WEBVTT
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Hi Casma.
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Hi Casma.
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I'm so excited for today.
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Yes?
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Because we have a topic that I've been uh teasing in a lot of episodes up to now I feel.
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I've been saying this so many times and uh now we actually uh we're doing the episode.
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Yeah.
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Event RI.
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That's interesting.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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Because it's um it's it's it's something that needs to be addressed.
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Um and something that we've been working very uh close with the past couple of months, uh re-evaluating.
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Um but before uh I just want to ask you because this is a topic that that has come up a few times in these uh modern uh times how do you uh create a great marketing event in space?
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A great marketing event in space?
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You plan it.
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You plan it.
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I was trying to come up with something saying that you you definitely don't need uh helium balloons because they're exactly but it refers back to the joke about the the like the restaurant on the moon, right?
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If you haven't heard that joke, you go back to the episode.
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I don't even recall, but it's it's good as well.
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But but uh but uh honestly I think um talking about ROI events or our event ROI, um everyone talks about it and almost no one uh measures probably because it's it's hard.
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So either we scan badges uh put it into pipeline or we give up and call it brand.
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And honestly, both are super lazy because that's not the the why we go to events, yeah.
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Uh it's a huge investment, so obviously we need to prove something back to the business.
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Yeah, um I think and you've been doing way more events than than we have.
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Yeah.
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Right?
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I mean, as in a in a proper way of doing events, right?
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Absolutely, and we've been doing a lot of mistakes.
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Like we've been doing all the mistakes that I'm sitting here being wise and you shouldn't do that.
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But like we did all the mistakes of over investing, under accounting, and all these things.
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But I think the the main learning for me is that looking at events, it's because we we calculate the ROI wrong.
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Okay.
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Because we keep when we when it comes to um uh event ROI, we measure uh short-term attribution on a long-term uh influence channel.
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Okay, so events are not a short, like we think we let's go pick up all the leads, let's go do all these things, and then we measure our ROI based on that, which often becomes uh batch scans, yeah.
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And then so you've had a booth at Summit uh two last year.
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Yeah, we actually at Adobe Summit we had a lot of times and we had uh at a lot of different events, and and earlier years we did exactly that.
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So you were just standing there scanning.
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And looking at all the brands around us, doing exactly the same, and then it becomes about swag.
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I love swag.
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Swag is so important, but swag is not to get badge scans, but that's what we see at the events.
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I was just about to say the only reason I had my batch scanned at Summit two weeks ago was to get some swag.
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Exactly, but because you you get a cloth or a cool tote bag, you're not interested in buying the product.
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Oh, I had an air purifier.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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But you're not interested in buying the product, you probably don't even recall what they were selling you, right?
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No.
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And I think that's the challenge.
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And and and the impact becomes negative ROI at a higher scale because then we chase our own tails when we come back.
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So now we all also need to follow up on leads that are not interested and all these things.
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And we like honestly, when we when we followed this strategy, we came back with hundreds of leads.
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Yeah.
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Conversions are extremely low.
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The conversions come from conversations.
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Yeah.
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So like we've seen that we had to to pivot this.
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How do you look at this at the at a crease and and without the multimodal?
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Yeah, so I mean, we're not doing we're not doing events in the same way as as you've been focusing on events, right?
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No.
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Uh it's not that we don't do events, but but we we tag along when Adobe is doing an event, right?
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So we're having analytics and advertisers, and we've been invited to do a hands-on lab there.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Um we still we we still collect leads from those events, but I should say the the most valuable leads are the ones where we're actually having a conversation.
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Um, they also honestly don't convert very well very well.
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No.
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So our main focus on those events is actually to be top of mind for people, right?
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Well, what we see from a consulting perspective is that you're not gonna be replacing your existing consulting partner unless they really screw up.
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No.
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As in as in big time screw up, right?
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Yeah, yeah.
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You can make mistakes and but it's it doesn't mean that you're gonna be replaced, right?
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And then the other big reason for changing your implementation partner or considering changing your or adding an implementation partner is when you are buying a new license for Adobe.
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Yeah.
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Right.
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And in those two scenarios is when we want to be top of mind.
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Exactly.
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Because when people are going to an event, they're not there to replace their implementation partner or not just implementation, but but consulting partner, right?
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Um and there really needs to be a really good reason if if they want to do that, right?
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So main purpose for us is making sure that they are aware of who are crees and understand that we are a specialist consultancy only doing Adobe.
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Yeah, and hopefully when it's relevant, they will reach out.
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Yeah, exactly.
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And that that's also what we see.
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Uh it's not about counting scans, it's about qualifying presence.
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Uh and I mean, like if they're not there to look for a new partner, but some are in the situation where they are looking for a new partner.
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Yeah.
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So it becomes a split role where we need to be top of mind, but we also need to make sure that those conversations that actually has quality and has uh not quality, that's the wrong term, but has like follow-ups, next steps that we use our time doing that, right?
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Um are you familiar with the day one list concept?
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Day one list?
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Day one list.
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No.
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So it it might be one of the big BCG or McKinsey or or I can't remember whether it was LinkedIn who who came up with the concept.
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But yeah, the idea is that you if somebody asks you about a service, you can think of maybe three for that specific service.
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And even if I add two or three more to your list, then I think it's 80-85% of people will still pick one of the services or vendors that they had on their own list.
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Yeah.
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Right?
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So our focus is being on the day one list.
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Yeah.
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Right.
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Yeah.
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Um and then at the same time, there's also this concept that only 5% of your total target group is in the market for your service right now.
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Yes.
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And I think if you go to an event and you get 300 leads, and the majority of them is uh looking for swag, you know, it's you're gonna be lucky if you're gonna be hitting those five percent.
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Exactly.
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And that that that calls for like cool handouts and all these things that we're not counting.
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Yeah, but I think that there's a enough reason that we need to be top of mind.
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I fully agree with that.
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But when we talk about ROI, it's about those five percent.
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Yeah, it's about how do we get a conversation with those five percent.
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And I think like the first thing rule for us is that events are uh pipeline attribution.
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Like we need to just attribute the conversation and the things that we did on this event.
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The ROI lies in the follow-up.
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So out of those that we have conversations with, and we do like we know we're gonna have a lot of conversations that are not relevant now, but that's top of mind.
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But the 5% that's in the market for that, the follow-up is crucial within 48 hours that we follow up, that we have these conversations, yeah, because that's where we both can attribute it back to the event conversation, and we know all sales efforts, all marketing efforts, like there will be touches upon every deal, everything we do from event ROI from multiple sites and multiple attributions.
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So just getting that conversation marked in and having the ability to follow up on what's relevant, not following up on everyone, because we all die after events with the like follow-ups that no one needs, right?
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Yeah, so it's a conversation, and staring, picking up the phone.
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Hey, we had this company, where are you at?
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Like instead of thinking that marketing is the one too many, because in these cases it's the 5% that needs that that attention in.
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So that that's what we see.
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The pre uh sorry, post-event follow-ups is where the RI is, not in the event.
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Um and to be honest, I think this opens the next level of this.
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Um, you could say where the adults step in, which is expectation handling.
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Yeah, how do we do upper management?
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Uh ensure that expectations are set around this, because they would they will want to see what we have of data that that backs this.
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Yeah.
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And and oftentimes the KPI being reported is the number of leads come coming in, right?
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The number of scans, the number of batches being scanned.
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It is.
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Right.
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Which is which just generates a horrible conversion rate further down the funnel, right?
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For me, that's the KPI for how much I'm gonna chase my tail when I come back.
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Yeah.
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I want as high as a number as possible, but I know it's the conversations.
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So we started measuring differently.
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Started measuring the conversations, setting goals around the conversations that we need.
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If we have a booth, then obviously we want to want to do this thing.
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But I'm not interested in getting a lot of scans for handing out tote bags or cool stickers.
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No.
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I want people to have it, that's great.
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Yeah, but the conversation that we can actually follow up on, where we can show more, where we can share knowledge around these things, we want to track those.
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So having early, and this is is a no-no for for many, and it has been for me early on on as well.
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But having a pipeline stage that's quality uh opportunity identified.
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So we had this conversation, there might be something.
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Everything in this uh stage from an event needs to be followed up within 80-48 hours when we come back.
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We need to pick up the phone, we need to have these conversations.
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And if there's nothing there, that's okay.
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But that's where we're gonna get the ROI because honestly, we don't need more than a couple deals from an event, and then this more than justifies the cost of this.
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Yeah, so having the adult conversation with our management saying, hey, dear board, this is what you can expect.
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These you can see here, like top funnel things are the conversations that we have that we find relevant, where there's an interesting thing.
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Measure us on how we get these into become actual meetings, and then we can start talking about ROI, we can start talking about pipeline because most deals in B2B happens on a nine to twelve month scale.
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Yeah, so like in many cases, again, with the short-term measuring of a long-term attribution, we want it within the same year because when we close the year, it might be attributed back, but like we like it often events.
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Often, in my experience, comes down to like we should events this year should attribute next year, but often it doesn't.
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Most we speak to it doesn't do that, right?
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Um, and we've been we've been changing things.
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So, like, how can we get the data around this?
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Like uh track QR scans, all these things that actually creates interest for for many things have have been able that we can link the conversations that we have to these QR scans, to all these things, but not at scale, not for getting a cloth or a tote back, but but but with interest, we can we can we can track people's efforts in this.
