dried up.To observers, only
China was unmarked by the pounding that the rest of the region was
taking.
B2B multimedia publisher Michael R. Hay agreed with this observation and
saw positive prospects for trade media in China. In contrast to the
rest of Asia, investments were still pouring in to China and industrial
activity was ramping up. Domestic companies, for instance, were
venturing into OEM operations to serve international demand for
competitively priced products and components.
“I saw that in China that manufacturers had a very strong need for
information and knowhow – on technology and on manufacturing. They were
learning how to market and create their products but they were still
very backward in technology in terms of production and
manufacturing,”recalls Mr Hay, president and publisher of Ringier Trade
Media – one of the most successful industrial media companies in the
region.
In this dearth of information, Mike saw potential to publish trade
magazines for core industries. He identified Plastics Processing and
Packaging as two of these industries requiring technology to achieve
greater levels of efficiency and reach global standards.
“I saw a real opportunity there, because plastics manufacturing
consumption was rapidly rising 15 years ago and China was very active in
developing export markets, which require packaging, so it seemed like a
natural fit,” he explains.
It was 15 years ago, he set up Ringier Trade Media with joint business
partner, the Swiss media giant Ringier AG. Although at that time the B2B
sector was a huge departure for the Swiss firm, having always been in
the commercial sector, they have been supportive from the get-go.An
incident early on proved to be a very pleasant surprise and also gave
Ringier AG a great deal of confidence of the potential of B2B magazines.
In March of 1998, Ringier Trade participated in the trade show Sinopack
in Guangzhou, with the prototype of their first magazine International
Plastics News for China（国际塑料商情）. To their amazement, they got nearly
3,000 requests for subscriptions in just three days. “We were just
overwhelmed. The booth was just swamped with visitors to the trade show
trying to sign up for subscription – we had to fight them off. It was
amazing,” Mike recalls.
“Then the same thing happened a few months later at Chinaplas, also in
Guangzhou. We reintroduced our International Plastics News for China.
Again the booth was just absolutely overwhelmed with people demanding to
get sample copies of the magazine,” he adds.
China at that time had a very high demand and respect for product and
machinery made in Taiwan, and Ringier Trade was the first publishing
operation to set up in Taiwan with the specific objective of helping
Taiwan exporters break into the China market. “So really, you know, 50%
of the business was coming from Taiwan, and we also discovered that we
had another opportunity not just for China, but also had a great
opportunity to introduce Taiwan machinery makers to markets in Latin
America, USA, Europe, and we did this by establishing partnerships
through our partner media. So it was a very good story that we have for
our clients in Taiwan: that we are present in China, Europe, Latin
America, and so on,” says Mike.
In the 15 years since, Ringier Trade has added over 30 titles to its
portfolio including for other core industries, including Metalworking
and Food & Beverage. The company has also partnered with
international publishing firms with significant markets in the United
States, Latin America and Europe as well as setting up co-branded titles
in India. “We were basically the first B2B media company from this area
to set up kind of a joint venture in India and build a bridge between
two great trading centres,” says Mike.
Keeping pace with developments
As the core industries developed and specialised, Ringier Trade
introduced new titles to serve their requirements. These included for
instance, Rubber World for China（国际橡胶商情）and Reinforced Plastics
China（增强塑料－中国版） in Plastics, and International Mold & Die Making
News for China（国际模具制造商情）and Automotive Engineering International
China（国际汽车工程－中 文版）in Metalworking. The expansion of print media has also
been territorial; English trade journals were the natural progression
to serve the Plastics, Metalworking and Food & Beverage industries
in South East Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
The company also holds 20 specialised conferences annually. While
organizing these events is very time- and labourintensive, this form of
communication and interaction is booming. “There still remains a very
great need for companies to build relationships, to create business
networks. People still want to meet people. People still want to develop
those contacts and build trust and confidence with their suppliers and
potential customers and you do that through events. So that’s what led
me into the conference business,” Mike explains.
In the opposite direction is digital marketing in which Ringier Trade
has directed a lot of resources in the past six or seven or so years.
