Say NO to BOGO!

It happened again.

I got another email for an event with a last-minute BOGO offer – buy one registration, get the 2nd for free. And I cringed.

There are a couple of reasons that, no matter the immense pressure for bodies (especially at an event in which attendee numbers are behind the curve), you should resist the temptation to raise your hand in a meeting and utter the word “BOGO.”

Why?

• It cheapens the brand. When you are marketing an event, you are responsible for marketing a product:  a vehicle for delivering content, networking, bringing people together in a form unavailable anywhere else. And when you incorporate a ‘buy-one get-one’ tactic, it cries of desperation and raises a red flag in the savvy consumer’s eye on the type of event they are being asked to commit to.

• You’ll train your audience to anticipate … and wait … for discounting: As if registration curves are not short enough to drive the event team insane, last-minute discounting over a period of events will set the expectation that if somebody holds out long enough the BOGO offer is forthcoming. People do remember – I’ve come into organizations and have gotten communications from past attendees along the lines of “last year I attended for free/cheap – how can I do that again?” People do remember these things.

• The reality is it’s a square peg in a round hole: BOGO is a tactic used by retailers for shoes, coffee, underwear, etc. [and select retailers, at that. Notice how you never see BOGO offers at Tiffany’s, do you?] Using it as an event marketing tactic is bringing it to a B2B business purchasing environment.  And, of course, it’s silly-sounding to boot.

My writing ‘don’t do this’ doesn’t of course, alleviate the pressure you feel and receive to drive the biggest audience and most revenue to your event. To that point I have a couple of thoughts. First, if you initially budget, plan, and execute a pricing structure that encourages discounts for early registration  to encourage revenue early in the campaign cycle that is not an issue, although as noted previously, the effectiveness of these are questionable.

Secondly if, for some reason, even after you’ve done your due diligence in planning and executing your marketing plans (and contingency plans) the event is lagging in registration revenue and or attendance, it may be other factors that need to be explored – all elements of the event: content, venue, speakers should be looked at as not having the “Wow” factor that drives commitment to ticket purchase. This is a different subject all together (and worth a post unto itself) – the point here being if an event reaches a stage that considering BOGO is an option, there are other variables in the overall event that should be taken into consideration.

So certainly plan for early discounts, plan for contingency tactics … just resist the temptation to BOGO. You’re doing more harm to the brand than good to the event otherwise.

Good luck!

John

“Who is Attending?”: Getting It Right

The Attendee Profile – answering the question “Who is Attending?” has always been an X factor for Event Marketers. It is a key metric exhibitors evaluate pre- post-event, and drives satisfaction with an event and influences re-sign decisions. I’m sure at one point you’ve heard feedback of “Exhibitors are not happy because there were too many vendors attending as delegates.” Or event attendees were “too junior,” “the wrong function,” or lacking in some other demographic.

To a point such feedback can be expected: you can’t please everybody. However, with exhibitors’ budgets coming under increased scrutiny, effective Event Marketing needs to focus on – and react to – not only quantity but quality of registrations in 2010. Gone are the days of getting X number of attendees in a room or a hall, patting ourselves on the back and saying “Well done!” Decision-makers in sponsorship circles are under increased pressure to prove and justify that their investment delivered the interaction, leads and conversions they planned for when signing onto the event. And that pressure, ultimately, falls on the shoulders of Event Marketers in the form of getting the right bodies there.

To help exhibitors justify spend, according to B2B Magazine, The Trade Show Exhibitors Association has formed an advocacy committee to push for the use of audits. [Yes, this is as ominous as it sounds. An audit, briefly, conducted by an outside organization such as BPA Worldwide, independently verifies the attendance figures claimed.] According to the article audits, which have been a mainstay in publishing for many years, are now being requested by a growing number of exhibitors.

