Welcome to funel blog. The event marketing industry has grown every day. Learn how to adjust to a new normal and how content marketing now includes both physical and virtual events. Hybrid occurrences aren’t going away anytime soon.
The ability of internet platforms to bring people together regardless of geographic or financial limits is one of the many lessons learned from the pandemic. The advantages of in-person events, which foster a sense of community and allow for social networking, are not overlooked. As a result, the question of event marketing’s future in the post-Covid era arises. While the past year has taught us that forecasting the future is futile, all signs point to the hybrid event marketing model’s rise and dominance. Event and content marketing convergence will become even more apparent as the business world adjusts to a new normal.
Said, the virtual trend is here to stay. The breadth of consumers that may be reached regardless of geographic and financial restrictions is unparalleled. However, a year of utilizing video-based platforms like Zoom and Web-Ex has shown the apparent flaw of these virtual collaboration tools: individuals have a more challenging time paying attention for extended periods. Both digital and environmental distractions are interrupting users’ concentration at unprecedented levels.
Even while these video platforms have dramatically improved over the previous year, they continue to fail at encouraging the same levels of engagement of in-person events. It seems probable that virtual events will continue into the post-Covid future since firms and brands can draw more participants, especially those hesitant to spend their money and time on trips.
However, exclusively virtual conferences’ efficacy is questioned since event marketers must employ new strategies to sustain and improve attendee involvement (i.e., break-out rooms, surveys, incentives) (i.e., break-out rooms, polls, incentives). Solely evaluating attendance as a metric of engagement is no longer a sign of an event’s success in the era of “zoom fatigue.”
What influence will Covid-19 have on the event industry?
Before delving deeper into the mechanics of virtual occurrences during pandemics, it’s essential to understand the constraints imposed by Covid-19.
The reluctance of physical meetings –
Due to the need to maintain a social distance of 2 meters from different houses, venues cannot fill their events to their pre-Covid -19 capacity. As a result, it is no longer financially viable to support the overheads and outgoings required to organize an event, as capacity constraints essentially cap the amount of cash generated. Unfortunately, this has prompted venues and event planners to stop operating or raise their cost-per-head prices.
Reluctance to mix – Event Marketing
While there is still a demand for people to attend seminars, lectures, conferences, awards, and other events, the fear of spreading the virus has made many people wary of going to physical activities. This has created even another barrier to participation for the events business, particularly for those organizers who have been obliged to charge greater costs-per-head, further de-incentivizing attendees.
Reluctance to travel – Event Marketing
With official government advice advising against traveling unless necessary, many individuals see taking public transportation as a danger and are less willing to do so to attend events. This is particularly significant for industry-focused conferences and information events that attract many national and international participants. Large event organizers see this foreign guest group completely wiped out as international travel becomes more of a constraint than a choice.
Rapidly changing limitations –
One of the most difficult challenges facing venues in the aftermath of the pandemic is predicting how public restrictions will evolve. As we’ve seen, rising infection rates are met with more stringent limits, most of which are focused on avoiding contact with people from another home. Understandably, many event organizers have been hesitant to put down cash deposits for events because they are concerned about the likelihood of other lockdowns and the risk to their event and capital.
What will the landscape of virtual Event Marketing look like after Covid?
As the term implies, “Bleisure” refers to the combination of business and leisure travel, and it has become increasingly popular in recent years. After being cooped up in their homes for a year, people of all ages desire to escape their homes, their cities, and even their states. As a result, the success of in-person events is heavily reliant on their ability to capitalize on this phenomenon. Gone are the days when conferences and panels had to be held in a dingy, clammy auditorium or a depressing conference hall. The event’s experience must incentivize attendees to boost in-person participation, which is more important now than ever before.
In this sense, old adages hold true: in the post-Covid world, business and pleasure must be mingled together in equal measure. The location is essential; the activities are important; the culture is essential; the event itself is virtually a secondary consideration. When it comes to sponsorship opportunities, in-person events continue to be the most advantageous for brands. Sponsors who want to meet with clients face to face can benefit from physical sponsorship and other benefits.
Trade shows and exhibitions continue to be excellent venues for bringing buyers and sellers together. It has been challenging to find examples of successful brand sponsorships in the virtual environment. Physical events also bring moments of unanticipated uncertainty, which can occur when you stumble into individuals at conferences, which is impossible to do online in a virtual environment. As a result, physical activities offer the most promise for achieving lower-funnel conversion targets.
Compliance with the ever-changing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) health and safety guidelines is an extra barrier. Even for larger events, safety requirements, which will limit the number of in-person events until at least 2021, may well force event planners to choose the hybrid model over the traditional one.
As a result, it appears inevitable that the hybrid model for events, which takes advantage of the best of both worlds, will be victorious. It blends the physical, social networking opportunities and communal characteristics of the pre-Covid era with the vast accessibility of the epidemic era’s virtual world to create a hybrid paradigm that is both accessible and effective. The most obvious issue that arises from the hybrid paradigm is the possibility of bias between in-person attendance and virtual watchers, which is particularly concerning.
The aim is to reduce the discrepancy between the quality of the experience for the two groups as much as possible. This can be accomplished by investing in higher-quality technology and implementing events during the conference that emulate the human aspects of attending in person.
The advantages of virtual Event Marketing
One significant advantage of virtual events is that they make it easier than ever before to attract a world-class line-up of participants, allowing organizers to get guest speakers and specialists from all over the world who would otherwise be out of reach during a live session. Online events can also be scaled to accommodate many more attendees than a traditional live-world venue could ever hope to accommodate.
In addition to the longer shelf life of online events, many organizations are exploring ways to make the information they produce useful after the event has ended. Post-event campaigns to retarget attendees with extra content or to bring their brand in front of other people in their target demographic who may not have been able to attend their in-person experience are becoming more popular among brands.
Furthermore, virtual events have the potential to open up the experience to an increasing number of individuals in an inclusive manner. With the advent of closed captioning and transcription technology, virtual events have become vital to the modern marketer due to the fact that they allow viewers to access information from the comfort of their own homes.
According to the study, virtual events will continue to be produced because they are more environmentally friendly than in-person sessions. They eliminate transportation requirements and reduce the use of single-use plastics and other disposable items at live events.
By their digital character, virtual events provide event organizers with more sophisticated techniques for gauging success and the opportunity to create an online community that may be engaged even after the event has concluded.