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Because what we see, I actually wrote down three things here.
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Like events are pipeline acceleration channels, relationship uh density plays, and high cost, high impact touch points.
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And that's what I like all the leads that we get that really is this is like also customers bringing relevant conversations to the booth, having relevant conversations with a with a timeline, having someone who sees a tool that they want to implement.
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Um it's not a lead-jet machine, which is treated like in in most cases.
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Yeah.
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So uh how are you practically handling this, right?
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When when like when you have a booth, as an example, at Summit where you scan badges.
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So are you asking people to take notes on where there's the the good conversation so that you can you can mark them in your CRM?
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Or yeah, we did all this, but it didn't work.
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So you you did all of this and it the the scan the badges and taking notes and it didn't work.
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It's like honestly, it's the same like we do at Data Foundations in marketing.
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We can easily solve this with a spreadsheet, we can easily set it up, but it doesn't work because it's not complete, it's not validated, we don't have like the strategy needs for us need to pivot, and we did this.
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Um, so we have three things that we do to ensure our eye.
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It doesn't ensure the RI, but it ensures that we can measure the RI and we can focus our efforts around it.
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Um pre-event planning, yeah, very, very strict um structure around uh what are the target accounts that we want to talk to.
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Yeah.
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Um we need to align sales and marketing on meetings so everyone understands that we back the same cases and we have the same follow-up because there's nothing worse than chasing meetings ahead of an event.
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Yeah, but being aware of who we need to talk to and being able to kind of show them that we're there and kind of have the topics in mind makes the conversations way easier.
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Yeah, it's not like hey, you saw this, but it's more like that we actually, as you say, top of mind when we have the conversation.
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Yeah.
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So it's not top of mind for when the deal occurs, but it's top of mind for when we have these conversations, which makes it very easy to qualify or dequalify, to be honest.
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So you so you try and book meetings up front?
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Yeah, we tried, but again, we are chasing our tails.
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So we actually we're moving we we reach out, but we are trying way more to do a strategic marketing effort around it.
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Okay, so when we know who are going and what brands and who are interesting, who we actually can bring something to the table, yeah, then we can expose them to things in our marketing setup that makes this.
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We can connect with them and we can have the conversation.
00:14:59.519 --> 00:15:03.759
So, how does that how does that look in in reality?
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I mean, because uh we've been trying to book meetings up front as well, and even if we get some books in uh or some some meetings booked, typically there's uh more interesting stuff happening on the day, and then you get cancelled and other things are being prioritized, right?
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So I'm at this year, we did an event together, yeah, which were a big success because we changed the approach.
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Yeah.
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Previous years we've been inviting all our customers, and it has worked sometimes, but but like being a Nordic uh brand uh that is crucial to the setup, but but small, like we're never gonna compete against Adobe global team inviting our customers to an event or like all the massive brands that are there, even team events, because in in this day and age, like most teams are scattered across the world or in the US across states.
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So when they get together at an event, the evenings is a chance to get together and talk about that.
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Absolutely.
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Yeah, so so what we did this year are just getting people together and making sure that they they could come, but it was not only customers, it were not only these uh leads, it was not only a conversation, but it was people who are interested in in the topics that we were about doing, and it's so much more interesting, and there's so much more to follow up afterwards because the conversations easily flow in the yeah.
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Uh so like the pre-event planning is super important to us.
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Now we went into the second, which is structured tracking.
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That's super important to us.
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Uh, consistent campaign tracking, so we actually know what works when we when we influence uh these things, and then CRM discipline, which I think is the main challenge because uh events often become marketing, but we are like every day track all your conversations that's relevant.
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Yeah, you have a thousand conversations, you don't, but the conversations that you have, there are a lot that's not relevant.
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Yeah, that's great.
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Connect with them on LinkedIn, like say hi, but be friendly, have the conversation.
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Don't think that it's it's ROI, or it's like take the conversations that actually has a relevant follow-up and get them into CRM.
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So we actually have a list that we know that we can follow up.
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That's crucial to sales teams and for marketing efforts to go into sales teams that we actually know this.
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Um, most teams like this, like and we did previously as well, but that's something that we really focused on for the event.
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Yeah.
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So when every day, like tomorrow, I don't recall what it what conversations I had yesterday.
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No, because it's such uh insane.
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Yeah, yeah, there's so many things happening, right?
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Yeah, yeah.
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Uh, and then the last thing is the post-event workflows, as I said, like that we have immediate follow-up sequences and personal follow-up sequences.
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These are conversations, these are like who do we get recommended to talk to, who uh did we talk to that we need to follow up, yeah.
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Uh, and clear ownership.
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Who owns the conversation and these things?
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Yeah.
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So now we're setting up uh goals for um now we're setting up goals for the conversations, we're setting goals up for the follow-ups and and how we move it, move it into pipeline, which has been a game changer for us.
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Okay.
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Are we still doing all the event things with with cool swag, with with uh noise, and with all yes, of course we are running clubs, whatever we get around it.
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But to be honest, in many cases when we start looking at that, and I'm absolutely not arguing against being a sponsor at an event because we are like tomorrow.
00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:34.000
We are going to to London to be a sponsor at an event.
00:18:34.079 --> 00:18:40.000
Yeah, I still see this working, but like when it comes to ROI and we have the ROI data, we can start to measure this up.
00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:43.680
Is it worth the cost of what we think we can generate from these things?
00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:47.039
Not from lead scans, but from these conversations from what we bring forward.
00:18:47.279 --> 00:18:53.920
And it's so much easier for me, to be honest, to to justify the events and to show the impact for both sales and marketing in this.
00:18:54.079 --> 00:19:07.920
Yeah, um, because I don't I was just about to say, I feel like conversations are easier in an informal surrounding than when you're uh standing in a booth, right?
00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:14.079
We've been doing a few events where we've been sponsoring for Adobe events, right?
00:19:14.160 --> 00:19:14.559
Uh huh.
00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:16.799
Um and there's been no one.
00:19:17.440 --> 00:19:19.680
Uh it's it's been local events, right?
00:19:19.759 --> 00:19:22.000
So it's not like a summit or anything like that, right?
00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:28.000
But for the local events, nobody is is coming over to a booth to unless they're recommended.
00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:30.880
Hey, we have this problem, or you should go talk to them, right?
00:19:31.359 --> 00:19:45.920
Um but but like the event we had in in Vegas, uh, I think it's probably the the best conversations that we've had with uh customers and and prospects in in a long time, right?
00:19:46.240 --> 00:19:53.440
We've never had so many relevant conversations coming back from an event that than we did at Adobe Subitition.
00:19:53.519 --> 00:19:54.160
Yeah, okay.
00:19:54.400 --> 00:19:55.599
Because we stopped selling.
00:19:55.759 --> 00:19:56.079
Yeah.
00:19:56.319 --> 00:19:57.119
To be honest.
00:19:57.279 --> 00:19:57.599
Yeah.
00:19:58.079 --> 00:20:00.160
No one is interesting in interested in that.
00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:03.839
We're there to solve problems, we're there to talk about what can be done.
00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:04.160
Yeah.
00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:10.319
And to be honest, I don't think most companies have an RI problem around events.
00:20:10.559 --> 00:20:13.359
We have a data structure problem around it.
00:20:13.519 --> 00:20:17.599
And I know I'm talking about data structure always, but we do.
00:20:17.920 --> 00:20:36.160
And we did as well, because we were not able to to quantify uh qualify the right conversations from the rest, which means that we spent all our time following up on everyone, yeah, and we spend less time following up on those who actually had a conversation that that that made sense and value to them.
00:20:36.400 --> 00:20:36.880
Yeah.
00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:55.599
So so, in other words, you've you've skipped all the uh scan badges and and getting 300 leads and trying to follow up on those, and focusing on conversations that's not about selling, taking note of those conversations and then following up on those post-event.
00:20:55.759 --> 00:20:56.079
Yeah.
00:20:56.240 --> 00:20:56.559
Yeah.
00:20:56.799 --> 00:20:59.279
People are not there to get sold to, right?
00:20:59.359 --> 00:20:59.599
No.
00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:01.839
They come to a booth because they're curious, yeah.
00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:13.680
They probably have something that resonates with them in a problem, or like, and to be honest, our our main conversations right now is marketing scrutiny because it most don't have the data foundation to do that.
00:21:14.319 --> 00:21:19.200
So when we ask them, like, before it's been like data governance, let's talk about data governance.
00:21:19.359 --> 00:21:24.000
No one wants to talk about data governance because it's like, yeah, it's so easy to de-prioritize.
00:21:24.079 --> 00:21:24.240
Yeah.
00:21:24.400 --> 00:21:28.559
When we talk about like how many spreadsheets do you use to track your marketing efforts?
00:21:29.599 --> 00:21:31.039
That's something that everyone does.
00:21:31.440 --> 00:21:32.400
Like, does it work?
00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:32.960
No.
00:21:33.279 --> 00:21:35.359
Do you have a challenge with marketing scrutiny right now?
00:21:35.519 --> 00:21:36.559
Yes, everyone does.
00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:36.960
Yeah.
00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:46.559
Because we need to justify the justifying modern marketing is harder than ever because we are so used to optimizing in in channels and silos.
00:21:46.799 --> 00:21:54.480
Um, so that's a that's a good conversation, and to be honest, on us, it's it's a much more interesting conversation than having to pitch.
