This year, everyone clearly felt that the money was harder to make than before. The cost of customer investment in marketing activities is also greatly reduced, and more cost-effective marketing channels are pursued. (EventWang is a creative platform for advertising marketers).
Some companies are accumulating strength and are implementing a multi-line growth strategy, while some companies are in adversity and are forced to transform and leave the market ......In this year, Dawang visited first-tier cities in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and other places, and learned what excellent companies are doing at the moment. I also communicated with the marketing and procurement practitioners of different brands to talk about their understanding and cooperation requirements for partners. (The activity covers the activity plan, marketing plan, industry report and other office materials).
Looking back on the past and looking forward to the future, the times are changing, and the industry is also undergoing some changes, but no matter how it changes, I firmly believe that those believers and practitioners of long-termism can eventually have a place in the industry. (The activity covers office materials such as team building plans, work reports, PPT templates), etc
On the occasion of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, Dawang summarized the eight key words of the event industry in 2023. Hopefully, through these eight keywords, we can get some inspiration and better plan for the future. (Activity Wang has 15w+ program ppt can be **).
Back to offline
If I had to sum up the events industry in 2023 in one word, I think there would be only "return to offline".
2023 is the "year of offline return", we can see that with the momentum of market recovery and the trend of consumers gradually returning to offline, various experience marketing activities such as exhibitions, concerts, festivals, press conferences, and pop-up stores are overwhelmingly held across the country, and even the performance industry is still hard to find a ticket. Phenomenal urban marketing—Zibo barbecue, making this small industrial city that was almost forgotten famous overnight.
There are also those that risecity walk(city travel approach), let dopamine dressing become the most popular element on the streets this summer.
According to the data, the number of spectators in the performance market in the first three quarters exceeded 1100 million, exceeding the level of the whole year of 2019, and concert tickets are basically grabbed.
Taking the 2023 new car launch conference (nationwide) as an example, according to Dawang's statistics, as of December low, there are more than 170 new car launch conferences this year (excluding test drives, tour exhibitions, fan festivals and other activities). On average, there is one in two days.
After two years, the event Wang also restarted the offline forum, and in 2023, it will continue to hold offline forums for event participants in Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Xi'an and other places, attracting nearly 1,000 people. This is also the first offline forum for the event industry in China. OK.
From the form of the brand event held this year, it can be found that it has been completely de-online and metaverse-based. It turns outExperiential marketing is the future. The core of experiential marketing is to obtain an experience that exceeds expectations for products and services by mobilizing people's inner emotional values and feelings.
aigc
With the explosion of ChatGPT this year, AIGC is influencing all walks of life at an astonishing speed, and in this context, this year's advertising campaign practitioners are also making every effort to understand and use various AI tools to improve creative efficiency.
Typical use cases include those that designers can take advantage ofmid journey、stable diffusionand other AI painting tools to generate the main vision, and can also improve work efficiency by transforming design styles and optimizing design. And planners can also passchatgptand other AIGC tools to quickly sort out creative inspiration ideas. It can even directly and intelligently generate a word version of the scheme.
At the same time, domestic technology giants have also launched "AI models", bringing unprecedented creative efficiency and innovation capabilities to various fields. In the brand marketing scenario, we can see the all-AI production advertising film launched by Ali for this year's ** Maker Festival; Fliggy uses AI technology to generate nearly 1,000 print ads for the Shanghai and Hangzhou subways. Jingdong adapted the song "I Want to Bloom 11."11 refreshed versions" and made an AIGC version MV for the song. And behind these works, most of them come from the hands of agencies.
It is understood that D&S Media has launched related AI creative visuals and AI creative short films based on AIGC technology for brand customers such as Chang'an Qiyuan and Moutai this year, and they have been well received by customers. In the first half of the year, more than 70% of customers have used generative AI-related services, about 20% of customers have used generative AI-related services, about 20% of customers have used it deeply and brought in a certain amount of revenue, and the overall business efficiency has been improved by about 30%.
At the level of employment in the advertising industry, Dawang also found that this year, many companies have increased the job portrait requirements for creative positions, such as using AIGC tools, and directly recruiting new AI designers.
At the TOP AIGC+Web3 Innovation Conference held in Beijing this year, someone calculated that traditional designers produce about 40 drawings a month on average, and their monthly salary is about 120,000 yuan, but if you are equipped with an AI designer with a monthly salary of 20,000 and a daily output of 50 sheets, it takes 10 people for traditional designers to complete the amount of a month, and the cost is 120W. In contrast, the employment cost of AI designers is 23, but the output efficiency is 65 times, that is, one AI is equal to about 28 designers.
As a creative agency, they not only choose to embrace AIGC to improve the efficiency of the company, but also independently develop AI tool models to empower customers and the creative industry. D&S Media launched the **AI PPT intelligent marketing tool - SmartPPT; Social Touch launched an AI intelligent tool to assist brands in creating popular content - Explosive Thinking; Leo Digital launches the most powerful generation tool – Leo Diffusion; Insai Group and Sanrenxing have developed their own marketing AIGC application models, InsightGP and "One" AI, respectively.
