Montgomery Events Asia
Generating Exhibitor Leads for Two Niche B2B Exhibitions Across Southeast Asia
Background
Background
Montgomery Events Asia organises Ocean Connect Asia (OCA) and Digital Construction Asia (DCA), two co-located B2B exhibitions held at Sands Expo & Convention Centre, Singapore.
Ocean Connect Asia is Southeast Asia's dedicated platform for marine, hydrographic, ocean science and uncrewed technologies, bringing together solution providers, researchers and maritime decision-makers from across the region.
Digital Construction Asia focuses on accelerating digital transformation within the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector, spotlighting technologies such as AI, BIM, Digital Twins, GeoBIM, Robotics and Smart Construction.
Both events serve specialised, professional audiences where relevance and credibility carry far more weight than volume or reach alone.
The Challenge
The Challenge
Montgomery Events Asia needed to generate exhibitor enquiries and stand bookings for both the 2026 editions of OCA and DCA within a lean media budget across three Southeast Asian markets and two distinctly different industry verticals.
The core difficulties were threefold:
These are not general trade shows, as OCA targets hydrographic surveyors, marine technologists, offshore operators and ocean science specialists. DCA targets BIM managers, construction directors, infrastructure engineers and AEC digital leads. Reaching the right people required precision, because broad targeting would burn through the budget on irrelevant audiences and dilute the campaign's credibility.
With limited media spend, there was no room for an extended testing phase or wasted impressions on poorly qualified audiences. Every campaign element needed to earn its place.
The client entered the engagement with a clear expectation: Google Display campaigns should consistently deliver CTRs in the region of 4% to 4.3%.
Our Approach
Our Approach
Brew developed and managed an integrated digital advertising strategy across Google Display, Meta and LinkedIn, structured in three phases across the January to March campaign window.
The strategy was built around a simple principle: get the right message in front of the right professional, at the right stage of their decision-making process.
Our full scope of services throughout the campaign would include:
Phase 1: Awareness and Audience Building
In niche B2B sectors, cold audiences rarely convert on first contact. Before asking anyone to enquire or book a stand, we needed to establish that these events existed, what they stood for, and why they were worth paying attention to. January was about building the foundation, generating qualified site traffic that could be retargeted later, and seeding event awareness across the right professional communities.
What we did:
LinkedIn played a specific role that Facebook and Google cannot replicate: targeting by job function, seniority and industry simultaneously.
For DCA, we reached Engineering, Construction, IT, and Project Management professionals at Manager, Head and Director levels. For OCA, we focused on Engineering, Operations, and Research functions, specifically within Maritime, Offshore, Energy and Research industries. This precision ensured that impressions were not wasted on adjacent audiences who would never become exhibitors.
The creative approach across all channels was deliberately non-promotional. We led with who the event is for, what attendees gain, and why the content is relevant to the industry right now, instead of pricing, urgency, or generic event hype.
Ad creatives for Digital Construction Asia, positioned around practical skills, networking, and thought leadership, to resonate with decision-makers across the region.
Cross-industry professionals connect across the co-located events, a turnout shaped by Brew's coordinated approach to multi-phase audience acquisition.
Phase 2: Consideration and Early Commitment
By February, we had an audience that had been exposed to both events. The objective shifted from awareness to consideration: moving professionals from passive awareness to active interest.
At this stage, content needed to go deeper: what specifically would they see, hear and gain from being present as an exhibitor?
What we did:
February produced the campaign's strongest single-channel performance. DCA achieved a Google Display CTR of approximately 20% during this period; a result that reflects both the quality of the audience built in January and the relevance of the creative to a segment actively seeking digital construction solutions. Even OCA, serving a more niche audience, maintained solid engagement through this phase.
Retargeting was central to the February strategy. Rather than continuing to reach cold audiences, we concentrated budget on users already familiar with the events, reducing friction and increasing the likelihood of conversion. For a niche exhibition, a warm audience is significantly more valuable than a large one.
Brew crafted ad creatives for Ocean Connect Asia, leading with the event's focus on marine technology and professional community to establish immediate relevance with a specialist audience.
Industry experts take the stage at the event, engaging an audience built through Brew's targeted digital outreach.
Phase 3: Conversion and Final Push
March was the performance phase. Audiences had been built and warmed. The remaining task was to convert interest into action: enquiries, stand bookings and registrations. With deadlines approaching, urgency became a legitimate creative lever, and remarketing intensity was raised accordingly.
What we did:
Throughout all three phases, ongoing optimisation ran in parallel: keyword refinement, audience exclusions, ad scheduling improvements, creative refreshes and structured messaging enhancements. These were not set-and-forget campaigns. Weekly performance monitoring informed weekly adjustments, and monthly reporting translated data into strategic recommendations for the following period.
Buyers and exhibitors engage in high-value conversations across the show floor, reflecting the quality of audience Brew's digital targeting was built to attract.
Results
Results
The campaigns delivered strong engagement across both exhibitions, with performance building steadily from January through March and peaking during the final push ahead of each event.
Digital Construction Asia saw the strongest audience resonance of the two campaigns, with engagement climbing notably higher during February, a clear signal that the messaging landed well within the AEC and built environment community.
Ocean Connect Asia delivered consistent, reliable engagement throughout the campaign, a solid result given the more specialised and inherently smaller marine and ocean technology audience it was targeting.
Three factors drove consistent above-benchmark performance across both campaigns.