00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:59.759
Yeah, okay, give me the pitch on what Acutix does, and it's like the elevator pitch, and it's but it's great, but it's not.
00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:04.559
It's not the value, it's not like as marketers, that's not what we want, that's not what we're looking for.
00:22:04.880 --> 00:22:10.079
We have a problem that we're looking to solve, or we want to know what problem we should be aware of solving tomorrow.
00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:16.640
When we want AI, when we want all these things, what are the things that that others make others succeed in this?
00:22:16.799 --> 00:22:22.240
Um so what what are you changing for uh you're going you mentioned you're going to London tomorrow.
00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:22.720
Yeah.
00:22:23.119 --> 00:22:26.960
So what are you what are you doing for the event in London?
00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:34.000
The event uh we are uh well we say like when we have a booth, we want to be on on stage.
00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:47.200
Because so uh I have a presentation on stage which is absolutely not about acutex, but which is about how our customers are solving the data structure for AI for everything that they want to do marketing to prove the value.
00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:54.799
Because 80%, we did this episode, 80% of CEOs doesn't trust um marketing to do objective commercial thinking.
00:22:55.039 --> 00:23:02.640
So showing the frameworks that our customers are using to solve this, not like teach you, t shoe, ts you, come get it, you need to sign up.
00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:04.160
No, yeah, here it is.
00:23:04.319 --> 00:23:06.960
Yeah, we're gonna give you it on stage and show you that.
00:23:07.119 --> 00:23:13.119
Then we have the booth, we're gonna like we've been doing a lot of swag, and I've a lot of good swag.
00:23:13.359 --> 00:23:19.599
So we have a lot of good swag uh that we're gonna bring um so so people get that, but to have the conversations.
00:23:19.759 --> 00:23:21.519
They can have the swag, they can do all these things.
00:23:21.599 --> 00:23:24.640
Yeah, but as soon as we have the conversations, it's gonna be registered.
00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:28.480
Yeah, so we're gonna note it down and we're gonna talk about the follow-up.
00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:31.519
Like, how can we what can we how can we get you on with this?
00:23:31.599 --> 00:23:35.599
Yeah, and in many cases it's having a strategic marketing conversation.
00:23:35.759 --> 00:23:41.039
The next step is like let's qualify this technically, let's look at the nitty-gritty, what it takes to do these things as well.
00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:43.119
So, have you stopped scanning badges?
00:23:43.359 --> 00:23:44.720
Yeah, okay.
00:23:44.880 --> 00:23:46.640
So that's that's not a focus anymore.
00:23:46.799 --> 00:23:48.880
No, no, it's it's distortion, yeah.
00:23:49.039 --> 00:23:50.160
It takes up all our time.
00:23:50.240 --> 00:23:51.519
We're not the biggest team in the world.
00:23:51.599 --> 00:23:54.799
So, like, I want us to follow up on the things that that makes sense.
00:23:54.880 --> 00:24:03.359
Yeah, we'll scan the badges, that makes sense, but not in an event lead scanner that will go into a spreadsheet that will no no no, we'll get it directly into CRM.
00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:08.240
So now we did all the pre-event uh warm-up and all these things.
00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:16.880
Now we're gonna register all the conversations that we can follow up on that makes sense and where there's a mutual consent that this is what's what's gonna happen.
00:24:17.119 --> 00:24:20.319
And as I mentioned, we just did this in in Las Vegas.
00:24:20.880 --> 00:24:24.559
Now, lead list had never been more relevant and longer than it is today.
00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:32.880
Yeah, the amount of scan leads, I guess it's it's shorter, but it's uh uh way higher quality of leads, right?
00:24:33.039 --> 00:24:36.559
It's way shorter, it has an actual conversation around everything that's going on.
00:24:36.640 --> 00:24:46.400
Yeah, that has a next step that now needs to many of them are actually already meetings, yeah, but but that the rest needs to be meetings, and then we're building a pipeline.
00:24:46.559 --> 00:24:47.279
Yeah, nice.
00:24:47.519 --> 00:24:52.640
So um, so I like that, and I like that approach, and that's how I would like to be approached myself.
00:24:52.720 --> 00:24:57.599
Yeah, and I'm only saying it because we've been doing the other thing for way too long.
00:24:57.759 --> 00:25:02.799
Yeah, I mean, so uh I love good I love swag in general, right?
00:25:02.960 --> 00:25:07.119
So I'm I'm I'm I'm the one who buys an extra suitcase for the swag.
00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:13.519
Um and I only have my my badge scanned in order to get this way, right?
00:25:14.319 --> 00:25:17.440
Uh the crazy thing is, like, was it last year?
00:25:17.680 --> 00:25:23.759
I actually approached the booth because I was interested in their service and they didn't want it to talk to me.
00:25:24.400 --> 00:25:24.799
Right.
00:25:25.039 --> 00:25:38.799
So um, which which I find mind-blowing because I was standing and I was asking questions that was really really relevant, and it was not to fake an interest to get the swag or anything like that.
00:25:39.440 --> 00:25:40.960
They know your needs better than you do.
00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:42.720
Right.
00:25:42.880 --> 00:25:51.920
So um, and and eventually I just I just I just gave up because I I couldn't get I couldn't get a conversation started that I actually needed, right?
00:25:52.079 --> 00:25:53.759
Yeah, that's absolutely insane.
00:25:54.079 --> 00:26:00.079
Um and an investment that we've been doing over the past uh few years uh has been uh glowing glasses.
00:26:00.160 --> 00:26:10.880
So we have LED glasses, and what we see like it's great, you can hand out a thousand at the booth because people like swag that people want to bring back to their kids is good swag.
00:26:11.200 --> 00:26:13.359
Like I can just like that that will create a tension.
00:26:13.440 --> 00:26:16.799
Yeah, uh that's a that's a that's a fantastic tip.
00:26:17.279 --> 00:26:20.000
Swag that people want to bring home for the children.
00:26:20.160 --> 00:26:22.720
I've never thought of that, but uh that's what I do as well.
00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:23.119
Yeah, right.
00:26:23.359 --> 00:26:24.000
That's what you do.
00:26:24.160 --> 00:26:33.759
There was a baseball in Vegas, you could get uh laser, you know, put your name on for a laser, and I I brought one for each of my boys with their name on, right?
00:26:33.839 --> 00:26:34.480
Yeah, yeah.
00:26:34.720 --> 00:26:37.839
I had a picture taken with the Premier League trophy for my son.
00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:38.319
Yeah.
00:26:38.559 --> 00:26:39.759
Who's a big Arsenal fan?
00:26:39.839 --> 00:26:41.920
He was like, uh, should I bring this back to North London?
00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:43.200
He was like, Yes, please.
00:26:44.160 --> 00:26:45.759
But that's that's the case.
00:26:45.839 --> 00:26:46.079
Yeah.
00:26:46.240 --> 00:26:51.200
Um, but with these glasses, we we brought them and we handed it out at the booth and we scanned a lot of people.
00:26:51.759 --> 00:26:56.799
So after a few years, what what we changed is that we printed actually a QR on the side.
00:26:56.960 --> 00:26:59.119
So if you're interested, where do these glasses come from?
00:26:59.279 --> 00:27:02.160
Well, then you'll go and then you can find more.
00:27:02.640 --> 00:27:10.640
But what we're seeing is that we started instead of handing them out during daytime, we brought them to the bash or to the son of event.
00:27:10.880 --> 00:27:23.680
Yeah, because then people will talk about them and they will come up to you, and they it creates attention in a completely different way, and they will still bring them back to their kids because they they want to do that.
00:27:23.920 --> 00:27:33.920
Um so what happened this year at Summit, which was the third or fourth fourth year that actually it was the third year because uh we found these glasses.
00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:37.200
Uh someone brought them for my 40th birthday, yeah.
00:27:37.440 --> 00:27:40.559
And we were just like, this is genius, because everyone was like, Wow, yeah.
00:27:40.960 --> 00:27:47.759
Um, but at the bash, we had a lot of of these things, and they um people started coming up to us.
00:27:47.839 --> 00:27:56.079
And what changed this year was like, hey, you're the uh cutex guys, they know because they blew glasses, like they know that the glasses is connected to us.
00:27:56.240 --> 00:28:00.160
Yeah, but what we haven't tried before is like people hoarding up around us.
00:28:00.319 --> 00:28:07.279
Like at some point we had 20-25 people standing around, like just give us the glasses, which was like insane.
00:28:07.359 --> 00:28:13.119
But because this is like again when we talk events and long term, yeah, this is the long-term effort that starts working.
00:28:13.440 --> 00:28:17.759
People want them not only because they want lighting glasses, but they actually wanted the conversations.
00:28:17.920 --> 00:28:28.319
So, what we had is like people, a lot of people coming up and saying, like, this is genius, this is, and it was not about the the glasses because we've had them, but but it's the setting that we brought them to life in.
00:28:28.799 --> 00:28:34.240
And we actually had more badge scan, what badge scans at that event that we had anywhere.
00:28:34.319 --> 00:28:46.400
Like pictures because people like we have this, but we need to talk about this, like this is actually um, and then at some point, obviously, we need to say, hey, why should we give you this because they went so fast, yeah?
00:28:46.559 --> 00:28:55.039
But but uh like we booked a lot of meetings that night from from from that effort, so just flipping it, I think sometimes, and then it's about the follow-up again, right?