It is undeniable that AIGC has become a new means for creative companies to reduce costs and increase efficiency, which can improve efficiency in drawing, production, and copywriting, "efficiency can be doubled, and costs can be reduced" This is the most direct feedback given to me by the heads of many companies this year.
The play revealed, following the beginning of the year 1After the 20,000 layoffs, Google plans to restructure its ad sales division, which will put 30,000 employees at risk of being laid off.
In the future, I firmly believe that both companies and individuals will use AI technology to reshape the way they work. AI technology is not designed to replace existing jobs, but rather to weed out those who can't make effective use of AI tools.
The involution is severe
The event industry has always been in the involution, only more volume.
This year happens to be the year of recovery, and companies want to put the money they don't make in their pockets and do the projects they haven't done, with only one goal: to survive.
On the other hand,Brands are shrinking their overall marketing budgets this year, and pay more attention to the effectiveness of event marketing, hoping to bring more product sales and achieve business growth through activities. Because of this, 2023 will be a year of serious involution.
In 2023, Dawang communicated with the marketing and purchasing leaders of mobile phones, automobiles, clothing, jewelry and other brands and learned that most of them said that they had limited budgets this year, but they still hoped to find cheap and good agencies. The feedback given by the agency is more that this year is more intense than the draft, and the battle is more ferocious.
From the perspective of external factors, this year, customers cut part of their offline budgets and put them into other channels where ROL can be seen; Some cases with a target of less than 250,000 are actually 13 volumes, and more customers are also reducing costs and increasing efficiency.
From the perspective of internal factors, the event company has become a phenomenon of cross-border business grabbing this year, which originally only did auto shows, and this year also began to do new car launches, only to do Internet and 3C customers, and began to do auto activities this year; The main new energy is also making efforts to liquor companies this year. In addition, this year, some companies have set up branches in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Shenzhen to compete with other leading activity companies.
In this competitive environment, some companies are forced to streamline their personnel and transform, while some companies are de-creative and only do high-stability, single-execution projects (tours, pop-up stores).The companies that stay behind have either achieved the head of the country or the region in terms of professionalism, and the customers served are also the top in various industries.
in-house agency
Previously, Da Wang wrote an article about in-house agency.
In recent years, brands dominated by Internet companies have not only formulated marketing strategies as Party A, but also set up their own in-house agencies, that is, Party A's internal "flower work" helpers. These brands not only take on the role of client, but also manage internal creative and execution as creatives.
This year, Dawang also often sees the cases submitted by a certain large factory in-house agency winning awards in some advertising, public relations, and ** industry awards, and even some will appear at the award receiving site with the name of an external ** business.
In the future, there will be more and more marketing cases from Party A's internal creativity** rather than professional Party B.
For example, in 2023, Kuaishou's marketing department will set up a leading business organization focusing on content creativity - Iron Studio; 1% Creative Studio, a creative label incubated internally by MINISO, officially provides creative support and integrated marketing services for the Group, empowering brands with creativity.
Dong Haoyu, deputy director of the Academic and Education Committee of the China Advertising Association, once said in the live broadcast room, "After the emergence of AIGC technology, the In-House Agency can be realized in a simpler way, and AIGC will shorten the closed-loop time from creative output to communication and sales, and realize the upgrading of in-house communication within the enterprise (including the transformation of the content production department and organizational change)." In the past, I used to set up a content and studio department called In-House. The average time taken for each job is one working day, and the cost of non-core material production is greatly saved
At present, Party B with the ability to integrate resources does not need to worry too much about Party A's internal creative team, but in the face of more and more professional Party A, Party B's improvement of its own competitiveness is the cornerstone of consolidating the cooperation between Party A and Party B. Only by giving full play to their respective advantages can we create good works together.
Host thinking
The idea of hosting is not what I think, but at the Hangzhou station of this year's China Event Innovation Forum, Chen Lixiong, President of Zhihai Wangchao, shared the theme of "Practical Methods for the Transformation of Exhibition and Exhibition Companies into Organizers" at the meeting, emphasizingThe importance of "host thinking" for the innovation of MICE companies. I also very much recognize and support the "hosting" of event companies that have the ability and resources.
In the past three years, Dawang has learned through face-to-face communication and online channels that more and more leading event companies and regional excellent event companies are trying to do hosting business, and have obtained good results.
How to do the hosting, each company has a different approach.
Hangzhou Lianrui Advertising opened a coffee shop next door to the company; An activity company in Chengdu opened a cultural and creative hot pot restaurant; Guangzhou Zhenyuan Culture Group invested and co-organized the Guangzhou Super Strawberry Festival; Xiamen Langning Public Relations hosted the original activity IP of the Coffee Crossing Sea Life Collection; Changsha Ruizhi Convention and Exhibition Planning and Operation Industry IP Conference China Urban Night Economic Development Summit; Zhihai Wang Chao organizer Whale Tide Future E-commerce Conference....There are many similar cases, at least in provincial capitals, we can see top-level companies in the transformation and upgrading.
