THE BUSINESS OF STORYTELLING How global convention bureaus can use content marketing to target North American corporate meetings and events

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Though content marketing has become a buzzword in recent times, the concept itself is not new, harking back to the days when inflight magazines first appeared in airlines. The goals remain the same—use content to build consumer trust, create community, and cultivate brand loyalty—but the means by which to produce, distribute, and consume content in today’s digital age have vastly expanded. Destination marketing organizations (DMOs) for the leisure travel industry have found much success in digital content marketing, but convention bureaus (CBs) for meetings and events have been slow to utilize this marketing strategy.

Content marketing provides an opportunity to reach this market, as many corporate planners seek ways to become more strategic in their professional roles. By using content to position themselves as helpful experts and thought leaders, CBs can build a trusted, long-term relationship with these planners.

One particular bureau, Tourisme Montréal, has set a leading example with a dedicated meetings and conventions blog. The blog not only features promotional content about Montréal, but also provides planners with helpful tips, downloadable guides, and thoughtful interviews and articles about the meetings industry in general. The investment in the blog has paid off in helping to position the city as an innovative destination with a dynamic community, and has helped Montréal’s sales team to start meaningful conversations with potential leads.

The CB’s role in conference and event planning is changing, however, particularly in the fragmented and fast-paced corporate meetings market of North America. The influx of digitally savvy, socially connected Millennials into the workforce and the growth of the international Knowledge Economy have changed the way corporate meeting planners evaluate destinations. Major global conferences such as Social Media Week continue to disrupt the industry, and CBs can no longer rely on traditional marketing tactics to influence destination selection.

The most important element to remember about content marketing is that it’s not about advertising or promotion, but rather about providing useful and relevant information that positions a brand or organization as a credible resource. Over the long term, good content can build authority and cultivate trust and brand loyalty. This report provides strategies and tips on content creation and distribution to CBs looking to build a successful content marketing strategy for meetings and events. Global CBs targeting the North American meetings market should also consider a North American-based partner that best understands the nuances and style of the media landscape and can assist with outreach and distribution of content to a target audience.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

INDEX: Executive Summary

Overview: Content marketing in the digital age

Millennials and the Knowledge Economy: New norms in the corporate meetings market

Case Study: Meetings à la Montréal

Strategies and Implementation: How to kickoff an effective content marketing plan to market destinations for North American meetings and events

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OVERVIEW: CONTENT MARKETING IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Content marketing has recently become a hot marketing buzzword (a fact perfectly illustrated by this Google Trends chart on searches for “content marketing” in the last few years), but in actuality, content marketing itself is not new. In fact, the travel industry was one of the first to make this tactic popular, with Pan Am’s introduction of the world’s first inflight magazine, Clipper. This branded magazine provided passengers with useful, entertaining content on destinations that encouraged more air travel without having to explicitly advertise Pan Am.

The goal of content marketing then, as it is now, remains the same: create content that resonates deeply with your customer to build trust, create community, and cultivate brand loyalty.1 The big difference now is the means by which to create content. In today’s digital age, content comes in a multitude of forms (blogs, video, podcasts, webinars, ebooks, etc.) and is distributed through a variety of new channels, including social media, SEO, sponsored content, guest contributing, and more. Furthermore, the speed at which we can now create and disseminate content is equally matched by how fast we consume and share it, to the point where a piece of content’s “virality” is now an important measure of its success.2

1 Influence & Co. “Content Marketing: A Historical Strategy in the Digital Age.” Jan 23, 2014.

2 The Moz Blog. “The Secret Recipe for Viral Content Marketing Success.” May 7, 2013.

3 Skift. “What Travel Marketers Can Learn From New Orleans’ Move to Digital Marketing.” Apr 23, 2014.

4 Skift. “Interview: Brand USA CEO on the Next Phase of Marketing America Abroad.” Jul 30, 2014.

5 Skift. “Visit California Gets Into Content Marketing with 24-Hour YouTube Takeover.” Feb 28, 2014.

For the most part, the travel industry has experimented with digital content marketing to some degree of success. In recent years, traditionally budget-conscious destination marketing organizations (DMOs) have begun to shift their marketing spend away from print and TV channels to digital. Just last year New Orleans Tourism moved 50 percent of their marketing budget to online channels to great success, investing in native advertising opportunities such as their content partnership with viral content site BuzzFeed.3

Others have developed their own unique digital content campaigns, such as Brand USA’s “Great American Food Stories” microsite and e-book4 or Visit California’s “Dream 365 Project” video and YouTube campaign.5

The travel industry’s first form of content marketing: inflight magazines.

