We are a society that runs on data. Every tweet, post, like, comment, stream, etc. gets thrown onto the data pile. Every day there are 2.5 quintillion bytes of data generated (a quintillion has 19 digits).

To further clarify how much data we increasingly add to the pile, it is estimated that for every person on earth, 1.7 MB of data are generated every second. In the last two years, 90 percent of the world’s data was created. This stat is especially eye-opening because in the year 2013 it was estimated that 90 percent of the world’s data was created in the preceding two years.

In summary, we are constantly generating a crazy amount of data. For marketers, this means that your business has the opportunity to know your consumers better than ever before. New research collaborates the importance of data in today’s marketing landscape. After surveying more than 650 brand marketing executives from large companies around the world, the researchers discovered that:

• 98 percent of marketers use data to secure their budgets.

• 97 percent of marketers say using data is important when communicating with the C-suite about marketing programs and results.

• 89 percent of marketers use data to make strategic decisions.

In addition, marketers are getting better at using the data they have, and most feel there is still room for improvement.

Data Lies at the Heart of a Well-Designed Live Experience

When designing a live experience, data plays an important role. Actually, “important” is underselling it. Smart utilization of data is absolutely critical to create the kind of immersive events that allow attendees to fully engage with your brand and forget the outside world for a bit.

At the same time, live experiences are an excellent opportunity to acquire more data about your attendees. Events are a loop where data inspires the activations and immersive opportunities, which are then tracked and analyzed to improve future events.

This gets to the heart of the matter. Because, as important as data management is for live experiences, data is still just a tool. Often this gets lost in the push for more and better analytics. The end goal is not more data; the ultimate goal is to acquire a clearer picture of your consumers and a better understanding of how to address their needs.

Trust is Essential

Consumers are increasingly savvy about the value of their data. Even getting an (actual) email address out of an attendee is becoming more and more difficult – unless they trust you. If you have a relationship with your attendees, they are more likely to give up those valuable metrics. But how can you build that relationship with new and first-time attendees?

Start by proving that you will be responsible with the data supplied to you. Have a data management policy in place and be fully transparent with it by making it available on your website so anyone can read it. Next, do not be mercenary with their data, show that you are using it for their interests. If you deliver an event focused on addressing the wants and needs of attendees, they will know that you have their welfare at heart.

Here is how savvy event planners are utilizing data when designing immersive, thoughtful events.

Identify Your Event’s (and Your Attendees’) Specific Goals

What is the overall intent of your event, and what is the purpose of even the smallest aspect of the event? It should always be to address some need of your attendees. The data you have gathered should guarantee that you know and understand the issues that are most important to your crowd.

Every speaker you secure, every activation you create, every step of the event should be done with the purpose to engage. This includes all the steps that led to the event, such as the way you choose to communicate with your audience.

By utilizing the data you have gathered, you will be able to reach into your audience and create an unparalleled level of customization. For example, you can design digital signage to change depending on who is passing by at the time. Or beacon-enabled technology can alert your attendees when something is nearby that matches their interests.

Ensure that These Goals Align Across Your Organization

Often, during the event planning stage, it can feel like you and your marketing team are on your own. But there are several agendas at stake for any live activation. This is why, once you know the motivations of your audience, you need to be sure you understand the motives within your own company. 

Thanks to the data you’ve acquired, you and your marketing team may better understand what drives your customers better than you know the desires of your company’s sales team, even though they are just a few steps away. Companies are busy places, and it’s easy to become focused exclusively on your department’s benchmarks. Getting siloed branches to communicated often seems like an arduous task. Yet, it is one that must be accomplished for an event to be truly successful.

By comprehending the goals of the sales team and what they would like to see from the event, and the ambitions of the C-suite and what they would hope to achieve from the event, you and the marketing team have the best chance to design an experience that appeals to your consumers while nailing your organization’s goals. This will lead to achieving a true ROI – not a big, nebulous concept of ROI. True ROI, which are several, interlink goals that will benefit your entire organization.

Take a Glimpse into Your Crystal Ball with Predictive Analytics

Once you have determined what your attendees want right now, it may be time to establish what they will need in the future. Utilizing predictive analytics can help you ramp up your insights and anticipate your consumers’ needs going forward.

Making use of a predictive analytics platform can help you recognize when a shift in audience data is just a minor anomaly and when it is an actual change in attendee behavior. It can also assist in completing the entire picture of each attendee by filling in any existing gaps in your current data. This way you can be ahead of the competition when a paradigm shift is about to occur and deliver the experiences that your audience wants and needs.

Keep Up with Your Attendees

Ultimately, the goal of any event is to provide an immersive experience that will fulfill your attendees’ expectations while delivering ROI to your organization. To do this, you have to understand what your attendees expect from the event and how achieving that can benefit all levels of your organization. Next, carefully review your data and determine how to put those objectives into action. Then, design your event to achieve your goals. The final step is to evaluate the results of your live event and begin refining and planning the next one.

Utilizing data to create the most immersive experiences possible is essential in today’s competitive marketplace. For more suggestions and assistance, give an Event Architecture expert a call at 972-323-9433 and discover what we can do for you.