“Digital” and “social media” are words we hear ever so often nowadays. Marketeers/clients are spending money on digital campaigns, social media strategies, web apps and the like. Advertising agencies are continuously expanding their digital teams and in many instances we are now seeing digital agencies take the lead in campaigns and in some cases appointed as agency on record.
So the question beckons, in this fast moving digital driven era, does an event management agency still matter?
YES.
While online communications and campaigns provide maximum targeted reach accompanied by a myriad of data, nothing replaces the power of human interaction.
For discussion purposes, lets just take a quick look at product sales road show as the event management spectrum can be very wide and there can be many variables tossed into the mix.
In this part of the world a vast majority of people research online and buy offline. Sure, we would buy extremely low dollar value repeated goods online without much thought, but when it comes to a certain value (value differs from person to person), we would likely want to have touched it or played around with it before deciding on purchase. To sell something, nothing can replace human interaction. The lovely tone of voice from a salesperson, physical gestures, enthusiasm, and immediate knowledgable response coupled with the ability to interact with the product and watch the functions work in real life is a deal closer. Through an on-ground event, a brand is able to engage a consumer on a multi-sensory level, increasing the ability to close a sale. Research has shown that the proven effectiveness of communication is based on 55% body language, 38% tonal, and only 7% through words. Besides watching a video, only through an on-ground event or in-store interaction can we communicate most effectively. Yes transactions for many items are moving online, so event management agencies involved in promotion of products need to incorporate social media and digital connectivity into their on-ground events. Bridging the lines between off and online, allowing consumers to interact with the product in its physical form and connect with the brand online.
vast majority of people research online and buy offline
The event management services cover a wide array of different types of events from MICE to annual dinners and award ceremonies, road shows and launches, conventions and family days to team building and more. To effectively engage and connect internally and externally, an organisation will always need events. These functions cannot be replaced by a digital platform, it can and must however be enhanced with a digital platform. Like all industries, innovate or become irrelevant. Here’s where the good get separated from the great and which agencies are sustainable and which become extinct. We’ll save that for another upcoming post.
As an event management agency headquartered in Malaysia, Pulse Group Asia does include a boutique web and design house called TRIAD, and we frequently work closely with Malaysian digital superstars C27 and TRIBAL .
jwanheah 