Here is a transcript generated by otter.ai of The Content Mix podcast interview with Tiffany Mayne, EMEA head of marketing at GB Intelligence, on marketing strategies for multinational online events:

Carlota Pico 0:13
Hi everyone, I’m Carlota Pico from The Content Mix, nd I’m excited to be here today with Tiffany Mayne, who’s head of marketing at GB Intelligence Ltd., and has over seven years of experience in marketing and communications. Welcome, Tiffany, and thank you so much for joining us today on The Content Mix.

Tiffany Mayne 0:32
Hello, thank you for having me.

Carlota Pico 0:34
The pleasure is ours. I can’t wait to talk all about events, and what Coronavirus has meant for the event industry. Okay, but before we move into that chapter of our interview, let’s talk a little bit about your background. So what inspired you to pursue a career in marketing in the first place?

Tiffany Mayne 0:51
Well, I’ve always been interested in like publishing and advertising from an early age. My dad worked in a publishing company, so that obviously inspired me, he’d take me around the office and get me involved from when I was talking about eight or nine years old. I then went on to do like a degree in advertising design at the University of South Wales and I took a keen interest in the marketing modules and I managed to get a part time job during University within like a digital publishing company who worked with the likes of like Cardiff City FC and Swansea City FC. From here then I mainly went on to like work in automotive, both commercial and passenger car with brands like Audi, Volkswagen, Ford, and Mercedes. And then about two years ago, I decided that I wanted to further my career and change the industry that I was working in and I ended up in the events industry, which offered like marketing solution, which I thought was obviously like perfect, it goes hand in hand with marketing. So I landed myself the marketing manager position in GB Intelligence Ltd. and then since then I’ve worked my way up to Head of Marketing.

Carlota Pico 2:02
Okay. Well, congratulations. What was it like to go from the automotive industry into the event sector?

Tiffany Mayne 2:08
And it’s very different. Obviously, you’re working b2c, and now it’s b2b. So there was the change that I have to obviously adapt to. I’ve never worked in like a b2b industry. And so I just had to learn the different ways of marketing. And it was quite tough initially, because I was so used to the way that b2c customers engage with your content. But no, it’s been brilliant and like, I obviously love the hands-on approach to like the events industry side of stuff.

Carlota Pico 2:40
Right, absolutely. So let’s look back in your career and say that you had to—let’s say that you have—that you’re promoted again to head of global marketing, let’s say, and you have to hire somebody for your current role. What are the skills and qualities would you Look for in that person now that you have experienced both in b2c and in b2b?

Tiffany Mayne 3:06
I think it’s essential to have like somebody that’s like a jack of all trades. Because when you’re like heading up the department, it’s… you’re not just focusing on say social media, you need to have like your social media experience, you need to have, like lead generation and like strategies as well that you need to be able to implement. So I think it’s essential to have like somebody that’s like a jack of all trades, but and that’s worked in a number of different industries, because that really helps them understand the different needs of different customers.

Carlota Pico 3:43
Okay, very interesting. Now moving into your area of expertise within the event sector. I do want to talk a little bit about how cornavirus has affected in-person events worldwide. So as we all know in-person events worldwide have been canceled and many have turned to webinars and digital events as a different solution that they can offer to their audience and to attract new customers. What did your company do overnight to adapt to the current health crisis?

Tiffany Mayne 4:11
Well, COVID obviously, massively impacted us, and we had to change our whole business model to be able to adapt, like pretty much overnight. So we work closely with like a number of other departments, especially our production team. And we’ve been able to execute like a digital side to our business with the option to now host virtual events. One of those types of events we’ve been focusing on is like our digital boardrooms, which allows our solution providers to come down and speak about a topic that’s like, really interesting for our community and offer that solution to be able to help. So we have small boardroom discussions that allow for these conversations to take place with with like IT leaders as well which is brilliant. And we’re finding those very successful at the moment. And then we have as well like, ventured out into like a full blown week virtual event. So it takes place over like a number of four days where we’ll host like keynote sessions, interactive discussions, panel debates, and kind of like what we would have done in like mainstream events, but we’ve now gone virtually. And I think it is, like people are obviously fighting for that voice online. But in our case, I think we’ve nailed it in terms of, in terms of being able to provide what our community need throughout this.

Carlota Pico 5:42
Very interesting. So I do want to zoom into an event that it looks like you’ll be hosting in September—September 7, 2020, according to your website. It’s a CIO event in Oxford. What will that look like? Is that going to be a digital event? Is that going to be an in-person event?

Tiffany Mayne 6:00
Yeah, so that is going to be our CIO Institute event. And it will take place over 4 to 5 days, we’ll have a number of different sessions, like I mentioned previously, where there will be like keynote sessions where we’ll get like, either industry leader speakers, or our solution providers, because we’ll have those smaller boardroom discussions and panel debates like they obviously—you can understand how they can go massive with like, people having different opinions and different views on situations throughout COVID. So yeah, that those will take place over a number of days. But whilst that’s going on, we facilitate one-to-one meetings, as well. And so our Oxford one is going to be mainly focusing on like the UK market. And then, but like previously, we’ve already done a Germany one and we’ve done another like UK one. But going forward this year we’ve got a number of different ones regionally focused in like the south of Europe, and we… France and Benelux as well. So there’s a number of different regionalised events that we again, like our communities together to be able to speak about the discussions that are impacting them during COVID.

