One of the underreported stories of Silicon Valley is the business of tradeshows and events. The numbers are astounding. The budget for Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce is close to the GNP of Morocco. Think of that, all that money for an event focused hosted by a single company.
G2Planet is one of the fastest growing names in the business of events. Their meteoric rise has been propelled by counting the right numbers instead of rallying around the biggest shows. Redlbl’s Chris Birt has worked with them closely over the last five years on multiple levels.
In a business where it seems every player wants their time on stage, G2Planet focused on the action behind the screen.
Focusing On the Numbers
The company’s initial goal was to help Fortune Class brands keep the operational side of their events as “uneventful” as possible. Because the last thing you want from a live experience is an unwelcome surprise.
They then took things a step further and introduced a range of algorithms to help brands predict the behavior of attendees.
Today the G2Planet event platform serves as a multinational “nerve center” that helps brands like Infiniti and Cisco Systems run live events around the world with real-time controls.
Introducing The “Micro Experience”
When we first engaged, the company had created a particular set of tools for brands like Infiniti to highly controlled brand experiences such as “Ride & Drives” during major automotive shows.
“Micro experiences” like these soon became the hottest ticket in tradeshows as large brands began to group a single large show around a series of personalized events. As agency, these experiences became some of our most challenging and engaging assignments.
Advertising. Ad Infinitum.
When creating a commercial for broadcast television, for example, it is difficult to gauge the “user experience” without resorting to Nielsen data or pop-up polls conducted by media outlets. When you execute creative for a tradeshow, on the other hand, you can immediately assess how well the overall experience is received.
In many ways, the modern day event experience is the world’s longest advertising commercial for Fortune Class brands. This is where their identities are introduced, their commercials are analyzed and the relevance of their marketing strategies is quantified.
Events are where the “numbers game” takes front and center. It is here where “net promoter scores,” “eyeball tracking,” “user activations,” first become part of the modern marketing lexicon. And it is here where G2Planet has become among the first to “put a number” on whether things are succeeding or failing with consumers.
The Road Ahead
Even in the age of COVID-19 brands continue to invest heavily to get answers from customers through virtual experiences. Which, of course, requires the creative to work even harder at replicating the real thing.
Major software companies like G2Planet and others find themselves at the intersection of reality and virtual worlds. Whatever the future holds, this is a game they will continue to play, for real.
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