Event marketing helped by new technology

Event companies dedicate an important part of their budget to event marketing: « According to a report by the Convention Industry Council, (…) hosting, attending, and exhibiting at events comprise a whopping  21% of corporate marketing budgets. ».
Moreover, as we all know, technology is very useful in all sectors or activities. It helps companies to be more effective and efficient in their daily operations. Technology could be essential to event marketing. But, according to Franck Cespedes (Senior Lecture at HBS) and Pankaj Prasad (co-founder of DoubleDutch, a provider of mobile events apps), only three of five managers use technology tools.

An event is split into three steps: the preparation of the event, during the event and the measurement of results and feedbacks.
To begin, the manager needs to set the event’s goals in line with its strategy. Past results can help them to set those objectives and then to establish marketing budget. According to the authors, some pre-even registration system companies like Cvent can be a great opportunity for planners. Indeed, they handle tickets selling system, event promotion and then, they bring information about the effect of event promotion activities. The planner can adjust in a near future its marketing actions and budget.

During the event, the use of IT is a significant convenience in term of cost savings. Using mobile phones and tablets particularly could help planners in the organization of the event but also could develop sponsorship opportunities.
Through the app, attendees have access to all event information such as access plan, agenda, catering and speaker’s information. This technology also offers the possibility to communicate, interact, comment, and give their feelings during meetings. The app is most of the time connect with social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
Even if this technology exists, it is possible to have not enough interaction. That’s why Glisser and sli.do propose to develop the synergy during sessions and try to create more dialogs between attendees and speakers.

Finally, this last step is crucial. When an event is finished, there are still many things to do. Indeed, planners need to evaluate their events. This step is very important because it allows to see what could be improved on the next event. Planners need to measure different indicators like the return on investment and see if goals are reached. Before, papers were distributed but now, thanks to technology, most of the feedbacks and satisfaction remarks are given electronically which is an important time saver.
Moreover, the authors distinguish two types of customers and their goals: the current ones which want to keep their relationships, meet others actors and receive feedbacks on their products; the potential ones mainly want a first contact, be known in the sector, meet new prospects... SAP is a software company. Its activity is to inform sales representative of their sales lead’ interests. Sales representatives will then adjust their products and services. This method could increase company sales by 25%.

Event marketing has a capital role in the event. Doing a great marketing promotion need to be associated to the technology. It is an innovative way of creating an event, a time saver for planner but also big data provider. Thanks to the development of the technology, the event industry is taking another direction. Even if some people look perplexed, they don’t know what they are missing.

Yana Ussenko & Laëtitia Vié

https://hbr.org/2015/03/get-more-from-your-event-spending