GPJ DDEM Case Study – The Resource Summit
THE RESOURCE SUMMIT CHALLENGE*
(*Our client has allowed us to tell their story, but for privacy purposes we have changed the name of the company and event for this case study.)
Resource is a multi-billion-dollar software company that provides a variety of accounting, payroll, HR, and payments processing services for small to mid-size businesses.
Through 2013 Resource’s flagship event, Resource Summit, was a product training event for existing customers and Partners, and faced several key strategic challenges:
- declining attendance
- messaging not aligned with overall product strategy and market positioning
- new online training investments made a training event redundant
- event was at best revenue neutral
- not designed to increase revenue or attract new customers
Many at Resource felt Resource Summit no longer contributed enough value to the business, so in 2014, Resource asked GPJ to help reimagine its flagship event experience…
THE GPJ DDEM SOLUTION
The GPJ DDEM Innovation Cycle
GPJ enthusiastically accepted the challenge.
To help Resource accomplish this ambitious transformation, GPJ deployed its signature DDEM Solution, The GPJ Experiential Ecosystem ®. a holistic, strategic and data-driven approach that leverages three key value drivers through cycles of continuous improvement.
TRANSFORMATIVE RESULTS
GPJ deployed its signature data-driven experiential marketing solution (DDEM) to lead software giant, Resource, to achieve powerful business results including:
- A remarkable, three-year strategic transformation of Resource Summit from low- value training event to high impact marketing experience and key revenue driver;
- Unification of key digital and experiential data to inform the event strategy, audience engagement, and content and creative development;
- Transformation of Resource’s global experiential technology ecosystem, including integration with ongoing CRM and Marketing Automation campaigns.
How GPJ Deployed its DDEM Value Drivers for Resource
Value Driver #1 — Digital and Experiential Data Unification
GPJ helped Resource solve a variety of significant, but common, data challenges.
| Data Challenge | How GPJ Addressed the Challenge |
| Fear of Data Loss During Technology Migration |
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Need for a New Data Strategy |
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Integrating with CRM / MA |
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Value Driver #2 — Unique Insights and Business Recommendations
The GPJ Team proposed that the reimagined Resource Summit become a Marketing investment designed to deliver more value to the business in three ways:
- Manifest the brand through customer, partner, and prospect engagement;
- Drive increased volume of new leads captured through events; and
- Contribute customer and prospect intelligence captured through events to improve the effectiveness of marketing automation and CRM campaigns.
New Content and Engagement Strategies
Transitioning from a narrow training event to a robust marketing experience required new content and engagement strategies:
- Big Ideas — exclusive live experiences to demonstrate Resource brand values and build the foundation for all future conversations.
- Success Stories — inspiring, thought provoking stories of success, failure, challenge, and opportunity from entrepreneurial peers.
- Success Strategies — demonstrates the value proposition of Resource solutions by presenting problem / benefit scenarios in key categories.
New Value Attribution / Success Measurement Model
The strategic shift from a revenue neutral training event to a marketing investment and revenue driver required a new value attribution model for the Resource experiential portfolio that would capture its key contributions to business value creation, such as:
- Resource Summit drives buyer and prospect engagement with Resource, increases awareness of products, and drives sales pipeline volume and velocity
- Data captured from product demo leads and attendee session scans helps build pipeline and accelerate conversion to sale
- Connected digital / virtual experience extends event content and conversation and drives post-event engagement
Value Driver #3 — Ecosystem to Deliver Personalized Experiences
GPJ helped Resource design and implement a new technology ecosystem to support the delivery of highly personalized experiences across its entire event portfolio.
Objectives of the New Ecosystem
- Single, global system to support the entire Resource portfolio — including registration, housing, content management, and exhibitor services capabilities
- Seamless technology integration to drive greater flexibility and ecosystem nimbleness (e.g., easier to swap-out new components)
- Focus on technology scalability and integration rather than customization
- Successful integration with CRM and MA platforms
- Improved access to individual user data to support experience personalization and detailed reporting (transaction history, sponsorship integration, etc.)
- Reduced costs over time
