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Professional conferences present asset managers a host of opportunities. They are useful vehicles for connecting with financial advisors, showcasing thought leadership, and raising brand awareness. But every firm comes into a conference with a different set of opportunities.
Small and medium-sized firms share the conference floor with some of the largest industry leaders, creating enormous potential to codify your brand’s strength. Being present at the event, the brand status of a smaller firm gets a boost. But there are also unique challenges. Smaller firms come to conferences with less boots-on-the-ground than larger firms, and typically sponsor at lower tiers. With tighter budgets and less on-the-ground resources, smaller firms need to exercise their creativity and innovation to create memorable experiences for attendees.
Smart event activations create the potential for small firms to stand out amid big names. Understanding how to create and deploy a smart activation strategy can make a huge difference for these firms, as they look to spark growth.
Here are six tips for creating activation experiences that can further boost your brand and promote growth.
An event activation is an opportunity to express your brand’s values and personality. It can also express the purpose of your product. Deutsche Bank’s plain vanilla ice cream activation is a great example of how a brand used what the industry was calling “plain vanilla beta,” and created a fun idea that resonated among attendees. Vanilla might be a synonym for boring, but vanilla ice cream on a hot conference day is extremely welcome for many.
Larger brands need to cast a wide net. They typically have bigger budgets, but not necessarily the same wiggle room a small or medium-sized firm has. This limits some of their messaging potential, as they need to try and be all things to all customers. Smaller brands don’t have this obstacle, and they can find enormous success simply by expressing who they are and what they value in a meaningful and striking way. In other words, smaller brands have some permission to disrupt expectations and cater to niche markets with more direct messaging.
Brainstorming a smart activation means understanding your brand identity. What is your brand? How do advisors think about your brand, and is there a delta? If there is, how could you position yourself as the brand you want to be in your activation?
At Exchange 2024, Grayscale put on a laser drone show for attendees. This splashy activation leveraged drone technology to create an unforgettable spectacle for everyone present. As a cryptocurrency-focused asset manager, Grayscale didn’t just stick to the usual conference giveaways. Instead of sunglasses and water bottles, they delivered a full-scale laser show—using drones, lasers, and cutting-edge tech to create a brand experience that truly stood out, and aligned to their brand identity.
New technology can push budgets for smaller firms, but it's an investment that could pay dividends. Professional conferences are where your potential clients are gathering. Spending a little extra resources to create a memorable experience can be a vital component of how you transform your small firm into a medium-sized firm, or your medium-sized firm into an industry leader. Beyond driving content creation and brand awareness, cutting-edge tech activations hold real value in making your brand the highlight of the conference. New tech is always fascinating to people. Most people haven’t yet donned a VR headset. They don’t have a “moving headshot” and they probably rarely see drone laser shows. Look for interesting technology and a way to deploy it to create memorable experiences.
Anticipation is a critical tool that storytellers, creatives, and marketers have leveraged throughout human history. Your favorite television series will frequently tease future events to build audience buy in. Foreshadowing is often employed in literature. Whether it is Shakespeare’s Macbeth, which features witches talking about Macbeth’s rise to power near the start of the play or Luke Skywalker having a vision in Empire Strikes Back that teases at the reveal of Darth Vader’s true identity in Return of the Jedi, anticipation can capture imaginations and draw in audiences.
Marketers use anticipation to build up hype. There are a number of hooks that can be deployed to create anticipation. Building anticipation in advance of an event is a powerful tool that small and medium-sized companies can deploy ahead of a conference to start building buzz. Something as simple as a countdown clock with no further explanation can have audiences immediately asking questions. What is this clock counting down toward? What will happen on the target date? The desire to understand draws audiences in. Many people find pleasure in cracking the clues before the main event.
Your firm may not be as widely known as other sponsors, but if you can get people curious about your upcoming presence as a conference, you’ll have helped make your impact greater before even setting foot in the space. This means announcing your presence as a sponsor early and then doling out tiny teases of what your activation might be to build excitement and anticipation.
Gamification is an easy way to drive interest. Human brains are hardwired to seek rewards, even if those rewards are purely symbolic. There are apps that give points for completing daily chores, and they are enormously successful because they work. Doing the dishes is a dull activity, normally. Award points for doing dishes, and suddenly people are motivated.
When you look at activations, gamification can generate buzz and promote discourse. If you have an ongoing trivia game (or something where you can display a leaderboard) as your activation, people will be interested. Their competitive nature will kick in, and they’ll want to “win” which only increases engagement in your activation.
