06 Cover Feature
September, 2020
Collaborate:
rooted in
live
Martin Fullard talks to
Ben McMahon, founder of
Collaborate, to find out
what goes into running a
successful hybrid event
Words
Martin Fullard
Collaborate is a global brand experience
agency, with a focus on
creating memorable audience connections
through targeted and measured
interactions. The agency has
spent time building its digital offering
and the current climate around
Covid-19 has accelerated the development
of its hybrid and digital events.
Based in the UK, the agency reaches
a global audience via its South Africa
office. Collaborate says it loves having
fun with its clients and everything is
built around a work-life balance. This
has built higher levels of customer
and staff retention and helped
drive creativity and performance.
The agency’s MD, Ben McMahon,
answers our questions.
What are the pillars of a hybrid
event: how would you define it as an
event concept?
The pillars for a successful hybrid
event are the same as a traditional live
experience. It includes the consumer
journey, content with context,
‘brand-in-hand’ moments that give
a lasting affinity, creativity that
drives awareness and engagement,
alongside targeted and measured
outcomes that allow the audience to
continue their journey with the brand.
A hybrid event takes these fundamentals
and pushed them with
an extended digital reach. Hybrid
events are not a short-term answer
to replacing traditional live events.
To be successful, they still require
levels of physical interaction, a live
audience, participation, gamification,
opinion sharing and networking.
Hybrid events are an open book,
as a concept. How should an
event organiser start the process;
what questions should they ask
themselves?
Our hybrid events look at two
key points to start: what is the