Should You Build a Custom GPT?

Laliv Hadar (00:02) I think to a certain degree, again, experiential is having a moment because there's a realization that there's only so many things you can automate and digitize, right? And there are only so many touch points that would sort of benefit from that. You need human to human interaction. Folks are craving for that. And that is the way for brands to create a real meaningful connection and sort of own every moment in the customer journey with their customers. Ben Ard (00:51) Welcome back to another episode of Content Amplified. Today I'm joined by Laliv Laliv, thank you so much for your time today. Welcome to the show. Laliv Hadar (00:58) excited to be here and chat with you today. Ben Ard (01:01) Yeah, this is going to be amazing. I think this subject's fun. I think this is really cool for people and it's a trend that's really coming back to marketing post COVID. You can probably guess what it is, but before we dive into that, Laliv, tell us about your background, work history. Let us get to know you a little bit. Laliv Hadar (01:17) Sure thing. So I am SVP of marketing for Envision Communications, and we are an experiential marketing agency of over 30 years. As head of marketing and in prior marketing roles, I worked for some pretty well-known companies in the digital space and media space, such as AOL and Yahoo and most recently, Fandom. So my background is really in all aspects of marketing, integrated marketing, et cetera. And then now at Envision in the experiential and event space, having the vantage point of being kind of deeper in that industry and also getting to see what a lot of our clients are doing in that space and how we're helping them with their experiential has been super exciting. but I sort of have that perspective of both a marketer, but also within the world of experiential and events. Ben Ard (02:04) I love that. That's so cool. So what we're going to talk about today, everyone is talking about the digital landscape, AI, all of that kind of stuff, but we're going to really focus on experiential and what that means, what it can really do for a business. And I think this is where people should be really spending time and money and effort. And so I'm excited to kind of dive into the subject. So when we're going into the subject, how are you thinking about experiential in B2B right now? Laliv Hadar (02:29) That's a great question. You know, I think that experiential is definitely having a moment in the B2B space. It has really transformed, I would say, in the last 20 plus years where it used to be more of a like nice to have, maybe you do a trade show booth, you know, or a customer dinner or what have you. Now it's really a mainstay. It's a big part of the marketing mix for ⁓ for CMOs of B2B companies and how they view their overall marketing strategy. And I would say that it's also just very core to their efforts in market and what they're doing. Brands, think, understand from their perspective that this is a key way to engage customers and that their customers are humans at the end of the day, right? Even though this is a B2B channel or a B2B lens, if you will, These are humans and they want to be interacted with in a way that's meaningful, that resonates, that has some level of emotional connection. And so experiential is really the way I think to do that, to really bring it to life, so to speak. Ben Ard (03:35) Okay, that's cool. So when we're looking at this podcast specifically, we love to talk about content, anything and everything content. There's all sorts of different formats, shapes, sizes. Content means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. So when we're talking about experiential marketing, how does content play a role in all of that? Laliv Hadar (03:54) Absolutely. It's funny, Ben, because I was at, you we chatted prior and to me it's like content is king. It's the mantra that I've heard my entire career really coming from digital and media. And I still feel that way. It is so core to everything that we do at Envision and that within the world of if you're really leveraging and the impact of an event and really. you know, making sure it's just not one moment in time, one fleeting moment for your customers. You do need to tap into content. It's a great way to create engagement both like, well, three times before, during, and after, right? And so we really like to think about content in two ways at Envision. One is experiences can act as a forcing function for companies, you know, in terms of creating great content. And then what do you do with all that wonderful content that you've created for your event, user conference or brand experience? What, you know, it would be a shame to let it all go. So part of the idea is to take that content and to certainly you can stream any presentations and keynotes and many brands do that, but how do you take it and really strategically utilize it? How do you chunk it up into bite-sized pieces of content and really personalize the message to your different audience segments that you may have encountered at your experience. So those are some ways we think about it. And then I think really the way brands should think about it is that before, during, and after, where before content is a great means to personalize the message and to get folks excited for the experience that they're about to encounter. During the event, you have wonderful storytelling at your disposal if you use content correctly. And