There’s a lot going on in the world of event marketing, so we’ve pulled together these highlights for you.

From MPG's viewpoint, over the last 6 months we've seen more investment going into OPTIMISING digital channels.

Optimisation is all about ensuring all your marketing activity is more effective in reaching the right people at the right time with the right message.

AI can play a significant role with refined automation feeding better data into better systems, resulting in better targeting and timing, especially in PPC and paid media.  This is a great example of where AI is creating real value.

Building on these themes, here's your update from Team MPG on all things event marketing...
 

EVENT MARKETING STRATEGIES

3 areas of marketing getting investment from forward thinking event organisers

#1  Spex marketing strategies

The race is on to capture clients’ 2026 sponsorship and exhibitions budgets! Events are booming, giving clients a lot of choice. This increases competition, so it’s more important than ever to invest well in spex marketing. Read the MPG Insights article on why spex marketing (commercial marketing) is so important, and see our relevant LinkedIn post on why so many events businesses get it wrong.
 

#2  PPC that is multi-channel, multi-format & AI-enabled

Which marketing channels are most important for event marketing? Your website is #1, email marketing is #2, and PPC/paid media #3. It essential now to do all three of these well for a successful event, and especially important to ensure your email marketing is personalised and being used for targeted cold outreach as well as nurturing and conversions. Far too many event organisers are still using the ‘spray and pray’ approach – usually because their data is not segmented, or they don’t have the resources or skills to do anything more sophisticated – or both.

But not running ads on Google or LinkedIn is a huge mistake if you want to retain or get to the top spot in your market. With SEO falling off a cliff and yet to be replaced with effective AIO, and with emails not finding inboxes, it’s essential to proactively reach beyond your database with well-targeted, digital campaigns.

5 reasons to have PPC/paid media in your event marketing mix:

1. Create a scalable, measurable marketing engine. You’ll get more relevant web traffic, leads, and online reg and sales that you can tie back to specific marketing campaigns.

2. Quickly boost reach. Your emails are only reaching a fraction of your target market. Don’t let your competitors get to the rest before you do.

3. Rapidly build awareness and brand trust. If your target customers often see your brand in multiple places in their daily workflow, they’re going to know and trust you faster.

4. Get more email opens and clicks. Email performance is better when digital ads are running at the same time.

5. AI in PPC is really effective, when trained well. A lot of money is being wasted right now (gifted to Google!) as the AI in PPC campaigns is not being trained by humans with the right skills.

Here are 3 red flags when investing in PPC.

MPG runs regular free 60 min expert briefings on PPC/Paid Media for events. These are invite only for event organisers. Please enquire here if you’d like to request an invitation.
 

#3  Analytics – properly done

You can’t measure marketing ROI if your analytics is not done – or not done properly. Don’t spend any money on PPC until this is sorted! Otherwise you’re just giving money to Google for invisible or no return.
 

MPG DIARY

MPG hosted gatherings coming soon:

• Expert Briefing: AI in PPC for B2B Events - 30th October & 19th November

• Event Marketing Leaders Roundtable - 15th January

• SpEx Marketing Strategy Roundtable - 29th January

To request an invitation for one or more of these closed-door sessions, enquire here.

Events MPG will be attending: 

• Event Tech Live - 12 & 13 November

• The Definitive AI Forum for Media, Information & Events - 25 November

• AEO Marketing Forum – 30 January

• International Confex – 25 & 26 February
   

Latest MPG Insights

• The email marketing performance problem

• Your SEO/AIO Action Plan

• What Google’s AI Mode means for PPC
   

Team MPG

As Team MPG evolves and grows to serve our customers in the best way, we’ve organised ourselves into the following five service pillars – all focused on events:

• Audience marketing: multichannel, integrated marketing to attract & retain event attendees.

• Commercial marketing: multichannel, integrated marketing to attract & retain sponsors & exhibitors.

• PPC/paid media: highly targeted, scalable digital marketing - complements & fills gaps left by email & SEO.

• Analysis & reporting: real-time benchmarked ‘in campaign’ results + engagement scoring predicts event attendance.

• Tech stacks & databases: automated data flows & streamlined processes + database growth + AI-enabling data quality & structure improvements.

To find out more, get in touch.

 

And that’s a wrap for October. I'd always love to hear from you so please drop me a line if you’d like to talk ‘event marketing’.

Kind regards,

Helen Coetzee
Founder & CEO, MPG