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Why More Brands Are Investing In Live Events

Today's most successful brands are investing in live events. Here's a look at four reasons why event marketing is on the rise.

David Epstein, Demand Generation Director at Bizzabo | Source: Courtesy
David Epstein, Demand Generation Director at Bizzabo | Source: Courtesy

It’s never been a better time to get involved with events. The most successful brands are investing in live events. Apple has their annual Worldwide Developer Conference, Adobe has Adobe MAX, and Google has Google I/O. Meanwhile, smaller brands like US-based Create Cultivate host high impact summits while Australia-based MAXMEDIALAB, a luxury media agency, host experiential events for brands large and small.

Your peers and competitors are investing in events, and so should you. Here are four reasons why.

 

1. Events are an effective marketing channel

According to the Event Marketing Benchmarks study, the majority of marketers (80%) believe that live events are critical to their organizations’ success. More companies understand just how vital events can be.

 

Photo: Jakob Dalbjörn, Unsplash
Photo: Jakob Dalbjörn, YFS Magazine

In fact, 31 percent of marketers say event marketing is the channel to rule all channels. If you want an impactful way to engage your customers, events are the way to go. Executives understand this as well, according the a 2016 Forrester report, the average Chief Marketing Officer allocates 24% of their total annual budget to live events. Nothing can beat the thrill of a live event to pull in those leads.

 

2. Your peers are investing in live events

Live events are a favored channel among leadership. Over 87 percent of C-suite executives (CEOs, CMOs, etc.) believe live events are critical to their organization’s success. Industry leaders are the investing into and attending these events, according to our networking and event app platform at Bizzabo. It shows that company leaders comprise the greatest percentage of attendees.

 

3. Technology makes event planning easier and more valuable

Proprietary live events can be intimidating to plan. It’s not easy to find a venue, secure sponsors, manage attendees, attract influencers and other countless tasks associated with hosting a successful event.

 

Photo: The Climate Reality Project, Unsplash
Photo: The Climate Reality Project, YFS Magazine

Frost & Sullivan values the global meetings and events industry at $565 billion as of 2012, which signals that revenues and a growing ecosystem of technologies will continue to support the industry’s healthy uptick. Event technology, especially event management software, can help organizations both large and small plan the perfect event with website builders, registration platforms, attendee engagement tools, and data analytics.

According to Frost and Sullivan, the event management software industry is valued at over $28 billion and is projected to have a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 3.3% moving forward. And just in 2016, $50 million was invested in event management solutions. Event marketers believe in the power of technology. Many marketers (80%) believe technology can have a major impact on their event strategy.

 

4. Customers crave in-person interaction

There is no question that our world is digital. You are reading this right now on a screen and most of your day is probably in front of a computer. However, Chelsea Segal, CEO of Targetwise, says,”Personal connection is key – you want your customers to see your human side rather than think of your company as a nameless, faceless entity.” This is where live events come in.

Ninety-five percent of marketers agree that live events provide attendees with a valuable opportunity to form in-person connections in an increasingly digital world. People are looking to engage with a real person and events are a great way to facilitate that need.

 

For the modern B2B organization, this truly is a Golden Age. It’s not too late to start organizing live events and scale based on market interest. With the right event strategy and software, you can be on your way to creating events to help your business grow.

 

David Epstein is the Demand Generation Director at Bizzabo, the world’s #1 rated event software company. He’s responsible for leading the company’s customer acquisition strategy. Prior to joining Bizzabo, David served as a management consulting to Fortune 100 brands. He helped leading companies to develop global digital marketing strategies.

 

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