Accelerating Engagement with Hybrid Events
VIBE Helps Porsche Reconnect with Key Audiences
Case Study
In Person Event
When planned carefully, hybrid events can create expanded opportunities for brands to solidify relationships with guests in ways that are tailored to different audience expectations. For luxury automotive brand Porsche, the company’s annual meeting had been held completely virtually in 2020, and the brand now wanted to strengthen ties between its investors and management employees.
The virtual event the previous year presented a unique advantage by allowing more people to participate without requiring time away from the office, but the brand knew investors to prefer more direct interaction with each other and the brand. A hybrid event would allow for both groups to be served with high levels of personalization and attention to detail, without compromising safety or budget.
THE ASK
Since the 4-day gathering was one of Porsche’s first to have any in-person attendance since the pandemic, it was important to make the most of all activities. The strategy was to combine two conferences together to maximize brand exposure and connectivity across all audiences. The Investor’s Conference would focus on financial goals and objectives, while the Importer’s Conference would highlight the sales and marketing roll-out for the future of the brand. An awards ceremony – The
George’s Awards – would also be part of the event, honoring the Director of the Miami Office, George Wills and recognizing the special efforts of people moving the brand forward.
THE ANSWER
One of the unique aspects of the annual conferences has been the two-way dialogue that is welcomed and encouraged during the team’s time together. Investors and Importers are invited to discuss progress, changes, challenges, and concerns with openness and honesty, often leading to brainstorming about how to build a better future.
To make sure this continued to happen across both digital and in-person audiences, VIBE conducted annual in-person COVID testing on a daily basis and organized all event venues in strict accordance with COVID-19 safety guidelines. VIBE also coordinated state-of-the-art technologies for presentations, communication tools, and interactive responses so that meetings, workshops, and even dining experiences united audiences online and live at the venue – EAST Hotel in Miami’s Brickell Financial District. A main meeting room plus four breakout rooms were set up with individual armchairs and tablet to allow for better social distancing between in-person guests, and the plenary sessions in the main room were simulcast to digital attendees.
Other event highlights included a visit to the new Porsche offices in Miami, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony followed by a private dinner at Fleming’s Steakhouse in Brickell where investors could simply talk one-on-one with each other. The second day of the conference included confidential brand information, and access was restricted by security personnel and a mandatory check in for personal cell phones and devices to eliminate unauthorized sharing of information. Digital guests were granted similar restricted access for privacy concerns. Later that day, the Importers and brand representatives arrived at the conference and a welcome dinner was held at Quinto la Huella located at the EAST hotel.
For the gala dinner portion of the event, the Porsche theme was “Excite!” The concept was to bring all audiences together to get “excited” about brand standards and values like Integrity, Relationships, Loyalty, and Efficiency while also giving guests a change to personally experience the Porsche difference. VIBE achieved this by hiring additional staff for a more intimate staff-to-guest ratio, and pre-event research on each guest to know their likes and dislikes ahead of time. During registration on the event’s website, guests were asked to share “What is Your Dream?” and those answers were divided amongst envelopes on each table to serve as a conversation starter as guests worked to figure out whose dream belonged to whom.
VIBE then took the experience further with a mentalism and magician performer, Miro, who not only predicted some of the guest’s dreams, but amazed them with surprising dinner service that the guests themselves predicted. Additional plenary sessions rounded out the event, and a “best of” awards ceremony with an Oscars theme by the hotel pool closed out the gathering.
THE VIBE
