Founder and president of ADCOLOR Tiffany R. Warren presented from Sound Investment’s Livestream Studio.Photo: Courtesy of ADCOLOR
"My vision was to always have ADCOLOR going everywhere and to extend our reach globally. With the pandemic, we had to make the decision to go virtual this year, which in turn created the opportunity to reach new audiences,” said Tiffany R. Warren, founder and president of ADCOLOR. “With this virtual extension of ADCOLOR, we now have that global reach and a new responsibility to deliver relevant content to creative professionals all over the world.”
Appropriately called ADCOLOR Everywhere, this year’s conference, which featured the theme "Here For It," was held from Sept. 8-11 and included panel discussions, an award presentation, and a livestreamed performance by Wyclef Jean from the Apollo Theater, with attendees and speakers from multiple industries including advertising, marketing, media, entertainment, public relations, and tech.
Despite the switch to virtual, Yvonne McNair, chief experience officer of Captivate Marketing Group and the conference’s producer (and one of BizBash's top 500 event professionals of 2020), explained that the team was able to capture the attendees’ attention, even in the midst of all the current digital distractions. She said that engagement and retention were “extremely high. We had 77% retention over the course of the conference. We built a community of over 8,300 attendees that registered and created profiles that allow for continued networking.” The original one-day in-person event would have only been able to host 1,200 attendees. In total, the event's content received over 100,000 views.
McNair was able to accomplish this by utilizing some gamification techniques, such as creating a leaderboard, sponsored by LinkedIn, that awarded prizes based on activity with a greater emphasis on sponsored content. Each sponsor’s curated content was presented on a branded breakout stage, with some partners holding “office hours” where they were able to engage directly with attendees. The event’s presenting sponsors included Facebook, Google/YouTube, and Omnicom Group.
Also, via Sound Investment’s Livestream Studio, a live host was able to react in real time to attendee feedback that popped up in a chat, as well as segue into the next segment. “This live element kept attendees engaged and tuned in, and kept the event moving,” she explained.
Plus, ASL [American Sign Language] interpreters were added to the live sessions, and all of the recorded content was closed captioned to ensure the event was accessible.
McNair said that the biggest challenge was the lack of flexibility of the virtual format. Because the event was a combination of prerecorded and live content, her team needed to block out time for editing in post and publishing to the site—something you wouldn’t perhaps need to consider when producing a completely live, in-person event.
“Additionally, the team was used to working differently,” she said. “We all needed to stretch and be more creative about all elements. There are components that work well live that don’t necessarily translate to the virtual world. We also had to dedicate a lot of time to viewing the content after it was recorded and performing tech checks with each individual speaker to ensure that everything was seamless during the live or recorded session.”
As part of the event, the organization “handed out” the 14th annual ADCOLOR Awards. The live show included presenters who announced the winners in real time; winners received a Skype call minutes before they were to be announced. “This allowed us to keep the element of surprise and feel the real emotion in the moment,” McNair said.
Next September, ADCOLOR 2021 will be held at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta (the original site of this year’s IRL conference). It will mark the organization's 15th anniversary and be the first time celebrating in Atlanta. But the new virtual version won’t be going away.
“Going forward, ADCOLOR will continue to be everywhere and will live on in a hybrid format,” McNair explained. “We will have a live audience, but we will also allow our growing community to view content online and continue to engage and network on the virtual event site platform.”
Keep scrolling for some behind-the-scenes images from the event.
