Reinventing the Tech Media Event for the Influencer Era

Today’s tech industry media events are as outdated as they are overpriced.

Even as big industry events like CES become magnets for influencers and celebrities, the one event on the calendar most closely associated with helping brands sell more products has completely failed to adapt to the new realities of today’s consumer marketing landscape.

Press coverage is critical, but in today’s consumer-driven, influencer-powered world, it’s just one piece of the puzzle. Spending thousands of dollars to be in a roomful of press for three hours is no longer the best use of your marketing dollars, especially when events can do so much more to help you meet the challenges you’re confronting getting the attention of today’s consumers.

At our events, you’ll spend quality time with all the audiences that matter today – press, influencers, YouTubers, bloggers, celebrities, and enthusiasts.  Each event is designed to leverage social media, live streaming, word-of-mouth marketing, content marketing, and advertising to deliver ROI to our exhibitors before the event starts and long after the lights have been turned off.

You can think of our events as integrated marketing campaigns disguised as events because that’s what events today should be. Our mission to help every exhibitor get the coverage, content, and community it takes to succeed in an increasingly complex consumer marketplace. Read on to learn how we do it.

Coverage

We get it. Even with the enormous changes in how products are marketed today, press coverage is still your top priority so delivering a best-in-class press list is ours. To be perfectly honest, it’s no easy task. With the way companies pursue the press today, the value of attending media events has taken a hit in recent years.

It starts by making the event itself a “happening” by infusing it with entertainment, art, sports, and culture not by attaching a contrived theme that has no relation to technology. It means finding the best partners and attracting top notch speakers. In our case, it also means offering a discount to companies launching truly newsworthy new products and launching the first-ever Geeks Choice Media Awards.

Another sure way to attract press is simply to make it easier and more convenient to attend. Our extended format gives the press the option of attending after work or during workhours and our Rideshare Sponsorship Program makes it even harder for them to say they can’t make it. Our Rideshare Sponsor can  even be in the car that picks up that key journalist they’ve been trying to connect with! It’s not rocket science. Give the press more time to attend and make it easier for them to get there and more will attend.

Content

Way back in 1996, Bill Gates declared that Content is King in this famous essay. It was true back then, but it’s even more true now. Today, every company and every individual are essentially extensions of the media, leveraging their blogs, social feeds, YouTube channels to tell their story in the case of brands or share their opinions in the case of consumers.

Creating compelling content is critical, of course, but so is engaging directly with consumer to ensure that the content they create about your products is positive. The good news is that an event, especially one that incorporates influencers and enthusiasts, is the perfect platform for accomplishing both. The bad news is that up until now, events have seemed to overlook the importance of building opportunities for exhibitors to create content into its DNA.

Whether it’s appearing in the official live stream hosted by YouTubers, sponsoring an influencer to create for you at the event, participating in giveaways designed to get attendees tweeting and posting about your products, or simply leveraging the photos and videos, we include in our exhibitor packages, we believe creating opportunities generate positive, shareable content that can repurposed over time is a fundamental obligation of an event today.

Community

Building relationships directly with consumers is an important part of a successful marketing strategy today. But let’s face it, it’s hard work. They’re not easy to reach, not receptive to advertising, and, frankly, not inclined to trust brands.  To make things worse,  the tech-savvy consumers our exhibitors need to engage are the hardest to reach, least receptive to advertising, and most likely not to trust brands. But this is precisely why our three-hour “Geek Showcase” is such a unique and important opportunity.

The geeks that attend our events are the alpha consumers you need on your side. They might not be Instagram celebrities but when it comes to their friends and families, they are the go-to person for tech-buying advice and they are not shy about sharing their opinions. They bring an energy to our events unlike anything you’ve experienced at other events.

More importantly, they come knowing you’re going to pitch your products to them and not only are they ok with that, they’re ready to become your most powerful advocates if you don’t screw it up. Luckily, just being at one of our events gives you a giant head start over your competition because “our geeks” know how things work. They know that the companies exhibiting at getgeeked events are the ones that understand how important it is to meet with consumers face-to-face. Consequently, just being at our events increases the goodwill consumers feel toward your brand.

You still have some work to do, of course. If you want to create an army of word-of-mouth advocates, you’ll need to be honest and authentic when you engage with them and you’ll need to listen to them. That should be easy, however. It’s not very often you get a chance to get feedback face-to-face about your products from the country’s most passionate tech lovers.

To fully understand the value of our events, there’s one more “C” we think you should know about…COST!!!

Our exhibitor packages begin at rates significantly lower than what you’ll pay to exhibit at a three-hour press-only event. Invest a little more and you sell your products in the Social Shopping Zone, participate in our social media contests,  hire a dedicated influencer to create content for you at the event, feature your logo on the official T-shirt, or appear in the live stream just to mention a few. There are so many opportunities to rise above the noise at a getgeeked event.

For more information about all the ways getgeeked New York can help your brand have its best holiday season ever, click here.