An Open Letter to Our Industry: What Our Clients Long For

We recently hosted a virtual event digital experience for our clients in the midst of pivoting to virtual that was quite eye-opening. Note that we’d already completed two similar experiences (one internally and another for our industry peers) with the same theme and a similar format. The client event was holistically different, however, in that the energy, the passion and the hunger for information was ever more palpable. Surprised? 

We’re now deep into this pandemic and the ship is finally beginning to turn in our industry. Clients (and their leadership) are coming to terms with the stark reality that digital experiences are the way of the future. We’re seeing this in new inquiries picking up and in the kinds of programs our clients are now beginning to entertain as virtual ones, where before they’d hope to “wait it out”. 

Still, we as an industry (both agencies and clients alike) haven’t FULLY committed to this shift. We haven’t gone all in. We’re all so hungry for LIVE that we are missing out on the opportunity to truly reinvent how we can reshape our industry for the better, for the LONG TERM. And although we have listened to our clients, I’m not sure we’ve taken full stock of what they’re saying, and transformed their problems into solutions… yet. 

For us all, though, I’d like to share what we’ve heard so that you may endeavor to listen better, take more accurate stock and creatively solve. We’ve pulled together a list of five key takeaways below based on conversation we’ve had, learnings from our recent Virtual Road Trip and a brief survey conducted in August.

ISSUE #1:

The “unknown” is still quite daunting. In a survey we did with our closest corporate clients, the average on a scale of 1-10 was a 5.25 for “how scary are virtual events to you?”. Similarly, the average self-appointed level of expertise was 2.6 on the same scale.

RED VELVET RECOMMENDATION:

We’re all new to this (both planners, production companies and clients alike), but the elephant in the room is we are flying the plane while building it. There’s still so much to learn and we’re learning it together. Not everyone is willing to be honest, though, about the mistakes they’ve made along the way, but these nuggets of wisdom are gold. Encourage your clients and colleagues to be open and honest about what’s NOT worked in the past. Likewise, share your mistakes and mishaps so that others may learn. In turn, ask them to share them with you. We will all benefit from sharing knowledge. 

Another way to get smarter faster is to apprentice wherever and however you (or your clients) can. There’s no replacement for hands-on experience, so seek out opportunities to learn, even if it’s on your own time and dime. 

ISSUE #2:

The ONE essential we’re hearing our clients insist must be included was overwhelmingly “engagement”, followed by “special touches you get at live events”. When asked “what do you find most annoying about virtual events/meetings today”, the top responses were 1) Technology issues, and 2) Lack of engagement/participation/boring.

RED VELVET RECOMMENDATION:

Creating meaningful, salient digital experiences takes WORK – sometimes from the ground up (even when shifting what was originally a live event to a digital one). Help your clients understand that there are no shortcuts and sometimes the best approach is to start from scratch and to re-evaluate what will be best within a virtual format. Said another way, you’ll need to ensure you aren’t carrying unconscious biases to the program. The planner and his/her team and partners must be both thoughtful and thorough if (s)he wants to put on a successful engagement. This requires bringing in the right people to do this work, committing to what it will take to meet the stated goals and ensure the design and execution meets those goals every step of the way. And, being willing to risk doing the event “live” (still digital of course) vs. pre-recorded, which is safer, but provides less opportunities for engagement. 

ISSUE #3: 

Sponsorships continue to be a mystery; there’s a lack of confidence that sponsors will invest in digital experiences so many are not even trying. Clients also don’t feel as well-equipped to describe and prove ROI capabilities via their platform or program, which ultimately impedes budgets. 

RED VELVET RECOMMENDATION:

Get smart on what the ROI needs to be from the beginning and plan backwards, building elements into your program that track and measure the ROI your client’s laid out. Once you have a few success stories, share these with other clients to boost their confidence that this can be done – this will arm them with the tools they need to have more fruitful sponsorship conversations on the front end, which will lead to bigger budgets and better outcomes for all parties involved.

Another thought: for those clients leading the market, NOW is the time to take advantage of sponsoring a digital experience, as the market is relatively uncluttered. These clients will benefit from even more ROI as a thought leader in the space.

ISSUE #4: 

Leadership support of digital experiences is inconsistent. We’re seeing this shift to the positive more recently but clients site lack of belief in ROI (again) or basic understanding of how NOT meeting in person will impact the bottom line. This puts tremendous pressure on our clients to do more with less, when really what they need is more support. 

RED VELVET RECOMMENDATION:

Similar to Issue #3, ROI plays a huge role here but so does education. Help your clients help their stakeholders by explaining the benefits of meetings and experiences (be they live or digital!). Countless articles exist on this subject but one of our favorites is this one from Marketing Insider Group. Last but not least, don’t forget to have your client emphasize that potential for digital reach is further than in-person, so investment per new reach should go down.

ISSUE #5: 

Underestimation of the time, preparation and resources required to make a digital experience successful. Comparatively, while budgets for expenses related to travel and hotel have gone down, costs for production have shot up. Most clients agree there are trade-offs to be made, depending on what the goals are for a specific event. But there still seems to be a big disparity between perception and reality; one of our clients said to us just last week “virtual is 10x harder than live”. That says it all.

RED VELVET RECOMMENDATION:

As discussed in #2, while there are significant differences between live and digital experiences from a budgetary standpoint, do not shortchange the time it takes to plan, design and execute. Although lead times associated with physical items may not be in play here, the cadence and sequencing of designing and planning will still require considerable time and resources to ensure the cadence and sequencing are right. And don’t skimp on rehearsals because chances are, you will still be iterating on how to improve the experience WHILE you are rehearsing, so you want to make sure you have time to implement (and rehearse again) before the big show. Lastly, explain all of this during your proposal process to ensure you and your client are on the same page about what it will take to pull off a successful event.

If what we’ve gone through in the past few months is any indicator of what will happen in the next few months and even into 2021, we fully expect the above to change – because that’s how quickly we are learning and adapting. 

But armed with the pain points our clients are experiencing, we can ALL rise to the challenge and meet them where they are and at best, we can exceed expectations by not just solving for these issues, but innovating newer, better experiences.

Need some strategic insight for your next brand activation? We’d love to hear from you.