Case Study:

Supporting AGU’s Meetings by Delivering Marketing Strategy, Guidance and Hands-on, Tactical Resources

In the fall of 2010, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) retained McKinley to support marketing their Fall Meeting. Even with a small window for planning, our work resulted in the highest number of pre-meeting registrants (approximately 16,200 attendees registered) and participation goals met or exceeded for new and established events. In addition, open rates for email communications were 10%+ above average for AGU communications. In our second year with AGU, we saw continued success including a record of over 20,000 meeting registrants, with over 88% meeting the deadline for advance registration and record abstract submissions (20,000+) for the 2011 Fall Meeting, held in early December 2011, even though the deadline was moved up one month from the previous year. We also saw an increase in email communication open rates, twice as many Facebook followers from the previous year and an increase in joins and renewals during the pre-meeting months. Entering our third consecutive year, AGU has continued to ask McKinley to provide conference support by developing marketing plans and managing their implementation for the 2012 Fall Meeting. By beginning the planning process early in the year, we have been able to be proactive and strategic in reaching key audiences with targeted messaging, leveraging different channels and media, and tracking registration and marketing metrics. McKinley understands the full spectrum of what is realistic since we are not only providing the strategy, but also the support implementing the marketing plan.

In addition to conference marketing strategy and support, McKinley provides development, management and analysis of attendee and exhibitor surveys. McKinley revised and managed the distribution of the 2010 and 2011 Fall Meeting attendee survey including a communications plan to ensure participation. Our efforts resulted in a 21% response rate with over 3,900 responses received in 2010, and a 37% response rate with over 7,500 responses received in 2011.