brand storytelling is such a key aspect of how brands go to market and how they create those meaningful moments with their audiences. And then after the event, we sort of hopped into that. But that was the, what do you do after the fact? And that's kind of taking all that wonderful content you've created and really finding ways to, what we call to atomize that content and take it, break it up. shoot it across your channels and find more ways to engage with customers over a longer span of time. So it's not just at that one and done event. So content is king and ⁓ we very much believe that at Envision. And I very much believe that as someone who's been in the marketing and media landscape for many years myself. Ben Ard (06:22) So something that's really cool and I love all of the background. You have the digital side, you have the in-person experiential side, all of that kind of stuff. We're seeing this interesting trend with artificial intelligence and really people trying to still feel authentic and keep things organic, keep things human and really connect with one another. Laliv Hadar (06:23) I'm sorry. Ben Ard (06:44) How does experiential play into all of that and how can we keep our content and experiences and marketing human, even though we do have tools like AI that are starting to kind of invade everything that we do nowadays. Laliv Hadar (06:56) Absolutely. It's definitely something we think about a lot and I think about it ⁓ as well. I think to a certain degree, again, experiential is having a moment because there's a realization that there's only so many things you can automate and digitize, right? And there are only so many touch points that would sort of benefit from that. You need human to human interaction. Folks are craving for that. And that is the way for brands to create a real meaningful connection and sort of own every moment in the customer journey with their customers. So we are seeing, I think we see it in business circles, certainly in marketing circles. There's a lot of, I would say anecdotal evidence. And I think we'll see it more within the way that budgets are structured, that there's going to be more of an emphasis on these experiences and events and experientials as channels of ways for brands to interact. Now, certainly, I think there's a lot of excitement around AI as well for the entire marketing ecosystem and events are part of that. so as an agency, we've really leaned into AI. We are investing in our, in an enterprise version of chat GPT for the company and training for our employees that's ongoing on how to best leverage these tools and really look at it as an enabler, right? How do you utilize AI to scale content? personalized experiences to help with maybe some of the functions even within the world of event marketing that our teams, you know, can now do more quickly and save up more time for creativity and more strategic, interesting work. And so AI is really enabling that. So we very much believe in it. I think it's just a matter of like looking at it as an enabler, not as the main act. It's here to help us to enhance everything that we do. But technology is not technology for its own sake. And I know that's something we have said for many years as well. Ben Ard (08:49) I love that. So you mentioned the magic words of budget. So I think one of the reasons why AI and digital in general are so popular is because I can get in front of a large amount of people for a relatively low amount of money. I can invest in these channels and that's really why people kind of started pushing towards digital in the first place. I mean, for a long time, there was no digital marketing. There was just marketing and that was getting in front of people. out in the world billboards in person, all that kind of stuff. So I'm a marketer and let's say I'm listening to this podcast right now. And I'm like, yes, let's create these moments with people. Let's invest in experiential marketing. How do I justify the ROI and the budget and the value to my leaders, coworkers, myself? Laliv Hadar (09:23) Mm-hmm. Ben Ard (09:39) to really feel like it's an avenue that I should go down and really participate in and possibly have to pull out from other areas of the business. Laliv Hadar (09:48) Absolutely. And this is a really core topic to our work in this space, I would say, and how we help our clients think about it is, what are you trying to achieve? What are your overall business objectives, right? Before you even decide on the right channel. ⁓ And Envision, certainly event production is kind of where we started. We're doing much more than that in campaign work and experiential kind of more broadly. But really you want to start with what are your objectives as a business and what are you trying to accomplish and then back into maybe ways to do that. And certainly, right, like experiential live events have a great way of achieving certain goals. You really want to look at the overall sales funnel and where the impact is that you're looking to drive. You know, it's, it's, it would. be ashamed to sort of look at it as like one, only driving one metric, if you will, like only use an events to drive leads or whatnot. Really it can, it can really help you across your entire sales funnel and really accelerate pipeline. But you do have to kind of be intentional about it. You have to think about, okay, what are our, what are our goals here? Right? Are we trying to drive pipeline? Maybe we're trying to drive customer