Hybrid event programs: Mixing b-to-b and b-to-c

Instead of spending weeks on the road focusing entirely on consumers, marketers are now mixing it up: spending weekends at b-to-c stops and weekdays with b-to-b customers, or splitting days in half—mornings with consumers, afternoons with the trade. One tour, two targets.

JVC Company of America, for example, took a customized bus to retailers during a four-month tour that ended last fall. In the mornings before business hours, JVC invited store employees on board to learn about specific product features for its new Everio G camcorder and HD-ILA TVs. Once the store opened, the focus turned to a tented exhibit outside of the bus, where consumers could interact with the products and ask brand ambassadors questions.

But creating and executing a tour to hit two totally different targets isn’t as easy as adding a few stops and shifting schedules. While one vehicle can be used for both audiences, each group requires its own distinct experience.

Four tips:

1. Create Different Atmospheres. For the JVC tour, the brand found that while the bus provided an ideal location to train employees—18 to 20 could comfortably sit and view a presentation—the enclosed space of the bus was too confining for consumers who might just want a quick peek at the products.

“We were able to customize [the buses] in a way that worked well for the trade, but would not have worked well for consumers,” says Jon Lesser, president of Gillette, NJ-based Zag Marketing, the agency that executed the tour. The pavilion outside, he says, was “a much larger room, and it allowed for better traffic flow.”

2. Embrace Versatile Elements. When Pergo, the flooring manufacturer, hit the road last year for a tour aimed at retailers and consumers, the brand used the same outdoor exhibit for both audiences. But by choosing design elements that could be swapped in and out for each target, Pergo was still able to deliver a specific message to each.

Part of the display was a board that highlighted different product features. For retailers, the board might highlight price; for consumers, the focus was how to use the product to spruce up a room. “We were able to turn it around so it could serve two different purposes,” says Jenny Price, assistant marketing manager at Pergo.

3. Differentiate the Presentation. One key aspect of creating different experiences for two targets is tweaking the pitch. Pergo, for example, employed two different video presentations for its tour. The retailer-specific video was heavy on training, while the consumer-focused video used a more lighthearted approach to tout the product’s durability.

“The training and support elements were taken out because it wasn’t appropriate for the consumer,” says Marcy Singer, producer-brand promotions at Boston-based Arnold Worldwide, which handled the tour.

For JVC, reps did live presentations of the products for retailers, emphasizing key selling points and encouraging the store staff to get hands-on with the products. For the consumers, the brand toned it down and allowed consumers to ask most of the questions.

“We kind of crafted the [consumer] pitch as playing it by ear,” Lesser says. “We focused on what the customer was interested in, and [emphasized] some really basic points of the products.”

4. Devote Extra Time to Training. Brand reps might be experts in the product line, but that doesn’t mean they’ll automatically know how to speak to both audiences. “We spent more than a week training the people who manned the tour, and we had to teach them how to speak differently to the consumers than to the retailers,” says Price. “It was intense.”

JVC brought several of its in-house products to brief the tour ambassadors, gearing them up to talk shop with retailers. Says Lesser: “We did all the things we normally do, but we ratcheted it up a few notches.”