Hybrid Events
Innovation trend in live-marketing
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 possibilities allow extreme simultaneity of event and communication, as well as simultaneity of sending a message and receiving a direct 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 can only be conjectures what impact this has today and will have in the future on marketing specialists. Well-trodden paths have to be abandoned; new developments have to be continuously tested for their meaningful use.
This applies to the classic marketing communication as well as to events and live-marketing. Thus, at the beginning of this study, we propose the following risqué hypothesis: “In the future, no event will be successful unless it involves social media.”
This study will explain why these “hybrid events” are a new dimension of event communication. First of all, the hybrid event stands for the combination of social media and event. VOK DAMS has coined the term to describe the integrative – in contrast to the purely additive – interplay of social media and live-marketing. In this context, the term social media is defined broadly. It encompasses not only classic social media platforms (such as Facebook, XING, Twitter, YouTube, etc.), but also all web-based tools that can be used during an event, and that can enable a genuine interaction of the visitor (Apps, QR codes, augmented reality, etc.).
Four central questions have guided us through this study:
1. “What are the reasons for the growing importance of social media?”
2. “What does the future of social media and events look like?”
3. “How are hybrid events implemented?”
4. “What effect do social media have on the communication with our target groups?”
Our study on hybrid events is not restricted to the theoretical presentation of facts and results, but shows how the knowledge gained can be put into practice. Hence, the following pages shall provide information, food for thought and inspiration for your day-to-day work.