More than 12,500 professionals from the event and hospitality industry gathered virtually to commemorate Global Meetings Industry Day (GMID) on Tuesday April 14, 2020 in an attempt to break the record for the largest audience at a live-stream conference.
Participants from 173 countries signed up for the virtual conference, hailing from Canada, USA, Mexico, India, Argentina, the United Kingdom, Philippines, Colombia, Singapore, Kenya, Portugal, Croatia, Malaysia, Brazil, India, Slovakia,Portugal, Costa Rica, and more.
snöball, the event influencer marketing technology behind the scenes, was a key contributor to the overall success of the event, generating 59% of the total attendance and nearly 25,000 event website page views over the span of just two weeks. Rachel Stephan, snöball’s snöballer-in-chief, says that in this time of global change, she knew she could help make a difference in the overall impact of the event. “It was a natural fit to allow the power of snöball to do what it was built to do: drive conversations and conversions by amplifying voices and mobilizing individuals to become brand ambassadors and advocates for the event.”
The grassroots event, planned as an alternative way for event professionals from around the globe to come together and raise the collective voice of the meetings and hospitality community, was spurred into action by Anh Nguyen, Principal and Founder of Spark Event Management. “We leveraged the snöball platform to promote GMID Goes Virtual because we knew we needed to reach a wide audience in a short period of time. In order to attempt the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDSTM title, we needed to sign up 15,000 people in less than two weeks and without the assistance from the snöball team, we would never have accomplished our goal,” Nguyen says. Miguel Neves, Chief Social Strategist at miguelseven.com adds, “In many ways snöball was one of the team members, a hard-working, fast multiplying, great looking and fully functional team member that not only got everyone registered, but also displayed influencers’ photos in an amazing collection of Who’s Who of the global meetings industry on the website. I can’t think of any other platform that could have so perfectly illustrated the unity that the industry needs right now and facilitated the personal connection that we felt was a big part of GMID Goes Virtual.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the meetings and events industry continues to navigate the drastic shift from face-to-face and business-as-usual to virtual meeting solutions. Companies like snöball remind event organizers that word-of-mouth marketing is three times more effective than traditional advertising. “You could not look anywhere on social media without seeing our brand, message and circle of influencers growing. We were able to reach our targets and the message is still being spread after the event thanks to snöball. They’re a true innovator in the events industry and their product will be more important than ever for marketing events in the new landscape,” says Nguyen.
Event influencers can range from popular industry speakers and industry experts, partners, partic
ipants and more. “With the quick transition to virtual events, the timeline and runway to promote your event is so short that you need work with your community to speed up and multiply your reach while keeping your budget tight. Now is the time to work smarter, not harder. Influencer marketing helps you
expand your target audience by strategically putting your event’s influencers at the heart of your event campaigns,” says Stephan.
As the meetings and events industry continues to gather virtually, event organizers will also evolve their marketing and engagement strategies. Stephan says, “Influencer marketing truly is built on the foundation of people-to-people marketing. This type of engagement gives event participants, speakers and sponsors a megaphone to share their passion for the community that they are a part of. Influencer marketing transforms existing conversations into broader, more powerful community movements.” Shawn Cheng, Project Manager of MCI Group agrees that as the event experience changes, conference organizers should adopt powerful, forward-thinking and efficient marketing strategies, stating, “snöball turned our registrants into promotional machines. I think in the post-COVID world, most of the traditional marketing strategies are not going to work. Tools like snöball will soon become essential.”
For additional information regarding snöball Event Influencer Marketing, visit www.snoball.events or contact Rachel Stephan directly at rachel@snoball.events.
Author: Adam Parry
Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.
