Ben Kessler
Marketing & Growth | CMO | Advisor | Investor
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Are conference and event sponsorships still worth the investment?As a marketer, I can't help but feel like event sponsorships are becoming more and more burdensome. The costs just seem to keep going up - $25K minimum for a small booth and a logo on the program. Plus flights, hotels, meals, design and production of swag, and the time our teams spend away from the office.But there's no denying the potential upside. Events give us the chance to put a face to our brand, meet prospects in person, and really connect with our most valuable customers. The brand exposure alone can be invaluable.If you're in marketing or sales, what's the play here? Are you still investing heavily in event sponsorships? What specific tactics have you used to maximize the ROI? I'd love to hear your thoughts!Soon I'll dive into an alternative strategy that can work really well for your team - leveraging smaller, more intimate "micro-events" to drive engagement.
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BetterTable.ca
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Navigating the ever-evolving landscape of event sponsorships is indeed a challenge; looking forward to hearing your alternative strategy.
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Noah Wallach
Founder @ Shortstack AI | Founder @ Hope OS | Former Global Expansion @ WeWork
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The ROI on sponsorship is too low. Use a fraction of those funds to host a curated dinner, drinks or an experience parallel/after-hours to the conference. Dinners for 10-20 have been great for building better relationships than at the conference itself. Fill some spots before the conference and leave some spots open to invite specific people you meet. A fraction of a fraction of the cost of sponsorship and much better networking.
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William (Bill) Gurowski
Product Specialist, Financial Services | Customer Success, Account Manager | Volunteer
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I think it depends on when you're looking for the ROI, is that same quarter? Are you allowing for more time to see new bookings come through the door? An event we did at the beginning of the year is still influencing deals into Q3, which isn't as immediate of an impact, but still an overall W
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Alexis Wilson
Communications & Corporate Affairs
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If you’re not in a position as a brand to throw your own event or be a Triple Gold Platinum sponsor of an industry event, I’d say a signature dinner or lunch with transport for real leads to hear from clients & analyst would be much better targeted money spent on an experience
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Ben Kessler
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Out of office vacation responder on. That’s it, that’s the post. 🙌🏼
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Ben Kessler
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Ben Kessler
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Ben Kessler
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"Authentic content has become the key to building genuine connections with customers and your broader community." Making that content is hard, but Justin Wiley and Ascend Labs are making it easy for B2B and DTC brands. Check out his post below.
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Ben Kessler
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I miss the old #NYTM days and this is probably my favorite memory - the Social Bicycles team pitching on stage and the subsequent support from David S. Rose. Love Justin’s retelling here…
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Ben Kessler
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Ben Kessler
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Justin and I have been friends for over 25 years, and our personal and professional lives have followed similar paths through the startup world.I’m excited to see Justin launch his new venture Ascend Labs, and grateful I’ve been able to advise on it with him.To get started Justin is offering free access to his Startup Foundations cohort. If you’re a founder, or early team member focused on GTM you need to join this! Link to apply is in the post below.
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Ben Kessler
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Sharing, mostly to avoid having anyone else send this to me with "have you seen?!" It's the end of an era.For what it's worth, to this day I believe WeWork provides a great product and service, and know many, many actual customers agree. Working there provided some of the best experiences of my life and career. The highest highs and some pretty low lows. I'll forever be chasing some of those highs.But during my time at WeWork I made lifelong friends, and for that I am grateful. Do What You Love. Better Together. We Are WeWork.
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