advocacy. or drive executive relationships. And for like each of these different types of goals, you have different approaches even within the world of experiential, right? Driving pipeline is one thing. You may go out and do more, you know, out in market and do like a small trade show booth or something where you're out in industry. But if you're trying to drive advocacy within your customer base, maybe you are bringing them together for more of an experience. And then how are you going to measure that, right? So what we do is we map those goals back to KPIs. Right? So if your objective is to drive pipeline, well, how are you going to be measuring that? And how do we help set up those measuring systems in advance of the experience so that when it's said and done, you can take that back to your leadership and say, hey, this was our goal and look what we achieved, hopefully. And that is the way for, you know, for these brands to be able to justify the cost because they are, you know, there's certainly hard costs involved with live events like like anything else. So, but I think it's really just about being intentional at the beginning, figuring out what your business objectives are specific to your business and your industry, because not one size fits all. And there's so many different sizes of events and doing like a round table with your top 10 customers is one type of engagement. And it can have an enormous, amazing impact on your relationships with those customers. on their relationship with you, on their relationship with each other, which ultimately also helps you. And that's very different from a webinar where you're trying to impart thought leadership, but you're transmitting it over a broader spectrum and you've got the reach of the digital landscape at your disposal. So really being intentional, thinking of the goals and then the mapping those to APIs is really going to be critical. and then backing that into systems of measurement that you can take back to your executive team to show what this channel achieved for them is going to be really key. Ben Ard (12:52) love that. That's amazing. Okay. We are almost out of time. And so I have one final question before we get there for anyone looking at this. And it was cool as you talked about how to kind of prove the value of experiential and how to help people understand that track it, things like that. Let's say now someone sitting here listening to this episode is like, where can I start? What's a tactical thing I can start doing that small and kind of prove out the value and start to see that any tips I mean you talked about a couple of them right there, but any other ideas that you can share with the audience Laliv Hadar (13:26) Sure. I think it's really, I did talk about, think intentionality was a really big part of it so that you really match your ⁓ overarching objectives to what it is that you might try. you're starting small, I don't think that you need to go with some grandiose budget and do a huge splash. Again, it's really about pinpointing what it is that you want to do and achieve and then marrying that type of experiential. experience, if you will, to that objective. So, you know, if your goal is really about, you know, building those relationships around customers and enhancing the relationships of your executives with those customers, then maybe it's starting more of a customer advisory board slash roundtable ⁓ activation that happens on a quarterly basis. And maybe it's just a dinner, And maybe, you know, one city and you don't have to start really big, start small, be really intentional, but be sure to measure it so that you can then figure out if it was productive for you and your brand and whether it's something that you would like to repeat and get more support from your executives to do more of, because that's going to be key, I think, to that. Absolutely. yeah, I mean, beyond that, There's certainly many tools out there. I'm also a part of Corporate Event Marketing Association, CIMA, which is the national association for folks in the industry. So we have many, many resources on this particular topic. If brands are looking to tap into the world of events and experiences, what they can do, what are some of the tools and considerations that are at their fingertips? So happy to also share that maybe in the show notes or. If folks want to connect with me, I'm happy to share that as well. Ben Ard (15:10) love it. That's amazing. Awesome. Well, this is great advice, great information. I'm sure everyone's going to love this episode listening in. Laliv, if someone wants to reach out and connect with you online, how can they find you? Where can they go? Laliv Hadar (15:27) Yeah, so they can feel free to find me, Laleev Hadar. I am lucky, I guess, to have a pretty unique name. Not many of us out there. So feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn. I'm pretty active there. And I'd be more than happy to connect and provide any future resources and tools on any of these topics, because it's something I love to talk about. Ben Ard (15:47) Perfect. And we will link to your profile in the show notes. So anyone listening can just scroll down and click right there. Laliv, thank you so much for the time and the insights. I really do appreciate it. Thank you so much. Laliv Hadar (15:59) Thank you so much for having me, Ben. I love it. And I really love the podcast. So I'm excited to be a guest on it today. Thank you. Ben Ard (16:07) Awesome, love it.