00:28:55.279 --> 00:29:01.200
Because event RI is from setting the strategy as we talked about and doing the proper follow-up.
00:29:01.440 --> 00:29:03.440
Uh, and now we have something to talk about.
00:29:03.599 --> 00:29:07.119
Uh, did we hand out glasses that were only people who wanted glasses?
00:29:07.279 --> 00:29:09.119
Yes, of course we did.
00:29:09.279 --> 00:29:20.640
Yeah, but we but we suddenly have a few fixed points in our data, in our conversations, in the CRM and in how we track and engage, where we're both top of mind and we can measure this ROI.
00:29:20.880 --> 00:29:24.400
Yeah, so I recommend everyone like just trying to evaluate this.
00:29:24.559 --> 00:29:27.119
And I'm not I didn't wake up one morning.
00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:37.200
It's like it's we wasted a lot of time and money doing a lot of these things uh to get where we're at, and seen a lot of pressure on like how should what should we do it?
00:29:37.279 --> 00:29:47.200
Yeah, because I was one second away from investing in a booth like this year again, but decided to like oh let's let's stick with the strategy, let's try it.
00:29:47.680 --> 00:29:54.160
Um and then it becomes a conversation about like how expensive is it to get on stage and have a booth.
00:29:54.240 --> 00:30:06.079
Yeah, then I will start segmenting events because I know if we have a booth, we need to to bring like why we have a booth to the stage and talking about what you can get from thinking things a bit differently, yeah.
00:30:06.319 --> 00:30:07.920
And that's the problem with most events.
00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:16.160
That that's a different episode, but like it's too expensive, simply too expensive to go and and somebody has to fund uh fund the event, right?
00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:16.799
Yeah, man.
00:30:16.960 --> 00:30:24.079
I think that's fair, but it's too expensive not because of the price, but because of the switch or the the trait of having the booth.
00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:34.480
Yeah, the ROI is simply not good enough, and then we can talk about as brands, we need to do all these things, but I think as event uh planners and and setup, you have a responsibility in this.
00:30:34.559 --> 00:30:47.039
Like it's not only that you have an event that attracts a lot of people, that's the influencer thing, yeah, but you actually need to do something for the brands because many brands are not happy with the return they see from from the booth, yeah.
00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:51.200
So uh so with that of wrap-up.
00:30:51.759 --> 00:30:52.799
Yeah, sorry, sorry.
00:30:53.599 --> 00:30:54.640
It's a passionate topic.
00:30:54.720 --> 00:30:55.759
I love this topic.
00:30:56.000 --> 00:31:01.759
Uh what would be if you were to summarize in um in three three bullet points?
00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:08.799
Yeah, have the dull conversation with with uh with where you need to justify this and say, hey, what are the expectations?
00:31:08.880 --> 00:31:14.480
This is a long-term investment, yeah, both over years, but also what we do here, and then the three steps.
00:31:14.640 --> 00:31:22.319
Make sure that that that you uh plan correctly, that we can actually uh engage the right people beforehand, not pre-booking meetings.
00:31:22.559 --> 00:31:23.759
If you can do that, great.
00:31:23.920 --> 00:31:24.960
By all means do that.
00:31:25.039 --> 00:31:29.359
Yeah, we are in B2B, we are having a hard time, like they're not there to have that meeting.
00:31:29.519 --> 00:31:31.680
So we can so what are you doing instead?
00:31:31.920 --> 00:31:34.799
Just exposing our brand and saying we are here and what we're doing.
00:31:34.960 --> 00:31:46.079
So connecting on LinkedIn from a sales point of view, from a marketing point of view, knowing which brands we want to engage with, and then exposing them to they've seen acute when we come up with the conversation.
00:31:46.240 --> 00:31:46.559
Yeah.
00:31:47.119 --> 00:31:57.039
On events, that we make sure that we track all the data, so we get the right people in, and that we get the follow-ups and the knowledge that we need in our CRM and our marketing automation.
00:31:57.359 --> 00:31:59.119
And then lastly, follow up.
00:31:59.279 --> 00:32:04.000
That we follow up these things within 48 hours is the magic window for us.
00:32:04.319 --> 00:32:08.720
Obviously, something is gonna go slower, but that's that's our aim.
00:32:08.960 --> 00:32:13.440
Get them on the phone to different like these conversations that we're following up, it's not bad scans.
00:32:13.599 --> 00:32:16.240
So those three things have been a game changer for us.
00:32:16.480 --> 00:32:17.039
Game changer.
00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:23.839
I'd love to hear anyone out there like what you're doing, and if you see like think other things working, because I think this is a conversation that we should have.
00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:24.400
Yeah.
00:32:24.640 --> 00:32:25.599
Last last question.
00:32:25.759 --> 00:32:36.240
When you follow up, do you pass it over to sales, or is it the person who's been having the conversation who actually uh follows up with the um like um sales have the conversations there?
00:32:36.319 --> 00:32:40.799
Okay so if there's someone outside sales, we we will follow it up like from sales.
00:32:40.880 --> 00:32:47.039
But I think it's it's super important when it's conversations that it's the person who had the conversations, a conversation that follows up.
00:32:47.519 --> 00:32:53.440
This is not a sales motion, this is just clarifying if we can help each other achieve what we are trying to do.
00:32:53.519 --> 00:32:57.200
Yeah, but at some point we need to take it out of marketing's hands and give it into sales hands.
00:32:57.359 --> 00:33:01.119
So, my interest is getting sales into the conversation as fast as possible.
00:33:01.599 --> 00:33:03.519
And this is an entirely different episode as well.
00:33:03.599 --> 00:33:04.720
But like, how do we sell?
00:33:04.799 --> 00:33:14.079
Yeah, like we're not pitching, we're not trying to get you to buy something, like yeah, challenge your sales and and and looking into like what what can we solve?
00:33:14.160 --> 00:33:16.960
What are the challenges that we see and how how can we support this?
00:33:17.839 --> 00:33:18.480
Cool.
00:33:19.039 --> 00:33:20.000
Thanks, Caspar.
00:33:20.319 --> 00:33:20.880
Thank you.
00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:26.880
Um and then uh and and best of luck um in London for your uh next event.
00:33:27.119 --> 00:33:27.359
Thank you.
00:33:27.519 --> 00:33:29.680
I I'm planning the space event, we should do that together.
00:33:29.839 --> 00:33:32.000
Yeah, yeah, I'll bring the helium.
00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:05.599
Hi Casma.
00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:06.799
Hi Casma.
00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:08.640
I'm so excited for today.
00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:09.359
Yes?
00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:16.960
Because we have a topic that I've been uh teasing in a lot of episodes up to now I feel.
00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:21.760
I've been saying this so many times and uh now we actually uh we're doing the episode.
00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:22.239
Yeah.
00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:24.399
Event RI.
00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:26.079
That's interesting.
00:00:26.399 --> 00:00:26.719
Yes.
00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:26.960
Yeah.
00:00:27.359 --> 00:00:32.159
Because it's um it's it's it's something that needs to be addressed.
00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:39.119
Um and something that we've been working very uh close with the past couple of months, uh re-evaluating.
00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:51.679
Um but before uh I just want to ask you because this is a topic that that has come up a few times in these uh modern uh times how do you uh create a great marketing event in space?
00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:54.560
A great marketing event in space?
00:01:00.159 --> 00:01:01.119
You plan it.
00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:05.200
You plan it.
00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:18.959
I was trying to come up with something saying that you you definitely don't need uh helium balloons because they're exactly but it refers back to the joke about the the like the restaurant on the moon, right?
00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:21.760
If you haven't heard that joke, you go back to the episode.
00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:24.159
I don't even recall, but it's it's good as well.
00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:40.400
But but uh but uh honestly I think um talking about ROI events or our event ROI, um everyone talks about it and almost no one uh measures probably because it's it's hard.
00:01:40.480 --> 00:01:45.920
So either we scan badges uh put it into pipeline or we give up and call it brand.
00:01:46.079 --> 00:01:52.719
And honestly, both are super lazy because that's not the the why we go to events, yeah.
00:01:52.879 --> 00:01:57.760
Uh it's a huge investment, so obviously we need to prove something back to the business.
00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:01.920
Yeah, um I think and you've been doing way more events than than we have.
00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:02.400
Yeah.
00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:02.799
Right?
00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:06.560
I mean, as in a in a proper way of doing events, right?
00:02:06.879 --> 00:02:08.879
Absolutely, and we've been doing a lot of mistakes.
00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:12.960
Like we've been doing all the mistakes that I'm sitting here being wise and you shouldn't do that.
00:02:13.039 --> 00:02:17.759
But like we did all the mistakes of over investing, under accounting, and all these things.
00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:26.800
But I think the the main learning for me is that looking at events, it's because we we calculate the ROI wrong.
00:02:27.039 --> 00:02:27.360
Okay.
00:02:27.599 --> 00:02:41.759
Because we keep when we when it comes to um uh event ROI, we measure uh short-term attribution on a long-term uh influence channel.
00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:55.120
Okay, so events are not a short, like we think we let's go pick up all the leads, let's go do all these things, and then we measure our ROI based on that, which often becomes uh batch scans, yeah.
00:02:55.360 --> 00:03:01.280
And then so you've had a booth at Summit uh two last year.
00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:10.319
Yeah, we actually at Adobe Summit we had a lot of times and we had uh at a lot of different events, and and earlier years we did exactly that.