Carlota Pico 7:22
Webinars as a solution to in person events have become the norm during the health crisis. But brands, as you said, are having to fight now more than ever to have a voice online. So Tiffany, from your expert opinion, what can brands do to make their webinar or online event really stand out?

Tiffany Mayne 7:40
I think in our case, and speaking about our brand personally, personalizing our events has been the best way forward, as it’s has provided our customers with the best way to network with their peers.

Carlota Pico 7:53
Definitely Tiffany, for me, networking is actually one of the best ROIs that I get from in person event. And if you’re able to transfer that to online events, I mean, it’s a win-win solution, both for your attendees who are attending those digital events and also for the company because you’re providing value. And that’s what it’s about, right?

Tiffany Mayne 8:12
Definitely. Yeah.

Carlota Pico 8:14
Okay, excellent. Moving into our next question…virtual or hybrid events, do sponsorship techniques performance on screen rather than live, augmented and virtual reality… Many see the COVID-19 crisis as a catalyst for innovation. What major lessons have you learned Tiffany, about marketing for an events company during these very unstable times?

Tiffany Mayne 8:35
I think adaptability is key throughout all of this—listening to our customers and providing them with the digital solutions that they need. And just a lot more flexibility. I feel like with a virtual event, you don’t have to leave the office. So you can join a virtual event, whether it’s an hour, two hours, a couple of hours, like out of your day, you can then always go back to work. And like what we’ve tried to do as well is, we won’t have back to back sessions like you would in a normal event. So you’ve got that break to be able to go back to work, do what you need to do, but then come back and join the next session or the next like meeting. So we’re finding that that really works well.

Carlota Pico 9:19
Yeah, that’s a really great point, because oftentimes, when I attend events—I love events. I love organizing events, love participating in events. And when I’m, when I’m participating in events, I often see that it interrupts a lot of my schedule, both my personal schedule and also my professional schedule. Whereas digital events, I mean, I can attend digital events from the comfort of my own home and still take care of my personal things while at the same time still get work done from the office, which is my home right now.

Tiffany Mayne 9:49
No, exactly. And that’s why we’ve had a major uplift in attendees, really, at our events.

Carlota Pico 9:55
Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, awesome, Tiffany. Let’s finish this section off with a practical example. Which marketing campaigns have you admired lately? And why?

Tiffany Mayne 10:06
Thinking about that… one that sticks in my mind, is definitely the Budweiser advert. They’ve really adapted it to the current situation. And I just think like, it will remind people of when it was first released. I mean, it’s just brilliant. I love it. And it sticks in my head.

Carlota Pico 10:23
Excellent. And it ties in nicely with your response from before about adaptability. So Budweiser really took a campaign that they released ages ago, and decided to adapt it to current times, and therefore it was relevant for their current audience and their audience was able to relate to that campaign.

Tiffany Mayne 10:41
Exactly.

Carlota Pico 10:43
So Tiffany, moving into the last section of our interview, it’s our set of rapid fire questions. So basically, your recommendations to our audience. To get this section started off, I’d like to ask you about your favorite event at the moment. And obviously feel free to give a shout out to any of your own events.

Tiffany Mayne 10:58
Obviously, I’m going to give a shout out to GB Intelligence Ltd., we’ve come a long way throughout COVID. So that’s brilliant. But definitely Drum Marketing is one of my like recommendations, especially throughout this time. It’s a company that I highly recommend following. It empowers marketers by providing like insights through digital creative advertising—anything media related. And back in—I think it was March of this year—they held a digital transformation festival, which provided a lot of content around what was happening during the situation and how marketers could adapt throughout it. So definitely Drum Marketing.

Carlota Pico 11:39
Okay, excellent. And for today’s last question, I’d like to ask you about your favorite app at the moment. What are you using all the time? What can’t you live without?

Tiffany Mayne 11:51
Definitely has got to be Instagram. It’s showing me the outside world when were stuck during lockdown.

Carlota Pico 11:56
Yeah, definitely. It just—It’s so inspiring, to see other people out and taking hikes, walking and just like living life to its full potential, even though we have a virus, a very like deadly virus. It’s still great to just see people living and out and about and obviously taking the health measures to protect themselves and their family. But it was a great way to just stay in tune with your network.

Tiffany Mayne 12:25
Definitely, it just gives you that escapism to be able to go and do…to take your mind off what you’re doing, and just have a look at what you are missing at the moment, but what we can go back to.

Carlota Pico 12:36
Yeah, no, absolutely. As marketers, it’s great as well, because it really helps us to just look beyond what’s happening today. And also think about what the future might have in store for us. I mean, we might be facing a completely new reality, and that’s like discovering a whole new world. That’s amazing. That’s also exciting.

Tiffany Mayne 12:54
Yeah, I agree completely.

Carlota Pico 12:57
Okay excellent, Tiffany. Well, thank you so much for joining us today on The Content Mix. It was awesome to meet you and to learn about your experience.

Tiffany Mayne 13:03
Thank you again for having me. It’s been brilliant to speak to you.

Carlota Pico 13:06
The pleasure has been mine. And to everybody listening in today, thank you for joining us on The Content Mix. For more perspectives on the content marketing industry in Europe, check out The Content Mix. We’ll be releasing interviews just like this one every week, so keep on tuning in. Thanks again, have a fabulous day, and see you next time. Bye!

Tiffany Mayne 13:27
Bye!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai