Virtual Event in Response to Pandemic Challenges
Event: Security & Fire Awards 2020
Our event date was 25 November 2020 at Hilton on Park Lane. As we were contracted with the venue, we had to assume business as usual regarding promoting the Awards and driving and managing the entries.
Key Objectives
Entry to the Awards has always been free. On 23 September 2020 (just 2 months before the event date) we were finally given the expected news from the Hilton that the event could not go ahead, and we found ourselves in the unenviable position of having what turned out to be a record level of entries (excellent news and a fantastic achievement despite the difficulties of the pandemic), but with minimal revenue (from a limited number of repeat sponsors) and of course, no event!
We decided to push forward with the Awards as we wanted to keep the strong and respected Awards brand in the forefront of the industry’s mind, to respect the hard work of our own team that went in to achieving the record number of entries, and mainly, to reward and not to waste the significant efforts of the entrants themselves.
Our aim for the virtual event was to maintain the high brand values of the traditional event, to ensure that ALL the entrants were fairly and independently judged as usual, to offer comparable value to the sponsors already contracted, to drive new revenues and, to put on as entertaining an event as possible, ideally matching the successful events that have taken place previously at the Hilton on Park Lane.
Utilising New Technology
We wanted to encourage networking and socialising both within companies and across the industry. It was important to us that the chosen platform allowed finalists and guests to interact with each other, to have fun and to share the experience.
We decided on the Evessio Awards Room platform. Essentially an interactive chat room, but we liked the functionality that enabled our guests to network, online chat and enjoy the awards, with the ability to make live industry connections. The platform also allowed us to include sponsor / partner logos with links to additional information / company profiles, which added real commercial value as well as looking visually appealing.
We were able to include a silent charity auction within the Awards Room, offering both added value to the guests via exclusive memorabilia, holidays, corporate events etc. as well as much needed donations to our chosen charities.
In addition to the Awards Room and the online chat facility, we also encouraged companies to Zoom / Teams etc live with their colleagues – encouraging them to simultaneously experience both the Awards Room chat environment and, to have a face to face party and celebration with their colleagues / teams / friends.
The main difficulty was explaining the new process to customers that had varying levels of technical understanding. So, we had to ensure that the messaging was simple, concise and regularly reinforced, hand holding throughout and offering a live point of contact from launch, right through to and during the the online Awards.
Marketing Strategy
We pushed the strapline: ‘We may not be able to party together, but we can still party!’ on our literature, to reinforce the message that the virtual awards was going to be a true event, worthy of their time and money.
The main challenge was to drive revenue. Entry was free and we only had a small amount of pre-sold sponsorship. We therefore developed new Finalist and Sponsorship packages, that offered added value and promotion, as well as access to watch the virtual show with unlimited members of their teams. We offered a range of Finalist packages from Bronze though to Platinum. Post the event, we offered packages to the Winners, delivering added value including trophies, certificates, logo, online branding etc.
Successes - Financials, Viewers, Engagement and Feedback
We had to drive new revenue, but it was crucial for the future credibility of the Awards that we respected ALL the free entrants, with the winners selected by the judges on merit only, regardless of whether they were a Platinum sponsor or didn’t purchase any of the available packages.
VIEWERS: We had 1,102 registrations, with 890 (80.8%) guests logging in to watch the show. Over 700 stayed online for the full duration of the Awards, with over 450 staying on for the post show karaoke hour and 300 staying to the bitter end! An incredible registration to viewer conversion rate, especially when taking into account the restrictions caused by the national lockdown, combined with peoples general mood and levels of motivation being very low at a very difficult time. The fact that we kept so many of the audience engaged for so long, is down to the quality of the show as a whole.
During the show, there were just shy of 3,000 individual online communications / chat interactions recorded.
FEEDBACK: 92% rated their Overall Experience as Good to Excellent.
Lessons learned
The main challenge was to produce a profitable, fun and entertaining event that reflected the brand values of the traditional live event. Creating a platform that allowed the Awards to develop and grow online if required, and to ensure continuity, future support and ongoing success in readiness for when the Awards are able to return to Hilton on Park Lane as a traditional live event.
It is of course very difficult to replicate live, face to face networking and entertainment, but we went for it, with very positive results. The disadvantage of an online event is that guests can just switch off – the fact that so many registered, watched and stayed online throughout is testament to a fun packed event, strong and compelling marketing and a well-executed plan.
With any Awards event there are always going to elements that are liked or disliked. The key is to appeal to the vast majority. Perhaps we pushed the 'cheese' a little too much, the karaoke stings were a bit rough around the edges (largely due to technical difficulties and limitations during lockdown). The quality of the Zoom recordings were mixed.
In the future we would look to make the event slicker, cleaner and more polished, learning from this experience and with hopefully a greater lead time.
But while the feedback is positive, we will continue to push the boundaries, to be brave and to be innovative. If guests enjoy themselves then they'll return. If guests return, then sponsors will pay.
Being Brave
Our Awards were different, brave, innovative, a bit cheesy but lots of fun and very well received.
The Awards were pre-recorded to video, to avoid any live technical issues.
To kick off the event, we asked our Finalists to send in a recording of them singing 'Wonderwall' by Oasis with their teams. Results were mixed! but it engaged them from the outset and set the event agenda!
We invested in ITV’s Stephen Mulhern as our host, who Zoomed with our key sponsors performing magic tricks and playing games of CatchPhrase. He was charming, funny, engaging and highly entertaining, interacting with our sponsors and involving the watching virtual audience throughout.
As each winner was announced, we wanted to build the excitement and tension normally felt at a traditional live event, with the same celebration and pomp after each winning name is revealed. At the live events, we have been involving our guests in the actual show using karaoke, both during the winner’s walk-ups and also post show. Just because the event was virtual, we didn’t see any reason not to continue with this very well received method.
So, after Stephen / Sponsor announced each winner, we delivered karaoke stings – claps, cheers and 20 seconds of our show band playing as live karaoke, encouraging the watching audience to sing along at home and with their colleagues online.
We ended the virtual show with an hour as live karaoke set, so our guests could turn up the volume and continue to party.
3rd Party Endorsement
