"All of the ICE London marketing activities have data at the forefront and are aimed at maximising ROI for our exhibitors"

Nearly one month away from ICE London 2022, set to be held April 12-14 at ExCeL London, Jeannette Gilbert, Marketing Director at Clarion Gaming, organizers of the event, explains in an exclusive interview with Yogonet the new challenges that arose after the postponement from the original February dates, how they managed marketing and communications investment to address the new needs from the community of exhibitors and visitors, and which role an omnichannel and data-driven approach has played.

Since ICE launched its 'Together never felt so good' creative theme and campaign message back in October, several unexpected factors have affected the event, most notably the postponement to April and the withdrawal of a number of exhibitors. Which challenges have you faced from your communication role amid changing and uncertain scenarios; how have you overcome them so far?

The first challenge has been to underline the fact that despite all of the challenges ICE London 2022 will be the biggest meeting of the international gambling sector since the last edition of ICE in February 2020. The challenges have resulted in us having to rethink our customer-centric strategies. It’s been extremely important to address customer confidence regarding attendance covering safety, security, travel and accessibility – all factors which contributed to the decision to reschedule the event. We have focussed heavily on understanding the needs of our customers and have conducted qualitative and quantitative research to collect real actionable insights that have fed into our marketing strategy. These insights have resulted in the redesign and enhancement of key product and show features and the launch of new products such as our hosted buyer program and pre-scheduled meetings platform as well as a completely new conference programme, consumer protection programme and start up investment programme through Pitch ICE.

At the core of this is the need and desire for our customers to meet, reconnect and do business again in a face-to-face environment in order to develop deeper, stronger and lasting relationships as well as that underlying need to socialise and to feel human connections. With this in mind our slogan ‘Together never felt so good’ is still the essence of ICE London 2022.

The key challenge has been to focus on elevating the messaging of the value and service offering of our loyal exhibitors and focussing on the new business opportunities that exist at ICE and continuing to build the trust in our well-established brands. We are also working on building even stronger relationships with industry ambassadors, influencers, media partners, associations and charities to help communicate and demonstrate the service values and product offering that makes the ICE event truly market-leading. We are focussing on partnership communications to demonstrate the level of industry confidence, trust and support we have and which in turn inspires trust.

Clarion MD Stuart Hunter has said this edition marks ICE’s biggest marketing and communications investment. Could you further describe the specifics and priorities of this investment, and assess the results of those initial goals so far?

Marketing has played a pivotal role in delivering innovation at pace, starting with putting the customer at the heart of our business through focus groups, round tables, 1-2-1 interviews and workshops. The outcomes have fed into the marketing planning and enabled ICE to launch new products and bring in new exhibitors based on customer needs. These have included the launch of ICE365, the hosted buyer programme, the ICE VOX Conference, and enhancements to Pitch ICE and the Consumer Protection Zone. There has been a sharp focus on incremental innovation and enhancements to the customer experience, we have invested in ICE365.com, new digital marketing technology, an improved registration experience, enhanced show features and networking opportunities.

Does your job see different approaches or criteria between ICE London and iGB Affiliate London? How do you customize your marketing and communications for each of your target segments, also embracing an omnichannel approach? Do you apply any data-driven strategy?

The strategic planning process for developing the marketing strategies for ICE London and iGB Affiliate London are principally the same. We look at the current economic, social context and business outlook for each of the markets using specific marketing planning models and tools. The customisation comes from the needs of the macro markets, target customer groups, product needs and distribution initiatives. The market positioning, USP, value propositions and brand attributes are defined for each brand – brand standards and tailored messaging/communications are designed off the back of these. All campaigns are designed and delivered with data at the forefront – all our campaigns are accountable for the performance of customer growth, product mix performance, ticket revenues, event attendance and customer satisfaction. We ensure campaigns reach, entertain, engage and persuade the right target companies, decision makers and audiences to stimulate demand for products and services. Delivering brand-led campaigns strengthen the proposition and build on our customer-centric positioning. From an omni-channel perspective, our tool kit comprises the ICE365 digital platform, tailored marketing promotions, webinars, digital and lead-generation campaigns. The ICE London success story has been built around the development of the brand. Everything that we undertake as a marketing team has as its core objective the desire to build attendance and engage with the broadest possible audience of industry decision-makers and entrepreneurs throughout the world in order to deliver maximum ROI for our exhibitors.