It’s a long gone secret that the supremacy of event marketing is higher than ever before. It’s reached way past the $500 billion mark in recent years, and companies shift more and more of their total budget to participate, sponsor and host events worldwide. It’s still a proven way to raise brand awareness, improve customer engagement and generate new leads. In fact, 80% of marketers see event marketing as the most successful marketing approach.
It’s no surprise that Optimove, the relationship marketing hub (and PostFunnel’s parent-company), treats its annual event with such seriousness and care. More than 450 CRM experts and practitioners from leading brands joined ‘Optimove Connect’ – A two-day event held for the fourth year in Tel Aviv.
We sat down with Amit Bivas, Optimove’s CMO, to hear his thoughts about the place such an event has in a company’s marketing strategy and the main takeaways the participants shared about the 2019 customer.
What are the advantages Optimove gains by producing such an event?
“Optimove develops and sells the leading solution for relationship marketing. However, perfecting relationship marketing takes more than technology and service. It requires knowledge. For the past four years with Optimove Connect, we’ve strived to develop the conversation and share the knowledge on how to earn loyalty and foster long-lasting relationships in the new world. This event is an integral part of Optimove’s offering, and a realization of our vision to empower brands to exhibit emotional intelligence in customer communications. The combination of technology and knowledge are key to achieving truly efficient relationship marketing”.
The first day of the event comprised of six different workshops, given by Optimove’s employees, derived from an advanced campaign analytics class to experimenting with a scientific approach to compare CRM tactics. There were two sessions that touched on more ‘creative’ topics, such as personalizing your email marketing and methods to repurpose content. Another session dealt with VIP segmentation methodologies, and another with building the right tech-stack for your business.
The main day featured two keynote lectures: From Boxed.com CMO Jackson Jeyanayagam and Dollar Shave Club’s VP of Member Strategy and Monetization Gloria Synn, both shared their unique takes on the new and smart marketer – consumer 3.0 if you will. Other panels and lectures raised the burning question in the CRM realm these days: How to structure customer centricity business, the importance of loyalty and the rise of subscription-based models. Optimove’s CEO Pini Yakuel shared his thoughts about the innately intelligent marketing concept and the way it shifts into the real world.
How hard is it to find new concepts and ideas to focus around every year?
“Today’s consumer is more advanced and smarter than ever. The only way to earn their long-term loyalty is by delivering and exhibiting smart marketing. Smart marketing is a result of company-wide efforts that affect org structure, technology stacks, HR, marketing strategy, tactics and many more. Only companies that are able to “smarten up” their marketing will be able to win over the competition and build relationships with consumer 3.0”, said Bivas.
And in the end, after all the hard work, it’s just about the smiles and handshakes, thank you emails and feedback from colleagues and guests, as such an event doesn’t really measure cost-per-lead or other ROIs. “This is for smaller events, that we sponsor or participate in”, said Bivas.
Is there a chance this conference will expand to other countries?
“This is something that we have been thinking about for a few years. It’s not an easy ask to travel to Tel Aviv, Israel for a conference. On the other hand, we invest heavily in the content to make sure that the tough travel is worth each and every one of our guests’ while. The Optimove Connect flagship event will likely stay in Tel Aviv for the next few years. That being said, we do host smaller events throughout the year, across the globe. They won’t be as big as Optimove Connect, but they will provide a chance for those who can’t make the journey to Tel Aviv, a small, high-quality sample of the conversations and discussions that take place at our large-scale event”.
Videos of all the sessions and workshops from Optimove Connect will be available on PostFunnel within a few weeks. Enjoy a slice of Optimove Connect from your desktop and stay tuned for the breadcrumbs leading up to Connect 2019.