Women in Events 2024 – Event Marketer

THE PARTICIPANTS

• Trisha Dean, Head of Global Executive Events and CXO Engagement, Google Cloud, Google
• Ana Goettsch, Head of Marketing, Primal Kitchen
• Kim Haney, Director-Experiential Marketing, Pernod Ricard USA
• Melinda V. Johnson, Brand Director, Henkel Corporation
• Kendall McElliott, Director-Global Events, Microsoft
• Liz Money, SVP-Brand & Creative, BÉIS
• Leah Stark, Experiential Senior Manager, Target
• Naeema Thompson, SVP-Sponsorships & Partnerships Management, Citi
• Carly Zipp, Global Director-Brand Marketing, Amazon Ads

What unique perspectives do women bring to the industry?

KENDALL MCELLIOTT

Women can balance the big picture vision with detailed planning. That dual focus of being able to think about the event with the brand goals and vision in mind, while still thinking through every detail of the attendee journey, is super valuable in this industry.

 

KIM HANEY

What I love about what I do, and what keeps me coming back, is that thrill, that agility and the ability to problem solve. There’s an empathy and sensitivity, but there’s something about a woman that brings a calm to a situation and can get us to a problem solved quickly. To that point of empathy, we think about consumers and where people might come from; how old they are, what sensitivities there might be. And I think there’s just a little bit of finesse that us women have when it comes to those kinds of things.

 

NAEEMA THOMPSON

I completely agree. I wrote a note about this, and my first thought was intrinsic empathy. You have to understand how to relate to people, how to really see the big picture and understand that people may relate to certain things in a different way. And I think that women have that ability because we always think about it for ourselves, so we want to extend that same grace to other people. And then there is your own personal background. I have an experience as a woman and have a unique experience as a Black woman, so that also informs the way I see things and the way I approach things, and I like to bring that perspective for others who may not have it or may not think about it as we create experiences.

 

TRISHA DEAN

I think that women bring an empathy and an emotional depth and intelligence that we’re able to understand and respond to more the softer or emotional needs of attendees, and that, in turn, leads us to creating more engaging and inclusive experiences. I think we’re a little more thoughtful. I think we slow down and actually think about the customer’s journey through an event from start to finish—down to tissues in the bathroom, extra amenities, lip balm, rubber bands. Just those little details that we know would make our lives easier, we want to extend that to our guests.

 

LIZ MONEY

Innately, women are drawn to creating communities. There is something about a female’s perspective and how it resonates from an emotional and an inclusive sense, that I feel like females are just innately skilled at tuning into the subtle cues and understanding what guests truly want and value from an experience, and then being able to create those memorable experiences.

 

LEAH STARK

I think of diversity and of balance. Women have a natural tendency to promote diversity, inclusivity, equal opportunities, fair pay. Those are things that we all intrinsically want. Women also have this natural, innate way to balance and multitask that only helps us push that boundary with our leadership when it comes to not only the work, but the well-being of the team and taking care of one another. If you’re getting burnt out, what does that mean? And how can we offload and help balance out workload for one another on the team?

 

MELINDA V. JOHNSON

One of the things that comes to mind for me, and a lot of this is because of the world we live in, we’re forced to do a lot and be a lot to all people. We live in a world, primarily, where leadership is run by men. But then we’re leaders within our families, whatever that family looks like—whether you have a spouse or you have children, or you’re single and leading your life. So, we bring to the industry the ability to be tapped into kind of the emotional side of what events bring. From a consumer lens, deeply understanding our consumers and who we talk to, but then also having this understanding of the culture and being tapped in.

That’s what is needed to make an event connect with people, is having something that sparks an insight. And women have this unique ability to be able to play in different worlds. I think, Leah, you described it as multitasking. But it’s also getting into those psychological and emotional places, which is really where great events are sparked from.

