Dr. Paul Frost, a Digital Strategist in our London office, presented at Event Tech Live this year. His presentation is titled "Creating effective digital ecosystems: Amplifying audience footprints through end to end digital enablement."

1. Creating effective digital ecosystems:
Amplifying audience footprints through end to end digital enablement
–
Dr. Paul Frost
Event Tech Live 2015

2. In a world where online interaction has become
ubiquitous, participants at events such as this
one have an expectation of their digital
experience which both fulfills the role of
traditional media and creates an integrated
delivery method.
But getting it right ain’t necessarily easy…

3. It’s an omni channel world

4. And it starts on the desktop…
%of attendee initial
interaction will be in a
desktop web environment

5. 04Lorem ipsum
dolor sit
%
…but
increasingly
moves to mobile
at events
increase in
mobile web
use at events
%
35

6. We believe
–
Solutions should effectively link
desktop based journeys to a
mobile app which allows
attendees to participate in a
personalised experience of
the event.

7. Drive attendee engagement
from the inception of their
experience
Facilitate
networking/sharing
opportunities
Provide a full user journey
analytic picture to measure
end-to-end success

8. Brands must
remember that
people don’t tend to
get married on the
first date
!

9. Jack Morton
survey of over 100
event registration
site forms
indicated an
average
completion time of
23 seconds
3minutes

10. Getting these forms
right can increase
conversion rates by
%
41

11. The role of reach
–

12. The average B2B
email address in
the UK receives
over 80
promotional or
newsletter
comms per day

13. This has led brands to start
innovating in their
leveraging of dedicated
Content Beacons in order to
cost effectively reach and
amplify audiences

14. What does good look like?
–
Personalised interactions…
 From website
 To email
 To mobile app
 To physical event
Adding value to base experience

15. Solving the key challenge:
Getting users to download
mobile apps
(and how brands should utilise
behavioural targeting)

16. Too often, event
marketeers resort
to “download our
app and get a free
cup of coffee” when
numbers aren’t
performing well

17. Visibility
–
From portal, to email
communications, to wider
outreach programmes,
making sure the app
download opportunity is
front and centre is critical in
ensuring the success of any
digitally augmented event

18. Pre-registration for events
allows users to manage their
programme, check out
important information (such
as venue, concessions etc) and
access features such as e-
ticketing; while this provides a
reason to visit the website
portal, intrinsically it does not
(and should not) offer a
reason to download the
mobile app
Registration & Ticketing
–

19. Encouraging uptake by
means of rewards,
competitions and games has
been proven to significantly
improve response rates, but
ultimately, are just another
glorified free cup of coffee
Incentivisation
–

20. The issue here is that none
of these emphases delivers
clear mobile app benefit
payoffs for the end user

21. Most important
user benefits
–
Research presented in the
excellent Event Bible suggests
that the following elements are
the most important benefits for
users

22. There are a number of key
takeaways from this that
resonate with our approach

23. Richer interactions add massive value
1. Outside of agenda/personalised schedule collateral, there
is quite limited levels of commonality for other feature sets
such as push notifications, maps, floor plans or session
ratings
 It is our belief that this is in principle because the
information offered in typical event apps is limited and fails
to take advantage of potentially rich ways in which this
information can be presented, e.g. Interactive floor plans

24. Analytics should shape experience
2. Although personalised content within app environments is
generally considered beneficial for attendees, the limited
utilisation of analytic data to shape the overall user
experience
 As mobile apps have concentrated on offering utility, it is
inevitable that these informational needs form the core of
what users expect

25. Most important
special features
–
Delivering tangible benefit for
the end user necessitates a
wider consideration of the
“Event Digital Ecosystem”
rather than a mobile app in
isolation

26. Tailored Content
–
Especially relevant for brands with disparate audiences or complex
messages, using mobile app information to identify individuals and
then present tailored content to them is perhaps the most exciting,
user-resonant way in which this sort of technology is being used to
realise user benefit

27. Tailored Content
–
Whether using conductive ink/digital signage to granularise content
being presented, crowd/flow control or recommending other parts of
an event based on their behaviours allow marketeers for the first time
to employ the kinds of data driven approaches that have become
commonplace in online environments

28. Tailored Content
–
 Algorithmic collateral presentation, personalised messaging,
tailored product/service focus all help make the experience more
relevant for each individual
 The same approach can also be utilised to present group/segment
level customisation, which can help reducing marketing
costs/wastage as well as improving overall campaign
effectiveness

29. The use of wider
online media channels
to maximise reach
–

30. Google Display Network
Retargeting is your friend
 Low cost per click
 High specificity
 Can use registration portal/other owned website visit as the
basis of audience selection

31. Paid Search
PPC is also a cost effective way to reach audiences, with data
indicating that campaigns should typically focus spend from the
four week event date to deliver optimal levels of traffic and take
up
But… customer matching is the way forward

32. Google Customer Match
Allows advertisers to target individuals based on what
they know about their audiences, including:
 Purchase history/conversion behaviour
 Offline campaigns
 Attendee/customer profiles
This approach enables brands to strengthen connections
with their known user base, tailor messaging for prospects
and leverage the significant footprint that Google provides
across its YouTube, Gmail and Search platforms

33. Google Customer Match – How it works
1. Data lists, typically comprising target email addresses,
are uploaded to the Google advertising platform in a
secure manner before the system then matches these
to Google accounts
2. Targeting can then be designed based on device of
access, relationship with the user and channel
utilisations
 So known attendees to an event (who have either
registered online or have a pre-existing data
relationship with the brand) can be specifically
marketed to across their web journey

34. Google Customer Match – How it works
 Once a user has registered for an event but not
downloaded the app, let’s say, their email address
can then be used to trigger dedicated ads within paid
search results, YouTube and Gmail
 When accessing the web via smartphone, these ads
can also include device-marketplace appropriate calls
to action, thus maximising ease of use
 Initial trialling of this approach suggests that it is the
most effective way to increase app downloads pre-
event, with a recent test indicating that Customer
Match advertising was almost 50% more effective
than email marketing

35. So in summary…
 The benefits to the event organiser or attendee of digital enablement
are clear, but demonstrating/communicating these to end users is
the biggest challenge currently
 A number of approaches have evolved around the development of
more effective reach and conversion strategies, including better
form design, predicate based marketing and incentivisation

36. So in summary…
 Ultimately, providing in-event personalisation across channels is the
most compelling potential benefit for end users, as well as offering
further cost-saving for brands
 This enriched physical presence helps augment user interaction
while not distracting from the tactile, textural, multi-sensory
opportunities afforded by experiential marketing

37. After all, who wants to create a
digital event strategy that
congregates an audience in a
specific location so they can look
at collateral on their smartphone?

38. Talk to us
–
Contact Peter Sun
VP, Brand Marketing
Peter_Sun@jackmorton.com
+1.212.401.7015
Read our blog at
jackmorton.com/blog
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