00:03:10.560 --> 00:03:12.240
So you were just standing there scanning.
00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:17.199
And looking at all the brands around us, doing exactly the same, and then it becomes about swag.
00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:18.080
I love swag.
00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:24.400
Swag is so important, but swag is not to get badge scans, but that's what we see at the events.
00:03:24.719 --> 00:03:31.199
I was just about to say the only reason I had my batch scanned at Summit two weeks ago was to get some swag.
00:03:31.599 --> 00:03:38.639
Exactly, but because you you get a cloth or a cool tote bag, you're not interested in buying the product.
00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:40.159
Oh, I had an air purifier.
00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:40.560
Yeah.
00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:41.039
Yeah.
00:03:41.280 --> 00:03:45.199
But you're not interested in buying the product, you probably don't even recall what they were selling you, right?
00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:45.599
No.
00:03:45.759 --> 00:03:47.199
And I think that's the challenge.
00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:53.360
And and and the impact becomes negative ROI at a higher scale because then we chase our own tails when we come back.
00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:58.000
So now we all also need to follow up on leads that are not interested and all these things.
00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:03.039
And we like honestly, when we when we followed this strategy, we came back with hundreds of leads.
00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:03.759
Yeah.
00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:05.759
Conversions are extremely low.
00:04:05.840 --> 00:04:08.240
The conversions come from conversations.
00:04:08.639 --> 00:04:09.280
Yeah.
00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:12.639
So like we've seen that we had to to pivot this.
00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:16.480
How do you look at this at the at a crease and and without the multimodal?
00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:23.120
Yeah, so I mean, we're not doing we're not doing events in the same way as as you've been focusing on events, right?
00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:23.360
No.
00:04:23.759 --> 00:04:29.839
Uh it's not that we don't do events, but but we we tag along when Adobe is doing an event, right?
00:04:29.920 --> 00:04:34.480
So we're having analytics and advertisers, and we've been invited to do a hands-on lab there.
00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:35.199
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:47.759
Um we still we we still collect leads from those events, but I should say the the most valuable leads are the ones where we're actually having a conversation.
00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:52.560
Um, they also honestly don't convert very well very well.
00:04:52.720 --> 00:04:52.879
No.
00:04:53.040 --> 00:04:57.360
So our main focus on those events is actually to be top of mind for people, right?
00:04:58.639 --> 00:05:09.120
Well, what we see from a consulting perspective is that you're not gonna be replacing your existing consulting partner unless they really screw up.
00:05:09.279 --> 00:05:09.439
No.
00:05:09.839 --> 00:05:12.000
As in as in big time screw up, right?
00:05:12.079 --> 00:05:12.399
Yeah, yeah.
00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:16.480
You can make mistakes and but it's it doesn't mean that you're gonna be replaced, right?
00:05:17.279 --> 00:05:29.839
And then the other big reason for changing your implementation partner or considering changing your or adding an implementation partner is when you are buying a new license for Adobe.
00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:30.319
Yeah.
00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:31.040
Right.
00:05:31.199 --> 00:05:35.439
And in those two scenarios is when we want to be top of mind.
00:05:35.759 --> 00:05:36.560
Exactly.
00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:45.920
Because when people are going to an event, they're not there to replace their implementation partner or not just implementation, but but consulting partner, right?
00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:51.680
Um and there really needs to be a really good reason if if they want to do that, right?
00:05:51.759 --> 00:06:00.560
So main purpose for us is making sure that they are aware of who are crees and understand that we are a specialist consultancy only doing Adobe.
00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:03.759
Yeah, and hopefully when it's relevant, they will reach out.
00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:04.800
Yeah, exactly.
00:06:04.959 --> 00:06:06.399
And that that's also what we see.
00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:10.319
Uh it's not about counting scans, it's about qualifying presence.
00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:17.759
Uh and I mean, like if they're not there to look for a new partner, but some are in the situation where they are looking for a new partner.
00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:18.000
Yeah.
00:06:18.160 --> 00:06:34.720
So it becomes a split role where we need to be top of mind, but we also need to make sure that those conversations that actually has quality and has uh not quality, that's the wrong term, but has like follow-ups, next steps that we use our time doing that, right?
00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:38.959
Um are you familiar with the day one list concept?
00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:40.160
Day one list?
00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:41.040
Day one list.
00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:41.360
No.
00:06:42.639 --> 00:06:50.959
So it it might be one of the big BCG or McKinsey or or I can't remember whether it was LinkedIn who who came up with the concept.
00:06:51.120 --> 00:07:00.639
But yeah, the idea is that you if somebody asks you about a service, you can think of maybe three for that specific service.
00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:14.079
And even if I add two or three more to your list, then I think it's 80-85% of people will still pick one of the services or vendors that they had on their own list.
00:07:14.240 --> 00:07:14.560
Yeah.
00:07:14.879 --> 00:07:15.279
Right?
00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:18.959
So our focus is being on the day one list.
00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:19.199
Yeah.
00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:19.519
Right.
00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:20.079
Yeah.
00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:29.360
Um and then at the same time, there's also this concept that only 5% of your total target group is in the market for your service right now.
00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:30.160
Yes.
00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:42.800
And I think if you go to an event and you get 300 leads, and the majority of them is uh looking for swag, you know, it's you're gonna be lucky if you're gonna be hitting those five percent.
00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:43.600
Exactly.
00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:48.959
And that that that calls for like cool handouts and all these things that we're not counting.
00:07:49.040 --> 00:07:53.199
Yeah, but I think that there's a enough reason that we need to be top of mind.
00:07:53.279 --> 00:07:54.480
I fully agree with that.
00:07:54.639 --> 00:07:57.920
But when we talk about ROI, it's about those five percent.
00:07:58.079 --> 00:08:01.759
Yeah, it's about how do we get a conversation with those five percent.
00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:10.319
And I think like the first thing rule for us is that events are uh pipeline attribution.
00:08:10.399 --> 00:08:14.240
Like we need to just attribute the conversation and the things that we did on this event.
00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:16.800
The ROI lies in the follow-up.
00:08:17.600 --> 00:08:23.519
So out of those that we have conversations with, and we do like we know we're gonna have a lot of conversations that are not relevant now, but that's top of mind.
00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:46.320
But the 5% that's in the market for that, the follow-up is crucial within 48 hours that we follow up, that we have these conversations, yeah, because that's where we both can attribute it back to the event conversation, and we know all sales efforts, all marketing efforts, like there will be touches upon every deal, everything we do from event ROI from multiple sites and multiple attributions.
00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:59.279
So just getting that conversation marked in and having the ability to follow up on what's relevant, not following up on everyone, because we all die after events with the like follow-ups that no one needs, right?
00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:02.000
Yeah, so it's a conversation, and staring, picking up the phone.
00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:03.759
Hey, we had this company, where are you at?
00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:12.159
Like instead of thinking that marketing is the one too many, because in these cases it's the 5% that needs that that attention in.
00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:13.360
So that that's what we see.
00:09:13.440 --> 00:09:18.799
The pre uh sorry, post-event follow-ups is where the RI is, not in the event.
00:09:19.360 --> 00:09:24.720
Um and to be honest, I think this opens the next level of this.
00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:30.799
Um, you could say where the adults step in, which is expectation handling.
00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:33.039
Yeah, how do we do upper management?
00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:41.840
Uh ensure that expectations are set around this, because they would they will want to see what we have of data that that backs this.
00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:42.480
Yeah.
00:09:42.720 --> 00:09:48.080
And and oftentimes the KPI being reported is the number of leads come coming in, right?
00:09:48.159 --> 00:09:51.360
The number of scans, the number of batches being scanned.
00:09:51.600 --> 00:09:51.919
It is.
00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:52.639
Right.
00:09:53.039 --> 00:09:58.320
Which is which just generates a horrible conversion rate further down the funnel, right?
00:09:58.559 --> 00:10:02.080
For me, that's the KPI for how much I'm gonna chase my tail when I come back.
00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:02.480
Yeah.
00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:06.399
I want as high as a number as possible, but I know it's the conversations.
00:10:06.720 --> 00:10:08.240
So we started measuring differently.
00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:13.200
Started measuring the conversations, setting goals around the conversations that we need.
00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:17.360
If we have a booth, then obviously we want to want to do this thing.
00:10:17.440 --> 00:10:21.039
But I'm not interested in getting a lot of scans for handing out tote bags or cool stickers.
00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:21.519
No.
00:10:21.759 --> 00:10:23.360
I want people to have it, that's great.
00:10:23.519 --> 00:10:30.559
Yeah, but the conversation that we can actually follow up on, where we can show more, where we can share knowledge around these things, we want to track those.
00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:36.720
So having early, and this is is a no-no for for many, and it has been for me early on on as well.
00:10:36.879 --> 00:10:40.720
But having a pipeline stage that's quality uh opportunity identified.
00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:43.919
So we had this conversation, there might be something.
00:10:44.159 --> 00:10:50.159
Everything in this uh stage from an event needs to be followed up within 80-48 hours when we come back.
00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:52.320
We need to pick up the phone, we need to have these conversations.
00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:54.559
And if there's nothing there, that's okay.
00:10:54.720 --> 00:11:03.279
But that's where we're gonna get the ROI because honestly, we don't need more than a couple deals from an event, and then this more than justifies the cost of this.
