Client: Purple Exhibits
The Problems:
1. Networking during a global pandemic
2. Breaking traditions of face-to-face
3. Resistance to new experiences
Covid-19 left the events industry in desolation. Not just for hotels, airlines & conference centers, but siphoning billions of dollars in how many enterprises chase revenue: Events & networking.
The Purple Virtual World presents itself as a pylon to those starving for an opportunity to network as they did in a world where meeting face-to-face was an option. In the purple world, you embody an avatar that allows you to walk fluidly throughout a campus engaging with attendees just as you would in real life – with the ability to remain in your pajamas.
The Purple Virtual team was struggling to gain traction beyond the mavens they developed through test usage. It’s easy for someone to “get it” when their hand is held through the experience, but what would convince someone who has been attending events for over a decade to accept this new normal? Their inaugural event to showcase the platform needed to be a home run. So that’s why they came to us.
The Diagnostic
1. Not a video game
2. Eliminates travel expenses
3. Subverts in-person social pressures
Between the time we were introduced to the Purple Virtual World and the signing on of this engagement, our mindset shifted from this is “cool, fun & unnecessary” to “revolutionary and better than real life.” We needed to figure out what the “it factor” was that had us pivot our perception and present it to those who have not yet tried it.
So we dug deep.
The initial presentation can be comparable to a video game. A novelty (for a moment) to some, and a complete turn off to others. “How can anything digital compare to face-to-face interactions?” Was a battle that Purple Virtual was fighting before working with us. We seized that fight. Embrace its differentiation.
The virtual world frees you of social burdens and judgments. Your dress, height, age, weight, and saves you a lot of money on suits. If a person isn’t top-notch in confidence at approaching a group of people in real life – they have a barrier represented as an avatar to sneak in to any conversation by backflipping (literally) into it.
Conversing in the virtual world dismantles social pressures of in-person events while opening the door for equal access to anyone around the world that can now attend without committing to flights, hotels, time, and fiscal expenditures. Conferences eat away at productivity resources for businesses – yet they engage in them because there are profits to be made. Attend more, drain less.
The Video
Our discovery & diagnostic process (summarized in the previous paragraphs) allowed us to figure out what Purple Virtual’s clients want and need to not just temporarily survive – but embrace evolution during this pandemic. Once we determine the messaging and data about customer perception, we have the source of what is driving our aesthetic design in our creative. Any promotional “creative” without this process possesses a worth less than zero, because it would otherwise be a drainage pipe for resources.
Impacts
1. Validated early adopters shared our message on social media with pride
2. Created an attention economy that others wanted to become a part of
3. Online conferences grew from 100 to 1,000 attendees
4. We received a lot of enthused “I get it now’s.” Reactions poured in by the hundreds after nearly 4,000 people viewed the fruits of our strategy. These were organic views on Linkedin. The inaugural event had over 100 paying attendees. Purple Virtual has hosted conferences since with up to 1,000 attendees.
