5 Macro Industry Trends in Event Marketing We’re Hearing About

The constant pressure marketers feel to overcome big hurdles, hit goals, deliver results, and prepare for what’s next is larger than ever.

From a pandemic to the recent economic downturn, marketers have had no shortage of obstacles.

Splash recently brought together some of the brightest minds in marketing to hear directly from them about what solutions are yielding the best results to the pressing challenges event marketers face today, and what’s coming next.

Here’s an overview of the top five macro trends we found.

‍Watch Magic Spark | Industry Insights on-demand for a comprehensive understanding of these trends plus more insights into events today →

1. Keep It Small and IRL

Smaller in-person events lead to better ROI.

• Small IRL event attendance is almost the same as it was pre-pandemic with only 4% lower attendance rates.
  
• Intimate guest experiences have been shown to create the best ROI for your event marketing programs.
  
• Smaller events allow for a better connection with prospects and customers, they also build up your community.

2. Great Content is Fatigue-Proof

Events that are focused on topics your audience cares about make a big difference. Attendees want to hear from subject matter experts with compelling stories and points of view.

• Creating demand at the top of the funnel is most efficiently done with valuable virtual events.
  
• Great content makes repurposing for “Dark Social” and other marketing outlets simple to do and delivers value to wherever your audience gathers.
  
• Attendees are not fatigued from virtual events. They only feel fatigued from content that serves them no purpose.

3. Hybrid Programs > Hybrid Events

Hybrid events aren’t living up to their hype, but hybrid programs are. Hybrid programs, which are a blend of in-person and virtual event components, offer attendees more choices. Letting you avoid out-of-this-world production costs.

• Hybrid events that have simulcasts are pricey and don’t fit repeatable event strategies, making scalability incredibly difficult.
  
• Attendees are more selective with their time and energy and they want to choose how they show up and engage.
  
• It’s so important to make your events playbook a mix of IRL, virtual, and on-demand, to stay flexible and broaden your reach.

4. Create Value, Get Engagement

Real attendee engagement comes as a result of meeting their needs to learn, grow, and connect.

• When you design an event experience to meet a need or solve a problem you will get the engagement from your target audience you are looking for.
  
• Invite your attendees to co-create the experience. If it’s virtual, use engagement tools and if it’s IRL, do an activity together.
  
• Remember: the event is never over when you hit “end meeting” or “say goodbye.” Continue bringing value to your attendees long after the event itself wraps up. You can do this in many ways from turning your event on-demand or creating tangential content.

5. Vanity Metrics are so Basic

The old model of measuring success just by attendance numbers or attendee satisfaction isn’t cutting it anymore.

• Events are driven by data and your KPIs should be determined by your event goals.
  
• Measuring both returns on emotion and return on investment is mission-critical to understand the impact of your event on revenue generation.
  
• Segment your results to unlock deeper insights and gain a better understanding of your target audience.

Pro Tip‍

Tune into our Magic Spark | Industry Insights webinar 30 minutes and 50 seconds in to learn more about measuring success, proving ROI, and understanding metrics that matter. Trust us, you don’t want to miss these insights.‍

Interested in learning more about our Magic Spark hybrid program or want to attend one IRL register here→