Extending from Party B's business to new Party A's business may be the way for most active companies to change their fate. Of course, there are also some companies that choose Party B's business diversification, take activities as the main business direction, set up sub-brands and new teams in the context of the era of big marketing, and continue to dig deep to solve problems such as marketing, private domain, and content for brands.
Reduce costs and increase efficiency
Reducing costs and increasing efficiency has always been the foundation of the activity company, and it is now and will continue to be in the future. Because the competition threshold of the activity industry itself is very low, it is difficult to form differentiated core competitiveness through the precipitation of business. There is no compound interest effect, and large-scale development is achieved.
In addition, the revenue of the event company is directly linked to the customer, and the customer has no money to do the activity this year, and the revenue of the event company will decrease, which is a good proof in the past three years.
To sum up, the events industry has:Labor-intensive, high efficiency and low cost, high talent mobility, high turnover rate of old customers, lack of core competitiveness, and lack of creative abilityand other features.
Therefore, if the activity company wants to develop steadily, it can only reduce costs and increase efficiency internally.
At present, the common practice is not to accept projects that are less than the percentage of profit, and secondly, to control procurement costs. However, these two aspects are not completely done, and even some companies do not have full-time procurement leaders, how to talk about cost reduction? Projects below the percentage point of profit are not accepted, and only companies that are not bad at work insist on saying no.
There are also some companies that use Freelance services and AI to try to save labor costs, but the effect is not obvious, and they can only digest the problem of many projects.
In order for the company to truly reduce costs and increase efficiency, it is necessary to persist in it for a long time, and it is necessary for all employees, each position and management of the company to form a highly unified awareness of reducing costs and increasing efficiency, and then rely on practical actions to practice.
Go to sea to seek increments
In 2023, there will be a surge of Chinese companies going overseas. Automobiles, tea, mobile phones, technology, medical and other fields have become popular tracks for going overseas. In addition, this year, under the introduction of the best support policies in various places,More and more enterprises are "going out" and looking for business opportunities by going overseas to participate in exhibitions.
Under the wave of "going to sea", many companies have won new projects in overseas markets this year, such as Maidehao, Moma Marketing, Oriental MICE and Awards, and CYTS Lianke and other activities in Singapore, London, Thailand, Malaysia, Spain and other countries this year.
Event companies with foreign investment backgrounds rely on their global resource advantages to help Chinese brands go overseas for marketing. For example, the Uniexpo China team helped OPPO and the 2023 League of Legends Finals offline event in Seoul, South Korea. There is also Freeman and Xiaomi to go overseas and set up a booth at the 2023MWC Mobile World Congress. There are also a number of companies that have helped Chinese auto brands show their black technology at the Munich Motor Show in Germany, Tokyo in Japan, and Bangkok in Thailand.
From some companies contacted by Dawang, we learned that several more companies will also establish branches or offices in Southeast Asia next year to officially enter the overseas market and help Chinese brands land marketing activities overseas. These companies have been deeply cultivated in China for many years and have achieved good results, with strong ability to integrate resources and creative teams and overseas landing capabilities.
At present, expanding the market overseas is a way for domestic activity companies (close to the ceiling) to seek business increments, but the overseas business is not as easy to do as everyone thinks, and there are great differences between foreign employment methods, marketing channels, and domestic business systems.
Co-branded marketing
During the year, cross-border collaborations became a trend, not only opening up new creative areas, but also bringing considerable benefits to brands. Cross-border cooperation not only crosses the boundaries of industries and categories, but also stimulates unlimited innovation and possibilities, injecting new vitality into the marketing circle.
Co-branded marketing has created many popular products in 2023, especially in the beverage industry, which maintains brand competitiveness by promoting new products, and has become the norm, accounting for 190%, men's and women's clothing, dairy products, beauty, and catering services are also increasing, accounting for respectively. 3%；From the perspective of marketing effect, Luckin Coffee co-branded Kweichow Moutai, Heytea co-branded Genshin Impact, and Fendi have become the top 3 co-branded marketing this year.
So how to do a good job of co-branded marketing?
Zhang Ze, general manager of Wang Xiaolu Brand Center, believes that "co-branded marketing not only blesses the brand, but also empowers sales, and summarizes the formula and key to doing a good job in co-branded marketing from practice: co-branded marketing (the double harvest of brand perception and sales growth) = marketing timing (find the marketing node that maximizes the value of resources) x social ** (interesting creativity and content to leverage communication levers) x channel efficiency (help sales results through co-branding). ”
In fact, cross-border co-branding is not only a matter of the marketing circle, but also contains a lot of opportunities for the event industry.
Through a large number of cases this year, it can be proved that co-branded marketing has been extended to offline event scenarios and will become a major trend in the future development of the event industry. For example, cross-border co-branded pop-up stores, cross-border co-branded play markets, cross-border co-branded booth interactive experience, ** festival experience, etc. In other words, whoever can combine more resources and provide a more comprehensive and integrated activity plan is more likely to be recognized and favored by Party A.
The above only represents some personal views and opinions (abridged version), and you are also welcome to say your 2023 keywords in the message area, and interested friends can also chat privately