Here are four thoughts, strategies and tactics you can – and should – be utilizing to leading up to an event help you ultimately, deliver a positive attendee and exhibitor experience:

• Event Marketers need to be engaged in the earliest phases of the planning cycle. You need to be on board in understanding and contributing to content formulation to ensure it aligns to the target market you are responsible for recruiting. Content is King: if you are seeking to attract VP-level attendees but content and sessions are addressing tactical topics … the VP you are targeting will see this and will send his subordinates. Game over.
• Best practice: Monitor. Make it a point to regularly review reports to ensure registrations are fitting the mold both in volume and demographics. Understand your registration patterns and continually analyze where registrations are coming from. If there is a list, internal segment, social media source or channel that is drawing too many or too few of the right/wrong attendee, be nimble enough to react.
• Work with your sponsors. As I wrote in an earlier post, this takes time and effort, but working with exhibitors – in coordination with your sales team – to engage them in reaching out to their contacts is important. There is certainly pushback and challenges around executing these efforts, including “why would I want my client on the show floor where my competitors are?” The message should be around your seamlessly working to invite their prospects - the message being “Wouldn’t you like that prospect that’s been in your pipeline for six months at the event?”
• Leverage Team Send. Develop an incentive: once you have a “good” contact registered, engage them in inviting others. Pending bandwidth, this is a great opportunity to roll out the “white glove” approach to people who have committed to your event. A phone call or personalized note is both a great CRM effort and works toward building ancillary attendance.

As a side note, nothing regarding event attendance communications should happen in a vacuum. All team members who interface with event participants need to be on the same page regarding what is communicated, whether the interaction is with exhibitors/prospects, press, or even other attendees. This includes working, and communicating, cross-functionally throughout the course of the campaign, discussing variations in demographic trending - what and how to speak to unavoidable changes in this trending. These can be difficult discussions, but ones that ultimately serve the betterment of the event in the end.

Good luck!

John

To Key Or Not to Key

A friend recently asked my take on some Keynotes for an event she was researching. After batting around names for a couple of minutes, she asked: “Do you think Keynotes are a draw for an Event?”

An interesting … and continuing … question. My take is that Keynotes unquestionably add value to an event. What I can’t get my head around is what … and how … to measure the ROI of a Keynote. The math argues against it being by attendance/attendee revenue.

The Investment is certainly known – and can be substantial (although it is, of course, negotiable). What falls into a grey area is the Return.

Say, for example, a speaker costs $30,000 all in. If your average attendee ticket price is $1,500, I’d be hard pressed to say there are any events I’ve worked on which surveys have had 2attendees respond “I attended XYZ Conference to hear John Doe’s presentation.” People simply do not carve 3 days out of their lives to hear a one-hour presentation.

What they are

The reality is that a Keynote is part of the event value proposition – the presentation gets an audience excited to be in a hotel/convention hall away from family (and work) for 3-4 days, and creates a platform from which to drive networking, discussions, etc. The value of the Keynotes, in short, is the onsite experience – and this is what savvy Marketers should work to leverage.

• Book signings are great vehicles. If the Keynote is recently published, negotiate with the publisher, acquire a bunch of books (at discount), and ask the Keynote for a half-hour post-presentation to, meet, greet and sign. [NOTE: I’ve seen arrangements whereby the Keynote spoke for free provided a certain volume of books were purchased – again, it’s all in the negotiation.] Do NOT sell books onsite – it comes off poorly to attendees.
• Alumni/VIP Breakfast: Pending the Keynote’s schedule, arrange a special invitation breakfast for Alumni, or as an “Early Bird” incentive, etc.
• Walk the Show floor: Again pending scheduling, ask the Keynote to do a quick round on the exhibit floor – great for attendee face-to-face and sponsor satisfaction.

What they are not

Keynote speakers are not stand-alone marketable commodities. I’ve seen situations in which part of the marketing touch strategy included specific messaging around Keynote Speaker A, B, and C. Again, I’ve seen nothing to indicate an attendee was driven to invest 3+ days time to hear one or two hour-long sessions. Attendees are savvy enough to know that, in most cases, Keynote speakers are there paid commodities, not as any sort of endorsement of your event/brand. Don’t insult their intelligence by framing it otherwise.

On a closing note, read this good – dated, but still germane – article debating the issue in Corporate EVENT magazine. (I especially liked the idea of testing noted in the article – a bit of an investment, but I think the results would be telling).

In sum – think strategically on how to use Keynote speakers – and BE ENGAGED in the selection process. Keynotes are part of the onsite experience – again, something marketers should be influencing on a regular basis.

Good luck!

John