In the B2B sphere, webinar advertisements experienced a short-lived drop in August. By September, the number of brands running webinar ads began to increase again as brands sought to draw audiences despite webinar fatigue.

We encourage you to subscribe to our blog for the latest data surrounding the advertising industry. We will provide daily updates as COVID-19 continues to make its mark on the US economy.

From Stages and Showcases to Screens at Home

When the US declared a state of emergency due to COVID-19, most states enacted some level of stay-at-home orders. Events, one of the most powerful tools in the B2B marketing arsenal, were canceled. Many of these events were consolidated or transformed into webinars and virtual events.

Webinars and virtual events addressed the need for professional connection when traditional networking opportunities were wiped out. 

Right from the beginning, virtual events made sense for those looking for this connection while out of the office. By the end of May—just over two months since COVID was classified as a state of emergency—the number of webinars was up by 1000%.

As B2B marketers executed more virtual events, they picked up on practices that made events more effective. Improved practices allowed brands to: capture attention, drive demand, and create differentiated experiences for their audiences. However, with the multitude of events and webinars online, attending professionals began to feel burnt out.

Webinar Fatigue

During the summer, leaders started experiencing webinar fatigue, or disinterest in attending online presentations due to event overload. Even though webinar attendance was necessary, many leaders became exhausted after attending online presentations one after another. 

Webinars won’t disappear though. After all, 73% of B2B marketers and sales leaders believe that webinars are the best way to generate high-quality leads, according to ZoomInfo. It just requires that webinar planners need to be more creative, intentional, and flexible when planning their next event.

Changing between pre-recorded and live content, offering succinct content, and engaging audience members can all help combat webinar fatigue and keep attendees interested. This way, webinars stand a chance against Slack community meme threads or a nap in the home office. 

MediaRadar Insights

With webinars becoming so popular, there’s been a significant increase in the number of ads for webinars as the year’s gone on.

Webinar ads hit their highest peak in July, a 185% increase in the number of brands running ads since the beginning of the year.

The number of brands running webinar ads dropped significantly in August, which could be due to brands reflecting on how to best respond to webinar fatigue. 

However, the drop didn’t last long. Brands running webinar ads started rising again the following month. The numbers didn’t return to July levels immediately—but the number of brands running webinar ads in September was up 148% compared to January. 

While the business world may make slow steps towards returning to normal, webinars and virtual events are here to stay until live events are safe again. 

For more updates like this, stay tuned. Subscribe to our blog for more updates on coronavirus and its mark on the economy.

During COVID, we’ve seen:

• LinkedIn release ‘Virtual Events’
• Virtual event solutions see their business go up by 1000%
• Projections of online video change: By 2021 80% of all internet traffic will be video (including web conferencing)

Of the virtual events publishers run, webinars aren’t the most advanced. But they are still a favorite. 

As restrictions lift and events come back, will we see the growth of webinars go back to normal levels? We haven’t seen any drop in webinar ads yet.

We encourage you to subscribe to our blog for the latest data surrounding the advertising industry. We will provide daily updates as COVID-19 continues to make its mark on the US economy.

Events will come back, but webinars aren’t slowing down

In 2019, our data shows that over 70k companies sponsored and exhibited at an event. Most of those events were cancelled or postponed this year, but many will be coming back in the third quarter. 

“I’m very excited to be getting groups back,” said Mark Tester, executive director of the Orange County Convention Center, the second-largest convention site in North America. Its first event, a volleyball tournament with 10,000 people, will take place in July. By the fall, the convention center hopes to have its full schedule back.

Global DMC Partners, the largest global network of independent destination management companies, conducted a meetings and events survey that found that 64 percent of respondents predicted that they will host live events sometime between August 2020 and January 2021. 

But even with in-person events possible, professionals will want to reap the benefits of online meetings, webinars and events. The advantages, such as lower costs, no travel and a more targeted focus in webinars, have already been made obvious.

Since the beginning of the year, the number of brands running webinar ads has more than doubled.

We do not see any hint of webinars slowing down.

“It will prove to be more affordable in terms of money and time to (virtually) attend conferences and seminars, and webinars will become a much more consistent part of the mainstream,” explains GO1 Co-founder Vu Tran. Webinars are here to stay — but people do miss the human connection of in-person events. 

Is there a middle ground?

Events will take on a hybrid format

It’s likely that COVID-19’s mark on events will be that it makes hybrid events more commonplace. 

“Between now and two years from now, we think there will be some bridge strategies,” John Capano, senior vice president of client development at Impact XM. Big events are supposed to come back in the third and fourth quarters, but many will be a fusion between physical and virtual. 

This could look like a mix of prerecorded content and live content, plus the ability to direct message speakers, participate in chat rooms and virtual lounges. The main event could be in one location, plus satellite locations to keep attendance lower.

Informa plc, the world’s largest exhibitions firm saw their webinar production triple. Despite the uptick of online events, Rick McConnel, president of North America Informa Markets, believes the future trade show will be a mix of live and online. Combining the two will bring the social element people crave and the programmatic matchmaking elements that make online events highly effective. 

While the cancellation of events was a blow to the $1.5 trillion global business, it has made room for creativity. Over the next few years, online and in-person events will be evolving in ways that we wouldn’t have expected just a few months ago. 

For more updates like this, stay tuned. Subscribe to our blog for more updates on coronavirus and its mark on the economy.

With the widespread cancellation of events and trade shows this year, B2B webinars have become even more prominent in the marketer’s playbook. 

