Wait - where has all the marketing gone?
A guest blog by Andrew Everingham, Founder and CEO of CAPITAL-e, a Sydney based Engagement Agency.
As the threat of a pandemic started closing in on us like a gathering storm, most of us, including me, were blissfully unaware and going on about our business in the usual manner. I am one of the world's great huggers and was still embracing friends and strangers alike, considering the underlying nervousness as nonsense.
Let’s jump forward 2 weeks.
Nearly all in-person events had been canceled, postponed, reimagined, pivoted, or altered. There was a sudden deluge of emails from event companies and marketing service providers now purporting to be “The Online Event Experts”. Organizations sought to pivot from their core business offering to this new holy grail of webcasting.
So I ask the question: Why did we put away the marketing lenses and just panic buy online events in the same way we saw toilet rolls fly off the shelves?
I think one of the interesting points that has been exposed by these recent events is the lack of real respect that some marketers have for the content they are delivering at their events. If you think you can take your 2-hour keynote, load it into the internet and then expect your target audiences to consume it in the same manner then you are delusional. We were approached by one organization that was looking to take their 2-day conference and stream the whole thing online. How any organization could conceive a program like that and expect their audience to stay engaged is beyond me. Moreover though is how any marketing organization could seriously consider that an activity that could deliver on their success metrics. Where did the marketing go?
The consumption of virtual content is hugely different from the experience that we have when we get together at a live event. Most senior leaders I have spoken to have cited in-person events as their number one go-to for demand generation and also for opportunity maturation. The reasons for that are subject for another time, but what is important is that the drivers for success at an in-person experience are not interchangeable with an online one. It doesn’t make one better than the other, but it does make them very different and therefore they need very different approaches to ensure success. You need to consider the planning of an online event with your marketing lenses on, not just take your in-person event and dump it online.
We do not digest information in the same way when we are sitting in front of a screen, or multiple screens. We are multi-tasking beings, easily distracted, and who now have a myriad of new tasks to complete while working from home. If the content is not compelling - entertaining even - then one of 100 other things is going to unseat it as the primary focus. At best, you may get partial attention, like the radio playing in the background; at the worst, they will switch you off.
Pre-Covid19, we wouldn’t look to launch any type of event or marketing program without first carrying out the forensic analysis and testing our theories. We wouldn’t throw ourselves blindly into activities without first confirming that there is a high probability of success. While marketers have never been under more pressure to deliver growth, or in a lot of cases merely deliver sustainability of the business, there can be no excuse for reckless abandonment of the core principles of the craft. Rather than panic, we need to dig deeper into the proven strategies and planning methodologies that we know to deliver success.
Bring back the marketing!
This guest blog is an excerpt from a full post by CAPITAL-e.
CAPITAL-e is your Engagement Agency. They provide creative marketing programs, events and experiences that help build relationships with those who matter most. Their transparent and holistic approach focuses on establishing, nurturing, and sustaining engagement in a way that’s authentic to your brand.
Bash Creative is an event planning company that specializes in incredible gatherings that go beyond just great design. We’re known for teasing out smart goals for your event and serve up a stylish execution that will keep your guests buzzing. Located in San Francisco, but often found in New York, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and beyond.