 CARLY ZIPP

A former boss, who was the company’s cmo, would always say, “Busy people do many things.” Women always have to multitask. It doesn’t matter if you’re a mom, if you’re a friend, if you’re a daughter— whatever you’re rocking, women just naturally are doing a lot of things a lot of the time. And so, I actually believe that “busy people do many things” means that you are stronger because you have to do something, complete it and move on to the next. Especially a plug for working moms—there’s so much going on during the day. Literally, my son, for the past nine days, has been sick, but within that, I still needed to go to Seattle for work. I needed to go to New York for work. In between, I was flying home and checking on him. On the plane, I was messaging with his teachers and his doctors, getting him his take-home work. You have no choice but to multitask and do a million things at once.

Let’s talk about having a finger on the pulse of culture. There are four generations in the workplace right now. How do you see the dynamics of the job evolving in the workplace and in events?

CARLY ZIPP

When I was starting to have kids, pre-pandemic, that was very hush-hush. I would sneak away for a doctor’s appointment. You had a work life, and then you had a kid life, and they just didn’t intersect. And I think the pandemic blew everything up. I used to really hide the fact that I had kids, and then all of a sudden, you’re on Zoom 12 hours a day, and your kids are constantly coming in and talking to the camera. So, I think it’s created this breakdown of the barrier between personal and professional. And I think people are encouraged to bring their whole selves to work.

My LinkedIn has always said empathetic leader, and I really pride myself on that. Brand marketers and event creatives, we have a lot of feelings all the time. That’s what makes us good at our jobs, so I encourage people to bring their true selves to work, as cheesy as that sounds, and lean into that because I think that’s what brings out the best in people.

 

LEAH STARK

I’m on a team that honestly spans maybe 57 all the way down to 24. It’s amazing. Of course, we have guest insights, and we have all these wonderful tools… but I think I’m in this really unique position where we have such a pool of different generations, to where it becomes this balance of teacher versus listener, and determining who’s on point in terms of who we’re engaging with to help tune in and orchestrate and listen and be very prescriptive in what our event is so that we can have that emotional connection to the audience we are trying to connect with. The many different generations we have available at our fingertips to tap into really makes this a fun and unique time to work.

 

MELINDA V. JOHNSON

Similarly, we have a very diverse team that spans the age cohorts. It’s important that you have that diversity in age cohorts and that everyone has a voice and a seat at the table, because our work teams have to reflect the environment and the consumers we’re talking to. As a team lead on a brand, I bring one perspective, but I think as leaders, we have to be humble enough to know that we don’t know it all or have it all. It gets really dangerous when you assume that you do, and you lose the ability to listen.

I, for one, love the younger thinking that the Gen Zs and Alphas are bringing, and I just love this push of self-care and mental health awareness that certainly is coming from a younger age demographic. Whereas, I grew up that you work hard, put your head down, you might have to accept some things. And this new crew is saying, “No, we’re not accepting that.” I’m all for it.

 

LEAH STARK

And what we’ve learned is that they want to celebrate the mini moments. They’re not waiting for the birthday, they’re not waiting for the anniversary, the promotion. It’s these little moments that can spark so much joy and connection. And to me, this is where events can lean in. We don’t need to wait for these big product reveals or these big moments. Maybe it’s National Donut Day, and you throw a big event just because people will get pumped, right? So, it’s this new way of thinking on events where having those different voices at the table can really help challenge us in: Why are we waiting for this? Why don’t we do these little spike moments?

TRISHA DEAN

My team runs the gamut of all the age groups, and I think that shows the passion that people have for events. Each generation needs to continue to remain adaptable and embrace innovation. The younger demographics care a lot about sustainability, inclusiveness and diversity at a level and depth that brings such an incredible, well-rounded experience to the events, which is huge. The biggest shift I’ve seen across all the team is the adoption of AI, but I also think that’s because of the sector we sit in, from a technology standpoint. We’re getting so much better about using it in analyzing attendee data, helping us write event provisions and website copy, optimizing budgets, so then, we can focus on building out the best experience.