00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:10.559
Yeah, so having the adult conversation with our management saying, hey, dear board, this is what you can expect.
00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:17.279
These you can see here, like top funnel things are the conversations that we have that we find relevant, where there's an interesting thing.
00:11:17.519 --> 00:11:30.320
Measure us on how we get these into become actual meetings, and then we can start talking about ROI, we can start talking about pipeline because most deals in B2B happens on a nine to twelve month scale.
00:11:30.399 --> 00:11:42.960
Yeah, so like in many cases, again, with the short-term measuring of a long-term attribution, we want it within the same year because when we close the year, it might be attributed back, but like we like it often events.
00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:49.759
Often, in my experience, comes down to like we should events this year should attribute next year, but often it doesn't.
00:11:50.080 --> 00:11:52.559
Most we speak to it doesn't do that, right?
00:11:53.039 --> 00:11:59.440
Um, and we've been we've been changing things.
00:11:59.519 --> 00:12:01.600
So, like, how can we get the data around this?
00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:22.159
Like uh track QR scans, all these things that actually creates interest for for many things have have been able that we can link the conversations that we have to these QR scans, to all these things, but not at scale, not for getting a cloth or a tote back, but but but with interest, we can we can we can track people's efforts in this.
00:12:22.320 --> 00:12:26.000
Because what we see, I actually wrote down three things here.
00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:33.279
Like events are pipeline acceleration channels, relationship uh density plays, and high cost, high impact touch points.
00:12:33.440 --> 00:12:47.440
And that's what I like all the leads that we get that really is this is like also customers bringing relevant conversations to the booth, having relevant conversations with a with a timeline, having someone who sees a tool that they want to implement.
00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:52.879
Um it's not a lead-jet machine, which is treated like in in most cases.
00:12:53.039 --> 00:12:53.679
Yeah.
00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:58.399
So uh how are you practically handling this, right?
00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:03.039
When when like when you have a booth, as an example, at Summit where you scan badges.
00:13:03.279 --> 00:13:11.279
So are you asking people to take notes on where there's the the good conversation so that you can you can mark them in your CRM?
00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:14.639
Or yeah, we did all this, but it didn't work.
00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:20.960
So you you did all of this and it the the scan the badges and taking notes and it didn't work.
00:13:21.600 --> 00:13:26.720
It's like honestly, it's the same like we do at Data Foundations in marketing.
00:13:27.919 --> 00:13:37.759
We can easily solve this with a spreadsheet, we can easily set it up, but it doesn't work because it's not complete, it's not validated, we don't have like the strategy needs for us need to pivot, and we did this.
00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:42.080
Um, so we have three things that we do to ensure our eye.
00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:47.039
It doesn't ensure the RI, but it ensures that we can measure the RI and we can focus our efforts around it.
00:13:47.679 --> 00:13:58.480
Um pre-event planning, yeah, very, very strict um structure around uh what are the target accounts that we want to talk to.
00:13:58.639 --> 00:13:59.279
Yeah.
00:13:59.840 --> 00:14:11.039
Um we need to align sales and marketing on meetings so everyone understands that we back the same cases and we have the same follow-up because there's nothing worse than chasing meetings ahead of an event.
00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:19.919
Yeah, but being aware of who we need to talk to and being able to kind of show them that we're there and kind of have the topics in mind makes the conversations way easier.
00:14:20.080 --> 00:14:27.039
Yeah, it's not like hey, you saw this, but it's more like that we actually, as you say, top of mind when we have the conversation.
00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:27.360
Yeah.
00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:35.440
So it's not top of mind for when the deal occurs, but it's top of mind for when we have these conversations, which makes it very easy to qualify or dequalify, to be honest.
00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:38.159
So you so you try and book meetings up front?
00:14:38.399 --> 00:14:41.039
Yeah, we tried, but again, we are chasing our tails.
00:14:41.120 --> 00:14:47.519
So we actually we're moving we we reach out, but we are trying way more to do a strategic marketing effort around it.
00:14:47.679 --> 00:14:57.200
Okay, so when we know who are going and what brands and who are interesting, who we actually can bring something to the table, yeah, then we can expose them to things in our marketing setup that makes this.
00:14:57.360 --> 00:14:59.200
We can connect with them and we can have the conversation.
00:14:59.519 --> 00:15:03.759
So, how does that how does that look in in reality?
00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:21.120
I mean, because uh we've been trying to book meetings up front as well, and even if we get some books in uh or some some meetings booked, typically there's uh more interesting stuff happening on the day, and then you get cancelled and other things are being prioritized, right?
00:15:21.919 --> 00:15:28.320
So I'm at this year, we did an event together, yeah, which were a big success because we changed the approach.
00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:29.120
Yeah.
00:15:29.440 --> 00:15:57.360
Previous years we've been inviting all our customers, and it has worked sometimes, but but like being a Nordic uh brand uh that is crucial to the setup, but but small, like we're never gonna compete against Adobe global team inviting our customers to an event or like all the massive brands that are there, even team events, because in in this day and age, like most teams are scattered across the world or in the US across states.
00:15:57.519 --> 00:16:01.600
So when they get together at an event, the evenings is a chance to get together and talk about that.
00:16:01.919 --> 00:16:02.080
Absolutely.
00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:24.000
Yeah, so so what we did this year are just getting people together and making sure that they they could come, but it was not only customers, it were not only these uh leads, it was not only a conversation, but it was people who are interested in in the topics that we were about doing, and it's so much more interesting, and there's so much more to follow up afterwards because the conversations easily flow in the yeah.
00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:26.799
Uh so like the pre-event planning is super important to us.
00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:30.240
Now we went into the second, which is structured tracking.
00:16:30.559 --> 00:16:32.159
That's super important to us.
00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:50.480
Uh, consistent campaign tracking, so we actually know what works when we when we influence uh these things, and then CRM discipline, which I think is the main challenge because uh events often become marketing, but we are like every day track all your conversations that's relevant.
00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:56.960
Yeah, you have a thousand conversations, you don't, but the conversations that you have, there are a lot that's not relevant.
00:16:57.120 --> 00:16:57.840
Yeah, that's great.
00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:01.840
Connect with them on LinkedIn, like say hi, but be friendly, have the conversation.
00:17:02.080 --> 00:17:10.240
Don't think that it's it's ROI, or it's like take the conversations that actually has a relevant follow-up and get them into CRM.
00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:13.519
So we actually have a list that we know that we can follow up.
00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:19.279
That's crucial to sales teams and for marketing efforts to go into sales teams that we actually know this.
00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:26.000
Um, most teams like this, like and we did previously as well, but that's something that we really focused on for the event.
00:17:26.079 --> 00:17:26.160
Yeah.
00:17:26.319 --> 00:17:31.039
So when every day, like tomorrow, I don't recall what it what conversations I had yesterday.
00:17:31.200 --> 00:17:34.000
No, because it's such uh insane.
00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:36.480
Yeah, yeah, there's so many things happening, right?
00:17:36.640 --> 00:17:37.279
Yeah, yeah.
00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:45.839
Uh, and then the last thing is the post-event workflows, as I said, like that we have immediate follow-up sequences and personal follow-up sequences.
00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:52.720
These are conversations, these are like who do we get recommended to talk to, who uh did we talk to that we need to follow up, yeah.
00:17:52.960 --> 00:17:55.119
Uh, and clear ownership.
00:17:55.519 --> 00:17:57.839
Who owns the conversation and these things?
00:17:57.920 --> 00:17:58.240
Yeah.
00:17:58.720 --> 00:18:11.839
So now we're setting up uh goals for um now we're setting up goals for the conversations, we're setting goals up for the follow-ups and and how we move it, move it into pipeline, which has been a game changer for us.
00:18:11.920 --> 00:18:12.079
Okay.
00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:22.799
Are we still doing all the event things with with cool swag, with with uh noise, and with all yes, of course we are running clubs, whatever we get around it.
00:18:23.200 --> 00:18:31.039
But to be honest, in many cases when we start looking at that, and I'm absolutely not arguing against being a sponsor at an event because we are like tomorrow.
00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:34.000
We are going to to London to be a sponsor at an event.
00:18:34.079 --> 00:18:40.000
Yeah, I still see this working, but like when it comes to ROI and we have the ROI data, we can start to measure this up.
00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:43.680
Is it worth the cost of what we think we can generate from these things?
00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:47.039
Not from lead scans, but from these conversations from what we bring forward.
00:18:47.279 --> 00:18:53.920
And it's so much easier for me, to be honest, to to justify the events and to show the impact for both sales and marketing in this.
00:18:54.079 --> 00:19:07.920
Yeah, um, because I don't I was just about to say, I feel like conversations are easier in an informal surrounding than when you're uh standing in a booth, right?
00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:14.079
We've been doing a few events where we've been sponsoring for Adobe events, right?
00:19:14.160 --> 00:19:14.559
Uh huh.
00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:16.799
Um and there's been no one.
00:19:17.440 --> 00:19:19.680
Uh it's it's been local events, right?
00:19:19.759 --> 00:19:22.000
So it's not like a summit or anything like that, right?
00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:28.000
But for the local events, nobody is is coming over to a booth to unless they're recommended.
00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:30.880
Hey, we have this problem, or you should go talk to them, right?
00:19:31.359 --> 00:19:45.920
Um but but like the event we had in in Vegas, uh, I think it's probably the the best conversations that we've had with uh customers and and prospects in in a long time, right?
