“NEW NORMAL”; SAME GOALS FOR EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING

In the wake of Covid many exhibit and event producers are re-inventing themselves, offering new products and introducing new types of experiential marketing. Across the board the work I’ve seen has been fantastic. The live event industry was due for a shake up. In the long run this realignment will be good for our customers. However, I believe some of the terminology being thrown around is confusing and counterproductive.

For example, the term “virtual exhibit” is used as a catch all for various types of online engagements that seek to simulate what happens on the show floor. They seem to operate under the assumption that if you create something that looks like a tradeshow it will function like a tradeshow.

The magic on the show floor isn’t just in the visuals. It’s in the hand shaking, the immersion and the nightlife. It’s in the people. The goal cannot be to simulate the experience of the show floor on the internet. I don’t think that’s possible.

Don’t mistake me for a luddite. Good digital marketing can connect with and educate consumers in a way that produces results. It can be magical. I’ve seen and executed very successful live events and experiential interactives on the web. The good ones understand what they are trying to do and that the web has different strengths and limitations than an in-person event.

Another new term is “hybrid event”. It means an event that includes both a live event and an online component. People introduce this like a new idea they’ve just come up with. Good marketers already understood and incorporated opportunities for multichannel marketing into their event spaces. If you’ve ever encouraged an attendee to take a photo in your booth and post it to social media you’ve already hosted a “hybrid event”.

There are some fantastic new implementations and products that will enable better connection with the world outside of your event, but truthfully, failing to integrate digital marketing into your event plan was already a mistake pre-Covid. Face-to-face connections are powerful but they are limited in reach. The web enables greater reach. By utilizing multiple channels we can play to the strengths of one medium and mitigate it’s weaknesses with another.

How many times have you or your client spent money to create something amazing at an event but ultimately been underwhelmed by the ROI? Planning for content to be used across multiple channels is the solution to this problem. With good planning, assets can be experienced in a large format at your live event then shared with a colleague on a desktop back at the office. The devices that we all carry in our pockets can drive traffic to our booths or let others experience the magic in real time.

If you weren’t thinking this way before you should start now. When we get back to tradeshows and in-person events the impact may be smaller because of reduced attendance or budgets. We have to be smarter but “hybrid” events shouldn’t be a big jump. They are a logical extension of what we were already good at.