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The goal of content marketing then, as it is now, remains the same: create content that resonates deeply with your customer to build trust, create community, and cultivate brand loyalty.

6 Corporate Meetings Network. “Why event planners need content marketing.” Sept 17, 2014.

Though digital content marketing has been largely successful for DMOs on the leisure side, the strategy has been slow to catch on for convention bureaus (CBs) for meetings and events, despite the growing popularity of event planners utilizing content marketing.6 Even with the robust multimedia and social media platforms available, many CBs continue to use digital solely as a broadcasting and sales tool rather than an engagement tool.

The CB’s role in meeting planning is changing, however, particularly in the fragmented and fast-moving corporate meetings and events market. The rise of the Millennial generation and the growing Knowledge Economy are changing the ways conferences and events happen, and CBs can no longer rely only on traditional marketing tactics to influence destination selection.

Content marketing provides a unique opportunity for CBs to evolve their relationship with meeting planners from simply being a seller to that of a trusted partner. The following report examines the peculiarities and significant changes of today’s corporate meetings and events market, reviews best practices from CBs, and outlines steps for implementing a successful content marketing strategy to target North American corporate meetings and events buyers.

WAYS TO DISTRIBUTE CONTENT:

• Social media• Search engine

optimization (SEO)• Native advertising • Sponsored content • Guest contributions • Email newsletters

HOW CONTENT IS CONSUMED:

• Constantly through by-the-minute news cycle

• Quickly because of content overload and lack of time

• Virally through the power of social media

CONTENT IN THE DIGITAL AGE

WAYS TO CREATE CONTENT FOR WEBSITES AND APPS: • Blog posts and articles • Video• Photography • Infographics• Podcasts• Webinars• Downloadable e-books

and white papers • Interactive maps• Guides and tip sheets

“Great American Food Stories” microsite by Brand USA. Bottom: “Dream 365” video campaign by Visit California.

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THE BUSINESS OF STORYTELLINGMILLENNIALS AND

THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY: NEW NORMS IN THE CORPORATE MEETINGS MARKET

For CBs, targeting the corporate meetings market can be a challenge. A highly fragmented market, corporate meetings range drastically in nature and size. The lead time is also extremely short: the average is just 45-60 days, according to the American Express 2014 Global Meetings & Events Forecast. Adding to that variability are certain non-negotiable corporate requirements, such as pricing, hotel requirements, and location. With so many considerations and so little planning time, corporate meeting planners seek information in the quickest way possible, turning to online review sites and strategic meetings management platforms like Cvent to research destinations and plan events.

The CB usually plays a minor role, if any. According to Bharet Malhotra, Senior VP of Sales at Cvent, though CBs offer benefits such as destination expertise, venue and service suggestions, and even funding, “small programs—say under 50 room nights—may not think to contact a CB.” This can be attributed to what Cvent calls the “accidental meeting planner”—those tasked with planning event within an organization, but aren’t truly planners by title. “These types of planners may not think to reach CBs because they are an unknown resource,” Malhotra explains. Furthermore, some planners don’t reach out to the CB until after the destination has been selected, and usually it’s only when a destination is “very unfamiliar to them, mostly outside of their country,” says Malhotra.

Some new conferences are bypassing the traditional CB/buyer relationship completely. Social Media Week (SMW), a biannual global conference taking place in multiple cities across five continents simultaneously, has a unique destination selection process. According to Toby Daniels, CEO of CrowdCentric (the primary company behind the event), the site selection team uses statistical research to evaluate destinations based on country size, population and density, Internet connectivity, access to smartphones and technology, and social media penetration and usage per capita. Cities must also have a track record and reputation of media communication and innovation. “Approximately 100 cities apply each year,” says Daniels. “Only half qualify based on these criteria.” Final selection depends on the city planning committee’s resources, expertise, and what they promise to bring to the event.

“Planners find reassurance in the expert. The goal isn’t just to sell your destination, but to position yourself as a thought leader.”

