The buyer is protecting a reputation
Event professionals are not optimizing for the lowest price. They are minimizing the chance of something going wrong on a day that cannot be rescheduled or repeated.
Familiarity is the cheapest risk reduction available to them. A vendor whose work they have seen, whose crew they recognize, and whose reviews are recent feels safe in a way a cheaper unknown never will.
One relationship produces years of work
A single planner or venue can send dozens of jobs over several years, arriving with no acquisition cost and a much higher close rate than a cold enquiry.
That makes trade-focused awareness some of the highest-return marketing in this category, and it is almost always underinvested relative to consumer advertising.
Recognition fills the awkward dates
Peak Saturdays sell themselves. Midweek corporate work, off-season events, and smaller functions have to be pursued, and they go to whoever comes to mind first.
Being the familiar name is what puts you in that conversation, which is why awareness work pays most obviously on exactly the dates that are hardest to fill.