Paying $1,000 for a Virtual Event Ticket

Hi there, Lucinda Southern, Adweek media editor here to close out the week.

Chances are you’ve experienced Zoom fatigue. You may be feeling it right now. It’s not letting up. One contact told me this week they just hit their PB of 17 Zoom calls in one day. Yikes.

Publishers are limited in how they create valuable virtual events, most struggling to recreate those serendipitous coffee-line meetings that lead to new business. But, leads still need to be generated and sales pipelines need to be filled. That’s why publishers and event sponsor partners are working closer to figure out the sweet spot.

Tech-focused publisher The Information has been a positive case in the virtual event space. For its Information WTF conference in September, 500 people paid $1,000 for a ticket. The publisher made more money (greater revenue and lower cost) compared with its in-person equivalent.

My colleague Sara Jerde spoke with founder Jessica Lessin about its playbook and recreating networking online.

Granted, business-focused publishers have always been able to monetize at a more reliable rate, but at least for The Information, the outlook is good for future virtual events.

Over in the marketers’ world, PepsiCo spoke with Adweek’s programmatic reporter Andrew Blustein about how it’s improving its in-house measurement unit. The goal is to trim millions in ad wastage by getting a better understanding of how effective certain ads are across digital channels, a marketing nirvana that many CMOs are reaching for.

With that, I hope you have a restful weekend, and if you can, consider supporting us by taking out an Adweek Pro Subscription.

Thanks for reading, see you Monday.

Lucinda

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