Jack Blog
January 10th, 2019 By Jack Morton
We recently sat down with Jack’s US President, Edward Scott, to discuss event marketing trends in 2018 and what he’s looking forward to in 2019.
In your opinion, which brand delivered the best Event Marketing experience in 2018?
Was 2018 a tipping point for Event Marketing? Honestly, I am not sure. But as I reflect on 2018, I am not struck by one single brand that dominated the landscape of Event Marketing. Rather, what was more striking to me was the value put into creating live experiences from companies that are leading our changing economy.
Events seem to have truly (and finally) shifted from an afterthought to a critical and significant part of a marketing portfolio. Successful companies understand the importance of delivering live experiences for their audiences, thus creating brand advocates.
Here are a few examples of amazing live experiences from 2018:
- At Next, Google created a memorable experience for 25,000 potential Cloud customers by reimagining how you deliver content at the keynote. Instead of a traditional screen, they used rotating containers.
- Once again, Salesforce used Dreamforce as the anchor for the entire year. Dreamforce has become so successful competitors are successfully finding ways to disrupt it.
- At ComplexCon, Reebok redefined what a booth experience looks like by combining beautiful design, product reveals and endorsement deals.
What excites you most about Event Marketing for 2019?
What excites me the most about Event Marketing is the increased access to data and how we best leverage it. As we can capture better data, we are better able to measure the impact and effectiveness of our work – the Holy Grail.
“ROI” has long been very difficult to measure, but no longer. The ability to measure is here and the brands that are willing to make the investment will benefit in the long term. Additionally, data allows us to deliver more and more customized experiences to attendees. The more we get to know them, the more we can build experiences that interact with each individual. We recently saw this with the use of facial recognition at Royal Caribbean Sea Beyond.
Beyond 2019, what do you see for the future of Event Marketing?
What I see for the future of Event Marketing is continued exponential growth. In a world that is becoming more and more digital first, we are all desperate for live, tangible experiences. Brands are only going to see the value of successful events increase so dollars and mindshare will be invested here.