BHARET MALHOTRA Senior VP of Sales at Cvent

Social Media Week, a biannual conference that happens in multiple cities simultaneously, uses statistical analysis to evaluate destinations. Pictured: SMW in Berlin.

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keep up. “The current destination marketing ecosystem was built for Boomers by Boomers,” MacMillan says. “They are struggling to shift it into a world where advertising and traditional selling now has less impact.”

Where traditional marketing strategies have weakened, content marketing can fill in the gap to reach this new generation of meeting planners. Raised in the digital age, Millennials grew up bombarded by advertising and are too savvy to feel “tricked” by sales pitches, according to a recent HVS report. Instead, Milllennials, who are quite comfortable using social media and user-generated review sites, prefer the “expert opinions” of their peers—on average, they check 10.2 sources before booking travel.8 MacMillan quotes Scott Cook, co-founder of Intuit, in this regard: “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is—it is what consumers tell each other it is.”9

7 Convene. “CMP Series: In The Know.” December 2012

8 HVS. “Top 10 Trends of the Next Generation of Travel: The Millennials.” Apr 10, 2013.

9 Hacking the System. “Connecting the Dots Between Destination Product Development and Destination Marketing.” Aug 26, 2014.

In addition to its heavy emphasis on technology, Social Media Week’s site selection process also illustrates a trend towards favoring cities for their intellectual resources in addition to their meeting infrastructure.7 According to Michelle Russell, Editor-in-Chief of PCMA’s Convene (the publication of the Professional Convention Management Association), the rise of the “Knowledge Economy” has changed the way planners evaluate destinations—the concentration and availability of industry expertise has become an important part of the site selection process, as it provides access to potential speakers, sponsors, and attendees.

This new disruptive format of conferences and events, in part led by the technology-driven Millennial generation, will soon become the norm. Bruce MacMillan, event marketer and author of the blog “Hacking the System,” says CBs will need to innovate if they are to

When it comes to the corporate meetings market, good content marketing can position CBs as part of the trusted “experts” that planners turn to for advice. Corporate planners have indicated that it is often a challenge to be seen as a strategic member of their organizations by their leadership, according to Russell. As she explains, “Corporate planners [have told us that they] are seen more as fulfilling an administrative or logistics function rather than as someone who can achieve the strategic goals of a company and show return on investment.” Destinations can build a trusted relationship with these planners with “quality content that helps them be better at their jobs.” Malhotra agrees. “Planners find reassurance in the expert,” he says. “The goal isn’t just to sell your destination, but to position yourself as a thought leader.”

QUICK INSIGHTS: MILLENNIALS IN THE MEETINGS INDUSTRY

Millennials are entering the meeting planning industry in greater numbers as Baby Boomers retire. From 2012 to 2014, the average age of corporate meeting planners has dropped from 47.7 to 45, while the average age of independent and third-party planners has dropped from 49.4 to 45. (Source: M&C Salary Survey)

A 2012 study found that Millennials strongly preferred meetings and conventions that have an “edutainment” component (activities that are educational yet entertaining) that utilizes technology. Researchers attribute this to a generational sense of entitlement in which Millennials are always seeking to benefit professionally and socially from their activities. (Source: PCMA)

Millennials are exploratory travelers: 78 percent of them want to learn something new while traveling, and 56 percent of them extend business trips into leisure trips. For meeting planners, this means finding a host city that offers unique local opportunities outside the boundaries of the meeting. (Source: PCMA)

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To become a host city for Social Media Week, cities must show a proven track record in media communication and innovation. Pictured: Social Media Week in Singapore.

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CASE STUDY: MEETINGS À LA MONTRÉAL

Last year, Tourisme Montréal launched a dedicated meetings and conventions blog entitled “Meetings à la Montréal” to supplement its brand website. In addition to its usual online resources and tools typical of most CB meeting and convention sites, the blog publishes twice-weekly posts on industry news, featured partners, unique events and venues in the city, interviews with industry leaders, and other general information. Emmanuelle Legault, VP of Marketing, says that the editorial team creates a 60/40 mix of helpful meeting planning tips vs. promotional pieces on Montreal.

