Industry Trends
Public Relations
[Updated June 29, 2020]
The Olympics, the Tony Awards, Comic-Con, the Met Gala — almost every major event has been canceled for the foreseeable future. Event professionals quickly found themselves out of work this spring as months of engagements were wiped off the calendar. Many found purpose in the pandemic, building field hospitals instead of stages, identifying meeting spaces for testing facilities or calling on hospitality industry contacts to house front-line workers en masse.
On a marketing industry level, trade shows, events and brand experiences have gone dark, leaving companies without key elements in their marketing programs. As COVID-19 continues to rage, how has it changed event marketing? And, what does it mean for the future of events?
Event marketing often depends most on intangible elements: the connection of in-person networking with industry peers. The shared experiences of being in a room for the same event at the same time. The sights and sounds of a product launch. The opportunity to touch, feel and interact with a product. While some companies have become paralyzed by the loss of these opportunities, others are doing what the event industry and marketing world does best: pivoting.
Pivoting big and small.
Global Events Make Major Changes
The NFL made one of the biggest pivots so far in April, holding its annual draft as a pared-down, virtual event in place of a flashy Las Vegas ceremony. More than 55 million people tuned in over the three-day event, a viewership increase of 16% over 2019.* People watched to see the first live sports content in over a month, anxious for familiarity. But there was also an element of curiosity: Would there be technical glitches? Would it be dull without the usual glitz and glamour? What do the home offices of NFL bigwigs look like? Technical aspects of the event were virtually seamless with few glitches, as teams communicated via Zoom and Microsoft Teams between picks.
Overall, the draft had a more down-to-earth feel than in prior years, with more casual attire and cameos from the children and pets of general managers and coaches, much like our own current work-from-home experiences. The NFL also smartly tied in a charitable element, including a Draft-A-Thon that raised more than $100 million for six COVID-19 relief charities.
On a trade audience level, organizers of North Carolina’s High Point Furniture Market canceled the spring event for the first time since World War II. To enable furniture companies to bring new products to the right audiences, the online interior design trade site Steelyard hosted High Point at Home, a web-based presentation platform that afforded exhibitors an online-only rollout. While the online version is far from the showroom-hopping, nightly cocktail hour event attendees are accustomed to, dedicated online showroom space for brands and evening happy hour recaps of the day were a good substitute. The approach gave designers a first glimpse at new furnishings and allowed them to continue client work and the selection of furniture for future projects. And thankfully so, because almost 51% of interior designers reported to Business of Home magazine that the pandemic has had “no impact” on their business.**
