File Under: Virtual Events

by anjali at 1:38 pm

Nov 12

Higher Education @ Your Fingertips

Thankfully, most of us will never have to think about applying to college ever again.  The days of writing personal statements, studying for the SATs or GMATs or LSATs or any another officially acronymed higher-education test, are over.  But for prospective undergrads and grads around the world, this is crunch time.  These individuals have to research programs, visit schools, interview with admissions, apply for financial aid, and then describe their life story in 200 words or less. 

The economy is making it even tougher on these prospective admits.  Recently, I read that the competition for schools, especially grad schools, has increased by about 20-25% for Fall 2009.  Besides applying in this heavily competitive environment, students also have to weigh the costs of visiting individual schools, application fees, skyrocketing tuition and more. 

Business Week just published a great article listing the virtual college fair as one of the best ways to save money during the application and discovery process.  By visiting a bunch of colleges all at once, a visitor can save up to $3000 on trip costs, thousands more if they live abroad.  Even better, they can chat directly with admissions reps, download all the documents that they need for applying, and listen to webcasts by curent students and alumnae.  It may not ease the painfully high costs of college tuition, but it certainly does help a new student save some time and money- both of which are hard to come by in a prospective student’s life!

The next stage is Campus Recruiting Events like the Economist MBA Fair in which students can find a job with leading global corporations so they can start paying off those pesky student loans.

Comments 0

File Under: Virtual Events

by anjali at 10:03 am

Aug 27

Lighting the Virtual Torch

 

I just opened up the paper this weekend and read that more than 72 million videos of the Olympics were streamed live online. Are we finally at the point where people want to experience even the Olympics games virtually on their PC?!

Check out this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/25/sports/olympics/25online.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Imagine attending the Olympics with a web browser and watching the events as they unfold. Where you can attend only the events you want to see and hang out with other fans online. No Bob Costas anywhere to be seen… :-P

Comments 0

File Under: Marketing, Virtual Events

by donb at 6:15 pm

Jun 15

Marketing, the Economic Downturn and Virtual Events

While I won’t use the ‘R’ word, we are in an economic downturn. All companies are looking to do more with less, and of course marketing is at the forefront.

Ask my VP of Marketing and he will tell you that it doesn’t take a slowing economy for marketing to be asked to do more with less—it’s the nature of the business. But our enterprise clients are feeling the pressure and are turning to virtual events to do more with less. Read the rest of this entry »

Comments 1

File Under: Virtual Events

by brent at 6:13 pm

Apr 30

Virtual Events vs. Physical Events – Costs and Reach are Obvious, but Drain on Resources is the Killer

While it might pain my CEO to hear this, I’ll be the first to admit that physical events will never go away. The once-a-year, face-to-face interaction and a handshake goes a long way in business and marketing. But what about the other 364 days a year?

Unisfair does a mix of physical events and virtual events. While it is good to see old friends and wine and dine a lucrative prospect at a physical event, the truth is we generate more demand at a better cost per lead with the virtual events we sponsor than any of the physical events we attend.

We have several case studies in the Unisfair Virtual Events Showcase that share the details on increased reach, lower cost per lead etc., but what I noticed from two recent events we just attended—one virtual and one physical—is the drain the physical event put on my marketing and sales teams.

A Comparison

AdTech San Francisco April 08 – This was an outstanding event. AdTech did a great job and I haven’t seen a show floor packed like that since the dotcom days. We generated about 20 “in the pocket leads” (warm to hot) and another 150 fish bowl leads (got a card but didn’t talk to anyone). I can see a definite deal or two coming from this event and possibly another two.

As marketers we all know the costs of physical events, but it was the downtime of my sales and marketing team that really caught my attention. All the preshow logistics my team had to deal with, printing collateral, ordering give-aways, shipping, 10 hours of employee time setting up the booth (carpet and crates weren’t there on time), about 50 hours of staff working the booth, 6 hours tearing down the booth and another 36 hours of staff travel time (and this was a local show, imagine if we had to fly to the opposite coast!).

It took a lot of resources to pull off this show, which means we weren’t doing other marketing or sales efforts. But it was a great physical event, and you will see us there again.

Marketing Profs B2B Virtual Event March 08 – Marketing Profs pulled off another outstanding virtual event. My marketing manager spent a total of about 2 hours customizing our virtual booth with designs and extensive collateral.

The day of the virtual event we staffed the virtual booth live with one marketing person who was simultaneously working a physical show in New York, sales people from Boston, New York, San Diego and San Francisco—who were able to also handle their daily sales calls—and another marketing person who was home in bed with the flu. A total of about 24 hours booth time. Absolutely no travel involved.

We had over 800 people come into the booth (the equivalent of the fish bowl leads at the physical event), we had almost 150 direct interaction with booth visitors (the “in the pocket leads”) and a dozen of these are already in our pipeline.

The cost of sponsorship was comparable to the physical event, but eliminating all of the physical logistics (shipping, printing, travel, etc.) makes the virtual event exactly 50% cheaper.

But for me it is the literally hundreds of staff hours that we saved-putting these resources towards other marketing initiatives and sales people closing deals—that was the most valuable savings.

See you at AdTech and at Marketing Profs next year!

Comments 0