“Meetings à la Montréal” blog posts purposely deviate from the type of content generally found in marketing materials, adopting a more casual tone and style typical to pop-culture media, such as in the piece “10 Amazing Montréal Venues You Didn’t Even Know You Could Rent.” They are also not afraid to poke fun at themselves. In the post “Montréal’s

Myth Busters: 5 Things You Thought You Knew About Montréal,” the city admits to its cold winters, but says jokingly that it’s “nothing a glass of Québec ice cider can’t fix.”

Simply providing content that is useful or helpful to planners, even if it has nothing to do with the destination, is also important. Legault says one of the blog’s popular posts was “Tourisme Montréal’s Social Media Checklist for Event Planners,” which included a quick guide and downloadable tip sheet. “We had a lot of shares and one large professional association asked us if they could use our tip sheet to send to their members,” Legault says. “This was a great opportunity to get the Montréal brand out there to qualified leads in the context of sharing helpful information, rather than a sales pitch. We generated a lot of goodwill for Montréal simply by offering a free tool that was actually helpful.”

To promote the blog, Legault and

her team uses a combination of paid and organic tactics, including SEO and SEM, sponsored posts and advertorials, guest posting on sites such as Cvent, social media, and “good old-fashioned word-of-mouth.” In addition to maintaining its own social accounts, Tourisme Montréal encourages team members and partners to share content on individual social media accounts, especially on professional networking sites such as LinkedIn.

The investment in the blog has started to pay off, though its effect is indirect, confirms Legault. “While we can’t draw a straight line between a blog post and a confirmed booking—nor do we expect to—we know that positioning Montréal as a creative, innovative destination with a helpful, knowledgeable team and dynamic local community helps our sales team start the conversation with potential clients. The material and presence we develop for our brand can make that first contact friendlier and more fruitful.”

“While we can’t draw a straight line between a blog post and a confirmed booking—nor do we expect to—we know that positioning Montréal as a creative, innovative destination with a helpful, knowledgeable team and dynamic local community helps our sales team start the conversation with potential clients.”

EMMANUELLE LEGAULT VP of Marketing, Tourisme Montréal

Tourisme Montréal’s dedicated meetings and conventions blog, “Meetings à la Montréal.”

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STRATEGIES AND IMPLEMENTATION: How to kickoff an effective content marketing plan to market destinations for North American meetings and events

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10 BizBash. “How to use Content Marketing to Drive Success for Your Next Event.” Jul 21, 2014.

CONTENT CREATIONWhen it comes to developing content, “the temptation for CBs is to make a sales pitch,” says MacMillan. “But the key is to link your brand to content that your audience finds value in. The sales transaction will eventually happen.” Daniels, whose Social Media Week site has a popular blog, says that it’s important to think of content as a vehicle for stimulating conversation. “You can’t engage for engagement’s sake,” he says. “You need something to anchor that conversation to—a starter, a provocative idea. What questions can we ask? What problems can we solve? What ideas can we share?”

As Tourisme Montréal has illustrated, it’s important to have a good mix of content that not only highlights the destination, but also provides useful or helpful information that will help planners do their job better.

As stated in BizBash’s guide to content marketing for events, the most important thing to remember is that content marketing is not advertising or promotion. It’s about providing useful and relevant information to a target audience so that they can see a brand or organization as a credible resource on a topic.10 And it’s not a short-term strategy either—with today’s 24-hour news cycle, it’s important to consistently deliver great content in order to build authority and trust, and create loyal fans.

A good content marketing strategy involves two important considerations: creation, which involves the substance and medium of the content, and distribution, the way in which to deliver content to a target audience.

STARTER TIPS:

KEEP CONTENT SHORT, DIGESTIBLE, AND USEFUL. Consider content that doesn’t require much time or energy of the reader. Things like how-to guides, tip sheets, and casual “listicles” (Example: “Natural Light: 7 Montréal Venues That Let The Light Shine In”) are also great for planners to bookmark and revisit later when they need the information.

USE VISUAL MEDIA TO CREATE AN IMPACT. Rebecca Jones, Director of Industry Relations at BCD M&I, says that planners love visual content because it’s shareable. “High-resolution pictures or quick video clips (one to two minutes max) are great, because we can embed them in presentations to our clients,” she says. “It’s also helpful to create and organize content by theme: culture, activities, nightlife, dining, and so on.”

