Event Marketing: What You’re Doing Wrong

I’ve been in a few conversations with frustrated organizers lately– concerned about event registrations and sluggish attendee signups.

Many factors impact attendance numbers. Organizers often point to those outside their control — an imperfect market, busyness of prospective attendees, or a fragmented media landscape, where ads just don’t hit where they used to.

This last point is definitely true. It’s no secret that the effectiveness of audience tracking and targeting of digital advertising has been diminishing, fast. Brought on by digital privacy changes, it will fall off a cliff as Google ends the utilization of third-party cookies next year.  

Event marketing is not the same as it used to be. But just as organizers have had to elevate their event concepts to changing audience expectations– your marketing must evolve too.

Even if you do not rely on advertising to pull in your audience– maybe relying on your brand or suppliers to bring in your audience– it doesn’t mean you can implement the regular playbook. The pandemic years have left an impact that still resonates. It’s created a huge generational gap that’s left even very established brands with isolated touchpoints with the buyers and sponsors of tomorrow.

What can event marketers be doing differently? For one thing, marketing too late.

The biggest mistakes I see constantly– are around timing and strategy. It doesn’t matter when the event is. You need to start now. Really.

Your event brand marketing cannot be a seasonal activity. It must be continual and go beyond raising awareness. It needs to build a connection.

With the phasing out of third-party cookies, organizers need to rely on first-party data more than ever. To use this most effectively, you need to understand what data you have and how to successfully activate it through your communications.

Even if you don’t know the specifics of your event yet, ensure your event and brand find their way into your audience’s inboxes and social feeds regularly so they are primed for when you have those details ready to share. Build intrigue. Learn from how your audience engages with your content and adjust your approach if necessary. Take the time to cultivate a consistent habit of providing value to your community by developing your organization’s voice into one that is unmissable for your audience. This way, you can create anticipation for your event even before it exists.

Here’s what I’ve been catching up on this week:

The event industry’s changing landscape:

Exhibition World
‘Talent’ the next big challenge, according to ETT Club White Paper
New industry report finds that the hiring and talent crisis in the event industry remains one of its biggest threats going forward– as summed up in the report’s conclusion: “We work in an industry where we want people who work very hard, under a lot of stress, are facing (at best) a slow career evolution and are not paid that much. That is why we need to be creative and use our best assets.” Each of us in the industry has a role to play in shifting this tide. 

MeetingsNet
Virtual-Event Data Shows Planners Useful Trends
It’s no surprise that the meetings and events industry has been shaken up in the last few years. But just how much? This survey examines some of the changes to the industry and what you need to do to adapt accordingly. 

Blach Report
Neues Hygienezertifikat für Kulturveranstalter und Locations
Germany’s DTHG– Theater and Technical Society, an association for event and exhibition management providers, has collaborated to create a special certification for venue indoor air quality, to help demonstrate the effectiveness of hygiene concepts and ventilation systems in the wake of pandemic restrictions. 

Portal Radar
Messe Frankfurt closes deal to continue with green electricity in its pavilions
Echoing the “green” and sustainable trend that’s been evident in the event industry over the past year— Messe Frankfurt installs solar panels to achieve its goal of utilizing 100% of energy needs from renewable sources. 

Digital Event Technology:

Biz Bash
This Brand Allows Planners to Create Their Own Metaverse
Make your own metaverse? It’s possible on this new eventtech platform, Rove.

Skift Meetings
Event Tech Leaders Look Past Troubles, Go All In
Event technology companies have taken significant financial hits over the last months, after the pandemic boom years. How are tech leaders responding? With enthusiastic confidence about the state of the industry, according to this panel by Skift meetings.  

Blach Report
Digitale Live-Events auf der Online-Plattform helloStream
Despite the explosive growth in online event platforms over the past few years, there’s still more to keep up with. In comes Berlin-based HelloStream, a new online platform for event production allowing corporates, agencies and associations to host digital live events on their own platform via a white-labelled solution. 

Digiday
Why Grey Goose is pouring more marketing dollars into metaverse
Metaverse experiences are not going anywhere and, if anything, are only getting more sophisticated. Here’s an example of how a brand was able to build compelling connections digitally that translated into real-life touchpoints (and sales). How did they do it? By connecting around on-location events– here, the US Open and the Grammy Awards– creating a hybrid-event-metaverse mashup only 2022 could bring. 

Don’t miss it:

Exhibition World
Attracting Gens Y and Z to our exhibitions
It’s no secret that tradefairs and exhibitions have a generational divide. And the heading of this piece says it all– “attracting Gens Y and Z” to “our” exhibitions. Exhibitions are largely a space and venue for older demographics. But there are lots of things organizers can do to help make them more accessible to a younger generation if planners get creative. 

LBB
The Future of Experiential Marketing with Joseph Aquilina
The experiential marketing frontier is continually expanding– with a boom expected in 2023 (and beyond). With lots of digital noise and distraction for your audience’s attention, creating those valuable experiences that provide meaning to your stakeholders is more important than ever. Here are some insights from an industry leader on how you can be at the forefront– and if you need to be in the metaverse or not.  

AdWeek
Experiential Captivates Consumers as Brands and Agencies Eye the Next Big Collaboration
Brands and organizations are continually looking for a way to stand out and build a connection with their community– and experiences are going to be bigger than ever. 

Digiday
Ad industry shifts 2023 budgets as recession now looks inevitable
A recession is already forecasted for 2023 as prices continue to rise and inflation does too. It’s likely to mean a shift in event strategy that will mean more digital and smaller budgets. It’s time to think creatively about your 2023 strategy and build in some flexibility to your organization’s approach to stay ahead of recession-related shortfalls. 

Closing thoughts

That’s it for this week’s edition of The Lookout! 

If you know someone who might be interested in reading The Lookout, please share it with them! Read more editions of our newsletter here.

The Lookout Newsletter #68

Written by:
Felix Josephi
PIRATEx Managing Director