How do you create over 900 registrations internationally from scratch for New Zealand’s cutting-edge VR, AR & XR research webinar? Well, there wasn’t much sitting around.
UniServices and the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment needed a way to ensure New Zealand’s world-class expertise in Virtual, Augmented and Extended Realities reached both a domestic and international audience. The primary purposes of the event were to showcase New Zealand’s capabilities to local and foreign markets, expose members of the public to the latest research, and deepen the understanding of global trends within the sector.
The major box to tick was 200 attendees, while remaining within an allocated budget. This meant exceeding a target of 600 registrations in order to achieve a successful turnout. Because, you know, life happens.
The plan was to utilise numerous platforms, reviewing the performance of each channel as the campaign progressed so that we could react and optimise our strategy. The tools of choice were Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google. Each would feature slightly different sophisticated targeting of interests, job titles and countries in order to keep diversity amongst our sign-ups. Leading the charge was a conversion-optimised Facebook and Instagram campaign, utilising the Facebook Pixel integration offered by Eventbrite’s website.
Our foundation content was four pairs of imagery and copy, with Google uniquely containing image-only or copy-only variations. The imagery was to show some variety, encompassing Virtual, Augmented and Extended Realities while retaining a consistent futuristic identity. These combinations were adapted to fit correctly within each placement.
Over the campaign’s two weeks, our eyes were peeled for trends and opportunities. This allowed us to redistribute the budget into higher performing platforms, though cost per result was not the only factor. Quality of leads was an essential consideration, as the event was ultimately about marketing New Zealand’s knowledge to the global industry. This meant refining the targeting based around potential attributes and promising countries was crucial to the long-term success of the event.
During the approximate two weeks of the campaign’s activity, the event had achieved 1,074,343 impressions, 2,750 Link Clicks, and 901 registrations total.
Our major Facebook and Instagram conversion campaign reached 122,036 people, generated 1,031 clicks and 387 registrations as a result.
52% of our total registrations were welcomed from overseas, with sign-ups in 33 different countries and the 226 unique attendees who participated in conversation and were “highly engaged” – surely that outweighs even the ol’ double tap measurement of engagement?
You’ve got to love when reality exceeds expectations.
