'File 29/28 British Industrial Fair' [‎204v] (408/512)

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space, but encountered other problems
which had not presented themselves before.
These were, primarily, problems of dwindling
trade, depression, fewer exhibitors.
NEW MARKETS MEANT MORE
PUBLICITY
It was then realised that, however good
a Fair the B.I.F. was, it needed publicity to
make people—and especially overseas buyers
—realise its potentialities. There were many
markets abroad which could use British
goods but which, hitherto, had been over
looked in favour of the established selling
areas.
Buyers had to be told about British goods
and about the B.I.F. which assembled them
for convenient viewing.
Up to this point the average expenditure
of the Fair on publicity had been a mere
£5,000 a year. It was clearly not enough.
In 1925 came the great Empire Exhibition
at Wembley, and it was decided to suspend
the London section of the Fair in that year.
The decision gave the organisers a chance
to frame their publicity plans and to
approach the government for financial
assistance. The government were won
over, and authorised an expenditure on
publicity of £25,000.
B.I.F. EXPANSION CONTINUED
Progress was maintained over the next
three years and 1929 saw' a new record for
space set up with the B.I.F. covering, for
the first time, more than half-a-million
square feet of actual stand space. The
number of exhibitors in that year was also
a record for the Fair—2,368.
In 1930, the London section moved from
White City to Olympia but found the
building too small and, consequently, the
next year took in White City as well as
I’liti.icrn
:t:t laugruagres
For the 1950 B.I.F. a world campaign
of publicity will utilise :
7.250.000 stick-on poster letter
stamps ;
700.000 information booklets in 10
languages ;
300.000 invitation cards in 10
languages ;
200.000 menu cards in 2 sizes and
12 languages ;
80.000 posters in 3 sizes and 10
languages ;
50.000 showcards in 10 languages.
In addition Press Advertisements will
appear in sixty-three countries using
33 languages ; 121,000 reply postcards
in 10 languages will be used in the
Direct Mail campaign to overseas trade
buyers ; 15.000 advance catalogues of
the Fair will be issued overseas before
the Fair and a further fifty thousand
at the Fair. Other activities include a
world news, photo, article and matt
service.
Olympia. The London sections ran at both
halls from 1931 to 1937, when the recently-
completed building at Earls Court, offering
250.000 square feet, was exchanged for White
City.
Since 1926, the old airdrome site at
Castle Bromwich, Birmingham, had been
enlarged year by year until, in 1939, it
provided 304,526 square feel and had .4^
become the largest single-floor exhibition
building in the world.
Meanwhile, the Olympia building in
London had also been enlarged : by the
outbreak of World War II it could offer
300.000 square feet.
CLOSED FOR THE DURATION
The war forced the British Industries
Fair into cold storage for a spell of seven
years. But, in 1946, after the bombs had
damaged much of London and even areas