Classic marketing is dead. This video shows, in a rather painful way, essentially what we are talking about. This is also a source of inspiration for event managers!
Although this little video dates all the way back to 2007, I still use it regularly in my keynotes regarding online marketing and social media. The traditional sales funnel (AIDA model) where advertisers make as much noise as possible to attract attention and convince customers, no longer works. These days it’s all about 'dialogue' rather than a monologue. Does that mean that you should scrap your TV advertising? No, it comes down to setting up different communication channels intelligently and making use of cross-media. This also applies to events. Too often event managers also assume that they know their target audience and know what they want - but is that really the case? What if you really engaged in a dialogue with the visitors to your event?
Be inspired by this Microsoft commercial: