Where lies the opportunity?
Insight 1: Marketers 'Dip their Toes' in the World of 3rd Party Virtual Events
Insight 2: Networking and Lead Gen are Stumbling Blocks When it Comes to Virtual Events
Insight 3: Mixed Experiences from Virtual 3rd Party Events; ROI and Industry Benchmarks are an Ongoing Challenge
Insight 4: It isn't one size fits all with virtual event tech platforms
Insight 5: The Virtual Event Channel Opportunity; Experimentation and Education can Mitigate Risk and Determine Success
Insight 6: An Alternative Lens - New Frameworks for Qualifying Activities
Confidence in face to face events returning by the end of 2020
What has been the balance of focus between proprietary marketing activity and 3rd party activities since May 2020?
In light of the global situation and the continued lack of confidence in F2F events returning to the marketing mix by the end of 2020 (88% pessimistic - chart 1), 33% of EI's clients have been focusing on an equal mix of proprietary and third-party event activity since May 2020. As third parties emerge from the fog and establish their offerings, exciting new virtual event opportunities have been presenting themselves since May. Despite more clarity around 3rd party virtual events, an overwhelming 60% of respondents have an 'All or Majority' focus on proprietary events for the foreseeable future.
When asked about the main barriers to virtual event engagement, over half of Barometer respondents (57%) highlighted the selection of appropriate virtual formats and solutions for events as the biggest challenge, whether proprietary or third party. The ability to network and generate meaningful leads, as well as confidence/trust in third-party providers who are launching virtual offerings for the first time were also highlighted as the two next major challenges. On a positive note, the virtual channel has a strong capability in helping businesses share thought leadership in a meaningful way.
What has been the greatest challenge with virtual events as a replacement for face-to-face events since May 2020?
Strengths of virtual events
The impact from the loss of meaningful networking: Just under three-quarters of Barometer Respondents have sponsored third party events since May 2020. When asked to rate on a scale of 1 - 5, their experience, 1 being bad and 5 being excellent across several performance criteria, it was clear across the board that virtual events performed weakest in their ability to help clients network and generate meaningful leads. Anecdotally, additional quotes and conversations with clients reveal a tepid/lukewarm response and varied experiences when it comes to virtual events.
It is clear that there are some providers who are doing it very well such as Chief Wine Officer who incentivise participants to engage well in a roundtable format and have pivoted this model to virtual successfully, whilst providers such as Ascential have also capitalised on the opportunity to use virtual events as a broadcast medium. Those that still have work to do are providers hosting those middle ground events where networking used to be a strength but now seems troublesome to optimise in a virtual setting.
When asked whether their firm achieved appropriate value from third party virtual events that they sponsored there wasn't a singular 'all-encompassing' view from EI's Barometer respondents. This indicates the varying degree of quality in virtual event opportunities currently established in the market.
Most respondents, however, have had mixed experiences; many understand that organisers are under tremendous pressure to deliver high-quality virtual experiences with an in-person feel, in a highly shortened time period and that organisers themselves are on a learning journey.
ROI and a lack of industry benchmarks/standards are the most cited challenges to achieving value from virtual event engagements. It is currently difficult to measure ROI as the virtual channel has only emerged in the past four months, tangible leads can be difficult to acquire and due to long sales cycles in B2B markets, ROI cannot be assessed fully for a few months still. It is also clear that event providers have had to react quickly and establish an offering with very little experience of what constitutes quality. Event providers have also been using this time to innovate and experiment which has, in turn, led to a lack of 'standard' in terms of format dwell times, registration rates etc. Education, continual refinement and benchmarking is key to future success.
For EI's clients, experiences of virtual event platforms have been varied. General sentiments from Barometer respondents include platforms still being relatively simple/unsophisticated, networking and audience engagement still being figured out by providers, and no platform being seamless. From EI's experience, every platform definitely meets a different objective and it will be a learning curve for all over the next few months as we become more adept at exploring the full functionalities for each event format.
The virtual channel is here to stay and the whole business needs to be brought along the journey and educated to be able to leverage each technology platform for their strengths. Some of EI's clients recognise this and say that the platforms are not the issue, rather formats are, and with content/virtual event saturation in the market, marketers are having to innovate with tools at their disposal such as format and live polling to keep audiences engaged.
Snapshot of Platforms Mentioned & Associated Sentiments:
On24: Strong platform for broadcast medium, sharing meaningful content with large audiences, poor client service
Zoom and MS Teams: Simple and effective functionality and excellent for smaller roundtable discussions, great for collection of data.
Intrado and vFairs: Currently best in class for more immersive experiential events.
For years Bloomberg has integrated audience polling into their panel discussions at live events, to guide the themes of panel sessions. This allows the audience to steer the discussion, ensuring the most relevant topics are covered, with the audience's pain points at the centre. This is a great way to gauge audience sentiment and shape the content to match.
The general consensus is that the Virtual Events Channel is here to stay; so whilst an overwhelming 89% of Barometer participants (chart 1) plan to engage with a small amount or no virtual third party events over the next six months, it is clear that businesses have to 'get on board' to stay competitive and maintain visibility. Budgets are understandably still restricted (chart 2), nonetheless, smart selection of events through robust assessment criteria, combined with an integrated digital marketing strategy, will aid the decision-making process and improve outcomes. With lower costs of engagement, taking some risks will be beneficial, and taking the time to experiment with different formats and platforms will allow marketers to stay on the pulse of change.
Education is the need of the hour; marketers need to continue to demonstrate the value of events within marketing campaigns internally, and businesses need to gain more experience within the virtual realm, training speakers on presenting virtually and understanding how to leverage the full breadth of capabilities on offer. Event organisers have a huge role to play here and we must hold them to account in communicating the features of the platforms and educating their sponsors and attendees on how to maximise on the various elements and touchpoints.
Over the next 6 months, how many virtual events do marketers expect to invest in?
Budget Outlook
The EI View: Change is always difficult and it is inevitable that the industry will expect the same capabilities from virtual events as the physical realm. However, from EI's analysis over the last few months, it is clear that we cannot expect an exact replica of the in-person experience. We are assessing opportunities differently and asking different questions. For example, a virtual booth may no longer be viewed the same; these are now content booths or 'microsites' and we should be pushing organisers to drive engagement in a different way, maybe through incentives that recognise the 'human' in the user. Benchmarking will take time as we continue to test and learn over the next few months, continue to track engagement, and assess ROI once the longer sales cycles are complete.
