Automotive Case Study: The Parking Lot Party
MUG Summary
As a result of COVID-19 and the stay-at-home orders instituted around the world in 2020, in-person events were suddenly canceled and switched to virtual experiences. This forced marketers to pivot from utilizing the strategies they once relied on to connect with their audience, to a whole new and unfamiliar environment. They struggled but evolved while they waited with hope of returning to in-person events. When the time finally came, marketers were left with the question: "How do we safely resume our in-person events?"
During the May 2020 Manufacturing Virtual Marketo User Group (VMUG), Michael Tucker and Stephanie Sweetland discuss how Marketers can use their Marketing Automation (Adobe Marketo Engage) and Event Marketing Tools (CVENT) to bring back, and get the most, out of their live events. To showcase the full power of Adobe Marketo Engage and CVENT, Michael and Stephanie used a case study involving a Parking Lot Party hosted by a Chevy Buick GMC Dealership to show how a company could leverage the power of Marketing Automation throughout this massive in-person event.
Case Study Summary
The Parking Lot Party example used for this case study involves a Chevy Buick GMC Dealership in Northwest Georgia. It was mirrored after a 2013 Lee Brice concert at Carl Black Chevy GMC Dealership in Kennesaw, GA. During this event, attendees will have the opportunity to watch a concert, visit signing booths and take photos, purchase food from various food vendors, receive swag giveaways, visit with various guests such as local cheerleaders, and test drive a number of vehicles. The test drives, which are the ultimate goal from a sales and marketing standpoint include a Chevy Off-Road Experience with a Chevy Silverado, a Full Family Petting Zoo Experience with a GMC Acadia, and a Chevy "Invisible Boat" Launch with a Chevy Blazer and boat trailer.
Case Study Challenges
There are a couple of challenges and potential issues that organizers will need to be aware of and plan for when putting together this event.
- Being in the Southeastern region of the United States, and the time of the year this event is set for, brings up concerns for rapidly changing weather conditions such as severe thunderstorms of tornados. How do organizers stay ahead of changing weather conditions and implement emergency procedures before they become life-threatening to the attendees?
- A second challenge to consider is how to maintain social distancing guidelines in the wake of COVID-19. How can organizers track crowd sizes?
Marketo Program
A sample Adobe Marketo Engage program was developed for this case study that include two program types, an Event Program and an Engagement, or Nurture, Program. Using the Engagement Program, each of the test drive experiences are added as individual programs complete with dynamic content specific to the customer segmentations identified for this event. For this case study, the customer segmentations that were identified include Off-Road Enthusiasts, Suburban Families, and Corporate Fleet Owners. Each of these segmentations are then marketed in specific orders through the different nurture streams setup in the program. For example, the off-road enthusiast leads would receive the content around the Chevy Off-Road Experience first, the boat launch party second, and finally the invitation to the petting zoo experience. Additionally, social media advertising is set-up through the nurture program allowing for real time marketing of your target audiences.
Marketo can also be used to solve some of the potential challenges identified for an event like this. The first challenge identified was changing weather conditions. While not a native integration to Marketo, you can set up an integration with a weather app such as AccuWeather to monitor weather conditions in your area. From there, pre-programmed responses can be established within Marketo to trigger under the right weather conditions. Within the event program, various scenarios can then be built out that include who is notified and what that communication would say.
For example, a Tornado watch is issued for your area. The pre-programmed response in Marketo then triggers the watch program which includes a text alert (if you have SMS capabilities) to specific individuals working the event notifying them of the watch status. With this alert, they can then begin prepping emergency shelter locations should they be needed. A short time later, the alert level is raised to a Tornado Warning and residents are advised to seek shelter. The Marketo program is triggered to then send out specific alerts to the various organizers to begin following emergency shelter procedures. For more information about a weather implementation into your Marketo Instance, visit Weather Personalization with Conversion Store.
The next challenge identified was maintaining social distancing guidelines through attendance limits. In the Adobe Marketo Engage program, the event channel was updated to have a “checked in” and “checked out” status. This allows an event organizer to see how many individuals are present at any given time during the event. Using a tool such as CVENT, organizers can use QR code readers through tablet or phone apps to check in participants. This tool is then integrated with Marketo to update lead engagement.
CVENT Event Platform
The CVENT event platform offers a variety of event planning tools including online registrations, venue procurement, vendor contracting and engagement, and logistics management. In addition to the in-person event assistance, CVENT also provides a virtual event support in the form of live audio and video feeds, interactive Q&A’s and polling questions, surveys, and virtual attendance tracking. In addition to event logistics and tracking, CVENT will integrate with a number of platforms including Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and so much more. This allows for tracking of not just event data (i.e. location, date, etc.) but contact and activity data for your leads.
For more information on how CVENT and Adobe Marketo Engage can be used together to get the most out of your in-person or hybrid events, you can check out the May 2020 – Marketo Case Study: The Parking Lot Party VMUG recording below.
