The France Show 2008, which took place 18th-20th January at London Olympia was Archant’s first attempt to stage the entire lifestyle and property show, having previously been responsible for the French property side of the Vive la France shows for the past 8 years.

Visitor numbers across the three days of the event totalled just shy of 30,000 (27,212 of which were adults) with visitor numbers for each day the highest recorded for more than five years - an extraordinary result for a Show which wasn’t even on the Archant Life agenda until last August.

Working with the core special interests of Food and Wine, Travel, Property, Language and Culture, the first ‘France Show’ was very much the foundation for bigger things to come, with larger space at Earls Court already booked for January 2009.

Having said that, the France Show 2008 delighted the crowds with a range of attractions with the use of the UK’s favourite French chef Jean-Christophe Novelli proving a masterstroke in bringing wider consumer appeal to an event which hosted the UK’s largest French Property Exhibition, French produce markets, live music, CanCan girls, live cookery demonstrations, Champagne bars as well as seminars on living in France, French travel, wine-tasting, learning the language.

Archant Life France’s MD, Miller Hogg The France Show was delighted with the response to the event. “It was always going to be a risk, taking on the main French lifestyle event, following the dwindling attendance figures over the past few years”, said Hogg. “I’m so proud of what the team at Archant Life have achieved in a little over four months of planning, organising and marketing. Hopefully, we have repaid the trust and confidence our media partners and exhibitors placed in us when signing on the dotted line for The France Show 2008 - many of them leading brands in their own markets, so they were taking large risks too. Best of all though, we believe that this initial success demonstrates overwhelmingly that there is still sufficient interest in France and its unique culture here in the UK.”

“Our three pronged marketing strategy ‘Love it, Live it, Try it’ was aimed to reach out to the three key markets; true francophiles (love it), property (live it) and first time travellers (try it) - and rather than just hope to create an audience from our magazine titles, we spread the message far and wide, and into the specialist areas of the Show. Partnerships with Classic FM and the Sunday Times helped to bring credibility and awareness, while a
dedicated, targeted online marketing campaign helped us created massive interest beyond our own media. the results speak for themselves in terms of attendance figures”

“We now have a full 12 months to plan and prepare for the France Show 2009, which will be a bigger and better customer experience, especially in the travel and lifestyle areas. Planning is already underway and key exhibitors, who had an exceptional trading weekend this year can’t wait to book again when the plans are released.

For further information please visit www.thefranceshow.com.