The Power of Events

Event marketing — also known as experiential marketing — isn’t new. In fact it traces back to the 19th century. The earliest documented examples can be seen from the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, where brands like Wrigley’s, Pabst, and Cracker Jack debuted their brands and products to the world. But in truth event marketing has existed since the beginning of human interaction. 

Gartner defines event marketing as “a strategy that includes live and/or virtual promotional events where audiences interact with a product or brand face-to-face; or they engage with a meeting solutions platform via polls, chat boxes, social networking and discussion features.”

It’s a workmanlike definition, but it’ll do the job. At Medidata, our marketing mix is event-forward, which reflects both the dynamics of our industry and the ways in which our customers and prospects seek out information when they’re making decisions about clinical trials technology.

Events enable us to connect with everyone in the ecosystem — partners, patients, and peers — and think through as a community how we can advance clinical research, reduce patient burden, and increase diversity in clinical trials. 

They also enable us to bring to the table what is most important; our values —  and how those values benefit our customers, partners and most importantly, patients.

What we value is the opportunity to demonstrate our thought leadership and how it benefits our customers and partners, to connect and partner with our clients to showcase the successful outcome of our efforts. When we sponsor an event, we can help drive the discussion about the future of clinical trials from a position of industry leadership and our long-established commitment to relentless innovation. To put a finer point on it, not only can we drive the conversation but as the industry leader, we must. 

The pandemic had an impact on all of our marketing activities, but none more directly than event marketing. In an instant, all events globally were frozen. It took some time and technological investments for Medidata (and the world) to adjust to the new reality of purely virtual events. We made the pivot, and discovered some significant advantages in the shift to remote. It allowed us to offer a more convenient and flexible experience, as well as gain access to a new level of analytics about how and when our audiences engaged and in what type of content.

Now it’s 2022, and like the rest of the world we’re tip-toeing back into in-person events. After two years of lockdown and the significant efforts and investments we made to go virtual, there is a real appetite — like water on parched earth — to attend in person. Nothing can replace the energy and vibes of a face-to-face gathering, and we are so thrilled that Medidata NEXT — our signature event — is back in person this year! NEXT New York will be held this November, and we couldn’t be more excited to reunite with our customers and life science counterparts.

Here’s what you need to know. Events matter to us at Medidata; they’re not only a tentpole part of our marketing strategy, but a vital element of our culture. We can’t predict the future of events in life sciences or the potential impact of another variant. But no matter what, Medidata will continue to be strategic in our approach to ensure that we are participating in the events that matter the most to the business and support our priorities. 

All of this leads to showcasing our Medidatians, our capabilities, creating new ways to drive a more patient-centric approach; and demonstrating how we continue to Solve the Impossible.