October 2021
Interview 27
“ WE ’ RE NOW HELPING CLIENTS AND THEIR NEWLY RECRUITED CHIEF PLATFORM OFFICERS TO BRING TOGETHER PREVIOUSLY SILOED DATA AND CUSTOMER TOUCH-POINTS INTO A SINGLE DIGITAL EXPERIENCE HUB .”
Dams asserts that this re-evaluation of what constitutes a virtual or hybrid event will extend into overall marketing strategies as business after business hit the reset button on their entire communication strategies .
He says : “ We ’ re now helping clients and their newly recruited chief platform officers to bring together previously siloed data and customer touch-points into a single digital experience hub so that they can assess what formats and strategy would work to enhance different strategies , such as customer retention , sales leads , marketing automation or internal communications for example .
“ We ’ ve built seven broadcast-ready studios and helped clients to see the marketing sales funnel in a completely different way , through a more digital lens .”
Vok Dams ’ future-facing hybrid events solution is built around an open platform , which allows for a myriad of different apps and plug-ins to meet different requirements and objectives .
“ IBM helped us to create our own bespoke open platform , which allows us to integrate whatever app or social plug-in is required ,” Dams continues . “ It allows for much greater flexibility and automation and we can deliver a greater range of formats .”
Some of the hybrid formats , which Dams believes will play a key role in the blended future of live and online include virtual buddying , whereby individuals in the room link-up with people online to share learnings ; virtual showrooms where online buyers can receive one-to-one detailed product demonstrations or experience how a product is made ; audio-only so that remote workers can listen to content without experiencing screen fatigue ; and co-creation , which sees small groups collaborating through surface technology such as digital whiteboards or holographic table-tops .
“ Planning , marketing and sales teams will require more agility , more collective ownership and more empowerment moving forward ,” Dams says . “ We are in a period of continuous learning where goals , strategy , concepts and content must come first . We ’ ve learned as an industry that crisis management is vital but our digital up-skilling will ensure that all future concepts will have digital back-up plans built-in . And as we re-value and re-appreciate social interaction , brands will learn the limits of digital so that hybrid will mean a better balance between our needs for physical gatherings and what digital technology , data and automation can achieve . It ’ s an exciting future .”