Why choose between live and virtual? The future of events is hybrid!

When are you planning to go to the cinema next?

Nope – me either. Same goes for getting on a plane or eating in a restaurant, and I have no idea if I’ll ever see the inside of a sweaty, live gig venue again (I’m getting old).

The irony of this, for me, is that my job is creating events for brands. Coming up with innovative, unmissable, engaging experiences where people gather in the same room and get a buzz from being together.

Thank goodness there’s some good news and here it is: events aren’t going away, but we do need to look at them differently. I’m actually really excited about the possibilities.

Yes, for the time being, physical events are off the agenda. But the fact is that even before the current crisis it was apparent that the physical world is coming online. Smart objects, devices and machines have increased our insight into and control of things around us. 

That has meant that people are already used to interacting with, and influencing, their experiences. In turn, organisations understand real-time connection to the physical world and how they can enable their technology, as well as employees, to act and react faster, and more intelligently. 

This led to a situation in which there are two ways to approach live marketing – digital experiences and physical experiences. And that’s been brought into sharp relief by the current crisis.

Right now, virtual events are the only game in town. Hundreds, if not thousands, of projects that were originally planned as physical have gone digital – often with great success. Our own work repurposing Ericsson’s Mobile World Congress plans as an online experience is just one example of how effective this can be.

But as lockdowns ease across the world and Covid cases decline, we are starting to focus on the sweet spot, between physical and digital, that creates what we call live marketing.

It’s a step up from experiential as far as we are concerned. 

Physical events are tactile. They’re about networking, sensory responses, and shared emotional engagement. And, it has to be said, they also involve health and safety considerations. 

Virtual events are accessible. You can take part from anywhere in the world. They can be just as sensory, just as engaging, just as immersive as a physical event - but they’re all about connection through technology and data, not physical proximity.

None of us know when and how the current crisis will end. But when it does, we predict that something like 60% of events will be live experiences, and 40% will be virtual.

This suggests that any business using live marketing will need an event strategy that combines virtual and physical communications. But when it comes to creating virtual events, it’s important to understand audience needs, your story, the design of the event, unfamiliar tech and broadcast challenges, and managing your contributors and performers. Above all, creativity is as vital as ever – possibly more so, because you’re engaging with a remote audience. 

All this requires high levels of agility and audience expertise, combined with an appetite for collaboration. There are encouraging signs on this already. Previously we were in a world of verticals where people were creating their own website, ads and events. But, in the space of a few months, we have seen these departments not just collaborating but enjoying the process. Live event people are learning about the virtual, and are already reaping the rewards of increased global audiences. 

The current switch to virtual is at its peak but it will soon become part of that new way of working in which the physical and virtual events worlds will merge, not clash. We have no choice but to try different things and recognise that audiences are happy for us to give it go - they want to be connected, they don’t want to be locked out. 

With this in mind, the most successful businesses will rethink their live marketing approach to achieve better results through increased awareness, reduced environmental impact, and higher sales.

It’s a new world, yes, with many uncertainties. But it’s also an incredible moment for event marketing to transform what they do and deliver results for their clients that scale new heights. The possibilities for hybrid are endless, let’s embrace them.