It can be easy to get into your own head as you plan out your event activation. Something both small and large firms need to keep in mind, is that an activation is ultimately about the audience. You need to think through the experience of the activation from the attendees’ perspective.
Imagine not knowing anything about your brand and activation. What would it be like to experience it? Is it engaging, informative, and interesting, or is it distracting and confusing? If it is the latter, how do you make it more engaging?
At the end of the day, an event activation needs to be in service of the attendees. Yes, you are communicating something about your brand, but to make the activation truly special it has to surprise, delight, and uplift everyone involved. Especially as a smaller firm, you want people to walk away from the experience having unambiguously had a great time.
Activations have a ton of value from a branding perspective, but they can also be crafted to capture interest and identify leads for future nurture opportunities.
One way to capture interest is by asking for information in exchange for a reward. This can be done ahead of the conference, to build hype and booth traffic, as well as during the conference at your activation. J.P. Morgan Asset Management did both. Its “Built to Last” activation asked financial advisors to upload a portfolio “built to last” into JPMAM’s digital portfolio analysis tool. The insights team analyzed it against key risk measures with the winning portfolio getting a complimentary interview with a media partner.
This was also supported by using a steel booth (because steel is built to last) and pivoting away from low cost junk tchotchkes to things that are more robust or have more utility (phone chargers, metal water bottles, etc.) There was an engraving station at the booth which engraved these higher value giveaways live. This was used to capture advisor information, as they needed to submit details to get the live engraving.
This activation followed every step in this tip sheet: it aligned with brand identity, it leveraged modern technology in the risk assessment tool, it built anticipation in advance, it gamified the event, and it created a fun experience for all participants. But the real clutch move was it captured concrete information and generated leads.
Simply attending a conference has innate value. Firms that show up to a big industry event can set up business and get things done. But once you commit to attending, there’s no reason not to put in the extra effort and try to create a memorable experience aligned to your marketing goals.
Taking a chance on a clever activation and thoughtfully executing it can attract attention, make your brand stand out, and capture concrete leads. The buzz also gives you social media fodder and something to write about in blogs and articles long after the event itself.
With the Exchange conference coming in March, you still have time to create a memorable activation that can put your brand in front of advisors. Looking to start bringing your event activation strategies to life? Our team can help you brainstorm and execute an activation strategy at Exchange.
Professional conferences present asset managers a host of opportunities. They are useful vehicles for connecting with financial advisors, showcasing thought leadership, and raising brand awareness. But every firm comes into a conference with a different set of opportunities.
Small and medium-sized firms share the conference floor with some of the largest industry leaders, creating enormous potential to codify your brand’s strength. Being present at the event, the brand status of a smaller firm gets a boost. But there are also unique challenges. Smaller firms come to conferences with less boots-on-the-ground than larger firms, and typically sponsor at lower tiers. With tighter budgets and less on-the-ground resources, smaller firms need to exercise their creativity and innovation to create memorable experiences for attendees.
Smart event activations create the potential for small firms to stand out amid big names. Understanding how to create and deploy a smart activation strategy can make a huge difference for these firms, as they look to spark growth.
Here are six tips for creating activation experiences that can further boost your brand and promote growth.
An event activation is an opportunity to express your brand’s values and personality. It can also express the purpose of your product. Deutsche Bank’s plain vanilla ice cream activation is a great example of how a brand used what the industry was calling “plain vanilla beta,” and created a fun idea that resonated among attendees. Vanilla might be a synonym for boring, but vanilla ice cream on a hot conference day is extremely welcome for many.
Larger brands need to cast a wide net. They typically have bigger budgets, but not necessarily the same wiggle room a small or medium-sized firm has. This limits some of their messaging potential, as they need to try and be all things to all customers. Smaller brands don’t have this obstacle, and they can find enormous success simply by expressing who they are and what they value in a meaningful and striking way. In other words, smaller brands have some permission to disrupt expectations and cater to niche markets with more direct messaging.
Brainstorming a smart activation means understanding your brand identity. What is your brand? How do advisors think about your brand, and is there a delta? If there is, how could you position yourself as the brand you want to be in your activation?
At Exchange 2024, Grayscale put on a laser drone show for attendees. This splashy activation leveraged drone technology to create an unforgettable spectacle for everyone present. As a cryptocurrency-focused asset manager, Grayscale didn’t just stick to the usual conference giveaways. Instead of sunglasses and water bottles, they delivered a full-scale laser show—using drones, lasers, and cutting-edge tech to create a brand experience that truly stood out, and aligned to their brand identity.
