Henry Hayes on the importance of events in marketing

We speak to Henry Hayes, Marketing Lead at Passionfruit and leader of their Commuter Club - where the company hosts talks for marketers from culturally relevant leaders outside of the world of marketing. Past guests have included TOPJAW, Grace Beverley and Russ Cooke.He also runs successful Instagram and TikTok channels, and you'll likely have seen at least a few of his videos.‍

Hi Henry, great to have you with us. So can you tell us how you got into events in the first place?

‍So it stems from my comedy work, funnily. Raffi, who's the incredibly talented co-founder at Passionfuit, got in contact about my videos and said 'You manage these videos end-to-end, have you ever thought about managing events?'

We discussed how we'd never been to any really good B2B events before, and how most people just can't stand them.  He wanted Passionfruit  to set up genuinely brilliant events for marketers that felt the opposite of B2B in look and feel, and that's how the Commuter Club was born.We wanted to throw B2B events with a totally B2C mindset; something that's genuinely cool and quirky. And so we landed on the concept of talks led by culturally relevant personalities outside the bubble of marketing, giving talks to marketing professionals that can them improve in a rounded way, and be truly engaging.

The speakers could be in showbiz, they could be in sport, journalism, film, theatre - but they will have some marketing element to what they do - even if it's simply about marketing themselves. And we have an upcoming one with Russ Cooke.

So what benefits does Passionfruit see in running regular events?‍

To state the completely obvious, we're trying to promote human connection with our events, and from a ROI perspective, it really works. The conversion rates we see off the back of our events are off-the-charts good.

For example a paid ad that you might run on LinkedIn might get between a 1.5% to 2.5% click through rate, and that might sound like a really strong return. However with the events we're throwing, we're consistently getting between 1.5 to 2 customers within three of four weeks, and these are usually big enterprise clients. For example we're now working with one of the world's largest beverage brands off the back of the TOPJAW event that we threw.

Essentially they really work to attract exactly the right kind of clients that we want to work with, and that's because they get to see what we can do in action, and we're able to build a relationship with them.

And what is it about your events that you believe helps to build those relationships that lead to new business?

So firstly I think people really appreciate the amount of work that we put into the events and know how hard they are to pull off - and that reflects well on us a partner; we're not afraid to put the graft in. They're also thankful to be able to attend events that they're genuinely getting value from and respect us for putting them together.

Another point is that we make really make sure not to ram who we are down people's throats, which is a very common mistake you can often see with events. I normally give a super quick, clear cut two-minute introduction and what we do and leave it there so no one's feels like they're constantly being sold to.

Of course, the main thing is just the opportunity of being able to just chat to someone for a bit over a coffee, and just understanding a bit more about how their company and team are structured. I think people are a lot more open when they're with each other, as opposed to over email or over a demo, so it's much easier to have direct conversations in the downtime.

So where do events fit in for marketers?

‍I believe, and hey, you can quote me on this, that a lot of marketers look down on throwing events. It's almost as if they look at events marketers as greasy salespeople or wheeler dealers if you know what I mean.

-dealers,Marketers are often so keen to focus on spreadsheets, CTRs, CACs etc and treat their roles like scientists, that they can often lose sight of just how important human connection is in their roles, and it shouldn't be like that.

I think events hit that really nice sweet spot where you have to utilise your digital marketing skills pre-event, your personal skills at the event, and then your content creation skills post-event, so you learn a hell of a lot in the process of putting them together.

So for me, I've realised that over the last six months I've learned way more than I ever would have elsewhere through organising these events. And I'm just at the start right?

‍And do you have any secrets to make sure the event you're throwing goes brilliantly?

I think our attendees really like the fact that I am communicating with them directly the whole time, particularly in the build up to the events. So pre-event it's me shouting about it on LinkedIn, and then in the build up I'll be on email, and I'll WhatsApp people about the event as well. I'll even make some TikTok-style videos to send to the attendees beforehand to get them hyped up for the event. For example, before the event with Russell (The Hardest Geezer) I actually edited an whole map route of the run we were doing on TikTok and directions of how to get to the site, and I had a whole load of people telling just how useful that was on the day.

Essentially, the extra mile goes a hell of a long way - just making things seem more personal, the opposite of the automated lives that people are used to. This is obviously possible for us because our events are usually for around 60 people, rather than thousands and thousands, but even at scale some personal touches for important attendees is very important.

And finally, how do you think that your background in comedy has affected your approach towards marketing and throwing events in general?‍

Yeah great question - so firstly it's important to state that I'm doing my comedy because I really enjoy it, not because I want to leave my job. I actually have Raffi (co-founder at Passionfruit) to thank for helping me incorporate it into my work because he just said - you're good at making people laugh and adding humour into situations, put that into what you do. And ever since I've thought about work in that capacity it's really improved how I work. Maybe I should rein it in a little and be a little more analytically minded, but playing to who you are as a person will resonate with people.