Good morning, Marketer.
While foregoing live events in the wake of COVID-19 means putting a halt to onsite gate revenue, many organizations are taking the opportunity to add value for virtual event attendees and sponsors.
One of the earliest events to be postponed was the highly anticipated PR Week Awards in New York City. Instead of the usual traditional awards fanfare, PR Week had to pivot to a virtual event, slated to go live later this week. Things will be a bit different from the live production – for example, the event planned to honor Michael Phelps for his “It’s OK to not be OK” campaign about mental health awareness. Instead, his participation has been transformed to a more interactive Q&A session to open the awards night, offering attendees the added value of personal engagement.
Music streaming service Pandora is another big name forced to shift gears for its 2020 live concert series, which took place virtually yesterday. Headlined by country artist Kane Brown, the event sought to deliver a rich experience for viewers – if even virtually. From BBQ pre-game recipes to exclusive promotional apparel, Pandora had to strike a balance between giving fans meaningful ways to engage with the event while still “placing advertisers at key consumer touch points before, during and after the events to enable these special connections.”
There’s more below, including a look at Quora’s new lead gen forms for advertisers.
Taylor Peterson,
Deputy Editor
