The world of communication is changing rapidly. The magic word is social media. No other discipline has had such a lasting effect on the field of marketing. Today, technological developments allow extreme simultaneity of event and communication, as well as the simultaneity of sending a message and receiving an instant response from the recipient. A response that is not only returned to the sender, but also disseminated via social media networks worldwide in a snowball effect.
And because of mobile communication with, for example, smartphones, this happens in nearly every inhabited place in the world. It remains mere speculation what implications this has today and will have in the future for marketing specialists.
This also, or rather in particular, pertains to live communication.
That is why at the beginning of the VOK DAMS study “Hybrid Events – Innovation Trend in Live-Marketing”, we propose the following risqué hypothesis: “In the future, no event will be successful unless it involves social media.”
The study explains why hybrid events are a new dimension of event communication.
VOK DAMS has coined the term hybrid event to describe the combination of live and MoSoLo. MoSoLo stands for Mobile applications, Social media und Location-based services; that is, the entire range of interactive web applications, from apps for smartphones and tablets to web-based guest management tools, the integration of social media platforms, QR codes and augmented reality applications.
Because of their focus on the intensive involvement of participants, hybrid events stand for the paradigm shift from focusing on the event to focusing on the participant – from brand-generated to user-generated event.
A passive visitor becomes an active participant in the communication.
Therefore, ROI does not stand only for Return on Investment anymore, but also for Return on Involvement. The stronger the integration of the event participant, the better the chances of them making a positive decision on purchasing or recommending a product or service.
The study provides answers to four central questions:
- “What are the reasons for the growing importance of social media?”
- “What does the future of social media and events look like?”
- “How are hybrid events implemented?”
- “What effect do social media have on the communication with our target groups?”
The study is not limited to presenting facts and results from theory, but demonstrates how the results can be transferred to events in practice.