SHOWCASE YOUR DESTINATION’S INTELLECTUAL RESOURCES. Identify the pockets of industry expertise in your destination and then feature local business leaders and influencers to get their take on the city. MacMillan points to initiatives such as this “Big Influence” microsite and video series produced by the Dallas CVB as good examples.

BECOME A THOUGHT LEADER IN YOUR INDUSTRY. CBs should use content to help promote their brand and reputation goals. For example, Montréal, in its efforts to be seen as a forward-thinking hub of creativity and innovation, frequently interviews meeting professionals and industry influencers on topics ranging from interactive meeting technology to mobile app platforms to managing Wi-Fi needs at events.

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CONTENT DISTRIBUTION Content has little effect without a proper distribution strategy. Many have heard the expression “content is king,” but good content alone is only half the strategy. (Remember, a king has little power without subjects to rule over.) A good distribution strategy is important for getting content to the right target audience through all possible media channels.

In the case of Tourisme Montréal’s meetings blog, there was a concerted team effort to promote the blog and distribute its content, from organic tactics such as social media and word of mouth, to paid tactics such as sponsored content and advertorials.

STARTER TIPS:

UTILIZE SOCIAL MEDIA TO SHARE CONTENT. In addition to sharing content via branded destination accounts, allow staff and team members to promote the content on their individual accounts, especially on professional sites like LinkedIn. These are the people who will be meeting buyers face-to-face; good content can serve as a jumping off point for starting the conversation.

MAKE YOUR CONTENT MORE EASILY DISCOVERABLE THROUGH GOOD SEO TACTICS. Learn or invest in solid SEO strategy so that your content is not getting left behind on Google. Adopt best practices such as optimizing key-words and phrases, using proper URL and page title structure, and incor-porating Google authorship to give more domain authority to your site.

PUBLISH ON THIRD-PARTY SITES—BOTH PAID AND FREE. It can be more effective to publish your content on other media sites via native advertising (such as New Orlean’s paid content partnership with BuzzFeed), or guest contributions (especially in major business media such as Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, or Fast Company).

Seek out publications that your target audience will be reading: meetings publications such as Meetings & Conventions and Cvent’s event planning and strategic meetings blogs accept guest contributors. Keep in mind that content needs to meet the editorial style and standards of each individual publication, and overtly promotional content is not allowed. This distribution method works best for establishing the CB as a thought leader.

GO THE “OLD-FASHIONED” WAY: EMAIL. For all the new ways of communication available, email is still an effective way to put your content in front of your target audience, especially if they are subscribers who have elected to receive your newsletters. Instead of producing large digests of content for the newsletter, however, highlight only a few pieces around a specific topic and snappy headline. According to Jones, planners will save these emails, so making them easy to find for later is important.

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CONCLUSION Effective content marketing doesn’t happen overnight—it’s a long-term investment in establishing your destination’s brand and building a trusted connection with your audience. The benefits are not limited to the corporate meetings market either; good content can also build goodwill and strong relationships with association meetings buyers as well.

After setting a content creation and distribution strategy, CBs also need to consider building out their operational plan. In that regard, CBs should think like a media publisher: host regular brainstorms to develop and share content ideas, maintain a consistent editorial calendar to make sure content is published frequently and in a timely manner,

and establish distribution procedures so that content reaches its intended audience, whether that’s through social media or a regular newsletter.

Global CBs targeting the North American meetings market should strongly consider working with a North American-based agency that is familiar with the nuances of the local industry and media landscape. As content marketing is about participating in a conversation—the sharing and exchange of ideas and information—it is important to have a partner that is well-versed in the lingo and style of local media, and can assist in outreach and distribution of content to the target audience.

“The key is to link your brand to content that your audience finds value in. The sales transaction will eventually happen.”

BRUCE MACMILLIAN event marketer and author of the blog “Hacking the System”

Marketing Challenges International, Inc. is the North American marketing office of leading international convention bureaus and convention centers. MCIntl is an established thought leader in global destination marketing for meetings and conventions, having translated our industry insights and passion for travel into success for over 25 years. Our company provides trends research and reporting, business development, and consulting and execution of marketing strategies.

For additional information, please contact Michel Couturier at mc@mcintl.com.

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