“Money, people and time have gone to enhancing our website,
industrysourcing.com, and all our digital services – whether it's the
occasional webinar, web TV, the showrooms that we have – and this all
never stops. The technology changes, so you have to change – constant
reinvention, re-investment just to keep up with the technology. And then
smartphones change the game dramatically so we have to change again,”
he says.
The future is content marketing
As Ringier Trade celebrates its 15th anniversary, Mike s ees B2B
communications evolving to incorporate content marketing. A whole new
style of advertising, content marketing is not the easiest concept to
explain to an advertisers so he has personally been meeting with select
clients to introduce what Ringier can offer them.
“In the digital age, the communication process will be very text-driven,
imagedriven, more informative, and present a company through thought
leadership, and that builds up trust and generates inquiries in a bit
more of an indirect way,” he says.“So that is one area of change that
will change the way we will incorporate our content. In the past, the
mandate to the editors was produce the best quality content that you can
for the magazine. Today, it's totally turned on its head. I tell our
editors that they are content directors, they're brand managers, and
most importantly, the most important brand now is what they do in
digital.” - See more at:
http://us.industrysourcing.com/news/278013.aspx#sthash.9oEX6uNq.dpuf
THERE
wasn’t a lack headlines in July 1997. What should have been the big
story – Hong Kong’s handover to China by the United Kingdom – was
quickly eclipsed by the financial crisis that knocked out Thailand and
quickly pummelled more economies across Asia. Industrial projects ground
to a halt, banks shut down, and investments dried up.To observers, only
China was unmarked by the pounding that the rest of the region was
taking.
B2B multimedia publisher Michael R. Hay agreed with this observation and
saw positive prospects for trade media in China. In contrast to the
rest of Asia, investments were still pouring in to China and industrial
activity was ramping up. Domestic companies, for instance, were
venturing into OEM operations to serve international demand for
competitively priced products and components.
“I saw that in China that manufacturers had a very strong need for
information and knowhow – on technology and on manufacturing. They were
learning how to market and create their products but they were still
very backward in technology in terms of production and
manufacturing,”recalls Mr Hay, president and publisher of Ringier Trade
Media – one of the most successful industrial media companies in the
region.
In this dearth of information, Mike saw potential to publish trade
magazines for core industries. He identified Plastics Processing and
Packaging as two of these industries requiring technology to achieve
greater levels of efficiency and reach global standards.
“I saw a real opportunity there, because plastics manufacturing
consumption was rapidly rising 15 years ago and China was very active in
developing export markets, which require packaging, so it seemed like a
natural fit,” he explains.
It was 15 years ago, he set up Ringier Trade Media with joint business
partner, the Swiss media giant Ringier AG. Although at that time the B2B
sector was a huge departure for the Swiss firm, having always been in
the commercial sector, they have been supportive from the get-go.An
incident early on proved to be a very pleasant surprise and also gave
Ringier AG a great deal of confidence of the potential of B2B magazines.
In March of 1998, Ringier Trade participated in the trade show Sinopack
in Guangzhou, with the prototype of their first magazine International
Plastics News for China（国际塑料商情）. To their amazement, they got nearly
3,000 requests for subscriptions in just three days. “We were just
overwhelmed. The booth was just swamped with visitors to the trade show
trying to sign up for subscription – we had to fight them off. It was
amazing,” Mike recalls.
“Then the same thing happened a few months later at Chinaplas, also in
Guangzhou. We reintroduced our International Plastics News for China.
Again the booth was just absolutely overwhelmed with people demanding to
get sample copies of the magazine,” he adds.
China at that time had a very high demand and respect for product and
machinery made in Taiwan, and Ringier Trade was the first publishing
operation to set up in Taiwan with the specific objective of helping
Taiwan exporters break into the China market. “So really, you know, 50%
of the business was coming from Taiwan, and we also discovered that we
had another opportunity not just for China, but also had a great
opportunity to introduce Taiwan machinery makers to markets in Latin
America, USA, Europe, and we did this by establishing partnerships
through our partner media. So it was a very good story that we have for
our clients in Taiwan: that we are present in China, Europe, Latin
America, and so on,” says Mike.