 

LIZ MONEY

I have 20 years of experience, and marketing has changed so drastically with social media and technology, but before that, marketing was very traditional. What we did and how we created experiences and events was in a very traditional, boots-on-the-ground type of atmosphere. But I feel like what the younger generation is bringing is this savvy way of blending the traditional approach with this digital-first type of insight. All of these things create this really immersive component that resonates with a broad consumer, from Gen Z to Baby Boomer. When you’re doing events, you have to really think through: How am I going to please everybody at this event with the same types of experiences? How do I make sure that people with all these different personalities are walking away with the same message?

 

ANA GOETTSCH

This year, we ran a Pinterest event, and it was this experience in three different cities, and we were giving people this immersive digital and in-person experience, and I love what Liz said about it being so interconnected and woven together. Events are coming back in such a full force that every generation can find something that really brings them a new way to get inspired or explore. It’s not just about that traditional way of marketing, like Liz said, it really is about this integrated approach. And then also, what are people walking away with? And how are they remembering your brand after an event?

 

NAEEMA THOMPSON

It’s been very interesting, especially post-COVID, the whole shift to digital and technology—how it’s been such a big part of all of our jobs and the way we think about it. Technology rapidly changes and evolves, and it impacts our space such that the capabilities are different, like your reach and scale can now be different. But with that comes the challenge of dealing with different demographics. Some people are growing up with the technology, and it’s second nature to them, and then with others, there’s a bit of a learning curve. You have to find the balance of how to relate to and serve everyone.

Also, personal life impacts all of that because with the four generations, you have people who are grandparents, you have people who are parents and taking care of children and their own parents, people with young children, or people who are fresh out of college. You have different stages along the way, and everything impacts all of these different demographics in a different way.

 

KENDALL MCELLIOTT

I also think, how does AI come into play? Obviously, we are big into AI right now, so that’s top of mind for us. But when you think about it, there’s the younger generation growing up with this now. And so, will it be that AI tells me what event I go to this year? I’m an event director, I can go to one event this year and I want to network, or maybe I want to do training, and I ask AI or Copilot, what event should I go to?

 

KIM HANEY

Yes, I remember the first time we used RFID, and it was so clunky and so bad, but internally, we were like, “Oh, we used RFID!” Working in the drink space, the most important thing is the experience the consumer has with our brand in terms of the cocktail, but you go to Coachella, and there’s this expectation of some form of technology. And so, I take it on a case-by-case basis. I think about who the consumer is. You look at some of these music festivals where you don’t want a barrier to an experience, or to be doing something on your phone. We’re getting pushed more and more on our side of how we are using AI, but there’s also a cost barrier, which is a whole other bag of worms. It’s an ongoing challenge that I have, personally, to figure out. How do we marry all these things and make sure we’re not over asking the consumer for too much, especially when my goal is to get a drink into their hand responsibly?

What was a key career stepping stone for you, and what’s your advice for the next generation? Are there are enough opportunities for advancement in the industry?

TRISHA DEAN

No, there are not enough advancement opportunities. What happens is we tend to get stuck. We can rise up the ranks a little bit, and we get stuck. And that’s actually one of the reasons why I left Apple. We were an event team within a product area, and there was no growth. Event planners are never going to be ceos, and that’s not necessarily the role we play. We want to continue to create those experiences and direct these teams. But one of the reasons I left Apple was to come over here to Google and start something fresh. That was terrifying. It was standing up a whole new team… When you push yourself, you can see all that you’re capable of and how fast the industry changes.

 

KIM HANEY

I started out in the p.r. world. I applied for an internship at a p.r. agency, flew to New York, had no idea what I was getting myself into, worked for a woman who ran the agency, and did not realize in those two years of being her assistant, it was the most pivotal and critical training I had. The tools that she beat into my head are the tools I still use today. And I don’t think I realized how much of a mentor she was to me. Working in an agency is the ultimate training ground for anyone who works experiential. But for me, after spending about 10 years agency side, and then sort of turning and coming on brand side, I went from explaining to people back home, “Oh, I’m planning events” to “I’m an event marketer.”

