Thomson Reuters’ Adam May On Creating Memorable Event Experiences

Introduction

In Episode 2 of Sips with purple cork, Kelly Robb sat down with Thomson Reuters Sr Manager - Marketing, Adam May. In his role, he works closely with the sales team to close the company’s most strategic deals. Virtual events have become an important channel for the company, allowing sales to break into new accounts and drive warm leads further down the funnel. The key to Adam’s success can be attributed to the care he takes in ensuring a unique, engaging and fun experience, whether it’s an exclusive wine tasting or a sushi-making demonstration. 

About Thomson Reuters and Adam May

Thomson Reuters operates in complex arenas that move society forward — law, tax, compliance, government, and media – and face increasing complexity as regulation and technology disrupts every industry. The company’s team of experts brings together information, innovation and authoritative insight to unravel complex situations, and its worldwide network of journalists and editors keep customers up to speed on global developments that are relevant to them.

Adam May has been at Thomson Reuters for the last three and a half years. He is currently a Senior Manager - Marketing, where he oversees strategy and alignment across multiple business units for core go-to-market strategies including ABM, Field Marketing, Pipeline marketing and optimizing Demand Generation programs across personalization, segmentation, direct mail/gifting, and retention. He is a veteran marketer with experience planning, organizing and executing multi-channel programs that drive pipeline. He has a history of creating B2B demand engines that strengthen relationships between marketing and sales to drive revenue.

Here are some highlights of the conversation:

You've been a big fan of bringing people together online during the pandemic for networking events. Where did that strategy come from?

“The pandemic was really interesting and forced us all, obviously, out of our comfort zone. But, it also helped us develop some amazing new marketing strategies. When the pandemic hit, I was working with our strategic accounts team, focused on the top end of the market. They're really used to face to face events. They were really missing that element of spending time with customers and building relationships. So that's how we started to explore virtual events and focused on trying to replicate that in-person time that the sales team had with customers in a meaningful, creative and fun way right. We then started to evolve and bring in content elements and other engagement ideas. But, at the end of the day, we wanted to provide fun activities and fun experiences for our customers and prospects. It's snowballed from there over the past few years.”

I love that you find creative ways of keeping everyone connected across the globe.

“That's a really important point. I think we've all - even in our personal lives - adapted to find ways to maintain connections. And in some cases, maybe even become closer to some people because of the availability of things like Zoom, where you can just jump on a call. As you become more comfortable with this type of media, the possibilities are awesome.”

You mentioned working with sales earlier. How do you get that all important buy-in from the sales team? Any tips?

“I tell people like alignment is a work in progress. You always have to be working on it. You need a level of accountability and shared accountability with sales. So we will come to the table as we're discussing an event and work with them on developing either the target account list or the target individuals list, in some cases. The sales rep is the gatekeeper to this unique experience and we allow them to personally invite prospects with templates that we create. They have the personal connection so they do the inviting.”

How do you approach the event itself? What makes it fun, engaging and ultimately memorable?

“I think it all comes down to no matter what the event is, what's the unique thing that you're offering your customer that's unforgettable or something that they wouldn't typically have access to. So maybe it's a Wheeler Farms bottle of wine. Or maybe it's exclusive content or the ability to network with some of their peers that they wouldn't typically be able to. Maybe it's some really cool swag—something that's memorable so that they're going to want to join. The ultimate goal is for them to take that away and want to brag to their friends or their co workers, saying, ‘hey you'll never guess what I did the other night. I did this wine tasting and got these amazing glasses of wine sent to my house and it was so cool.’” 

What about in-person events? Is it too soon?

“I think, from a sanity perspective, it's never too soon. Last year we started to ease back in with networking dinners and things like that. It’s also part of our strategy this year so we are working on how we can start getting people back together. But, we have to be really careful. You never want to go too soon and too early, but also people are anxious and ready to get back in person. Virtual is here to stay, now that we've figured out that this is a great way to engage people where they're at. And, best of all, you can have a broader audience and include people from anywhere in the world.” 

Any kind of rough ROI stats that you're seeing with virtual events?

“We target 10X ROI for our virtual events. We are shooting for the most impact and look for great opportunities that need a little extra attention or engagement. We try to accelerate those deals or help sales break into new companies with interesting, engaging activities that provide something unique—an experience they're never going to forget. Our event experiences are truly focused on pipeline acceleration.” 

Can you talk about a program or an event that you're especially proud of?

“Our in-person meeting with our largest accounts and integration partners is typically held in-person, in Dallas. It’s a lot of wining and dining over two days but we also share content and roadmap, etc. Because of the pandemic, we had to quickly pivot to virtual but it ended up being amazing. We were able to triple attendance because we were able to make it accessible beyond just a handful of stakeholders. We were able to bring in more stakeholders across different business units and our European counterparts. We did fun wine tastings and a really fun sushi class where we brought a top chef in and folks were at home, participating with their kids in the kitchen. It really created a whole new layer to the event that we didn't have before. The sales team loved it and the clients loved it. We're really excited about the opportunities coming out of it.” 

Watch the complete video interview here.  

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