In the 15 years since, Ringier Trade has added over 30 titles to its
portfolio including for other core industries, including Metalworking
and Food & Beverage. The company has also partnered with
international publishing firms with significant markets in the United
States, Latin America and Europe as well as setting up co-branded titles
in India. “We were basically the first B2B media company from this area
to set up kind of a joint venture in India and build a bridge between
two great trading centres,” says Mike.
Keeping pace with developments
As the core industries developed and specialised, Ringier Trade
introduced new titles to serve their requirements. These included for
instance, Rubber World for China（国际橡胶商情）and Reinforced Plastics
China（增强塑料－中国版） in Plastics, and International Mold & Die Making
News for China（国际模具制造商情）and Automotive Engineering International
China（国际汽车工程－中 文版）in Metalworking. The expansion of print media has also
been territorial; English trade journals were the natural progression
to serve the Plastics, Metalworking and Food & Beverage industries
in South East Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
The company also holds 20 specialised conferences annually. While
organizing these events is very time- and labourintensive, this form of
communication and interaction is booming. “There still remains a very
great need for companies to build relationships, to create business
networks. People still want to meet people. People still want to develop
those contacts and build trust and confidence with their suppliers and
potential customers and you do that through events. So that’s what led
me into the conference business,” Mike explains.
In the opposite direction is digital marketing in which Ringier Trade
has directed a lot of resources in the past six or seven or so years.
“Money, people and time have gone to enhancing our website,
industrysourcing.com, and all our digital services – whether it's the
occasional webinar, web TV, the showrooms that we have – and this all
never stops. The technology changes, so you have to change – constant
reinvention, re-investment just to keep up with the technology. And then
smartphones change the game dramatically so we have to change again,”
he says.
The future is content marketing
As Ringier Trade celebrates its 15th anniversary, Mike s ees B2B
communications evolving to incorporate content marketing. A whole new
style of advertising, content marketing is not the easiest concept to
explain to an advertisers so he has personally been meeting with select
clients to introduce what Ringier can offer them.
“In the digital age, the communication process will be very text-driven,
imagedriven, more informative, and present a company through thought
leadership, and that builds up trust and generates inquiries in a bit
more of an indirect way,” he says.“So that is one area of change that
will change the way we will incorporate our content. In the past, the
mandate to the editors was produce the best quality content that you can
for the magazine. Today, it's totally turned on its head. I tell our
editors that they are content directors, they're brand managers, and
most importantly, the most important brand now is what they do in
digital.” - See more at:
http://us.industrysourcing.com/news/278013.aspx#sthash.9oEX6uNq.dpuf
THERE
wasn’t a lack headlines in July 1997. What should have been the big
story – Hong Kong’s handover to China by the United Kingdom – was
quickly eclipsed by the financial crisis that knocked out Thailand and
quickly pummelled more economies across Asia. Industrial projects ground
to a halt, banks shut down, and investments dried up.To observers, only
China was unmarked by the pounding that the rest of the region was
taking.
B2B multimedia publisher Michael R. Hay agreed with this observation and
saw positive prospects for trade media in China. In contrast to the
rest of Asia, investments were still pouring in to China and industrial
activity was ramping up. Domestic companies, for instance, were
venturing into OEM operations to serve international demand for
competitively priced products and components.
“I saw that in China that manufacturers had a very strong need for
information and knowhow – on technology and on manufacturing. They were
learning how to market and create their products but they were still
very backward in technology in terms of production and
manufacturing,”recalls Mr Hay, president and publisher of Ringier Trade
Media – one of the most successful industrial media companies in the
region.
In this dearth of information, Mike saw potential to publish trade
magazines for core industries. He identified Plastics Processing and
Packaging as two of these industries requiring technology to achieve
greater levels of efficiency and reach global standards.
“I saw a real opportunity there, because plastics manufacturing
consumption was rapidly rising 15 years ago and China was very active in
developing export markets, which require packaging, so it seemed like a
natural fit,” he explains.