00:19:46.240 --> 00:19:53.440
We've never had so many relevant conversations coming back from an event that than we did at Adobe Subitition.
00:19:53.519 --> 00:19:54.160
Yeah, okay.
00:19:54.400 --> 00:19:55.599
Because we stopped selling.
00:19:55.759 --> 00:19:56.079
Yeah.
00:19:56.319 --> 00:19:57.119
To be honest.
00:19:57.279 --> 00:19:57.599
Yeah.
00:19:58.079 --> 00:20:00.160
No one is interesting in interested in that.
00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:03.839
We're there to solve problems, we're there to talk about what can be done.
00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:04.160
Yeah.
00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:10.319
And to be honest, I don't think most companies have an RI problem around events.
00:20:10.559 --> 00:20:13.359
We have a data structure problem around it.
00:20:13.519 --> 00:20:17.599
And I know I'm talking about data structure always, but we do.
00:20:17.920 --> 00:20:36.160
And we did as well, because we were not able to to quantify uh qualify the right conversations from the rest, which means that we spent all our time following up on everyone, yeah, and we spend less time following up on those who actually had a conversation that that that made sense and value to them.
00:20:36.400 --> 00:20:36.880
Yeah.
00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:55.599
So so, in other words, you've you've skipped all the uh scan badges and and getting 300 leads and trying to follow up on those, and focusing on conversations that's not about selling, taking note of those conversations and then following up on those post-event.
00:20:55.759 --> 00:20:56.079
Yeah.
00:20:56.240 --> 00:20:56.559
Yeah.
00:20:56.799 --> 00:20:59.279
People are not there to get sold to, right?
00:20:59.359 --> 00:20:59.599
No.
00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:01.839
They come to a booth because they're curious, yeah.
00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:13.680
They probably have something that resonates with them in a problem, or like, and to be honest, our our main conversations right now is marketing scrutiny because it most don't have the data foundation to do that.
00:21:14.319 --> 00:21:19.200
So when we ask them, like, before it's been like data governance, let's talk about data governance.
00:21:19.359 --> 00:21:24.000
No one wants to talk about data governance because it's like, yeah, it's so easy to de-prioritize.
00:21:24.079 --> 00:21:24.240
Yeah.
00:21:24.400 --> 00:21:28.559
When we talk about like how many spreadsheets do you use to track your marketing efforts?
00:21:29.599 --> 00:21:31.039
That's something that everyone does.
00:21:31.440 --> 00:21:32.400
Like, does it work?
00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:32.960
No.
00:21:33.279 --> 00:21:35.359
Do you have a challenge with marketing scrutiny right now?
00:21:35.519 --> 00:21:36.559
Yes, everyone does.
00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:36.960
Yeah.
00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:46.559
Because we need to justify the justifying modern marketing is harder than ever because we are so used to optimizing in in channels and silos.
00:21:46.799 --> 00:21:54.480
Um, so that's a that's a good conversation, and to be honest, on us, it's it's a much more interesting conversation than having to pitch.
00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:59.759
Yeah, okay, give me the pitch on what Acutix does, and it's like the elevator pitch, and it's but it's great, but it's not.
00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:04.559
It's not the value, it's not like as marketers, that's not what we want, that's not what we're looking for.
00:22:04.880 --> 00:22:10.079
We have a problem that we're looking to solve, or we want to know what problem we should be aware of solving tomorrow.
00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:16.640
When we want AI, when we want all these things, what are the things that that others make others succeed in this?
00:22:16.799 --> 00:22:22.240
Um so what what are you changing for uh you're going you mentioned you're going to London tomorrow.
00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:22.720
Yeah.
00:22:23.119 --> 00:22:26.960
So what are you what are you doing for the event in London?
00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:34.000
The event uh we are uh well we say like when we have a booth, we want to be on on stage.
00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:47.200
Because so uh I have a presentation on stage which is absolutely not about acutex, but which is about how our customers are solving the data structure for AI for everything that they want to do marketing to prove the value.
00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:54.799
Because 80%, we did this episode, 80% of CEOs doesn't trust um marketing to do objective commercial thinking.
00:22:55.039 --> 00:23:02.640
So showing the frameworks that our customers are using to solve this, not like teach you, t shoe, ts you, come get it, you need to sign up.
00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:04.160
No, yeah, here it is.
00:23:04.319 --> 00:23:06.960
Yeah, we're gonna give you it on stage and show you that.
00:23:07.119 --> 00:23:13.119
Then we have the booth, we're gonna like we've been doing a lot of swag, and I've a lot of good swag.
00:23:13.359 --> 00:23:19.599
So we have a lot of good swag uh that we're gonna bring um so so people get that, but to have the conversations.
00:23:19.759 --> 00:23:21.519
They can have the swag, they can do all these things.
00:23:21.599 --> 00:23:24.640
Yeah, but as soon as we have the conversations, it's gonna be registered.
00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:28.480
Yeah, so we're gonna note it down and we're gonna talk about the follow-up.
00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:31.519
Like, how can we what can we how can we get you on with this?
00:23:31.599 --> 00:23:35.599
Yeah, and in many cases it's having a strategic marketing conversation.
00:23:35.759 --> 00:23:41.039
The next step is like let's qualify this technically, let's look at the nitty-gritty, what it takes to do these things as well.
00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:43.119
So, have you stopped scanning badges?
00:23:43.359 --> 00:23:44.720
Yeah, okay.
00:23:44.880 --> 00:23:46.640
So that's that's not a focus anymore.
00:23:46.799 --> 00:23:48.880
No, no, it's it's distortion, yeah.
00:23:49.039 --> 00:23:50.160
It takes up all our time.
00:23:50.240 --> 00:23:51.519
We're not the biggest team in the world.
00:23:51.599 --> 00:23:54.799
So, like, I want us to follow up on the things that that makes sense.
00:23:54.880 --> 00:24:03.359
Yeah, we'll scan the badges, that makes sense, but not in an event lead scanner that will go into a spreadsheet that will no no no, we'll get it directly into CRM.
00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:08.240
So now we did all the pre-event uh warm-up and all these things.
00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:16.880
Now we're gonna register all the conversations that we can follow up on that makes sense and where there's a mutual consent that this is what's what's gonna happen.
00:24:17.119 --> 00:24:20.319
And as I mentioned, we just did this in in Las Vegas.
00:24:20.880 --> 00:24:24.559
Now, lead list had never been more relevant and longer than it is today.
00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:32.880
Yeah, the amount of scan leads, I guess it's it's shorter, but it's uh uh way higher quality of leads, right?
00:24:33.039 --> 00:24:36.559
It's way shorter, it has an actual conversation around everything that's going on.
00:24:36.640 --> 00:24:46.400
Yeah, that has a next step that now needs to many of them are actually already meetings, yeah, but but that the rest needs to be meetings, and then we're building a pipeline.
00:24:46.559 --> 00:24:47.279
Yeah, nice.
00:24:47.519 --> 00:24:52.640
So um, so I like that, and I like that approach, and that's how I would like to be approached myself.
00:24:52.720 --> 00:24:57.599
Yeah, and I'm only saying it because we've been doing the other thing for way too long.
00:24:57.759 --> 00:25:02.799
Yeah, I mean, so uh I love good I love swag in general, right?
00:25:02.960 --> 00:25:07.119
So I'm I'm I'm I'm the one who buys an extra suitcase for the swag.
00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:13.519
Um and I only have my my badge scanned in order to get this way, right?
00:25:14.319 --> 00:25:17.440
Uh the crazy thing is, like, was it last year?
00:25:17.680 --> 00:25:23.759
I actually approached the booth because I was interested in their service and they didn't want it to talk to me.
00:25:24.400 --> 00:25:24.799
Right.
00:25:25.039 --> 00:25:38.799
So um, which which I find mind-blowing because I was standing and I was asking questions that was really really relevant, and it was not to fake an interest to get the swag or anything like that.
00:25:39.440 --> 00:25:40.960
They know your needs better than you do.
00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:42.720
Right.
00:25:42.880 --> 00:25:51.920
So um, and and eventually I just I just I just gave up because I I couldn't get I couldn't get a conversation started that I actually needed, right?
00:25:52.079 --> 00:25:53.759
Yeah, that's absolutely insane.
00:25:54.079 --> 00:26:00.079
Um and an investment that we've been doing over the past uh few years uh has been uh glowing glasses.
00:26:00.160 --> 00:26:10.880
So we have LED glasses, and what we see like it's great, you can hand out a thousand at the booth because people like swag that people want to bring back to their kids is good swag.
00:26:11.200 --> 00:26:13.359
Like I can just like that that will create a tension.
00:26:13.440 --> 00:26:16.799
Yeah, uh that's a that's a that's a fantastic tip.
00:26:17.279 --> 00:26:20.000
Swag that people want to bring home for the children.
00:26:20.160 --> 00:26:22.720
I've never thought of that, but uh that's what I do as well.
00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:23.119
Yeah, right.
00:26:23.359 --> 00:26:24.000
That's what you do.
00:26:24.160 --> 00:26:33.759
There was a baseball in Vegas, you could get uh laser, you know, put your name on for a laser, and I I brought one for each of my boys with their name on, right?
00:26:33.839 --> 00:26:34.480
Yeah, yeah.
00:26:34.720 --> 00:26:37.839
I had a picture taken with the Premier League trophy for my son.
