Background

The Asian Insights Conference is the client’s flagship biennial conference and 2020 marked the event’s 10th anniversary. The two-day event pulled together a distinguished panel of thought-leaders, policymakers, business leaders and subject matter experts who shared their insights on the most pressing and pertinent issues facing Asia and the rest of the world. Through this, the client was able to further cement its thought-leadership position and engage with its stakeholders even in the midst of the pandemic. The challenge was to stand out among the many concurrent virtual events (webinars, etc) taking place around the same time, generate buzz and interest around the conference, and engage those who may not have been able to attend the conference itself. Amplification via digital platforms was a key part of our strategy.

Describe the strategy

Digital Amplification The client used LinkedIn to provide highlights throughout the event week with speaker quotes and panel summary videos. Updates were also published on Twitter over the course of eight weeks. One month after the event, all conference recordings were made available for public viewing on YouTube. In the run-up to AIC, the client also made its Group Research department’s weekly podcast show available on all major podcast platforms. Creating a differentiated experience “Best-in-class” solutions were selected, and through a proprietary integrator, we customised these solutions to provide a seamless experience for attendees. The virtual conference needed to engage attendees at different levels of technical savviness. Due to the customizable nature of the agency’s platform and methodology, and their experience in show and web production, we could design the site to be “goofproof” to minimise drop-outs because of technical difficulties, and create an intuitive UX that allowed for interactivity.

Describe the execution

Digital Amplification The client ran a digital amplification campaign for one month with a total media budget of about SGD150,000, aimed to drive awareness and traffic to the virtual event. Overall paid media drove a total of 8,692 sessions from 6,486 unique users. Of all the publishers engaged (CNBC, The Economist, Bloomberg, etc), 47% of the total sessions were driven through CNBC. Integration of technologies for seamless delivery Different solutions were deployed to create a differentiated experience: • Deployment of broadcast production setups to live-stream speakers on-site • Integrating webcasting and live-streaming tools to allow remote speakers to participate with on-site speakers in panel discussions • Integrating a mix of pre-recorded and “live” sessions to circumvent scheduling conflicts and time-zone considerations Exclusive content In addition to the rich content provided by the global panel of speakers, the audience were given access to exclusive content developed by the client’s own experts.

List the results

Despite the short turnaround time, the team delivered a virtual conference that was well-received by attendees. The blend of multiple technologies and technical know-how was an industry-first, and for many, a first-of-its-kind experience. The conference attracted over 2,300 unique attendees from 46 countries, 155% more than the previous physical conference. • 42 speakers and moderators • 13 live and pre-recorded sessions • 80+ media representatives • Almost 50% of the audience attended both days • Average of 750-800 unique attendees per session • Average dwell time was 2hrs, indicating that the subject matter was interesting • Average view time of 48min for video-on-demand • Total media value of SGD 6 million (AVEs) • Twitter reach of 1.2 million We also gauged public sentiment on the event through various public session chats facilitated via the virtual platform, many of which indicated that attendees were very impressed and had mostly positive feedback.