B-to-C Events

The 10th annual Event Marketing Summit is officially behind us now, and for those on-site at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers in Chicago the sessions were sizzling hot, the keynotes were right on pitch and the drinks were bottomless. But the goodies weren’t just for those folks who saw it live. Twitter was all a-flutter thanks to all you social-savvy event peeps passing around the content jewels, high points and (yes) complaints. We’ve collected a very short list of some of our favorites for your recapping pleasure.

Launching a new product or program requires a big splash, immediate engagement—and ultimately sales. Marketers have to create buzz, trial, influencer recommendation and combine them to drive sales. For the newest Windows Phone, social media and influencer events helped Microsoft’s launch campaign fire on all cylinders, creating reach, frequency and recommendation.

Men love beer more than women love chocolate, Lesya Lysyj, cmo at Heineken and closing keynoter at the Event Marketing Summit on May 2, told the nearly 500 marketers in the room as she opened her discussion of the Heineken brand’s attack on the sinking beer category in 2011. The brand saw that, although the category in general was flat or declining, the specialty and craft beer markets represented all the growth. The brand set out to position itself as part of that growing demo and “challenge the norms” of the big beer brewers, Lysyj said.

The second day of the Event Marketing Summit (May 1) opened up with a keynote by Scott Schenker, vp-global events at SAP, who spoke not only as a marketer but also a visionary forecasting the future of the event marketing industry (sponsored by ewi Worldwide). With the WikiLeaks releases still fresh on folks’ minds, Schenker focused on disruption and change forged by the new trend of “people to people marketing.” He said, “Face-to-face marketing is no longer enough.

Michelle Klein, vp-content, digital and communications at Diageo, whose Smirnoff brand received an Ex Award at the 10th annual Event Marketing Summit’s awards gala on April 30 for its Nightlife Exchange Project, wowed the crowd earlier in the day as the opening keynote speaker at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers in Chicago (sponsored by Fish Technologies).
Describing the Nightlife Exchange Project as the “sweetspot” between digital and physical, Klein explained how she harnessed the online community to create an event that on Nov. 27 took place in 50 countries.