As I bring new people in, I have to make sure I mentor them. I’m always encouraging they flex their muscles in different ways, dipping them into partnerships a bit or pushing them on a stretch project with the brand. It’s giving them back what I got.

KENDALL MCELLIOTT

This is a double-edged sword because I feel like there is not a lot of opportunity for advancement, especially in the senior-level role, because people in this industry generally love what they do. When someone finds a position that they’re passionate about, they tend to stay. And so that can result in fewer openings. And if there is an opening, then it’s highly competitive. I’m hiring a director on my team, and in less than 24 hours, I have had over 1,000 applications. It shows me there aren’t a lot of openings, and then when there is, people get so excited for it. For me, it took 10 years to get on the global events team because it was so hard and no one ever left. It was really about networking and continuing to follow up with the people on the team and continuing to ask what skills I need when a role does become available.

 

NAEEMA THOMPSON

The industry is not that big. There are so many different pieces of events: traditional marketing, experiential, media, etc. I think it’s important to hone your skills so that they become transferable. In my case, I started in the sports industry, and I’m now in financial services, but I’m still an events person. I always say to people: It’s the skill; it’s not the industry. That’s something you can take everywhere. I always thought that events, marketing and sponsorships they create this happy marriage, and in every piece of my career, I’ve honed a certain part of that triad to get me to where I am.

Mentorship is important, and I think there’s a difference between mentorship and sponsorship, though. You definitely want to have that mentor whom you can go to, bounce things off of and get their input about certain situations. But it’s also important to have that sponsor, the person who’s in the room who can speak for you on your behalf, kind of set you up for that position when it’s open.

 

LEAH STARK

I think connections and key relationships have been my stepping stones. Cold applying does feel nearly impossible, right? How do you stand out amongst a big stack of very qualified women in events? It’s having that key connection that can boost your resume up to that hiring manager. There are also tons of advancement opportunities, if you’re open to your advancement looking a little different. The way I grew up in events, you had to keep title jumping and going, going, going. And what I really do love about this new generation is they’re saying, “Maybe that doesn’t work for me. I just want a new brand to work with.” Or that a lateral move spells advancement because there’s a new project to work on. It’s more, how do you define advancement.

 LIZ MONEY

I was an art student. I wanted to go into design. I started at Vera Bradley and was brought through the ranks when the brand was kind of young in people’s knowledge of it. I came up under Barbara Bradley Baekgaard, who is the co-founder of Vera Bradley, and she is, at her heart, one of those women who you show up at her house and she can instantly create a spread that is warm and inviting, and I think that she really taught me a lot about that.

And then having been at BÉIS as a startup and launching the brand, I think there is a scrappiness to that. If you came to our first event and you come to them now, you would see huge growth and that we’ve learned a lot. And this brand has taught me a lot. Creating an event and experience is like building a mini business in a very short amount of time. There’s something in this simple pleasure of building and creating something, and then sitting back and enjoying it. And I feel like if you have that innate skill, then you probably would be a pretty decent event marketer.

 

ANA GOETTSCH

I was one of the first employees at Primal Kitchen, so I have a little bit of a similar background. When you come up in a startup environment and help build, grow and nurture something, you learn so much along the journey. Where I started, I was more of a Jill-of-all-trades marketing coordinator. Events really taught me that breadth, where you’re really having to interact with sales and marketing. I was in a b-to-b environment at the time, so like distributors, dealers, totally different setting from where I am today in food, but it really taught me that the interconnectivity between all of the departments is critical to a successful event.

