On Sale Live

Last Friday our Marketing Account Executive Juliet attended the second ever On Sale Live, organised by Dawn Farrow. The day promised a jam-packed line-up of industry professionals gathering together to compare notes on marketing in the experience economy, and boy, did it deliver. In addition to the great talks at the main stage, there were smaller expert discussions, professional coaching groups, and even 1-to-1 coaching sessions available. I went into the day caffeinated and armed with a notebook and pen, and left with my brain full of marketing knowledge from some of the industry’s best.

Our day kicked off with a brilliant panel on reviewing the here and now, discussing what’s changed and what’s yet to come. There were some really insightful observations, such as how and when to utilise microtrends in your marketing; was anyone else shocked to find out that the weather was such a huge factor in people choosing to buy a lil drink add-on? Turns out that when it’s sunny, the people want their wine! 

It was also interesting to hear the extent to which reviews can be considered marketing. A bad review with good SEO is more likely to turn a potential customer away than an ad that doesn’t quite hit the mark, which serves as a good reminder not to neglect your PR! All in all, we entered the day with a whole host of fascinating thoughts buzzing around our minds, not least of all that we ourselves are consumers as well as marketers and that we should remember as much in our work.

Next up was a really engaging talk by Stuart Beare of Tulley’s Farm. I’ve never been lucky enough to visit Tulley’s, but I certainly will now! Stuart talked us through the farm’s history and how the iconic seasonal events came to be, blooming from the key ethos that Tulley’s only wanted to do things that they knew they could excel at. Now, with a famous Halloween season and influencer backing from household names, Tulley’s is a testament to the idea that it’s better to be a master of one than a jack of all trades.

Following on, there was another panel on capitalising on fandom, which is the talk I’d been most excited for. (In case you missed them, check out my previous blogs on working with fan communities in arts marketing here and here…) Chaired by Blue Bookhard, experts Krista Tuchscherer, Arishekola Adeyemi, Harry Lockyear and Jonathan Taylor spoke in depth about how marketing turns audiences into advocates. I was particularly interested in how Krista explained how to work with your loyal audiences when working with existing IP, and how involving the fans from the beginning of a process enabled creatives to develop something that meets fans expectations whilst developing the canon into something new. I also loved the emphasis that Harry placed on trust, and how developing and nurturing the trust audiences have in you to create something worthwhile is vital to the process of developing and keeping a fandom.

Onto my favourite talk of the day, Kelly Estrella gave a brilliant keynote on selling the invisible. It put into words something that I’d been struggling to articulate to others who don’t work in events marketing; how do we sell something that the audience can’t immediately see, hear, touch, taste or smell? A lot of events marketing seems to rely on constantly telling the audience ‘trust me, you’ll love it. Now please pay.’ But Kelly broke down a great framework which you can use to guide your marketing strategy when the product is out of reach, focusing on how you can communicate to your audience that an event is for them, and that it’ll deliver on the feeling that they want.

We can’t have a blog post talking about marketing discourse without mentioning AI. I found the On Sale event to be pleasingly free of heavy AI debate, but a few individual speakers did have comments to make, from Sarah Painter’s ‘first mile, last mile’ approach to Kelly Estella’s assurance that AI can’t replace the reason people show up. Overall, the sentiment seemed to be that AI can be a useful tool, but that we as marketers (and consumers) still have the power when it comes to live events. After all, does a robot know how it feels to finally see your favourite band live, or hear a rendition of ‘to be or not to be’ that finally clarifies what Hamlet’s actually talking about for the first time? No it does not. And this take felt refreshing and, dare I say, empowering.

The day finished off with a discussion between Dawn Farrow and actor Tom Burke, which was an exciting finish and wonderful to hear about an actor’s take on marketing and how the creative and organisational sides of projects can work better together.

Finally, there was drinks and mingling, which is always my favourite part. The event altogether brought in the weekend with a positive, enlightening and super informative blast, and I can’t wait for next year!

Were you there on Friday? If you've any thoughts on the event and its learning to share do let us know, we’d love to hear from you!

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