Picture this,
The sun is shining, you are out on a peaceful, pleasant walk. As you turn the corner, you see a supermarket and think to yourself ‘I could just drink a nice fruity smoothie’. As you enter the supermarket, your mouth watering more with each step you take, you finally reach the smoothie section. Taste buds tingling, you stumble upon a problem. There are 20 different types of smoothies. Different brands, different packaging, different colours. The sporadic decision to indulge in a sweet sensation has suddenly become difficult and strenuous. The more you scan the different options, the less appealing it is becoming to make that purchase.
Although smoothies are in no way related to the virtual events space (unless you are attending an event on smoothies!) this problem of having too much choice is common across all sectors.
Whilst having a variety of choices is typically a good thing, there is evidence to show that too much choice can negatively impact the decision-making process. Whilst having endless possibilities seems the ideal, choice overload can be more stressful and evoke decision making fatigue. Particularly in uncertain situations, having too much choice can become overwhelming.
During the pandemic, it has become evident that brands have had to digitalise their strategies to ensure they continue to communicate and engage with their respective audience groups. However, the pressure to keep up with competitors whilst offering no unique proposition has also created a mass of digital noise. Event objectives often an afterthought in an attempt to be seen to simply have a presence. Ill-considered content and participant engagement, leading to flat, lifeless, and often frankly boring content, completely detracting from the intended brand experience
From a consumer’s perspective, this noise creates choice overload and apathy to receiving yet another invite to an hour-long, faceless virtual slide show presentation.
One area that grew in popularity due to the pandemic were webinars. Grouped into the virtual events space, many businesses adopted this strategy to continue the conversation with their audience. Whilst webinars were once an innovative strategy, it is time to cut through the noise and go that one step further. Webinars aka the virtual equivalent of death by PowerPoint isn’t really living up to your aspirations to be seen as an agile, entrepreneurial, voice of authority in your given area of expertise. Your respective stakeholders deserve better. Now is the time to adopt something truly pioneering. This is much bigger than choosing your favourite smoothie, but to make your business or brand the “smoothie of choice” you are going to need to be brave, push beyond the boundaries of yesteryear and break new ground