And then I wanted to be in something that I was a little bit more passionate about. Being at Primal Kitchen and having people putting trust in me doing everything in marketing, events, demos, advertising, I really learned my skill set, and leading a marketing team has been so rewarding and fun to be able to start from a startup, sell to Kraft Heinz in 2019, and be here today. So, I think you can start in a place like a marketing coordinator position, doing events and learning so much, and you never know where that could take you. I would have never guessed that this is where I would be.

 

MELINDA V. JOHNSON

It’s so interesting to think back on how I grew up in my career. You get a good job, you do your work, you work hard, you keep your head down, you don’t share too much. Because you don’t want to make people uncomfortable. And especially being a woman of color, I grew up knowing that I was at a disadvantage or considered less than because I’m Black, but also because I’m a woman. So, I think earlier in my career, I operated from a space of fear, honestly. I was reserved and really didn’t show myself. I code switched, I wore a mask, all the things.

And I remember I had a manager who told me at the time, as a leader, you have to be willing to make the hard decisions and take the risks. You hear that no risk, no reward kind of philosophy in other industries, especially in finance. But it stuck with me. Fast forward to now, and especially in events, where the space is crowded, it’s hard to get consumers’ attention. You have to swing for the fences and go with something truly insightful and that probably isn’t safe.

 

What are some key skills experiential marketers need to be successful right now?

LEAH STARK

This whole role of digital and technology, right? It isn’t just an event standing alone anymore. It isn’t a question of: Is digital going to weave in? It’s: How is digital going to weave in? Because that is how the consumer is living. You go to your phone to shop, to read a review, to understand what you want to do that day. And people are putting more trust in influencers than ever before.

 

TRISHA DEAN

I never thought I would love data so much; I think it’s absolutely crucial. Understanding data helps us mitigate redundancies. In the grand scheme of things, there are only so many CXOs we’re targeting on a global scale, and think about how big Google, YouTube, Cloud and multiple teams are that are targeting the same CXOs with marketing communications invitations. You risk looking incredibly uncoordinated. They don’t know that the Google team over here sending you an email is not the same Google Cloud team over there sending you an email. It looks like one Google, so data helps us track our CXOs, where we’re hosting them, across all of the companies.

We know when and where to engage with them, so if somebody habitually says, “No,” an event strategy isn’t the right strategy. We should look at them as potentially one-on-one meetings and differentiate the touchpoints—make it a meeting request or deliver white papers, podcasts or something completely different. I’m using data to understand and meet them where they are and not oversaturate them. I think we tend to do that a little bit too much.

 

MELINDA V. JOHNSON

In the past, the one big thing was the event. Now, anytime we do something, we’re thinking about, OK, how does this cross over into social? How can we get press out of this? How can we grow our followers? How can we create other tie-ins? So, it’s really more 360—the event is there and great, but how do I get legs out of it? And then another skill that is overlooked is storytelling and creative thinking.

 

LEAH STARK

I’m going to build a little bit on the storytelling. There’s this really great desire for fresh, outside-of-the-box thinking, right? Like, it’s no longer the Instagrammable room that’s going to get you to an event. It’s, what is that immersive activity or that exchange, connection, that the consumer is getting when they come to your event? There’s so much out there, and there are so many ways you can do this, but how do you really break through?

 

KENDALL MCELLIOTT

The No. 1 things are problem solving, adaptability, being able to think on your feet. Inevitably, things don’t go as planned and are out of your control: the weather, more people coming than you thought, fewer people coming than you thought. And so, I think being able to problem solve, be creative and be strategic in thinking through is probably one of the biggest things that I like to look for.

 

KIM HANEY

For me, it’s multitasking and being able to juggle multiple projects. We work across all the brands, and each of my team members has three-plus brands that might have active programs happening. That’s where I go back to loving it when someone has agency experience. I would take a good attitude and a good vibe over a really strong strategist—we can figure out the strategy. It’s such a unique role to be in, and you have to love it. Seeing that passion is another big thing. Someone who really wants to get into it, run around and fix things.

