How a Bet on Virtual Events Is Paying Off for TechCrunch

In January, the operations team at TechCrunch made a difficult call: no matter how tempting, all events would remain virtual for the remainder of the year. Now, the fruits of that decision have become evident. The Yahoo-owned publisher is on track to record its best year of revenue in company history, an achievement in which its lucrative events business played a sizable role, said Joey Hinson, its senior director of operations. Overall, TechCrunch advertising revenues have risen 200% since 2019, and its number of subscriptions has nearly doubled since last year, Hinson said. The company declined to provide specific figures. By the end of the year, the publisher will have orchestrated eight events in total, in addition to its weekly recurring series, ExtraCrunch Live. Since last year, attendance to these virtual events has risen 77%, and sponsorship revenue has climbed 144%. ‘This is About Thought Leadership:’ How Washington Post Live Found Staying Power More specifically, TechCrunch Disrupt, its flagship event—featuring discussions with speakers in technology, media, government and venture capital—grew its sponsorship revenue by 58% and drew 42% more sponsors compared to the year prior, including brands like Ford and Mayfield. In total, more than 10,000 virtual attendees tuned in to the conference, Hinson said, which featured speakers like Peloton CEO John Foley and Canva CEO Melanie Perkins. The event concluded its three-day run on Sept. 23. The publisher increased the price of its sponsorship packages by 15% compared to last year, and its profit margins increased, though not by a substantial amount, according to Hinson. In 2022, TechCrunch plans to return to in-person programming and has a slate of nearly 60 events scheduled, all with remote elements. “Since the pandemic set in, we’ve developed a bunch of different solutions to adapt to it and, in the process, created a portfolio business that's been growing at a very strong rate,” Hinson said. “The team has been really open to figuring out ways to provide value even though we're not in person.” Matching audience profiles with interested advertisers The publisher made several key changes to its virtual events in order to better serve its brand partners. In an effort to provide lead generation for its advertisers, TechCrunch baked permissions into its attendance forms that provided sponsors with the email addresses of registered attendees. The publisher also pre-qualified its attendees to ensure that those who did sign up matched the audience profile its advertisers sought. But as for meeting new people, I have yet to see a virtual event do it well. Event organizers need to be more creative to drive connections in the virtual world.—Rob Ristagno, founder, Sterling Woods To accomplish this, TechCrunch worked with its advertisers prior to events to determine what kind of audience profile they wanted to reach, then helped these companies craft marketing and campaign strategies to reach them. It also worked with these advertisers to adjust the messaging of their sponsored content to better align with the audiences they were trying to reach. For instance, with one brand partner, software firm Databricks, TechCrunch worked in consultation with the company to craft a message that would best align with its audience. Drawing on its experience in the space, TechCrunch suggested the business invite speakers from outside the company to offer insights: That way, the presentation better reflected the political environment shaping its business. By the end of the event, Databricks had collected over 4,000 leads, according to Hinson. Finally, in addition to pre-qualifying leads and optimizing its sponsors’ messaging, TechCrunch also reduced the size of audience groups, from between 150 - 300 people to around 40, and ensured they were all contextually aligned by industry. To do that, the publisher used a combination of algorithmic networking and audience segmentation. “We found that making a big conference small is a really great way to encourage engagement,” Hinson said. “It also allows us to break the event down into parts, find out who would be aligned with that topic and then promote it to them.” Virtual events’ weaknesses For all the value virtual events provide to the publisher and its sponsors, the concept still struggles to generate the same kind of attendee engagement as its in-person counterpart, said Rob Ristagno, the founder of growth consultancy Sterling Woods. Virtual events work wonders for attendees looking to learn about new products and concepts, but they lag in their ability to facilitate the kind of networking that physical gatherings promote. The rise of hybrid events can actually exacerbate this issue, Ristagno said: With fewer attendees strolling the space, the number of vendors can outweigh the number of guests. “The logic behind TechCrunch’s ‘low volume, high value’ strategy makes a lot of sense, so long as they can guarantee a healthy ratio between vendors and prospects,” Ristagno said. “But as for meeting new people, I have yet to see a virtual event do it well. Event organizers need to be more creative to drive connections in the virtual world. Virtual happy hours do not work. Virtual speed dating only attracts sellers not buyers.” With Covid Cases Rising, Publishers’ In-Person Events Face a Curveball

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How a Bet on Virtual Events Is Paying Off for TechCrunch

The publisher has doubled event revenue over the last year

Mark Stenberg

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