Known tech users are ‘rich for event sponsors and planners’

A “known user is rich” for advertisers, sponsors and planners when it comes to building an event’s digital strategy, according to an industry leader.

Narisa Wild joined Clarion Events North America in August tasked with spearheading the evolution of events, technology, media and data.

The senior vice president of digital strategy set about a transformation with a key goal to grow the newsletter database – which has since surged by 50% – to help develop a deeper understanding of its online audience.

She told ExpoPlatform: “We’re generating revenue through display advertising as well as marketing services solutions, which are lead generation primarily. 

“We need to continue to grow our impression base, but I don’t want to grow our impression base by just plopping more ads on a page – we’re going to grow engagement so they’re consuming more content.

“If they’re subscribing to newsletters, then we can start to create personalized and customised journeys for them, where we’re actually driving content based on their need and their preference and what they want.

“There’s a myriad of ways to drive that engagement back to our known users. 

“Known users are rich – they’re rich for advertisers, they’re rich for our sponsors, they are rich for you – and we can do more with them both on the event and the media side.”

Narisa set out how the digital strategy mirrors that of putting on a live show, drawing comparisons with how each component works and how they can feed into each other.

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She added: “The booth is your website, the categories in the booth are your categories of content. 

“Then the buyers and sellers are your visitors and your advertisers. 

“You want to drive leads at an event by scanning people’s badges and you want to drive leads on your website for media by getting people to give you information and download stuff – it is exactly the same, it’s just a lot easier to do digitally.

“Our job at Clarion is to be part of that supply chain of a job – not just the three days at the event, but actually how are we supporting you all the rest of the days in your job?”

The North American chapter is now going through a technological transformation determined to put the customer at the centre of everything.

Its digital strategy for media and events is now more focussed on building “intimate relationships” on an individual basis.

Part of this work has included an increasingly iterative approach with A/B testing and also giving team members “permission to fail”.

Narisa believes this has given the company the chance to really see what works for its customers, which has improved their experience with the organizer.

She said: “They’ll feel like they’re being listened to – they’re being heard when they give us feedback and actually make changes. 

“We’re dynamic, we’re nimble – we’re not stillwater, moving really slowly – the customer can see that things are evolving right now.”

However, it was highlighted how it’s important in the B2B world to be driving the right traffic, not just over enthusiastic consumers that advertisers are not interested in.

That means growing organic traffic which converts and engages once they reach the site.

This feeds more information into the first party data strategy which helps Clarion to build the known user “digital license”.

Clarion can then put them through a “cycle of engagement” based on recommendations of relevant and personalized content. 

Narisa claimed this has required a “back to basics” mentality with its technology which means taking ownership of the things they want from its partners.

She said: “Digital transformation means different things to different people. I genuinely believe in Clarion’s mission to be customer obsessed – one of our core values is customer obsession. 

“But we’re very much going back to basics around technology, our foundations and what our guiding principles are.

“As an event organizer, you’re very reliant on a myriad of partners. If there was one solution that did absolutely everything, that would be the Holy Grail – but it just doesn’t exist.

“The transformation puts the customer at the centre of what we’re trying to do, then build these relationships from a technology and solution product management standpoint with our partners, so that they want to be a part of revolving in that carousel around the customer.”

The Clarion team carries out the usual work when assessing who to work with, but any final decision is based on “gut instinct”.

Narisa explained how she is driven by “emotional intelligence” when choosing a partner – “If you don’t click, you’re not going to create any magic”.

This then allows the organizer to work with the technology provider side-by-side rather than having a more hierarchical dynamic.

She said:  “It’s not ‘I’m the client, you’re the vendor’ – it’s a partnership, which is why it’s really important to me that we don’t talk about them as vendors or ‘them and us’.

“I really try to integrate anyone who’s a partner or a contractor into a team in a very streamlined way. They are part of the team – that’s quite important to me.”

Narisa added: “Event organizers need to own a bit more of what they want from the partners they work with, rather than the partners telling them ‘this is how we’re going to do it’.

“It’s not a bully tactic – at Clarion, we want to have this seamless experience for our customers. 

“We want these partners to create that journey – whether that’s our mobile app, our exhibitor experience, our attendee experience, our media platform, personalization capabilities –  whatever those solutions are that create that journey. 

“We want you guys to be on that carousel of love with the customers in the middle. 

“In order to do that, there are certain requirements around capabilities, integration, data and what that means to both parties. 

“Those are all the things that are changing within Clarion now and I think we’re on a really good path.”

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