NAEEMA THOMPSON

Everything just moves so fast, not just in technology, but in general. What’s the next new thing to stay ahead of the curve in creating a different type of experience for people? It’s staying on top of trends and knowing what your audience wants. What can we give them more of? How can we improve on what they already like? What do we not do anymore? That’s equally as important, as well.

 

CARLY ZIPP

Events are these amazing times when everything comes together, and you’re managing so many different people and so many different logistics, and you have so many people to please. Inevitably, someone is going to be upset about something, or someone is going to think that what you think is beautiful looks bad. And so, as an event marketer, you really have to just have a thick skin, not take it personally and just move forward.

What I love about events is there’s a beginning, a middle and an end. And the great thing is that at the end of the event, even if you had a moment where you could have been in your feelings, 99 percent of the time, everyone’s happy. So, you still get the payoff. Just remember that and keep your eye on the prize of the objective, and we’re going to get there.

 

Along those lines, what is something you would change about the industry?

KIM HANEY

Measurement. We do so much in driving culture, and it’s so hard to measure that and to measure the cultural relevance of our brands. Sponsoring Heidi Klum’s Halloween party, that is cool. We got a great opportunity and all this amazing press, and so many people tried our brand… and then you have to sort of show it. I wish I had a more turnkey way for measuring every single thing we do, and most of it is measurable, but with some of this stuff, I sometimes have to say, “Trust me, it is cultural relevance, and it will pay off.”

 

NAEEMA THOMPSON

It’s definitely the burning question over here. In financial services, every event that I have is not going to have someone who turns around and opens a $2 million account. That’s not how this works.

But I’d like to see more opportunities for generalists, as opposed to becoming an SME so early. I think it’s so much more important to gain as much understanding of as many different aspects of marketing as early as possible because then that helps you push a bit further in your career. You can plug and play where you need to be.

KENDALL MCELLIOTT

Budget constraints are still really hard for everyone. We’re constantly doing more with less, and then it becomes what do we have to cut? Inevitably, you don’t get to be as creative. Everyone’s under that constraint of having to deliver high-impact events and memorable experiences but on a tighter budget than ever before. I don’t know if it feels the same for you guys?

 

NAEEMA THOMPSON

Same!

KIM HANEY

Same, same. And the prices seem to be going up, so there’s also that. If you want to do a custom build, that’s expensive. We’re feeling it, too.

LEAH STARK

I would love to see events become more sustainably focused. If it’s a photo backdrop, are there groups out there that will go and take your photo backdrop and find a new home for that after? If your events can then emulate your sustainability stance, you’re only creating greater loyalty with your consumer and you’re showing that you’re a brand standing behind all these values.

 

MELINDA V. JOHNSON

I would change how events are perceived in the ecosystem of marketing. I feel like a lot of the things that we end up leaning into or that are pitched to us via our media agencies, don’t recognize a place for experiential.

And so, I always feel like we have to do a better job of quantifying why we need that connection and what it gets for us. In marketing, a lot of the things we do are quantified with data, and I also feel there should be a more robust adaptation of events as a way to more universally quantify the effectiveness. Some sort of industry standard. Oftentimes, you have a leadership change, and it can be a fight to justify why are we spending money on that? Or why are we part of that event?

 

LEAH STARK

And you need the budget to have the human that is collecting “buzz” that can then turn that back around. But I think the one thing that we’ve found success with, if you can carve out budget for it, is to make a sizzle reel out of the event as a recap—which, it’s not cheap, right? That to me can speak so much louder than still photos just because you see emotion and interaction.

 

MELINDA V. JOHNSON

I think, too, a lot of times, the video is helpful because senior leadership might not ever go or engage or get down on the people’s level. All of us should be making sure leadership gets to an event so they can see what it’s about and how consumers are interacting with our brands and what it means. When you see the emotion, it triggers something in you. And it’s not this fluffy thing that the marketers are doing to spend money.

