As a brand, BMW has always stood for state-of-the-art innovations in automotive technology. The BMW WELCOMES series of events provides international pioneers and leaders with a platform to discuss innovative ideas and sustainable future projects. In July 2015, the ,,BMW WELCOMES. ON-DEMAND ECONOMY." event took place at BMW Welt, in which over 250 attendees were inspired by four international experts on the theme of the ,,On-Demand Economy".
BMW WELCOMES is a successful event series organised by BMW Welt that takes place several times a year and covers various hot topics. Tickets for these exclusive events are not commercially available and are limited in number. The organisers were looking for a way to reach more potential attendees within the desired target group while also wanting to select prospective attendees via a pre-registration feature and individually confirm their attendance. In addition to address generation, the pre-registration feature needed to include targeted retrieval of specific applicant data.
The precise targeting options allowed us to explicitly target the ads to our target audience and acquire high-quality leads for our event.
Bernd Konrad, Head of Sales - Marketing of BMW Welt
The XING network has more than 9 million potential attendees within German-speaking countries, who were specifically targeted by BMW Welt via a range of marketing tools. This wide selection of marketing options resulted in increased reach within the relevant target group. The flexible XING TicketingManager was adapted to meet the customer's individual requirements and combined with an individual data query to generate high-quality leads.
XING TicketingManager made it possible for attendees to pre-register for the conference. Pre-registration was linked to an individual data query which allowed BMW Welt to view useful information about the applicants and resulted in higher quality leads. It was also possible to export the resulting database so that BMW Welt could process the information for internal purposes. The ticket shop for registration was integrated into the Event Plus site on XING to allow convenient access to daily statistics. Once the reservation was confirmed by the organisers, each attendee received a confirmation e-mail and their ticket was delivered automatically by the ticketing system.
Once a member confirmed their attendance on the Event Plus page, a notification was sent out to their personal network. In addition, the guest list allowed attendees to see who else would be attending prior to the event, while the people2meet feature gave them suggestions about worthwhile networking opportunities within their industry. The contents of the Event Plus page had a positive effect on the SEO ranking - when searching directly for the conference by name, the event page appeared at the top of the list in Google search results.
Using various targeting criteria, the XING ads were displayed in the news feed on the respective XING members' start pages. The benefits of this approach include the prominent ad placement and specific targeting options such as age, career level and industry. BMW Welt was therefore able to address the specific target group of high-calibre business professionals for whom the event was intended.
The communication mix on XING was rounded off by a two-week, prominent banner placement in the XING Event Market – this wide-reaching marketing tool significantly increased the event's visibility.
Thanks to the diverse marketing opportunities provided by XING Events, over 70 confirmed attendees were acquired for this premium event in less than a week. The organisers were delighted with the targeting capabilities of ad-based marketing and the number of positive responses from within the desired target group on XING. The event's success has laid the foundations for a long-term partnership between BMW Welt and XING.
