Hybrid Is The Bridge
Summary lead. || Photo Credit.
Last year around this time, new buzz words were flying all around us: pivot, new normal, virtual. I tried my best not to give into using these but I caved, like almost everyone else. Fast forward to April 2021 and HYBRID is THE word of the season. But this one comes with momentum and hope. Hybrid is the bridge to how we’ll be together.
In the fourteen+ months we’ve been dealing with this pandemic, we’ve come a long way to understanding what we’re facing - as businesses, as families and as individuals. We are far from knowing it all, but look how far we’ve come even in the last six months. As I write this, over 22% of all Americans have been fully vaccinated. Projections show we’ll reach herd immunity sometime in late summer. I don’t know about you, but that’s pretty damn exciting to me. Every day we are getting closer to being together again, and FINALLY we can begin making plans again to do so. We simply cannot wait to be in person again. It’s how connections are made. Meetings mean business. And a virtual experience will never be as rich and as compelling as a live one.
There’s no argument that digital has seismically altered the way we do business. For years this was coming, but it wasn’t until a global pandemic that it actually happened, and we will never go back to life as we knew it. Technology has enabled business to continue (and even thrive in many cases) through the last 14 months, and there’s no stopping this growth, even as the world opens back up again. The pendulum swung to 100% virtual, and will start to swing back again as we get vaccinated and new ways to navigate the virus start to take shape. But it’s safe to say (sorry for the pun) that digital will be a part of most events from here on out. There’s too much data to be garnered, and the possibility of too much reach to be ignored.
This means that hybrid experiences are how we MUST move forward. But how?
Many of our clients are in a holding pattern. Their leadership teams are even more ‘stuck’, as CFOs have seen savings this last year from budget reductions in the event space and are reticent to relinquish these dollars in ‘21, especially when we’re not 100% in the clear safety-wise. Event and experience planners will have to make air-tight cases for budget for anything they want to do.
This means events will have to work SO MUCH HARDER than they’ve ever worked before. Event teams have several factors to heavily consider, even with hybrid as the imminent way.
YOU GOTTA DO IT SAFELY: Can live events be done safely? Yes they can, and they are happening every day. To date, there have been several live events produced with 0% transmission in LA, Las Vegas, NY & Orlando. Is there still risk? Yes, there is. But to produce a safe live event, several measures absolutely must be taken: mandatory masks, pre-event testing, physical distancing, sanitizing stations and safe food and beverage preparation. This costs money.
YOU HAVE TO SHOW ROI: To garner a decent budget, worth must be proven. How many quality leads can be generated? And how can the event be structured so that success metrics can be measured?
YOU’RE PROBABLY GOING TO NEED TO GET SCRAPPY: Even in the best of cases, there won’t be enough budget to do what you want to do, so you’re going to have to make some hard choices and prioritize where you want to invest. So, even if you can’t afford to do a simultaneous virtual/live event, you CAN effectively reach your audience and put on a compelling event using the hybrid sandwich approach (read more about this here). This requires potentially separating live from virtual in space and time, but there are creative ways to get around this too OR you make certain components livestreamed. Again, it all comes down to budget and priorities.
YOU CAN GET HELP: For some, hybrid can all be quite overwhelming, and many don’t know where to start. This is not a shameless plug for our agency, I promise. There ARE so many companies that can help you start to think about how to define your goals, how to develop a plan to reach them, and how to prioritize your investment. It’s what we do best. Use us - we promise it will pay dividends.
Bridges are scary to some. Afterall, what if the ground beneath us gives way? What if there are cracks in the foundation and too much pressure is applied? What if we can’t even see our way over the bridge? But here’s the thing, where we came from no longer exists. The only way forward is over the bridge that is hybrid. And I believe that we’re on the way to a better industry on the other side.
Need some strategic insight for your next brand activation? We’d love to hear from you.