00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:38.319
Yeah.
00:26:38.559 --> 00:26:39.759
Who's a big Arsenal fan?
00:26:39.839 --> 00:26:41.920
He was like, uh, should I bring this back to North London?
00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:43.200
He was like, Yes, please.
00:26:44.160 --> 00:26:45.759
But that's that's the case.
00:26:45.839 --> 00:26:46.079
Yeah.
00:26:46.240 --> 00:26:51.200
Um, but with these glasses, we we brought them and we handed it out at the booth and we scanned a lot of people.
00:26:51.759 --> 00:26:56.799
So after a few years, what what we changed is that we printed actually a QR on the side.
00:26:56.960 --> 00:26:59.119
So if you're interested, where do these glasses come from?
00:26:59.279 --> 00:27:02.160
Well, then you'll go and then you can find more.
00:27:02.640 --> 00:27:10.640
But what we're seeing is that we started instead of handing them out during daytime, we brought them to the bash or to the son of event.
00:27:10.880 --> 00:27:23.680
Yeah, because then people will talk about them and they will come up to you, and they it creates attention in a completely different way, and they will still bring them back to their kids because they they want to do that.
00:27:23.920 --> 00:27:33.920
Um so what happened this year at Summit, which was the third or fourth fourth year that actually it was the third year because uh we found these glasses.
00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:37.200
Uh someone brought them for my 40th birthday, yeah.
00:27:37.440 --> 00:27:40.559
And we were just like, this is genius, because everyone was like, Wow, yeah.
00:27:40.960 --> 00:27:47.759
Um, but at the bash, we had a lot of of these things, and they um people started coming up to us.
00:27:47.839 --> 00:27:56.079
And what changed this year was like, hey, you're the uh cutex guys, they know because they blew glasses, like they know that the glasses is connected to us.
00:27:56.240 --> 00:28:00.160
Yeah, but what we haven't tried before is like people hoarding up around us.
00:28:00.319 --> 00:28:07.279
Like at some point we had 20-25 people standing around, like just give us the glasses, which was like insane.
00:28:07.359 --> 00:28:13.119
But because this is like again when we talk events and long term, yeah, this is the long-term effort that starts working.
00:28:13.440 --> 00:28:17.759
People want them not only because they want lighting glasses, but they actually wanted the conversations.
00:28:17.920 --> 00:28:28.319
So, what we had is like people, a lot of people coming up and saying, like, this is genius, this is, and it was not about the the glasses because we've had them, but but it's the setting that we brought them to life in.
00:28:28.799 --> 00:28:34.240
And we actually had more badge scan, what badge scans at that event that we had anywhere.
00:28:34.319 --> 00:28:46.400
Like pictures because people like we have this, but we need to talk about this, like this is actually um, and then at some point, obviously, we need to say, hey, why should we give you this because they went so fast, yeah?
00:28:46.559 --> 00:28:55.039
But but uh like we booked a lot of meetings that night from from from that effort, so just flipping it, I think sometimes, and then it's about the follow-up again, right?
00:28:55.279 --> 00:29:01.200
Because event RI is from setting the strategy as we talked about and doing the proper follow-up.
00:29:01.440 --> 00:29:03.440
Uh, and now we have something to talk about.
00:29:03.599 --> 00:29:07.119
Uh, did we hand out glasses that were only people who wanted glasses?
00:29:07.279 --> 00:29:09.119
Yes, of course we did.
00:29:09.279 --> 00:29:20.640
Yeah, but we but we suddenly have a few fixed points in our data, in our conversations, in the CRM and in how we track and engage, where we're both top of mind and we can measure this ROI.
00:29:20.880 --> 00:29:24.400
Yeah, so I recommend everyone like just trying to evaluate this.
00:29:24.559 --> 00:29:27.119
And I'm not I didn't wake up one morning.
00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:37.200
It's like it's we wasted a lot of time and money doing a lot of these things uh to get where we're at, and seen a lot of pressure on like how should what should we do it?
00:29:37.279 --> 00:29:47.200
Yeah, because I was one second away from investing in a booth like this year again, but decided to like oh let's let's stick with the strategy, let's try it.
00:29:47.680 --> 00:29:54.160
Um and then it becomes a conversation about like how expensive is it to get on stage and have a booth.
00:29:54.240 --> 00:30:06.079
Yeah, then I will start segmenting events because I know if we have a booth, we need to to bring like why we have a booth to the stage and talking about what you can get from thinking things a bit differently, yeah.
00:30:06.319 --> 00:30:07.920
And that's the problem with most events.
00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:16.160
That that's a different episode, but like it's too expensive, simply too expensive to go and and somebody has to fund uh fund the event, right?
00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:16.799
Yeah, man.
00:30:16.960 --> 00:30:24.079
I think that's fair, but it's too expensive not because of the price, but because of the switch or the the trait of having the booth.
00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:34.480
Yeah, the ROI is simply not good enough, and then we can talk about as brands, we need to do all these things, but I think as event uh planners and and setup, you have a responsibility in this.
00:30:34.559 --> 00:30:47.039
Like it's not only that you have an event that attracts a lot of people, that's the influencer thing, yeah, but you actually need to do something for the brands because many brands are not happy with the return they see from from the booth, yeah.
00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:51.200
So uh so with that of wrap-up.
00:30:51.759 --> 00:30:52.799
Yeah, sorry, sorry.
00:30:53.599 --> 00:30:54.640
It's a passionate topic.
00:30:54.720 --> 00:30:55.759
I love this topic.
00:30:56.000 --> 00:31:01.759
Uh what would be if you were to summarize in um in three three bullet points?
00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:08.799
Yeah, have the dull conversation with with uh with where you need to justify this and say, hey, what are the expectations?
00:31:08.880 --> 00:31:14.480
This is a long-term investment, yeah, both over years, but also what we do here, and then the three steps.
00:31:14.640 --> 00:31:22.319
Make sure that that that you uh plan correctly, that we can actually uh engage the right people beforehand, not pre-booking meetings.
00:31:22.559 --> 00:31:23.759
If you can do that, great.
00:31:23.920 --> 00:31:24.960
By all means do that.
00:31:25.039 --> 00:31:29.359
Yeah, we are in B2B, we are having a hard time, like they're not there to have that meeting.
00:31:29.519 --> 00:31:31.680
So we can so what are you doing instead?
00:31:31.920 --> 00:31:34.799
Just exposing our brand and saying we are here and what we're doing.
00:31:34.960 --> 00:31:46.079
So connecting on LinkedIn from a sales point of view, from a marketing point of view, knowing which brands we want to engage with, and then exposing them to they've seen acute when we come up with the conversation.
00:31:46.240 --> 00:31:46.559
Yeah.
00:31:47.119 --> 00:31:57.039
On events, that we make sure that we track all the data, so we get the right people in, and that we get the follow-ups and the knowledge that we need in our CRM and our marketing automation.
00:31:57.359 --> 00:31:59.119
And then lastly, follow up.
00:31:59.279 --> 00:32:04.000
That we follow up these things within 48 hours is the magic window for us.
00:32:04.319 --> 00:32:08.720
Obviously, something is gonna go slower, but that's that's our aim.
00:32:08.960 --> 00:32:13.440
Get them on the phone to different like these conversations that we're following up, it's not bad scans.
00:32:13.599 --> 00:32:16.240
So those three things have been a game changer for us.
00:32:16.480 --> 00:32:17.039
Game changer.
00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:23.839
I'd love to hear anyone out there like what you're doing, and if you see like think other things working, because I think this is a conversation that we should have.
00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:24.400
Yeah.
00:32:24.640 --> 00:32:25.599
Last last question.
00:32:25.759 --> 00:32:36.240
When you follow up, do you pass it over to sales, or is it the person who's been having the conversation who actually uh follows up with the um like um sales have the conversations there?
00:32:36.319 --> 00:32:40.799
Okay so if there's someone outside sales, we we will follow it up like from sales.
00:32:40.880 --> 00:32:47.039
But I think it's it's super important when it's conversations that it's the person who had the conversations, a conversation that follows up.
00:32:47.519 --> 00:32:53.440
This is not a sales motion, this is just clarifying if we can help each other achieve what we are trying to do.
00:32:53.519 --> 00:32:57.200
Yeah, but at some point we need to take it out of marketing's hands and give it into sales hands.
00:32:57.359 --> 00:33:01.119
So, my interest is getting sales into the conversation as fast as possible.
00:33:01.599 --> 00:33:03.519
And this is an entirely different episode as well.
00:33:03.599 --> 00:33:04.720
But like, how do we sell?
00:33:04.799 --> 00:33:14.079
Yeah, like we're not pitching, we're not trying to get you to buy something, like yeah, challenge your sales and and and looking into like what what can we solve?
00:33:14.160 --> 00:33:16.960
What are the challenges that we see and how how can we support this?
00:33:17.839 --> 00:33:18.480
Cool.
00:33:19.039 --> 00:33:20.000
Thanks, Caspar.
00:33:20.319 --> 00:33:20.880
Thank you.
00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:26.880
Um and then uh and and best of luck um in London for your uh next event.
00:33:27.119 --> 00:33:27.359
Thank you.
00:33:27.519 --> 00:33:29.680
I I'm planning the space event, we should do that together.
00:33:29.839 --> 00:33:32.000
Yeah, yeah, I'll bring the helium.