New technology can push budgets for smaller firms, but it's an investment that could pay dividends. Professional conferences are where your potential clients are gathering. Spending a little extra resources to create a memorable experience can be a vital component of how you transform your small firm into a medium-sized firm, or your medium-sized firm into an industry leader. Beyond driving content creation and brand awareness, cutting-edge tech activations hold real value in making your brand the highlight of the conference. New tech is always fascinating to people. Most people haven’t yet donned a VR headset. They don’t have a “moving headshot” and they probably rarely see drone laser shows. Look for interesting technology and a way to deploy it to create memorable experiences.
Anticipation is a critical tool that storytellers, creatives, and marketers have leveraged throughout human history. Your favorite television series will frequently tease future events to build audience buy in. Foreshadowing is often employed in literature. Whether it is Shakespeare’s Macbeth, which features witches talking about Macbeth’s rise to power near the start of the play or Luke Skywalker having a vision in Empire Strikes Back that teases at the reveal of Darth Vader’s true identity in Return of the Jedi, anticipation can capture imaginations and draw in audiences.
Marketers use anticipation to build up hype. There are a number of hooks that can be deployed to create anticipation. Building anticipation in advance of an event is a powerful tool that small and medium-sized companies can deploy ahead of a conference to start building buzz. Something as simple as a countdown clock with no further explanation can have audiences immediately asking questions. What is this clock counting down toward? What will happen on the target date? The desire to understand draws audiences in. Many people find pleasure in cracking the clues before the main event.
Your firm may not be as widely known as other sponsors, but if you can get people curious about your upcoming presence as a conference, you’ll have helped make your impact greater before even setting foot in the space. This means announcing your presence as a sponsor early and then doling out tiny teases of what your activation might be to build excitement and anticipation.
Gamification is an easy way to drive interest. Human brains are hardwired to seek rewards, even if those rewards are purely symbolic. There are apps that give points for completing daily chores, and they are enormously successful because they work. Doing the dishes is a dull activity, normally. Award points for doing dishes, and suddenly people are motivated.
When you look at activations, gamification can generate buzz and promote discourse. If you have an ongoing trivia game (or something where you can display a leaderboard) as your activation, people will be interested. Their competitive nature will kick in, and they’ll want to “win” which only increases engagement in your activation.
It can be easy to get into your own head as you plan out your event activation. Something both small and large firms need to keep in mind, is that an activation is ultimately about the audience. You need to think through the experience of the activation from the attendees’ perspective.
Imagine not knowing anything about your brand and activation. What would it be like to experience it? Is it engaging, informative, and interesting, or is it distracting and confusing? If it is the latter, how do you make it more engaging?
At the end of the day, an event activation needs to be in service of the attendees. Yes, you are communicating something about your brand, but to make the activation truly special it has to surprise, delight, and uplift everyone involved. Especially as a smaller firm, you want people to walk away from the experience having unambiguously had a great time.
Activations have a ton of value from a branding perspective, but they can also be crafted to capture interest and identify leads for future nurture opportunities.
One way to capture interest is by asking for information in exchange for a reward. This can be done ahead of the conference, to build hype and booth traffic, as well as during the conference at your activation. J.P. Morgan Asset Management did both. Its “Built to Last” activation asked financial advisors to upload a portfolio “built to last” into JPMAM’s digital portfolio analysis tool. The insights team analyzed it against key risk measures with the winning portfolio getting a complimentary interview with a media partner.
This was also supported by using a steel booth (because steel is built to last) and pivoting away from low cost junk tchotchkes to things that are more robust or have more utility (phone chargers, metal water bottles, etc.) There was an engraving station at the booth which engraved these higher value giveaways live. This was used to capture advisor information, as they needed to submit details to get the live engraving.
This activation followed every step in this tip sheet: it aligned with brand identity, it leveraged modern technology in the risk assessment tool, it built anticipation in advance, it gamified the event, and it created a fun experience for all participants. But the real clutch move was it captured concrete information and generated leads.
Simply attending a conference has innate value. Firms that show up to a big industry event can set up business and get things done. But once you commit to attending, there’s no reason not to put in the extra effort and try to create a memorable experience aligned to your marketing goals.
Taking a chance on a clever activation and thoughtfully executing it can attract attention, make your brand stand out, and capture concrete leads. The buzz also gives you social media fodder and something to write about in blogs and articles long after the event itself.
With the Exchange conference coming in March, you still have time to create a memorable activation that can put your brand in front of advisors. Looking to start bringing your event activation strategies to life? Our team can help you brainstorm and execute an activation strategy at Exchange.
