Jan 26-30, 2026
38,645
Social shares
31,966
Referrals
$400,000 USD
Estimated paid media savings
Industry: Food & Beverage
CASE STUDY
Driving 3.5% of Gulfood's total event registrations, generating a projected ~$1,170,925 USD in visitor revenue.
Jan 26-30, 2026
Event Overview
Gulfood is the world’s largest annual food and beverage trade show, held each year in Dubai and organized by Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC). The 2026 edition was a landmark in the event’s 30-year history: for the first time ever, Gulfood expanded across two mega venues simultaneously – Dubai World Trade Centre and Dubai Exhibition Centre – doubling the scale of what had already been the world’s preeminent F&B sourcing and networking event.
Running from January 26–30, 2026, Gulfood 2026 brought together 8,500+ exhibitors, 1.5 million+ products, and participants from 192 countries across 12 sectors, including the newly introduced Gulfood Logistics and Gulfood Startups. With India as the Country Partner for 2026, the show reinforced its position as the global crossroads for the food and beverage industry.
To match the ambition of this expanded edition, DWTC partnered with Snöball to activate a peer-to-peer event marketing program that turned their largest-ever audience of attendees, exhibitors, and speakers into advocates who drove measurable registrations.
What we
did
Snöball launched a fully managed, multi-phase peer-to-peer marketing campaign activating visitors, exhibitors, and speakers as Gulfood advocates.
The campaign ran for a 7-week window leading up to the event (condensed from Snöball’s typical 12–18 week recommendation).
Across three audience segments, Snöball deployed tailored share toolkits, branded assets, and personalized content.
Moreover, personalization capabilities for each advocate allowed them to customize their invitations in a way that felt authentic to their role at the event.
This greatly improved engagement and conversion effectiveness.
How we did it
Activated parallel P2P campaigns for visitors, exhibitors, and speakers, each with tailored messaging, imagery, and calls to action.
Created personalized social share cards for every advocate, pre-populated with their name, company, and role for one-click sharing.
Enabled sharing across 17+ social platforms, including three channels added specifically for DWTC's audience: Viber, DK, and Telegram.
Deployed WhatsApp campaigns through DWTC's official broadcast channel.
Provided exhibitors with branded, customizable assets featuring their company name and logo, allowing them to promote their booth with their own identity.
Ran dedicated speaker campaigns for three separate conferences (Gulfood World Economy Summit, Future Food50, and NXT Stage) with unique custom messaging for each.
Delivered the campaign as a fully managed, white-glove service with a dedicated campaign manager available throughout the entire campaign window.
Provided a real-time performance dashboard giving DWTC transparent visibility into shares, referral traffic, and confirmed registrations.
Reported on actual registration conversions, not just traffic – providing precise attribution and greater accuracy.
“Snöball was very easy to work with. Because of the flexibility and the on-time support, we did make the best out of what we could do. That's, like, a hundred points," said Madhuri Chaturvedi, Marketing Executive, Dubai World Trade Centre
Mobilizing Participants
12.31%
of total mobilized attendees actively shared about the event
Meet Moideen, F&B professional!
He just signed up to attend Gulfood 2026.
Moideen is instantly shown a personalized share page to invite peers and get more eyeballs on the event.
Mobilizing
industry speakers
21.4%
of total mobilized speakers shared about their sessions
Meet Victor, speaker in the F&B industry!
He is set to speak at Gulfood 2026. An email from Snöball hands him an easy-to-share personalized toolkit so he can invite his network to his sessions.
Mobilizing
Exhibitors
3.39%
of total mobilized exhibitors shared about their participation in the event
Meet Vignesh, part of Silo Flow Transport and Logistics!
Vignesh will be exhibiting with his team at Gulfood 2026.
He gets a custom promo kit from Snöball with trackable links, helping him invite prospects and showcase his booth.
Tech Stack
For Gulfood 2026, Snöball integrated with Veuz, DWTC’s registration provider. This drove prompt sharing immediately after sign-up and to track referral conversions, and ensured every advocate’s share card, landing page, and personalized invite reflected accurate, up-to-date event information, keeping the campaign seamless from sign-up through to sharing.
Peer-to-peer marketing campaign performance
This campaign drove 3.5% of total show attendance, with a 20.86% click-to-sign-up conversion rate—saving an estimated $400K USD in paid media spend to achieve the same result and generating a projected ~$1,170,925 USD in visitor revenue.
Advocates shared 38,645 times across 17 social channels, with WhatsApp dominating at 46.5% of all shares – a reflection of the platform’s central role in the Middle East’s professional communication culture. LinkedIn came in second at 25.2%, followed by Instagram at 9.9%. Together, these shares generated 84,213 landing page views, amplifying Gulfood’s reach far beyond the initial advocate audience.
Snöball sent a total of 335,535 emails across all three audience segments with a 39.2% open rate and 7% click rate. The results significantly outperformed industry benchmarks across the board.
20.86%
Click-to-sign-up rate
46.5%
WhatsApp adoption rate – most used of 17 social channels
3.5%
of total audience registrations through peer referral sign-ups
$1,170,925
Estimated visitor revenue
CLIENTS LOVE US. WE LOVE THEM TOO
Madhuri ChaturvediMarketing Executive, DWTC