As a result, we have seen an increase in B2B webinar advertisements. 

Here, we share the data we uncovered related to the recent spike in B2B webinars. 

We encourage you to subscribe to our blog for the latest data surrounding the advertising industry. We will provide daily updates as COVID-19 continues to make its mark on the US economy.

B2B webinars were already a favorite, but are now essential

Even before the Covid-19 outbreak, a study found that 91% of professionals said webinars were their top learning format. The same survey found that 54% of B2B marketers engaged with webinars on a weekly or daily basis. 

Webinars allow leaders to promote a product, while engaging with leads in a more conversational way. In normal times, webinars are highly valuable for industry leaders to connect and learn from each other. 

But these are not normal times — now marketers need to lean into their virtual tools even more than before.

“There’s this big pressure to reallocate budget, reallocate quickly, to get to a place where we’re going to be able to fill this gap in demand that we were relying on for these shows,” told Ashley Shailer, VP of Marketing at Inverta to Demand Gen Report. Before the crisis got heated up in mid-March, 50 corporate event cancellations had already disrupted the plans of more than a million attendees. 

With event cancellations, marketers had to readjust their strategies. In a recent study, 65% of B2B marketers said that they planned to reallocate some or most of their live event budgets to online events, such as webinars.

On top of replacing live events, many marketers are using webinars to discuss what their work looks like during times of uncertainty, working from home with kids and all the other questions professionals are having right now. 

No matter the purpose of the webinar, it is clear that webinars are having a moment.

MediaRadar Insights

B2B webinars are competing for many eyes. 

When it comes to the number of B2B brands running webinar ads, there was a 36% increase between February and March. This is more than double the month-over-month increase we saw last year.

Some of the most active brands promoting webinars in March included:

• Oracle
• Cisco
• Six Group
• Porex Corp

Most of the creative did not specifically mention the virus. Instead, it seemed most brands were looking to simply promote their products and services. 

However, there were some outliers. 

Campbell’s sponsored a webinar on how restaurants are responding to the crisis.

Aside from event cancellations, there are many factors driving webinars — a lack of social interaction in the office, industries pivoting, unemployed individuals seeking new learning opportunities, etc.

While we don’t know how long the sickness will impact the economy, we will continue to track its impact on ad spending. 

For more updates like this, stay tuned. Subscribe to our blog for more updates on coronavirus and its mark on the economy.

Hosting events provides a substantial revenue stream for trade media companies and a key means of engagement for advertisers. 

Statista reports that event sponsorships are expected to exceed $63 billion dollars this year. And, according to Bizzabo, 81 percent of marketers feel that live events are becoming more important to their company’s success. An even higher proportion of executive leaders believe that in-person events are a critical component of their company’s success.

Hosting an event can lead to better engagement, more revenue and even new relationships. But to get the most out of events, you have to ask the right questions. For any B2B publication, these include: 

• How do you get an effective event strategy in place?
• Where — and what — are event sponsors buying?
• How do you engage with sponsors?
• What is the ROI on creating a new trade publication event? 
• How do you follow up after an event? 
• Where is the most value in a B2B event? Booth sizes? Sponsorship packages? Lead engagement? 

The average retail event can bring in over $6 million in revenue for a trade publication. How can you meet that mark? 

On September 10, industry thought leaders Todd Krizelman (MediaRadar) and Alon Waks (Bizzabo) dove into the power of events from both host and marketer perspective.

They will show you how events can be leveraged to significantly impact your revenue — and answer all of your most pressing event marketing questions. 

Click the links above to download the webinar. You’ll learn:

• Where exhibitors and event sponsors are buying ads
• Key insights into the event advertising landscape for trade media
• What types of ads event sponsors are buying
• What media formats brands are utilizing in their ads
• How an effective event strategy can drive business goals
• How to increase event attendance and analyze ROI
• How the value of in-person connections translates into increasing revenue

In this webinar replay MediaRadar’s CEO, Todd Krizelman, shares five simple pre-call steps to help you win more deals.

From understanding your prospects’ needs to knowing your value within the market, Todd helps you break through the noise and get the meeting.

This actionable webinar will help you prepare for your next call.

During the webinar replay you will learn how to:

• Take control of the call from the very first step
• Figure out which prospects to focus on first
• Determine how valuable your prospect finds your audience
• Make your communication with every prospect compelling

Watch the Webinar

What they’re saying about the webinar:

“Great info, thanks for sharing. Loved that it was informative, quick & to the point. Good tips!”

“Really great useful and practical tips, I enjoyed the laid back style, very easy to understand him and he spoke slowly but with passion.”

“Smart take-away for me was a reminder on how much time to spend on composing an email to prospect!”

“Wonderful information, and fantastic tips!!”

“Easy to understand and follow. I am a seasoned seller and am happy to hear reinforcement of my selling methodologies. It never hurts to hear that you’re doing things correctly. Thanks!”

“It was informative. It reassures me of the simple rules to follow and not to take for granted.”

“Many thanks for the really helpful, clearly articulated and inspiring webinar! I’m just disappointed that my Client meeting ran long, so that I joined the webinar late (about 20 mins in.).”

“I was struck by how lucid and true all your points were/are, and by the fact that many aspects of the specific advice are, as you say, straightforward – may even seem simple. But … difficult to execute with discipline, careful thought, and to do so, consistently!”

“I look forward to applying the excellent reminders + fresh new thoughts, & recommendations you shared today.”

Watch the Webinar