 

LIZ MONEY

There is something about really thinking of long-term impact. When we look at the lifetime value of a consumer who came to us from an event or a pop-up, they have a greater value than even our most valuable consumer, which is a consumer that we host in our mobile app. And for a luggage brand, that’s really saying something. You buy a piece of luggage; you hope that it lasts for five to 10 years. You’re not typically purchasing over and over again. And for that, we have a really high return consumer rate. Almost 50 percent of our consumers return back into our funnel. A lot of that has to do with our product offering, but I also think it’s about the community that we build through these events.

ANA GOETTSCH

As a woman who has been in events, I think more men could come into the event space. I don’t see a lot of men leading and managing events. It’s good to have more perspectives.

 

So how can event marketers better advocate for the discipline as the key business driver that we know it is?

ANA GOETTSCH

One of the most interesting questions I feel like all event marketers grapple with is around the investment—the time, energy and effort. Your cfo asks, “Well, what’s your true return?” And you say, this is where the rubber meets the road of how a brand shows up in spaces where people build community, from tailgates to marathons. Sometimes the intangible is what makes the magic, where consumers walk away and they’re like, that was a cool brand, that was really fun.

 

TRISHA DEAN

Even with AI, we still haven’t figured out an amazing way to capture survey data and how much the impact has had on a customer to really get ROI to ensure that it’s aligned with business goals and quantifying our impact. I have some hardcore event rules with respect to how the team engages with customers, like watching them and understanding where they’re engaging the most from, where customers are most happy and where they’re not. Those are your biggest moments of key takeaways to be able to have impact.

As event people, we’re all really good about blending in and yet still being able to track how guests are feeling and what they need and what they do. You can go above and beyond in the smallest ways by listening and watching. It’s not an official ROI metric, but that is how I think that you know you’ve hit success. You have to see and experience it yourself so you can figure out where the holes are for next time and how to continue to uplevel that high-touch experience.

 

LIZ MONEY

The measurement part is so hard, as I’m currently fighting for dollars for 2025. I have been digging into the KPIs we can create around this, and the post-purchase survey has been a really great gauge for us on events, influencers, any kind of traditional marketing, because you can weight that to see, for example, if only 20 percent of my consumers respond, and 10 percent of them said that they heard about us from an event, if I weight that up, I can tie a revenue to it, which is, at the end of the day, most important to the executive-level team. But it’s also about word of mouth. If we’re building a meaningful community, and I think events is 100 percent part of that, then word of mouth is just going to be more and more expressed through the people who are engaging with our brand and our product.

 

NAEEMA THOMPSON

Collaboration internally is so important. It’s a hard sell to get the buy-in from people who are not in events because they don’t understand what this means if it doesn’t convert to a number, but everything does not always have to translate to a direct dollar for dollar, as we know… It’s important to try to find the passion points of the people who you’re trying to service and then deliver that to them. Then hopefully, they’ll see the same type of return that we see or in place of the tangible numbers that we can’t always get.

 

KIM HANEY

We can show that people want the product, that they like it, that they understand why our brand is there. But how are we showing the bottom line, like true purchase intent? In that instance, it’s us making sure we’re working with our sales team. It’s however we can pull through and show some lift in sales, like around Jameson for St. Patrick’s Day. We did a huge program in the middle of Times Square, and it’s like let’s see just a little bump on the sales. While it’s not immediate, we can go, “That was us.” I have to be able to connect it to the bottom line. And I think we show the way consumers interact with our brand, the way we customize the programming to our consumers. We have believers internally; we really do. It just comes down to spend.

KENDALL MCELLIOTT

It’s about both the qualitative and the quantitative data, and then storytelling that data, too. You really have to be able to show how it aligns to the goals that we have set in place or the objectives for that event, whether it’s brand recognition, customer engagement or product launch. It’s not just about us, it’s also about our partners because the partner ecosystem is super important to us, as well. If they’re happy too, then that’s another check mark that we’re on the right path.