It was 15 years ago, he set up Ringier Trade Media with joint business
partner, the Swiss media giant Ringier AG. Although at that time the B2B
sector was a huge departure for the Swiss firm, having always been in
the commercial sector, they have been supportive from the get-go.An
incident early on proved to be a very pleasant surprise and also gave
Ringier AG a great deal of confidence of the potential of B2B magazines.
In March of 1998, Ringier Trade participated in the trade show Sinopack
in Guangzhou, with the prototype of their first magazine International
Plastics News for China（国际塑料商情）. To their amazement, they got nearly
3,000 requests for subscriptions in just three days. “We were just
overwhelmed. The booth was just swamped with visitors to the trade show
trying to sign up for subscription – we had to fight them off. It was
amazing,” Mike recalls.
“Then the same thing happened a few months later at Chinaplas, also in
Guangzhou. We reintroduced our International Plastics News for China.
Again the booth was just absolutely overwhelmed with people demanding to
get sample copies of the magazine,” he adds.
China at that time had a very high demand and respect for product and
machinery made in Taiwan, and Ringier Trade was the first publishing
operation to set up in Taiwan with the specific objective of helping
Taiwan exporters break into the China market. “So really, you know, 50%
of the business was coming from Taiwan, and we also discovered that we
had another opportunity not just for China, but also had a great
opportunity to introduce Taiwan machinery makers to markets in Latin
America, USA, Europe, and we did this by establishing partnerships
through our partner media. So it was a very good story that we have for
our clients in Taiwan: that we are present in China, Europe, Latin
America, and so on,” says Mike.
In the 15 years since, Ringier Trade has added over 30 titles to its
portfolio including for other core industries, including Metalworking
and Food & Beverage. The company has also partnered with
international publishing firms with significant markets in the United
States, Latin America and Europe as well as setting up co-branded titles
in India. “We were basically the first B2B media company from this area
to set up kind of a joint venture in India and build a bridge between
two great trading centres,” says Mike.
Keeping pace with developments
As the core industries developed and specialised, Ringier Trade
introduced new titles to serve their requirements. These included for
instance, Rubber World for China（国际橡胶商情）and Reinforced Plastics
China（增强塑料－中国版） in Plastics, and International Mold & Die Making
News for China（国际模具制造商情）and Automotive Engineering International
China（国际汽车工程－中 文版）in Metalworking. The expansion of print media has also
been territorial; English trade journals were the natural progression
to serve the Plastics, Metalworking and Food & Beverage industries
in South East Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
The company also holds 20 specialised conferences annually. While
organizing these events is very time- and labourintensive, this form of
communication and interaction is booming. “There still remains a very
great need for companies to build relationships, to create business
networks. People still want to meet people. People still want to develop
those contacts and build trust and confidence with their suppliers and
potential customers and you do that through events. So that’s what led
me into the conference business,” Mike explains.
In the opposite direction is digital marketing in which Ringier Trade
has directed a lot of resources in the past six or seven or so years.
“Money, people and time have gone to enhancing our website,
industrysourcing.com, and all our digital services – whether it's the
occasional webinar, web TV, the showrooms that we have – and this all
never stops. The technology changes, so you have to change – constant
reinvention, re-investment just to keep up with the technology. And then
smartphones change the game dramatically so we have to change again,”
he says.
The future is content marketing
As Ringier Trade celebrates its 15th anniversary, Mike s ees B2B
communications evolving to incorporate content marketing. A whole new
style of advertising, content marketing is not the easiest concept to
explain to an advertisers so he has personally been meeting with select
clients to introduce what Ringier can offer them.
“In the digital age, the communication process will be very text-driven,
imagedriven, more informative, and present a company through thought
leadership, and that builds up trust and generates inquiries in a bit
more of an indirect way,” he says.“So that is one area of change that
will change the way we will incorporate our content. In the past, the
mandate to the editors was produce the best quality content that you can
for the magazine. Today, it's totally turned on its head. I tell our
editors that they are content directors, they're brand managers, and
most importantly, the most important brand now is what they do in
digital.” - See more at:
http://us.industrysourcing.com/news/278013.aspx#sthash.9oEX6uNq.dpuf
