3 Key Event Marketing Lessons From a Digital Decade
In 2001, Bill Gates wrote that we were entering the Digital Decade. Looking back, he was certainly right. We went from an era of static, “brochure” websites to Web 2.0 with interactive sites like Facebook, Google, blogs, PURLs and more.
In the tradeshow and event marketing world, we went from not even thinking about the web as part of our programs, to hardly considering doing a program without digital elements. We started seriously considering issues such as:
- Will virtual events make live events obsolete?
- Does Social Media have any ROI or is it just a big waste of time?
- Everyone is tweeting; do we have to be on Twitter too?
In part, the answers to these questions lie in three key event marketing lessons learned over the past 10 years.
1. Digital and Live are Converging.
Many are coming to the conclusion that digital/virtual is not going to replace live/physical. What we are seeing is that they complement each other. While traditional print and TV advertising are diminishing in importance, virtual and live events are both rising in importance. They are both about interaction, two-way communication, community, and the quality of the experience. It turns out that digital and live are complementary and are converging to the point where one flows into the other.
2. Change is Constant.
That change is constant is, of course an understatement. The implications of this are very important. There’s no waiting to see if something becomes established—you snooze, you lose! This is why it’s important to jump into Social Media and other web tools. You have to keep in touch with what’s happening with social media and other digital technologies or you will be left behind. Even if you can’t prove ROI; if you’re not part of it, you will become irrelevant.
3. Without a Strategy, There Will Be No Results.
This should be obvious, but it’s amazing how many people jump in without any plan or even without any objectives. We would never think of doing that in the live event space (I hope!), yet people do it on the web all the time. There’s no guarantee, but if you approach the planning, strategy, and tactics of your digital program elements the same way you approach your live event strategies, you maximize your chances of success.
For tradeshow and event marketers, the biggest key learning is that there is never any resting on your laurels. For better or worse, the digital decade and what is to come are times of constantly moving forward or risk being left behind.
Wondering what might be next for tradeshow and event marketing? Download the 2012 Trend Report.