Event Marketer Hierarchy of Needs
11.28.22
Claire Carroll, Senior Strategist
The Event Marketer’s Hierarchy of Needs
From inception to results.
All B2B events have the following two things in common — they start with a business need and are followed by desired outcomes (e.g., driving leads, awareness, and more). However, with audience attention getting increasingly difficult to attract and retain, how do you get from point A to point B? Namely, how do you build a program all the way from inception to desired outcomes while ensuring success for your stakeholders?
Just like in the world of psychology where we have Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the same can be said for the events industry. We have our own set of needs that build on each other, and one can’t leap to the next “level of needs” until the one below has first been met. So, let's review the pyramid, reexamine the basics, and build from there.
Audience
People have fundamentally changed post-pandemic and their willingness to give you their attention, much less time, continues to shrink. With the lines between home and work more blurred than ever, it’s critical we see our audiences as people and professionals in one. Not two distinct personas, as was once popular. As event leaders, we need to consider that an entire person is choosing to join us, not just their work self. Personal priorities and interests are often leading in the decision-making journey.
And here’s what the data bears out. What we’re seeing is a tepid business travel audience. Business travel is at 65% of pre-pandemic levels, yet, consumer travel is up; for one, AirBNB bookings increased 25% from summer 2021 to summer 2022 (Forbes).
Organizations that are successful are leaning into a new approach to travel — a combination of business and leisure “bleisure” when designing experiences. In fact, 60% of travelers reported taking bleisure trips in 2021, with 30% adding at least one day (to their trip) for leisure (Native Planet 2021). Given this behavior, event planners should take great care to find destinations in desirable consumer locations and offer leisure activities that travelers to choose to add on.
Another thing setting apart experiences in this day in age is offering “can't do” experiences that brands can gift their audience. Brands have access to unique promotions and once-in-a-lifetime experiences, so afford that access to your attendees. Sweepstakes to hobnob with celebrities, special sneak peeks, access to new restaurants or products — there’s a plethora of ways to do this.
The days when work and fun were separate is retreating more and more into the past. Bleisure and “can’t do experiences” represent some of the ways that brands are now evolving audience acquisition strategies.
Content
Once you’ve understood your audience’s current state, the next layer of the event marketer’s hierarchy pyramid is content. After all, a major draw to experiences and events is being able to consume content that is not available anywhere else. With decreased attention spans, how do we ensure the content is the most consumable and engaging as possible? Here’s what to consider:
Personalization: a personal content journey ensures audiences find the content relevant to their needs. Moreover, there’s a big business benefit too; consumers are 75% more likely to buy and recommend companies that personalize their offers (WARC)
Interactivity: visual, explorative content has a 4x longer engagement time than a static alternative (Forbes)
Brevity: attention spans are short; keep presentations and keynotes short: 18-20 minutes is sufficient (Medium)
Experiences
When we think of organizing an event, the default “model” is where the audiences come to the brand. However, in the fight for attention, many brands are changing their approach, bringing the brand to the audience. This can be implemented in two distinct ways:
When we consider the experience design of an event, are we thinking through alternative ways to deliver a brand experience that meets audiences where they are — via decentralized, distributed activations? Or, are we defaulting to a large-scale event, as it always has been?
Enhancements
Layer aspects of sustainability, accessibility and technology to ensure that your content and experience are accessible to your audience, authentic to your business and in-service to the planet. For example, a brand can reduce its carbon footprint by transforming traditionally in-person elements into digitally-accessible experiences via AR and other tools. Brands can also highlight and point out experiences with accessible elements in mind, to ensure the inclusivity of all attendees.
The breakdown of traditional barriers that have existed between personal and professional lives means the audience has changed. And what motivates audiences to attend changed too. Our content and experience design planning needs to take this into account. If you'd like help to start on your 2023 event strategy and planning, please reach out to us at info@iv.com.