October 26, 2020
Increasingly, brands look to digital-only events to replace the much-loved physical events that have welcomed footfall to conferences and exhibitions across the globe. However, pivoting to a digital-only event can be tricky. At the start of this year, few would have predicted the scale of home-working and the speed with which Britain dispensed of red tape and process and ‘found a way’.
And find a way you will with digital-only events. Good news, we’re here to make your journey easier. Digital-only events are fraught with a number of challenges outside of the elements you will undoubtedly consider. Promotional activities on social media need consideration too. Too many brands use social media as an afterthought believing content crafted for an originated in other verticals can be shoe-horned into social. Sound familiar?
In last week’s Serious Social live we explored this very topic, surfacing the challenges you probably are aware of, and the barriers you won’t have identified. We discussed the do’s and don’ts of content creation and planning, and we identified some process changes that you will need to adopt.
A few weeks ago, Nielsen released some rather interesting data, evidencing that digital adoptions and social media usage was on the stark rise BEFORE Coronavirus arrived. In the two quarters before lockdown, digital adoption leapt 19% and 25% respectively. Then the entire world moved online. Now, the same report details how 80% of respondents now want to only work for a company that allows remote working. In short, remote working and high digital use are here to stay. That also means digital fatigue will be here for the long-term. So, as you can already start to identify, it’s not just the technical challenges you need to be aware of and contemplate.
Planning, lead-times, technologies used, Paid Social implications all pose new challenges. Corralling a business into new ways of working is not easily done and that requires management. Digital-only content, particularly filming, needs planning and potentially securing new partners, and of course, on-demand platforms need bringing in – AND, you need to be aware of customer journey pain points on post-event activities.
The full video can be viewed here: https://fb.watch/1mm5fs_syK/. The aim of this video is to flag considerations that you need to take back to your colleagues to discuss and overcome. Having just concluded delivering a global digital-event for one of our biggest clients, we’ve had to scope, plan, innovate, and problem-solve our way through the project. Hopefully, our experience can aide you.