On the 13th of August 2020, we streamed our global webinar detailing “The step-by-step process for organizing impactful virtual events and digitizing your collections next season.” Hosted by our VP of Digital Marketing Gina Gulberti and Product Marketing Manager, Michelle Nicolaizeau the duo talked through the opportunities for brands in the fashion, luxury, and beauty industries to amplify their digital event or collection with the right processes and planning.
Key Takeaways on Digitizing Collections and Creating Impactful Virtual Events
“Combine the momentum of your events with complementary content.”
As brands shift to digital channels to present their events it’s important that they don’t disregard marketing tactics that have also proved valuable for physical events. When asked how influencers fit into the scope of digital events, Gina noted that these digitally-native Voices can be instrumental still in driving traffic towards online events. Implementing a 360-degree campaign around your collection launch or event can allow you to leverage the right Voices and get more quality leads tuning into to your live stream or digital session.
For example, influencers are a vital driver of media value for physical fashion weeks, with fans often looking at the street style from outside shows, rather than the collections of the shows themselves. Setting up a campaign for a digital show which still involves and utilizes these tastemakers can build hype around the show itself and attract people who may not have known about it otherwise.
“Afer your event, don’t just leave it there. Measure its success to inform your future strategies.”
Michelle walked attendees through how to plan, set up, and run digital events in the context of new collection launches, and one of her points to remember was around measuring events after they take place. By taking into account how many people attended the event vs. how many people RSVP’d as well as who was talking about your event (either on socials or media outlets), you can start to understand what worked and what might not have. Always check the number of leads you generated, and what proportion of those leads are qualified leads, to work out whether it is worth hosting a similar event in the future.
“Be prepared.”
Not everyone is fully versed in the art of the digital event as of yet and in order to make sure things go off without a hitch, and to maximize the event potential, you should do what you can to plan ahead of time. Practice your event internally with run-throughs, get to know the streaming software you’re going to be using, display event hashtags during the stream so people can easily mention you on social media, include captions, CTAs, and click-through links so that if people read your resources after the event, they have a better chance of converting. Create a checklist of everything you need to get done in preparation for the event so that you don’t miss anything.
Below, you can view all of the slides from the webinar and extract insights out of the information provided for your future event and digital collection planning: